the Father has lavished

on us, that we should be

called children of God!

(I. John 3.1a).

HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!

that we should be called children of God!

The reason the world does not know us is

that it did not know Him. Dear friends, now

we are the children of God, and what we

will be has not yet been made known.

But we know that when He appears,

we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him 

as He is.

Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies

himself,  just as He is pure.

(I.John 3.1-3).

HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!

the Father loves His child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God:

by loving and carrying out His commands. This is love for God: to obey His commands.

And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.

This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes

the world? Only he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

(I. John 5.1-5).

HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!

A

No other criteria apply.

Election and divine sonship is on the basis of God’s action.

No human activity, designation or thought process can

replace or subtitute divine action.

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God”

(Romans 8.14)

“But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave

the authority to become the children of God, that is to

those who believe in His Name.

Who owe their birth neither to bloods nor to the will of the

flesh nor to the will of man, but to God.”

(John 1.12 & 13).

HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!

“What is born of the flesh is flesh ( of the physical is physical) and

what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not

(do not be surprised)

at My telling you, You must all be

born anew (from above).

The wind blows (breathes) where it wills;

and though you hear its sound, yet you

neither know where it comes from nor where

it is going. So it is with everyone

who is born of the Spirit.”

(John 3. 6-8).

HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOR OUR

NEW BIRTH!

Born into our life in You! A life that is truly life!

Abundant eternal life!

Thank You Holy Spirit! The Spirit of freedom and sonship!

The Comforter!

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are

sons of God.

For you have now received not a spirit of slavery

to put you once more in

bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of

adoption (the Spirit producing sonship) in

(the bliss of ) which we cry, Abba (Father)! Father!

The Spirit Himself testifies together with our own spirit

(assuring us) that we are children of God.

And if we are His children, then we are His heirs also:

heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ

(sharing His inheritance with Him); only we must

share His suffering if we are to share His glory.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present

time (this present life) are not worth being

compared with the glory that is about to be

revealed to us and in us and for us

and be conferred on us!

HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!

The knowledge of the One True God totally

depends on God’s self revelation.

In every other field of study we depend

on our effort, exploration and education.

Our only source of correct information

about God is His Word Who became flesh

as Jesus Christ full of grace and truth, the

Unique Son of the Father, the Eternal I AM,

the way, the truth and the life.

THE LIFE

” The life was manifested and we have seen

and bear witness and declare to you that

eternal life which was with the Father and

was manifested to us.” ( I. John 1.2).

THE WAY

He is the way and the truth. There is no

other way to access the Father and He

is the truth of God’s revelation full of glory.

THE TRUTH

Here is what Karl Barth says in Church Dogmatics:

” As a man among men He is a human Thou, and as

such distinct from all mere things. Now as a Thou,

man is not merely an existential determination of

the I, but the sum of  all the objective reality of

the world”.

This is another way of saying that He is The Truth.

GOD BECAME A MAN IN JESUS CHRIST

Again continuing from where we left, Karl Barth says:

” And in Jesus Christ God becomes and is man, the

fellow- man of all men. As God He is not merely one

of many such fellow-men, nor is He merely the idea

of fellow-humanity. We are speaking of  ” the Father’s Son,

by nature God.” He became and is man, the fellow-man of

all men; and therefore Thou, not merely in a simple, but in

a supremely objective reality, the human Thou, which as

such is also directly the Thou of the one eternal God.”

SINCE GOD IS WITH US (IMMANUEL)

THE WHOLE HUMAN SITUATION CHANGES

The fact that we just saw here changes the scope,

prospect and context of what it means to be human.

Again, Karl Barth continues:

” The fact is rather that God Himself, in His deep mercy

has taken upon Himself to exist also in human being

and essence in His Son, and therefore to become and be

a man, and therefore this incomparable Thou.

God Himself is in the world, earthly, conceivable and

visible, as He is this man. We have to do with God

Himself as we have to do with this man.

God Himself speaks when this man speaks in human

speech. God Himself acts and suffers when this man

speaks and suffers as a man. God Himself triumphs

when this One triumphs as a man. The human speaking

and acting and suffering and triumphing of this one man

directly concerns us all, and His history is our history

of salvation which changes the whole human situation,

just because God Himself is its human subject in His Son,

just because God Himself has assumed and made His own

our human nature and kind in His Son, just because God

Himself came into this world in His Son, and as one of us

” a guest this world of us He trod.” ”

THE HOLY SPIRIT COMES

As Karl Barth continues:

“And as  and because the Holy Spirit is the coming of

Jesus Christ Himself, and His witness this disclosure

to men concerning themselves, He and His witness are

in fact the self revelation of Jesus Christ and as such

the basis of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

We have to realize that God’s own revealedness for us

is God’s own person and God’s own work.

All the comfort, all the power, all the truth of this

revealedness depends upon the fact that it is with God

that we are dealing.

All our understanding of this revealedness depends upon

the fact that we identify it with God Himself, ruling out all

other possibilities but God’s possibility. We have therefore to

realize that as the recipient of revelation man is brought

under God’s judgement. It is only because of this that he is

brought under God’s promise. It is only because of this that

God meets him as the One who intercedes for him,  who

undertakes and directs his cause, who does not quench his

own ability and will and accomplishment but subordinates

it to His own, since man must always be subordinated to God,

if God’s glory is to triumph and man is to be helped.”

HUMAN FREEDOM VS DIVINE FREEDOM

Again continuing from above:

” We are to understand, therefore, that for God to be

revealed involves the dislodging of man from the

estimation of his own freedom, and his enrichment with

the freedom of the children of God. This negation, the

negation of man through God’s eternal grace and mercy, is

only the obverse of his position as a child of God, as a member

of the covenant between God and man. But this obviously means

that the negation of man cannot be put into effect any more than

his position as a child of God except through God’s own action.

Thus God’s possibility triumphs over the very imprisonment

in which we are involved, where we only fulfill our own

possibilities and only believe in our own possibilities.

The self-enclosed uniqueness of  man, who only has and

knows his own freedom, is overarched and enclosed and

finally relativized through the uniqueness of God and His

freedom in which He is resolved to have fellowship with this

man and once and for all to be his Lord.”

HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS!

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are debtors-

not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die

but if by the Spirit you put to death the

deeds of the body, you will live.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,

these are the sons and daughters of God.

For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage

again to fear, but you received the Spirit of

adoption by whom we cry out, “Daddy, Father!”

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit

that we are the children of God.

And if children, then heirs- heirs of God, and

joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with

Him, that we may also be glorified together.

(Romans 8.12-17).

POINTS TO CONSIDER

1) Implications of being born of the Spirit

(see John 3.5-6).

2) Living according to the flesh versus through the Spirit

3) The consequence of living according to the flesh

4 The advantage of living by the Spirit

5) The children of God

6) The spirit of bondage versus the Spirit of adoption

7) The consequence of being children of God

The divine truths here and the definite promises are

awesome.