And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
God sends the Spirit of His only begotten Son into the hearts of those who are His sons, moving them to look to Him and call Him their Father with delight. Sinners become such sons wholly by grace, through repentance for transgressing His law and faith in Christ as the atoning sacrifice, being pardoned for past sins, justified, and received by adoption and not for any goodness of their own. Those so adopted are no longer servants in bondage but sons and heirs of God through Christ, belonging to the royal household of faith. By beholding Christ through faith they are changed in character and clothed with His righteousness, and they give unmistakable evidence of their sonship by obeying Him, growing in grace and Scripture knowledge, and doing with their best effort the soul-winning work He gives them.
The Spirit and Sonship
Because they are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His only begotten Son into their hearts, crying Abba, Father. Those who have become God's children receive this Spirit of adoption, who moves them to call God Abba, Father. God is the Father of the Lord Jesus, and it is through the Son that people can look to Him and call Him their Father. This relationship to God as Father of all the human family is to be dwelt upon with delight, it brings sunshine into life, and it cannot be viewed in too exalted a way.
Those who are sons are no more servants but sons and heirs of God through Christ, sons and heirs with Jesus Christ. They are adopted into the household of faith as belonging to the royal family as children of the heavenly King. Those who accept Christ are freed from captivity and honored as children of the heavenly King, and are to live as God's own rather than as captives. Approaching God as Father means belonging to His family as a child of the heavenly King. This gives the believer a home in heaven and an unbreakable bond with the family of the redeemed.
How Sinners Become Sons
Adoption as a child of God is ordained by sovereign grace, together with redemption and regeneration, and everything in it is owed to grace. That grace takes apparently hopeless material debased by Satan and molds all who will give themselves to Him, making them subjects of grace and children. It delivers them from suffering and from the wrath to fall on the disobedient, makes them agents in delivering others, gives them a precious reward in the success of that work even in this life, and is to be revealed to others through them.
God gave disobedient men probation and gave His only begotten Son to bear all the guilt of their transgression, while His law stands immutable and eternal. The law reveals sin, promising life to the obedient and declaring death for the transgressor, but it provides no remedy from condemnation or defilement. The gospel of Christ alone frees from both condemnation and defilement. The sinner is pardoned and obtains remission of sins that are past through repentance toward God for transgressing His law and faith in Christ as the atoning sacrifice, with forgiveness of sin. Through that repentance and faith he becomes a partaker of the divine nature, becoming a child of God who has received the spirit of adoption and calls God Father.
Justification by faith includes adoption as God's child. When a contrite sinner discerns Christ's atonement and accepts it as his only hope in this life and the future life, his sins are pardoned. Through faith he passes from the position of a rebel, a child of sin and Satan, to the position of a loyal subject of Christ Jesus, not because of any inherent goodness but because Christ receives him as His child by adoption. He receives forgiveness because his sins are borne by his Substitute and Surety, who takes his place, suffers for his sins, satisfies the demands of justice, and imputes His own righteousness to him, so that pardoned and clothed with Christ's righteousness he stands faultless before God. Those who receive the Son of God and believe in Him, accepting Christ as personal Savior, find their way back through His own merits and ransom to the place of sons and daughters of God, freed from captivity and honored as children of the heavenly King to live as God's own rather than as captives. But those who refuse heaven's expensive offering, will not obey His commandments, and show no gratitude and love by keeping them, are left where Christ can do no more for them.
Life of God's Children
The Spirit must enlighten the heart, for only then can the glory of Christ be seen, and by beholding Christ through faith the believer is changed in character. Looking to Jesus and His atonement turns the believer away from dwelling on personal shortcomings to rejoicing in being clothed with Christ's righteousness. In Him all fullness dwells, with grace and pardon for every soul. Being a son who can cry Abba, Father holds firm in day-and-night pain through Christ's sustaining grace, gives hope in Jesus that keeps the sufferer from loneliness, and makes Jesus as the light of life precious when He is seen in long wakeful hours. Such sonship calls forth adoration for God's wondrous love in giving Jesus the Comforter.
Adoption as sons into the household of faith must be attested in life with unmistakable evidence. That evidence is taking up the work God gives and doing it with best effort, leaving self-planning and scheming, and growing steadily in grace and knowledge of Scripture in order to win souls to the kingdom. Believers so adopted belong to the royal family as children of the heavenly King, freed by Christ's ransom from captivity to live as God's own rather than as captives. Jesus loves and blesses His children as they obey.
Because believers are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His only begotten Son into their hearts crying Abba, Father, so they are no more servants but sons, and if sons then heirs of God through Christ. Having thus known God, they must not turn again to the weak and beggarly elements and to the bondage of serving those which by nature are no gods. That turning again includes observing days and months and times and years, so that the observance of holidays and many brought-in traditions is a great evil to be given no sanction and no heed.
God sends the Spirit of His only begotten Son into the hearts of those who are His sons, moving them to look to Him and call Him their Father with delight.
Sinners become such sons wholly by grace, through repentance for transgressing His law and faith in Christ as the atoning sacrifice, being pardoned for past sins, justified, and received by adoption and not for any goodness of their own.
Those so adopted are no longer servants in bondage but sons and heirs of God through Christ, belonging to the royal household of faith.
By beholding Christ through faith they are changed in character and clothed with His righteousness, and they give unmistakable evidence of their sonship by obeying Him, growing in grace and Scripture knowledge, and doing with their best effort the soul-winning work He gives them.
The Spirit and Sonship
Because they are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His only begotten Son into their hearts, crying Abba, Father. Those who have become God's children receive this Spirit of adoption, who moves them to call God Abba, Father. God is the Father of the Lord Jesus, and it is through the Son that people can look to Him and call Him their Father. This relationship to God as Father of all the human family is to be dwelt upon with delight, it brings sunshine into life, and it cannot be viewed in too exalted a way.
Those who are sons are no more servants but sons and heirs of God through Christ, sons and heirs with Jesus Christ. They are adopted into the household of faith as belonging to the royal family as children of the heavenly King. Those who accept Christ are freed from captivity and honored as children of the heavenly King, and are to live as God's own rather than as captives. Approaching God as Father means belonging to His family as a child of the heavenly King. This gives the believer a home in heaven and an unbreakable bond with the family of the redeemed.
How Sinners Become Sons
Adoption as a child of God is ordained by sovereign grace, together with redemption and regeneration, and everything in it is owed to grace. That grace takes apparently hopeless material debased by Satan and molds all who will give themselves to Him, making them subjects of grace and children. It delivers them from suffering and from the wrath to fall on the disobedient, makes them agents in delivering others, gives them a precious reward in the success of that work even in this life, and is to be revealed to others through them.
God gave disobedient men probation and gave His only begotten Son to bear all the guilt of their transgression, while His law stands immutable and eternal. The law reveals sin, promising life to the obedient and declaring death for the transgressor, but it provides no remedy from condemnation or defilement. The gospel of Christ alone frees from both condemnation and defilement. The sinner is pardoned and obtains remission of sins that are past through repentance toward God for transgressing His law and faith in Christ as the atoning sacrifice, with forgiveness of sin. Through that repentance and faith he becomes a partaker of the divine nature, becoming a child of God who has received the spirit of adoption and calls God Father.
Justification by faith includes adoption as God's child. When a contrite sinner discerns Christ's atonement and accepts it as his only hope in this life and the future life, his sins are pardoned. Through faith he passes from the position of a rebel, a child of sin and Satan, to the position of a loyal subject of Christ Jesus, not because of any inherent goodness but because Christ receives him as His child by adoption. He receives forgiveness because his sins are borne by his Substitute and Surety, who takes his place, suffers for his sins, satisfies the demands of justice, and imputes His own righteousness to him, so that pardoned and clothed with Christ's righteousness he stands faultless before God. Those who receive the Son of God and believe in Him, accepting Christ as personal Savior, find their way back through His own merits and ransom to the place of sons and daughters of God, freed from captivity and honored as children of the heavenly King to live as God's own rather than as captives. But those who refuse heaven's expensive offering, will not obey His commandments, and show no gratitude and love by keeping them, are left where Christ can do no more for them.
Life of God's Children
The Spirit must enlighten the heart, for only then can the glory of Christ be seen, and by beholding Christ through faith the believer is changed in character. Looking to Jesus and His atonement turns the believer away from dwelling on personal shortcomings to rejoicing in being clothed with Christ's righteousness. In Him all fullness dwells, with grace and pardon for every soul. Being a son who can cry Abba, Father holds firm in day-and-night pain through Christ's sustaining grace, gives hope in Jesus that keeps the sufferer from loneliness, and makes Jesus as the light of life precious when He is seen in long wakeful hours. Such sonship calls forth adoration for God's wondrous love in giving Jesus the Comforter.
Adoption as sons into the household of faith must be attested in life with unmistakable evidence. That evidence is taking up the work God gives and doing it with best effort, leaving self-planning and scheming, and growing steadily in grace and knowledge of Scripture in order to win souls to the kingdom. Believers so adopted belong to the royal family as children of the heavenly King, freed by Christ's ransom from captivity to live as God's own rather than as captives. Jesus loves and blesses His children as they obey.
Because believers are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His only begotten Son into their hearts crying Abba, Father, so they are no more servants but sons, and if sons then heirs of God through Christ. Having thus known God, they must not turn again to the weak and beggarly elements and to the bondage of serving those which by nature are no gods. That turning again includes observing days and months and times and years, so that the observance of holidays and many brought-in traditions is a great evil to be given no sanction and no heed.