John 1:12, commentary and pictures

As many as receive Christ and believe on his name are given power, right and privilege to become sons and daughters of God by a new birth from God, not by blood, ancestry or human will. Receiving him is believing on him as personal Saviour and Sin-bearer with living, active, obedient faith that surrenders heart and will, follows him, and keeps his commandments, not mere nominal belief or outward discipleship. The power to become children is not in man but from God through Christ, who clothed divinity with humanity, lived sinlessly as example, overcame where Adam fell, and gave his life on the cross as Substitute and Mediator to pardon sin and impute his righteousness. That power changes the heart by the Holy Spirit, putting to death the old nature, implanting a new nature, partaking of the divine nature, and reproducing Christ's image in obedience, love and purity. Whoever comes to him as he is in repentance and faith becomes his child at that very moment, forgiven and assured from God's Word, secured for eternal life and called to reflect his light in self-denying service to others.

Verse Wording and Setting

As many as welcome Christ and trust in his name are granted power, right, privilege and ability to become sons, daughters and children of God. This receiving is evidence of being born again and gives title to sonship, secured by a mutual contract calling for wholehearted commitment of heart, mind and soul. The grace so received flows outward to others while further grace flows inward, prompting willing offerings to God. Christ stands at the head of humanity to win men back to allegiance, and those who faithfully hold to right are those he is not ashamed to call brethren. Overcoming is understood and carried out through this receiving, by claiming standing as children, leaning only on the Word and abiding continually.

That sonship is a new birth from God, not of blood, ancestry, human desire, human will, the will of the flesh or the will of man, and grace is not inherited. It is not increased natural capability but vital connection with God who is Spirit and Life, receiving his great transforming power and breath of life into heart and spirit. All spiritual light is also spiritual life, and since all light and life come from Christ, men depend wholly on him.

The promise stands in contrast to Christ as Maker present in the world he made yet not known, coming to his own who did not receive him, including his own people and privileged men failing to recognize the Messiah. Although the world did not know him and his own did not welcome him, those who receive him become God's children. True elevation comes only from Christ, against pride, self-display, self-aggrandizement and men taking exalted religious titles. It rests on the Word made flesh dwelling among men full of grace and truth, the true Light lighting every person, whose life is the light of men, the eternal Word who was with God and was God by whom all things were made. From his fullness all receive grace added to grace, abundant grace and inexhaustible treasure, and beholding him as light of the world rather than walking in darkness brings heart, mind and character into conformity with God's will. Becoming part of God's family is made possible through Christ come in the flesh, with the glory of the only begotten of the Father as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The offer and light are universal and impartial, open to everyone who will receive it, to people of every rank including the lowly, with those who need him most not turned away. It is not instituted by men, not according to human impulse, not mixed with partiality or corrupted by hypocrisy, and not for a few self-centered ones while the stricken, unfortunate and most needy are left desolate. It breaks the blackness of wretchedness and sin like beams of the Sun of Righteousness shining on a guilty world, a granted time and dispensation of divine mercy, forgiveness, pardon and peace for sinful people to repent and become righteous. It embraces every son and daughter of Adam, with no respect of persons, granting sinful and erring man probation amid moral darkness to work out a character like Christ's as converted, sanctified, holy men and women. Christ laid off his kingly crown, laid aside his royal robe, clothed divinity with humanity to stand at the head of humanity, and in covenant with his Father purchased the race by his own blood, so receivers stand apart from the world, talk faith, and walk as he walked with mind and eye single to God's glory.

Its setting is amid abounding sin and rejection by Israel and the world, when the world had sunk to terrible depths of unbelief and recklessness as in the days of Noah, corrupted by sin and cherishing hatred against God's law. At his advent every human agent showing friendship to God and advocating his law was counted a traitor, made a prey and treated as an enemy, while injustice, fraud and an organized confederacy of evil opposed heaven, yet he came announcing the donation of eternal life. The Jewish nation was given opportunity to repent and believe in the only-begotten Son, and he sought to enlighten and save his own nation and could have saved them if they had received, believed and obeyed, but rejecting him brought hardness of heart and danger of perishing in sin. Receiving him means receiving him in his delegated messengers and the gracious light of truth working salvation, while pride, prejudice, spiritual pride and unbelief close and harden the heart in final rejection even when a second opportunity is granted. The same refusing spirit still lives, leaving many today no more ready to recognize light than those who rejected prophets and apostles, and men now with the Jewish example and warning before them are less excusable. While everything is stirred and overturned and nothing is sure, the verse gives the sure basis for God's people never to be reckless but to keep strictly to firm belief in the Word.

Meaning of Receiving Christ

Receiving is believing on his name, a living, active, obedient faith in him as personal Saviour, Redeemer, Sin-bearer and Messiah that unites the soul to him. It is simple trust in God's Word, depending on him and accepting him as God's gift and as God's only begotten Son, centering the hope of eternal life in him. It means believing and doing his words, accepting God's Word and following its guidance, which is eating the bread of life and drinking the blood of the Son of God. Those who so receive have eternal life, shall live by Christ as Christ lives by the Father, shall be raised at the last day, and have life through his name, while those who do not gather with him scatter. It is more than nominal belief, theory, or legal religion, for the Holy Spirit reveals and impresses the truths on which salvation depends, making the way of life clear even to those without great learning.

Receiving means coming as one is with humility, contrition, sincere repentance and confession, acknowledging him as Saviour and only hope, and trusting his pardoning love. It is human beings with all defects and wilful stubbornness coming to Christ to receive pardon and be born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God. It means taking his yoke upon oneself and being yoked with Christ, understanding him better with every step, taking his side, and having the heart softened and subdued by the Holy Spirit. To those who so receive he takes away sins, imputes his righteousness, ensures salvation, strengthens faith, and opens the mind to God's teaching in the natural world to prepare for studying and learning of God. That power is not in any human agent but comes from him who gave his life to save from the yoke of Satan, for the Word was made flesh and dwelt among men full of grace and truth.

Receiving means following him as the light of the world and the true Light rather than walking in darkness or relying on human beings, human wisdom, ministers, or self for wisdom, strength, or guidance. It is looking to him, beholding the virtues of his character full of grace and truth, beholding him until heart, mind, and character conform to God's will, and receiving from his fullness as part of complete salvation and higher life. It means laying hold of the advantages he provides and cooperating with him, so the life shows that Christ has been received. It is not surface, casual acceptance but emptying the soul temple of everything defiling to make room for Jesus to be all and in all, emptying it of envy, bitterness, evil thinking and evil speaking. Here is genuine faith, faith working by love and purifying the soul, gathering into oneness with Christ in peace and unity instead of separating and scattering, in which he becomes sanctification and righteousness.

Receiving means giving submissive attention to his words and receiving every word he speaks as law and life, for though in human form he spoke with true greatness bearing commission from the Excellent Glory, full of grace and truth. It is receiving truth into the heart, which is the way to eternal life, for God's religion rather than human guesswork leads to God. It is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, eating the bread from heaven, taking in the Word and living experience of his grace and truth to make known to the world. As the soul beholds Christ, studies his life, and practices his virtues, it receives his righteousness and lives his life, freed from niggardly, narrow, self-serving defects by God's power not human power, with his life-giving Word shaping daily conduct to be practiced. Christ is therefore to be set before people in the words of Scripture rather than pictures of human art, which cannot truly represent God nor heaven nor Christ the image of the Father.

Receiving takes courage and earnest action now while it is called today, entering vital connection and partnership with God who is Spirit and Life, receiving transforming power and breath of life into heart and spirit rather than depending on increased natural capabilities. It is a birth not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God, made possible because the Word was made flesh revealing the glory of the only begotten full of grace and truth. It means claiming standing as children of God, bringing sound doctrine into contact with sound practice, refusing to be controlled by feeling, leaning only upon the Word as rule of action, and trusting the Lord to break every band and give rest and peace. God's Word rather than changing feelings is assurance, for Christ himself is the soul's supply for nutrition, grasped more firmly as temptations press, enabling the self-distrustful to hold firmly to him in a Christlike religious life rather than legal or natural religion. The mind is opened to light sent, freed from prejudice, seeing truth distinct from error, and the heart door opened as the Spirit shows glimpses of God, so Jesus abides by living faith and complete dependence; power comes as the soul resolves and acts on revealed light and inclines the will to God's will, with Christ's grace cooperating and the Spirit working to will and do without doing the willing or doing for him, for abundance of light alone does not make sons of God.

Truly receiving requires surrender of self to God, humble self-distrust, denying self, refusing to spare self, turning from suggestions of flesh and world, and beginning self-denial and self-sacrifice after Christ's example. It means not shunning the cross but lifting and bearing it after Jesus, walking in his footsteps in humble faith and relying on his grace rather than self-trust, for sonship is born of God not human descent, desire, or will. It involves having all sins washed away and receiving a new heart and new birth, possible because the sinner was bought with the blood of the Son of God. Those who receive and are baptized pledge to leave idolatrous practices of the world and live for Christ, and are marked as members of his royal family. To save temporal life by shunning the cross of reproach brings eternal loss of soul, heaven, and the life measuring with God's life, while the obedient will be gathered when the Son of man comes in his Father's glory to reward every man and possess the eternal inheritance.

Mere outward discipleship, interest, or superficial belief is not receiving, as shown by Judas whose outward discipleship and limited belief left him never converted, never cleansed within, never changed in character, without yielding his will. Those who merely claim to be children while rejecting heaven-sent truth because it clashes with errors and opinions do not receive him. Sincere receiving unites with Christ and identifies with him whom the world rejected, makes one with Christ as sons and daughters, sets apart from the world in loyalty to God and keeping his commandments, and faithfully holding to right gives title to sonship as those Christ is not ashamed to call brethren. Those who do receive behold him as the Word made flesh with glory as of the only begotten full of grace and truth, and of his fullness receive grace for grace with marked change of character, partaking of divine nature, glimpsing Christ's righteousness in the law, worked out in believing and doing his words, which is evidence of new birth. Refusing him leaves one without excuse and not a child of God.

Receiving is shown by practicing his works and revealing his spirit, for genuine faith is active. It is receiving truth, believing truth and practicing truth, coming out of darkness of error into heaven's pure light, living in faith working by love and purifying the soul, and becoming living witnesses, while refusal chooses darkness rather than light because deeds are evil. Those who have received show at home what grace has done, with authority in Christ influencing the household to develop character, and the new relationship leads to following his example and working as he worked. Genuine belief begins with knowledge of Christ generating confidence through heart obedience to his Word, leading to committing all to him; he first commits sonship in his name, making the believer a son honored with his name and character, and the gift of life, truth, and righteousness gives confidence to trust Jesus to keep what was committed until glorified in his saints. Receiving is joined with obeying God's commandments and appropriating what the atonement provides.

Receiving can happen in ordinary work and simplicity, in sincerity while carrying out daily toil, drawing courage from Christ's example who as heaven's exalted commander worked as a carpenter with Joseph enduring toil and hardship to sympathize fully with humanity. It enters his school as the greatest Teacher for educated and uneducated alike, and brings every sinner into communication with heaven, in which God, angels, cherubim, and seraphim are intensely interested and know this promise as they work for sinners. It includes receiving him in his messengers and in the light of truth as personal Saviour, by which all who receive and believe are given power to become sons and daughters. Between the sinner and this salvation stands satanic intervention through restricting, suspecting, and accusing men, a spirit of accusation leavening the churches that must be condemned lest God turn his face away.

Nature of Divine Sonship

To be called a child of God is the greatest honor, greater than earthly titles, property, power, riches and human greatness, making believers members of God's royal family and children of the heavenly King. Receiving Jesus and believing on His name raises the person to a high position rather than stooping down, and true elevation comes only from Christ, against pride, self-display, self-aggrandizement and taking exalted religious titles. That sonship is the new birth, born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God, not inherited by ancestry, human desire or human will. It comes by looking constantly to Jesus with the eye of faith and feeding upon His Word as spirit and life, by which the natural earthly nature is killed and a new life in Christ Jesus is created. The Holy Spirit comes as Comforter, love takes the place of hatred, the heart receives the mold of the divine likeness, the image of Christ with His character attributes and righteousness is reproduced, and the person becomes a new creature rescued from transgression to obedience and righteousness with the richest reward of eternal life and immortality as God's free gift.

Believers are adopted into His family as sons and daughters when they draw near to God through faith by personal choice, reconciled and brought in as His own possession through His purchase by blood. The promise to the Son extends to all who receive Christ, for sonship is given by God to believers, not proposed by man, out of love that gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes should not perish but have everlasting life. This gift calls them to stand with noble dignity, hold fast to Christ, live for Him who is the propitiation for sins, follow on to know the truth on the sure foundation that flood nor storm can sweep away, govern life by new motives in doing His will, and give self without reserve, returning to the Lord what is His own.

Sons are chosen joint-heirs with Christ to eternal riches, immortality and an inheritance kept in heaven, welcomed at last to dwell with God forever, see His face, share His throne and be complete in every grace through humanity's Representative. This sonship is a birth from God, not gained through human descent or human will, in which receivers renounce self-reliance and welcome Him as complete Saviour. The Spirit witnesses that they are God's children and heirs to the privileges of sonship, with a new nature implanted, justification by faith through atonement and forgiveness of sins bringing praise and thanksgiving, transformation of character fitting them to be companions of angels, Christ taking their sins and guilt and presenting the marks of His crucifixion before the Father on their behalf, calling for faith and a life given to His service.

Becoming children is the new birth in which the heart is changed, the old natural earthly nature put to death, a new nature implanted by the Holy Spirit, and Christ's image reproduced. Without this experience no one will see the kingdom of God, for it requires changing square about from bitterness, uncleanness and self-will, casting off Satan, giving self up entirely without reserve for His will to be done, while the Spirit purifies the entire nature from moral defilement. Receiving is the inward receiving of the principles of His life into the soul, a faith that works by love and purifies the soul, wearing His yoke and learning obedience and meekness and lowliness of heart, enabling believers to see spiritual things including His righteousness in the law. The result is Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, Christ within the hope of glory, a radical change of thought and capacity for enjoyment and an altogether different character, with God all and in all as the very perfection of happiness, an experience of greater value than gold, silver or precious stones; it lies wholly with each person whether to receive this power and be a child of God or to perish in sin as a child of Satan.

Through faith believers partake of the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world through lust, with defects of character removed and character completed in Him who knew no sin. In Christ are provided what they need to be complete, the storehouse of knowledge and grace and the fullness of the Godhead bodily, so they need not remain with defects nor serve God in the corruption of sinful nature nor rely on own righteousness, because His righteousness is provided. By the union of the divine and human in Christ this power enables them to work together with Him, follow His example, know the true light and the power of His grace, with truth working to change heart and character through faith receiving Him as personal Saviour resting on the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour.

Sonship is loyal allegiance shown by keeping His commandments and obeying His Word, possible under the covenant of grace, with eternal life belonging only to the obedient. Becoming sons means becoming obedient children to all His commandments, not disobedient children, which proves it is possible to keep them because obedience is made the proof of love, and those accepted pursue restoration of His likeness, prepare character for the future life, and put heavenly truths into practical use during probationary testing. This salvation is purchased for those who seek God with the whole heart and continue to obey, repenting, believing in Jesus and receiving His righteousness as their own with names recorded in the Lamb's book of life; God will not be trifled with, and those with opportunity who presumptuously depart will realize their terrible mistake when too late.

True children show membership by Christlike lives, unity, supreme love to God and neighbor, and being changed from glory to glory into His image as lights in the world. In the Christian graces those born of God exemplify Bible truth before a sinful world after Christ the Word made flesh full of grace and truth, letting light shine in good works that men may glorify the Father, with Bible truth influencing mind and character, filling hearts with love of Christ and removing quarreling, selfishness, unfaithfulness, strife, division and stubborn independence. Every fresh display of His rich grace melts and subdues the heart, produces the new birth, knits believers more closely in Christian fellowship with sincere sanctified love for the saints as the purchase of His blood, bearing divine credentials the world can see as evidence that the Father sent Christ; chosen out of the world they are no longer of it, and the world does not recognize them because it did not recognize Him, their life shown by the Spirit's leading and Christlike character and conduct.

Sonship gives life high dignity and destiny to honor God and bless others, ennobling the person, worth sacrificing everything for, bringing fellowship with Father and Son. Knowing the Father's tender love and the purpose of human life, those who grasp it turn from selfish aims and shun sin because it degrades God-given powers, misuses them and stains Godlike character, directing ambition and perseverance toward higher ends not merely to gain reward or avoid punishment. That sonship sets the value of every person, since Christ died to save from everlasting ruin, so all should value and respect themselves as made to be sons of God, regaining the position lost through sin, with good works following from accepting Christ as all in all. Becoming sons means obedience to Christ and holiness of soul, body and spirit through indwelling grace cherished and matured by looking to Jesus, making believers living letters known and read by all men.

Those who receive belong to Him by creation and redemption as His property and co-laborers, without distinction of color or race, on the same terms for every race. By faith they accept Christ, belong to Him because He bought them at a price, are fitted to work with Him rather than live for themselves or yield to another claimant, must be treated as His own, and may search the Scriptures for themselves and be complete in Him rather than depending on any human agent. This privilege belongs to God's people everywhere, with Christ formed within working through them, enabling them to become members of God's family by giving hearts to Him. It means yielding to Him as owner by creation and redemption, glorifying God in body and spirit and sharing His suffering, self-denial and cross-bearing, and it can be refused by resisting truth, siding with the rebel chief, refusing mercy, disobeying commandments and choosing Satan, the world and the broad way instead of Christ.

Through redemption God restores His image lost by sin, training sons on earth to practice heavenly principles, revealing what humanity may become. By choice and obedience and through His grace those born of God are freed from continuing in sin and enabled to practice virtue and holiness, with power restoring the Creator's image, developing character like Christ's, and putting degraded sinners on vantage ground with God by partaking of divine nature. All who receive enter true human sonship like His own sonship with the Father, for human nature has been redeemed by Him who for thirty years lived the life of a perfect man, so receivers are not degraded but raised, ennobled and refined, living in co-partnership with the Son stepping in the footprints of His obedience rather than following defective human judgment, however imperfect finding refuge, victory and true service as more than conquerors. He came to reveal the perfect ideal as the only true standard, to show how men are to be trained as befits sons of God to live the life of heaven on earth, becoming His sanctification and righteousness as they look to Him the true Light rather than relying on human beings, yielding heart and will and taking His life as pattern to connect the sin-separated with God, a work parents are to teach children.

Christ Work Securing Sonship

The power to become children of God comes only through Christ because He laid aside crown, robe, princely display and command, stepped down from His throne, and clothed His divinity with humanity so that humanity might touch humanity and lay hold of divinity. He who was united with the Father from all eternity remained one with God when He took human nature, and because God thus became one with man when the Word was made flesh, He is the link that unites God with humanity. He became poor so that through His poverty the poor might be made rich, to redeem and restore the moral image of God in man and win man back to loyalty, bringing receivers into oneness with the Father in fellowship and relationship. Because He took human nature men and women can become partakers of the divine nature, so that in a scriptural sense the heart becomes the temple of the living God, with all hopes of eternal life centered in Him and life and immortality brought to light through the gospel. That sonship means it is possible to be victorious overcomers, one with Christ as Christ is one with the Father, and it stands opposed to grand display in preaching, buildings, dress and adornment, requiring humble, economical work, purifying the soul by obeying truth, denying self, taking up the cross and following Him in preparation for the mansions He has gone to prepare.

He came as humanity's perfect Saviour and example at the head of humanity, sent to all the world to reveal the character God requires His children to form and to show what human nature may become through receiving Him. Receiving Him gives power by living as He lived while on earth: in the world but not of the world, refusing to conform to worldly practices to reach His aim, refusing to please Himself, maintaining the highest standard, and never deviating from strict moral rectitude, because deviation mars the whole life work. This power is new birth not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God, made possible because the Word was made flesh and dwelt among men full of grace and truth, from whose fullness all receive grace added to grace.

Where Adam yielded to a small temptation in Eden and fell from integrity, opening the floodgates of woe, Christ passed over the same ground in human nature, met a most powerful series of temptations, was tempted in all points as man is tempted, yet stood the test in man's behalf and redeemed Adam's disgraceful failure and fall. He placed Himself at the head of humanity as Elder Brother, sharing human trials and afflictions and offering perfect obedience to place man on vantage ground, bearing testimony before the world and the heavenly universe that through faith in His power as Son of God receivers are given power to become sons of God and partakers of the divine nature. Receiving Christ makes it possible to share in the victories He won in His humanity and to overcome temptation as He overcame, giving strength to live perfect lives, reveal high and holy principles, partake of the divine nature to overcome corruption through lust, and be sanctified by true union with Him. He alone could make this sonship possible because He alone could make atonement for sinners and open the gates of Paradise, taking not the nature of angels but the nature of man and living untainted by sin, with the cross as the center of hope, and He came to be tempted as human beings are so He can help those who are tempted.

He gave His life to redeem those who receive Him, giving His life for the life of the world and making provision for every soul, so the world need not remain filled with war, bloodshed, violence and crime. Divine sonship cannot be gained by human power but is made possible by Christ's sacrifice, for He took human nature, lived without sin, suffered in humanity's behalf, and opened the way to Paradise for the fallen race. As the Word who is the light and life of men, all light and life come from Him, and as Substitute and Surety He suffered the penalty of sin to enlighten sinners and give them life, so that those who do not receive and walk in the light remain dead in trespasses and sins, but those who receive are made alive to God with light and life together as the greatest blessing to the ignorant, depraved and wretched. In view of that gift of heaven there is no reason to choose the father of lies and cherish his spirit.

As Substitute, Surety, Mediator and Sin-pardoner He takes away sins and imputes His righteousness, so that receiving Him brings union in which He identifies Himself with the believer before God and the universe, sins reckoned to Christ and His righteousness counted as the believer's. Those who receive Him can face judgment by appealing not to their own worth but to His life given for them, for He became sin for them that they might become God's righteousness in Him, and God pardons them and counts them precious, recognizing in them the likeness of His Son. Because of His atoning sacrifice prayer rises to the Father carrying Christ's character, and those joined to Him are accepted in the Beloved, with the Holy Spirit taking the things of Christ and presenting them to the earnest suppliant so salvation is ensured. This sonship comes only through living faith and personal consecration with self hid with Christ in God, making life unbroken communion and causing grace received to be constantly imparted, and through the merits of the crucified and risen Christ believers may receive His righteousness and keep God's law, born not from ancestry or human will but from God.

Risen and glorified He redeems, intercedes, advocates and grants the Holy Spirit, accepting the repentant believer and standing as Advocate and propitiation, so that through the new covenant receivers become heirs with Him with every blessing for this life and the life to come. His sinless life prepares the way, and through Him entrance into the holiest is made manifest and a family of believing saints will finally inhabit the heavenly home with the image of God restored. The cross shows the cost of sin, for He died because of transgression of God's law, so sin must be treated as guilt against the Son of God and immortality comes only through receiving Him.

Having purchased every human being with His life and died a cruel death to save from eternal death, giving His sinless life to obtain for the sinner a life that measures with the life of God, He restores every repenting and believing soul, making them members of the royal family and children of the heavenly King. As owner of the human family bought at infinite cost He will redeem and sanctify all who receive Him, all having been granted probation to receive Him, and He paid the price that none should be eternally lost, desiring every son and daughter of Adam to return to allegiance, break with Satan, obtain pardon through faith, and be prepared for the mansions He has gone to prepare. He is ready to take away the sins of those who repent and ask pardon, each person must choose to believe and accept, His free gift enables helpless sinners to be cleansed by His blood, He puts His perfect law into their hearts, and by sharing the divine nature they escape corruption; to refuse mercy at such cost is wicked and ungrateful. Those who so receive belong to Him both by creation and by redemption, united with divinity through His merits as propitiation who took humanity to suffer and die for the fallen race.

From His fullness as the Word made flesh full of grace and truth receivers take grace for grace, for He is the eternal Word who was with God and was God, by whom all things were made, in whom was life whose life was the light of men shining in darkness, the true Light lighting every man, sent to make known God's character and laws because Israel was unfaithful as depositary of truth. All the riches of heaven are to be drawn upon by them, nothing in divine resources too costly to accompany the gift of the only begotten Son, for the Father committed the inexhaustible treasures of eternity to Christ for boundless disposal, and those who accept Him as Saviour, Redeemer and Prince of life He acknowledges before the heavenly host, unfallen worlds and fallen world as His peculiar treasure. Those who become God's children share His nature, dwell in Him, and are transformed by conversion and the Spirit from self-indulgence to service, wholly consecrated so the grace they impart is continually renewed in greater measure, putting on Christ and becoming pure through the Spirit's help. This power makes it possible to share in the divine nature and reach perfection.

Under the new and better covenant He has fulfilled the law for transgressors who receive Him by faith as personal Saviour, trusting His merits to take away sins, with mercy, forgiveness and cleansing by His blood as reward, yet without changing the terms of eternal life which have ever been based on perfect obedience. The law condemns and has no power to save and no plea can obtain acquittal under law, but He gave Himself as the world's sin-bearer and becomes Mediator and Sin-pardoner for all who come confessing and accepting Him, giving them power to become sons as God's means to counterwork rebellion and bring in everlasting righteousness. God gave His only Son to suffer the penalty in place of guilty sinners so they need not perish but have another probation to return from transgression to loyalty in repentance and stand innocent through His merits, withholding no heavenly facility needed, His love measureless and His rising proving triumph over death, able to save to the uttermost all who come by Him. Those who receive enter a new creation of which He is head, a regenerate humanity of which He is prophet, priest and king, Emmanuel, by faith not of nature but wrought by God through the Spirit revealing Christ as Christ revealed the Father, requiring ceasing to transgress and becoming loyal, for none can stand innocent while continuing in sin.

Out of everlasting love Father, Son, Spirit and all heaven acted, giving the Son to shameful death while still sinners, proving measureless love and triumph over death, with Christ giving Himself to free humanity from the destroyer, breaking Satan's power by carrying sin and becoming the center of the redeemed world. As sin-bearer and head of humanity He overcame on our behalf so receivers may overcome in His strength, and through His mission and infinite sacrifice people may be accepted by God. The bright beams of divinity pass through Him to followers by merits of His sacrifice to unite divinity and humanity and reveal what finite minds can grasp of God's glory, which nature alone reveals imperfectly, so that with character perfected they partake of the divine nature, escape corruption through lust, and at last behold God in fullness. He became human and accepted the role of surety and substitute, experiencing temptation so He could help the tempted, calling all to take God at His word.

Power for Transformed Life

The power to become sons of God is not in man but from God through Christ, given to those who receive Him and believe on His name by trusting His power to save. Believing His promises by faith imparts a power beyond human strength, joining human weakness to heaven's strength and supplying divine strength to will and to do right. This sonship comes only by the blending of human and divine strength, where man must of his own accord consent to renounce sin, heartily cooperate with God, willingly obey His laws, feel dependence upon God, keep the Lord ever before him, accept the blessing in faith, and draw power from God to resist temptation as a co-partner with Christ. The new birth into sonship is not of blood nor of human descent, desire, or will but of God, made possible because Christ clothed His divinity with humanity to cooperate with man, full of grace and truth, from whose fullness all receive grace for grace with Christ dwelling in the heart, since man has in himself no merits and no strength to wrestle with darkness.

It is power to keep the commandments of God perfectly, fulfill all righteousness, receive Christ's righteousness through the merits of the crucified and risen Christ, and live a purified obedient life bearing fruit. As God is perfect in His sphere, man is to be perfect in his sphere, content with nothing less than the best and highest character formed after the divine similitude, so that life, faith, and purity of religion become an instructive example to others. The power is given by Jesus through the Spirit of God and cannot be manufactured by human effort, yet through it believers can be more than conquerors, baffling the relentless foe, subduing the opposition of the human heart, overcoming individually, growing in spiritual strength as stalwart Christians, and becoming fit for the inheritance with the saints in light. Receiving it requires striving for the Spirit, awaking, praying and watching unto prayer, deep insight into the nature of Christ and the mystery of His love that passes knowledge, living in the warm rays of the Sun of righteousness, letting the melting love of Christ fill and soften the heart, with the joy of the Lord as strength.

That power forgives sin and gives victory over sin, breaking bondage to selfishness and to hereditary and cultivated defects, and bringing character and conduct into harmony with the law of God. Mere profession without living faith leaves defects unovercome, but true receiving brings experimental knowledge of Him, renewal into a new holy life, change of imperfect dispositions so God's will is fulfilled, and strength and victory through working with Him in faith. Through Christ's full sacrifice and atonement believers do not receive only occasional help but become partakers of the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world through lust, with Christ's righteousness as the channel by which humanity grasps divinity, calling each person to do a work of his own in response. Christ laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown and stepped down from His high command and clothed His divinity with humanity, standing at the head of humanity to reveal what human beings can become by receiving the power He came to give, being born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of man but of God because the Word was made flesh and dwelt among men full of grace and truth.

Beholding Christ brings mind, heart, and character into conformity with God's will and enables following His example, learning from Him how to live a pure and holy life free from every taint of sin. Through Christ the repentant sinner is born again: He renews the soul, writes God's holy law in the heart, gives His life to the whole being, and produces a changed character and a life of loving service, with enmity becoming love and impurity purity by grace upon grace. The believer must overcome faults, bring appetites and passions under God's will, overcome the world's corruption through lust, and by denying self, bearing the cross, praying, believing, and receiving needed blessings advance toward God's standard in personal fellowship with the Saviour. Accepting His invitation to learn brings anointing with the oil of gladness, and a life filled with the Holy Spirit shows the new birth has taken place, bringing into close relationship with God in which one must continue to receive and confess Him as personal Saviour.

The change is to be evident in life, with words and actions showing faith is real, and kind, sincere, cheerful, and sober-minded conduct reflecting Christ's teaching and the sanctifying influence of faith. It does not wipe out human abilities but works as Christ in the heart guiding, strengthening, lifting up, and making holy the powers of the soul through knowing Him personally, fitting believers to show His character to the world beginning in the home circle, offering every intellectual and physical ability as consecrated service so He shines through their minds. Those who receive are to represent Christ and honor Him in every business deal and action, building Christian character through receiving and believing rather than pretense or shallowness, cherishing truth as more precious than gold. For professing Christians in need of decided reconversion, obeying the Word and practicing His teachings brings experience that His gentleness has made them great, learning of Him and presenting truth under the divine influence of the Holy Spirit with anointing emptied from the two anointed ones into hearts prepared to receive it.

Faith that receives is the foundation of Christian character built upon solid rock, the Rock of Ages, safe when storm and tempest beat against the house, while building on any other foundation is building on shifting sand. Those who believe cherish the truth as more precious than gold and have a defense against the enemy's attacks, with health and strength of body and spirit depending on believing in Jesus and the truth as it is in Him. God's Word is the believer's assurance and Christ is the soul's nourishment, so receiving Him is not legal or natural religion but relying on Him rather than feelings or self-trust, grasping His hand firmly and still more firmly as temptations press, in self-distrust yet holding firmly to Him. Knowledge of God's Word in the Bible and heeding it lifts men from the lowest depths of degradation to become sons of God and associates of sinless angels, for in it God reveals His will, the object of creation and the means to attain it, how to improve the present life wisely and secure the future life, alone satisfying the questionings of the mind and cravings of the heart.

The Holy Spirit is a gift to all who receive Christ with no respect of persons, and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ always leads in right paths, forbidding one man to usurp authority over another's mind or be conscience for another. Earnestly sought and continually cherished, the Spirit works in believers' hearts to give power to become God's children, bringing converting power on heart and disposition, sanctifying body, mind and soul and showing in attitude toward others and in wise words and right actions. This receiving brings fallen people to spiritual life and fills hearts with hope and joy, and when a penitent looks to the Saviour for help to turn from sin the Spirit begins transforming the heart, cleansing it as Christ alone can and giving pardon to everyone who comes in faith. Continuing in belief maintains living connection with God by which the Spirit enables keeping faith in Christ and His word with spiritual insight and close personal knowledge of God, while ceasing to hold the hope of the gospel drifts into skepticism and unbelief.

Receivers are transformed by His Spirit from self-indulgence and supreme love for self into self-denial and supreme love for God, with following Christ's example of bearing the cross marking life as God's children. No one inherits holiness by nature and no human method can make a person loyal and true, but in the Redeemer's strength weak, erring people can be made more than conquerors over besetting evil, changed as they behold Jesus and submit to the sanctifying work that removes natural tendencies and habits to become patient, kind, forbearing, and compassionate. Through Christ this power makes a wholly devoted life of service and a consistent Christian life possible, requiring full and entire consecration during probation. Controlling appetite and passion and bringing habits into harmony with God's will belong to man's cooperation, for salvation is neither worked out alone nor accomplished without cooperation, and victory over sin to live the Christ-life in purity and holiness requires never glossing over sin, uprooting perverted appetites and passions, refusing slavery to passion, keeping reason sanctified and guarded, and showing by a thankful radiant life that truth has sanctified the soul.

Continuing in sin after receiving leaves without excuse, for sonship does not continue in transgression but accepts the obligation to obey the law, to be renewed in the spirit of the mind, and to remain steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Christ wills to make receivers steadfast and obedient and to keep them so, with salvation depending on choosing to place the human will on the side of His will. Those who sincerely seek to break free from the enemy and to know and obey God's commandments are given power to become sons and daughters, linked with wholehearted obedience and search for heavenly things, turning from sin to live in loyalty to God, apart from which sinners remain under sentence of death. Through faith the sinner becomes a child not by making himself worthy or relying on own efforts, for Jesus alone cleanses and forgives, giving pardon and peace to him who comes in faith.

The power is heaven's assistance to striving souls by which they partake of heavenly elements, raising fallen human beings from spiritual death, quickening them with His own life, and filling hearts with hope and joy. It works a reformation in life that God accepts and rejoices in as He rejoiced in the newly finished world He pronounced very good. It is present help in every time of need by which Christians are purified and strengthened in temptation and trial to resist the enemy and overcome, a choice open to all where wavering faith is shameful and the overcome have only themselves to blame for failing to resist. Becoming a son is forming a character that decides future destiny, recorded in heaven's books as a picture of the unclothed soul, with followers fitted by test and trial to dwell with Him in the heavenly courts, and Christ dwelling in the heart bringing joy while excluding Him leaves sadness and gloom.

Becoming children remains training as befits sons of God, practicing heavenly principles on earth and living the life of heaven toward the perfect ideal Christ came to reveal as the only true standard showing what every human being might become through indwelling of humanity by divinity. Receiving Christ as Life-giver brings union with Him and harmony with God's will, making one a partaker of His eternal life and the divine nature, no longer counted as sinner and rebel but received as son through accepting His righteousness. When the heart is emptied of pride, vanity and selfishness, faith appropriates God's promises and Christ supplies the vacuum and abides in the heart to satisfy soul hunger for every soul who seeks with the whole heart, hungering and thirsting after righteousness to become Christlike, assimilated to His image, keeping the way of the Lord and doing justice and judgment. Knowing God's Word and heeding it lifts from ignorance and degradation to become God's children, bearing fruit like the living Vine and telling others what Christ has done.

Even the most guilty sinner could become a child by believing on Jesus as Son of God and Redeemer, for Christ saves from sins not in them, and this precious faith through His righteousness rests on His standing at the head of humanity as sin-bearer and overcoming on humanity's behalf so people may overcome through His strength. The power is given to those who surrender to God, enabling one engaged in sinful practices to be purified and cleansed when sin is recognized for what it is, with Bible truth convicting and converting, elevating and ennobling by truth, awakening to unseen duties, and drawing nearer to the Author of salvation. Living in Christ brings His covering and protection, and though Satan opposes every step, becoming God's child is real with grand possibilities before all who receive and believe. Through His merits even the guiltiest who humbly come, confess and forsake sin, ask pardon in the Redeemer's name without trusting own merits or excusing sins, are pardoned and justified and receive power to become children, with the Lord giving reception, rebuking Satan's accusations, abundantly pardoning, and carrying forward redeeming love to perfect redemption to defeat the enemy and glorify His name as they continue to believe and trust.

Universal Invitation and Witness

Grace received from Christ flows outward to others while further grace flows inward, prompting willing offerings to God, and receiving Him as personal Saviour means working with Him in wholehearted commitment of heart, mind and soul, cooperating with Him day by day to overcome temptation until He completes the work begun. Receiving brings participation in the fullness of His grace, which equips each converted person to share grace, carry His light through self-denial and service, impart what was received, and glorify God through the ages. Every converted soul is commissioned to bid others come, to tell what was received, and to labor in self-denying service as channels of His grace, light and truth.

Divine sonship cannot be gained by human power but is made possible by Christ's sacrifice, witnessed by John the Baptist as the One through whom men may become sons and daughters of God, a blessed privilege comprehended by few and an incentive to greater effort to set the hope of the gospel before those still in darkness and error. This promise to all who believe will be fulfilled for many Jews in all parts of the earth in the closing proclamation of the gospel, when special work is done for classes hitherto neglected and the message of mercy and hope in Christ comes in its fullness through messengers taking particular interest in them. When the gospel is presented fully and the Old Testament is explained alongside the New, with the Christ of the gospel dispensation portrayed in the Old and the New explaining the Old, many will recognize Christ as Messiah, Saviour and Redeemer of the world and by faith receive Him. For them this recognition brings new spiritual life, the arousing of slumbering faculties as the dawn of a new creation and the resurrection of the soul, being changed into Christ's image from glory to glory by the Spirit, made partakers of the divine nature with divinity stamped on the soul, growing toward the full stature of Christ as they continue learning of Him. This belongs to the time when the Jews are given the light of the last gospel message, when a multitude are convinced of the truth and take their position for God, becoming a power to labor for the Jews in the salvation of God.

The gospel is glad tidings of salvation to all who receive and believe on Christ as personal Saviour, an affirmative proof of the atonement He made for the sins of the world showing the necessity of that atonement. Receiving and believing brings power to be saved, which means repenting and returning to loyalty to God and His law, restored from disobedience, wandering and fall through the power of truth and becoming laborers together with Him. It is to be preached affirmatively and certainly with the word of the living God as the foundation of faith, Christ having given His life for the world.

Those who receive reveal Christ's love, and their love and fellowship bear witness that God sent His Son to save sinners, the sure result of receiving being oneness with Him through abiding and bearing fruit. Those who profess present truth are sent into the world as Christ was sent by His Father to expel the powers of darkness, give health and strength, cherish the attributes of Christ's character until they become a power in life, and carry on that same work. Receiving belongs to people of simplicity willing to learn from the great Teacher, fearing God, keeping His commandments and doing His Word, to whom is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom and the secret of the Lord, which they are to proclaim openly as commanded. Sonship makes believers depositaries of truth holding it in trust, with responsibility for every ray received to reflect it in clear rays and make it known to all, especially to children, training children as coworkers with God as the first work of parents, while neglect leaves uncertainty and self-reproach under God's word. Every converted soul is privileged to point others not yet rejoicing in the light to Christ as Source of strength, so they too may receive Him, know the same joy, take their place as God's light-bearers, receive divine blessing from Christ and share it to raise those dead in trespasses to newness of life by working as Christ worked.

Complete surrender brings deeper knowledge of God and His will governing the whole person and leading to consecrated service with entrusted abilities, bringing into the divine nature, escape from worldly corruption, and self-denying, self-sacrificing work to save others from ignorance and sin. Sonship pledges whole soul, mind, heart and strength to serve as laborers together with God, requiring all with intelligent knowledge of truth and all who believe to use every tact and talent of influence not only to receive truth but to impart it, including at camp meetings, wrestling with God for souls, living out prayers, working disinterestedly and determinedly without letting go, compelling souls to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and lifting the sinful up to the high standard of the law rather than lowering truth to gain converts. As stewards of grace, children obedient and trained for highest service work for others' salvation knowing success comes from God to whom glory belongs, their faithfulness shown by sharing truth in word and deed moved by Christ's love, and a worker's service in drawing others testifies he is born of God even without being a public speaker.

Christ's light and invitation reach people of every rank including the lowly, and those who need Him most are not turned away, for all who receive belong to Him and must be treated as His own without distinction because of color. The promise grounds the call to work for the salvation of the colored people and provide them the privileges Christ died to give. It is the Word of life to be declared to the sick as sure cure for sin, in simplest language by one living in close relation to Christ with heart longing for their salvation, pointing to the Lamb of God who alone makes physical treatment truly successful, a work physicians share as gospel teachers pointing to Christ and salvation of the soul. His hand remains stretched out even to those who resisted appeals, abused mercy and rejected redeeming love provided at infinite sacrifice, because provision is made that everyone who receives Him is given strength to enter God's family.

Jesus who gives this power is the eternal Word who was with God and was God in the beginning, by whom all things were made, in whom is life that is the light of men shining in darkness uncomprehended, witnessed by John sent from God, the true Light lighting every man, who was in the world He made yet the world knew Him not and came to His own who received Him not. Because He made all things He chose the open air as sanctuary to reach people coming and going, taking things His own hand made as lesson book and drawing spiritual instruction from familiar natural things to represent truth. Receiving is inward reception of the principles of His life, faith working by love and purifying the soul, taking His yoke, learning obedience, meekness and lowliness, understanding Him better with each step, with power not in any human agent but from Him who gave His life to save from Satan's yoke. The kingdom is established not by outward display or worldly patronage but by implanting Christ's nature through the Holy Spirit by a birth not of blood nor fleshly or human will but of God, the only power uplifting humanity through teaching and preaching the Word. God presents Christ truly by Scripture words full of grace and truth, not by human art which can never represent God or heaven or Christ, the Spirit keeping the excellencies of the altogether lovely One before the renewed heart so no outward image is needed, Christ becoming all and in all to the believer His by creation and redemption. Jesus stands higher than all great teachers of giant intellect honored as guides, those accepting Him given ability to become children, while even truth in human teaching shines only by reflected light as moon and stars by the sun, and this power is for those with capabilities for great things in responsible places representing Him, acknowledging Christ as greatest Teacher shining through minds as Light of the world by consecrated offering of every intellectual and physical capability.

All are to look to Christ for guidance rather than putting ministers in God's place, for ministers are not gods but humans compassed with infirmities, and believers receive of His fullness grace for grace from the Word made flesh full of grace and truth, that gospel power coming upon newly raised companies to fit them for service to impart what they received and carry truth beyond. Christ is the only safe leader and Saviour for all with no respect of persons, to whom all receiving are given power, His grace always leading in right paths, ordaining that no man usurp authority over another's mind or be conscience for another, the Holy Spirit given to all who receive bringing converting power sanctifying body, mind and soul and showing in attitude, wise words and right actions. His people are to have no kings, rulers or popes among them with Christ as only authority, for the pope claims authority over practice and places himself in God's position, keeping the weak and uninformed from knowledge revealing their privileges as children of God.

Those who receive and are baptized pledge to leave the world's idolatrous practices and live for Christ, marked as members of His royal family, entering covenant relation, taking the name Christian and devoting life to service. In that covenant the Father, Son and Holy Spirit pledge to work with and through them, leading to living Christ's life.

Accepting Christ as personal, sin-pardoning Saviour contains the whole science of salvation, the only true mind cure saving the perishing soul, essential for salvation, meaning coming in humility, contrition and sincere repentance to receive pardon by birth not of blood nor fleshly nor human will but of God, having sins taken away, His righteousness imputed, the Spirit presenting Christ's things to the earnest suppliant, ensuring salvation through the Word made flesh full of grace and truth. Received, believed and practiced, this pure truth out of His fullness grace for grace forms a blameless character shining as lights in a crooked nation, preparing for the great work in this life and fitness for eternal service, building a renewed holy structure greater than human skill toward perfection. This becoming sons is the science of the life that now is and to come, the only true science of saving grace, which medical workers, students and physicians must study to become genuine medical missionaries and gospel teachers pointing to the Lamb as cure for sin, declaring the promise to the sick. It belongs to those separating from cunning and scientific scheming, following on to know the Lord and identifying with those receiving truth sanctified through it, Father and Son being two distinct persons one in mind, heart, holiness, justice, purity and united saving work.

Out of everlasting love Christ as head over all things gives power to all receiving to bring them into the church He gave Himself to present glorious, holy, without spot, wrinkle or blemish. As adopted children they are set apart to reveal His grace and work for others' salvation, chosen out of the world and no longer of it, so the world does not recognize them because it did not recognize Christ. Being God's children is shown by the Spirit's leading, Christlike character, blameless lives as living examples, abiding in Him, carrying light, willingness and obedience leading into all truth, united as branches to the vine, walking after the Spirit, as light of the world and salt of the earth. What distinguishes them is holy Christlike love working with purifying influence and expressing itself in deeds of love, growing in strength as they love God supremely and neighbor as self, in heavenly conversation, meekness and blameless conduct.

Receiving brings every sinner into communication with heaven, with God, angels, cherubim and seraphim intensely interested in bringing this about and knowing this promise as they work for sinners. Between the sinner and salvation stands satanic intervention through men who restrict, suspect and accuse, and this accusing spirit has leavened the churches and must be condemned, lest God turn His face away and not serve with such sins. The promised power weaves truth into words, spirit and works held conscientiously, making Christians a refining influence against false religion and infidelity, carrying heavenly principles, honoring the gospel, growing in power to communicate sanctifying grace and in influence through reverence for truth, with hearts filled with Christ's peace. Because the world judges the Saviour by followers' lives, departing in word or deed from living truth dishonors Him and puts Him to open shame, supporting the call to live honestly and not use others' failures as excuse to misrepresent Christ.

The gift does not wipe out human abilities but works as Christ in the heart guiding, strengthening, lifting and making holy the soul's powers through personal knowledge of Him, fitting believers to show His character beginning in the home circle. It comes from Christ who purchased them with blood, enabling them to seek grace, unlearn wrong habits of speech, use abilities wisely and pursue Christian perfection. He is a reservoir of power to all consecrating powers to become sons, binding the believing poor to His infinite love, Himself poor yet center of all goodness and blessing, great Physician bearing infirmities and burdens, an inexhaustible supply for every spiritual need. Receiving Him in the heart unites to Him as Source of wisdom and places in His school as greatest Teacher, enabling even the uneducated to become Bible students, improve talents fully and bear true testimony because He will do everything for receivers, while without learning from Him even the educated fitted for trust are of no use to declare God's Word.

Through the plan of salvation Christ gives opportunity for eternal life and places humanity on vantage ground with God, the promise applying to all receiving and meeting conditions, with gifts continuing without recall, in contrast to Israel's national rejection versus the welcome of receivers. His promise of life and light is for all receiving, He gave Himself wholly to saving souls and includes the whole human family in redemption, working with people as they work out salvation, coming to save all receiving Him as personal Saviour. The invitation is gracious, full and free to all, God not far from anyone, requiring no bodily movement to bring Him down or up nor violent mental exercise, but submitting the will to supreme wisdom on the ground of the atoning sacrifice, cordial assent to salvation's terms, reconciliation to His will, keeping all commandments and walking in obedience and fellowship. Christ's dying love is the pledge brought to the Father, all advancing toward Him receiving hearty welcome into oneness under the Father's protection, covered with His righteousness robe and given place at His table, heaven working to resist Satan until each is fully tested.

Assurance for Daily Life

Believing gives assurance from God's Word rather than from changing feelings, for the words are Christ's own testimony about Himself whose life was intense reality and there is nothing misleading in them. Receiving Him gives power to become sons of God, a new birth from God and not from human descent or human will, calling for humility, self-denial, trust in His merits, and the forming of His character within for fitness for eternal life. Christ supplies the soul's nourishment, enabling those who distrust themselves to hold firmly to Him as temptations press, and the repentant believing soul depends on Him as personal Saviour while giving serious concern to whether the name is written in the Lamb's book of life.

Accepting Christ as personal Saviour makes a person His child at that very moment, for the moment will and heart are surrendered He takes that one as His child and forgives sins because He promised to do so. This is received by walking in obedience and trusting the promise openly before God and Christ and the holy angels, without waiting for deeper conviction and without making feeling the test, refusing Satan's temptation to delay. Through accepting His righteousness receivers are no longer counted as sinners and rebels but are received as sons of God, brought into union with Him as Life-giver and into harmony with God's will as partakers of His eternal life and of the divine nature. The Father receives the sinner as His child because Christ gave His life bearing the claims of justice, so the sinner is saved by grace not personal merit, loved as the Father loves the Son and placed on sure footing, and reliance on God leads to giving self to Him for service. The promise invites the almost persuaded, the backslidden, and the discouraged not to delay but to come empty-handed, turn square about, make decided reform in life and character building, respect God's law, and stand firmly on the Lord's side.

Receiving Christ, God's life-saving gift, secures eternal life through full and free redemption personally experienced, calling for faith and a life given to His service. Believing brings the gift of eternal life that He purchased as Redeemer, secured by the death of the Son of God in agony on Calvary. No one but Christ can make fallen man a partaker of the divine nature, laying hold of him with pierced human hands and uplifting him, and all God's workers should study this plan and what working it out cost. The Word offers to each receiver preparation for eternal life, yet faith must become more than it now is to lay hold of it, because as long as Satan exists he will present every inducement to lure the soul into self-deception and death.

Those who come to Christ share His trials, suffering, and rejection, and also share His glory. Following His example of bearing the cross and self-denial marks their life as God's children, and this new relationship leads them to follow His example and work as He worked. He came as perfect Saviour living in human nature to reveal the character God requires His children to form, showing what human nature may become through receiving Him and how people may become Christlike. Receiving Him is linked with a living experience of His grace and truth which believers are to make known to the world, and this sonship is a blessed privilege of the gospel.

His gentleness has made receivers great, and this power is for professing Christians in need of decided reconversion as they obey God's Word and practice Christ's teachings, learning of Him and presenting truth under the divine influence of the Holy Spirit. Accepting His invitation brings His promise to be anointed with the oil of gladness, emptied from the two anointed ones into hearts prepared to receive it. He was not received by His own people, yet He promises help to those who follow Him through trials and temptation. God's grace makes receivers childlike in dependence on Him, responding by submitting to His will and trusting His power and willingness to bless even when helpless and unworthy. Receiving belongs to people of simplicity willing to learn from the great Teacher, who fear God and keep His commandments and do the things in His Word, to whom is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom and the secret of the Lord to proclaim openly as commanded. Christ's outstretched arms embrace the world, and His loving farewell blessing reaches all who receive Him as personal Saviour and believe in His name, who must continue to receive and confess Him day by day relying on God's power to keep them.

The promise supports honest Christian living and forbids using other people's failures as excuse to misrepresent Christ. Union with Christ brings man back to allegiance to the Creator and implants love for God and His holy law, so those made sons stand under His banner united in work, of one mind and judgment, as one flock with one shepherd. The soul made one with Him prays and watches unto prayer that God's purity, forbearance, mercy, and righteousness may be transcribed in the heart and reflected in life by fixing the eye on Him and beholding His glory until changed from glory to glory by the Spirit. True children show membership in His royal family through Christlike lives, loving God supremely and neighbors as themselves in unity, representing Him in tenderness, compassion, love, and purity, with likeness deepened by yielding to the Holy Spirit. Those who receive commit souls to His keeping and gain genuine knowledge of God and Christ their Redeemer, joined to obedience, sanctification, a life conformed to God's will, valuing communion with Him and entrusting souls to Him with hope of an eternal home.

To all who receive Christ by accepting Him by faith God gives power to become sons of God, and He cannot give prosperity to any of the human family unwilling to accept Him by faith. God's choice is not based on natural superiority, for they become His children by accepting grace freely offered. He rewards those who diligently seek Him, and when He works to prepare a soul He brings it into connection with those reconciled to Him. For those made sons, His doing according to His will in heaven and earth is no longer dreadful, for His word shines with light and heavenly assurance.

Even the highest rank or honor on earth has no goodness independent of God, for all that is good is received through Christ's grace and held in trust. Those who receive Him and believe on His name stand in contrast to those who reject Him. He as light of the world speaks to all with authority so none are left in absolute darkness, His light unmixed with darkness, clearer, brighter, and more penetrating than any other, shining in darkness even when darkness does not understand it. He waits and watches for response, and His word is to be given place by the Holy Spirit working on heart and mind to enlighten understanding without human interference, correcting error, supplying what is defective, and putting His truth in place of erroneous principles rather than extinguishing the imperfect. Becoming His child involves birth from God not descent by blood or human will, standing in contrast to rejection by the world and His own people. He is the eternal Word who was with God and was God, by whom all things were made, in whom was life whose life was the light of men shining in darkness, the true Light lighting every man, and though in the world He made and come unto His own the world knew Him not and His own received Him not, yet of His fullness as Word made flesh full of grace and truth receivers obtain grace for grace. Among unbelievers in many lands some will value the Scriptures and receive the Saviour.

The verse is the sinner's response to Christ's loving invitation to come to Him and live, and a blessing of grace and power given to His believing children. It identifies the gift as the answer to human helplessness and need, presenting Him as the one who brings people into that relationship and restores them to right relationship with Him. God's faithful children are never beyond the loving Father's reach wherever they may be.

This world is a training school where faith that works by love and purifies the soul is learned and preparation is made for the higher grade, the school above. Living His life here makes a person ready to unite with the loyal and true there, showing sonship by knowing citizenship is in heaven and by spending strength and means not on self but in God's vineyard. Having taken His glorified humanity to the heavenly courts, He grants receivers ability to become God's children, so that God will at last receive them as His own to dwell with Him throughout eternity. Those loyal to God in this life will reach that fulfillment and see His face with His name in their foreheads, knowing Him as Father, which is the happiness of heaven and the greatest joy of the sinner saved by grace.

Receiving Him includes putting on His righteousness, the fitting garment needed to be ready for the feast He has prepared. The invitation to receive Him as personal Saviour is gracious, full, and free to all, giving to everyone who receives and believes ability to become children of God. This receiving is not a bodily movement to bring God down or up and requires no violent exercise of mind, for God is not far from anyone, but is submitting the will to supreme wisdom, meeting God on the ground of the atoning sacrifice, giving cordial assent to salvation's terms, being reconciled to His will, doing His commandments, and walking in obedience and fellowship. Advancing toward Him, receivers are heartily welcomed into oneness with God under the Father's protection, where they find Him an all-sufficient Saviour, are covered with the robe of His righteousness, and are given a place at His table, while heaven works to resist Satan and restrict his power until each is fully tested.

To those who receive Him the requirements of both Old and New Testaments are spirit and life, while to those unenlightened by the Spirit those same requirements seem as foolishness. Receiving Him into the heart by believing brings power to become a child of God and frees from Satan's deception and a critical spirit.

Parents are to teach children this work of receiving Christ as Redeemer by living faith, yielding heart and will to Him and taking His life as pattern. This is the way those separated from God by sin become connected with God and Christ and share in the divine nature. Through redemption God restores the image lost through sin and enables people by choice and obedience and through His grace to fulfill His design, so those born of God are freed from continuing in sin and enabled to practice virtue and holiness. Receiving means looking to Him the true Light rather than relying on human beings for wisdom, strength, or guidance, for when received He becomes sanctification and righteousness. Children are to be taught that they are to become God's children and, as His purchased possession, are to be guided toward that end through wise discipline and self-restraint. By obedience to God's law character is made complete in Him who knew no sin, and this truth is to be exemplified in every institution for healing souls and bodies suffering from sin's malady.

A troubled father or mother who feels unable to reach God's high and holy standard can come to Jesus just as he is, seek forgiveness, and ask for power to become His child and to walk acceptably in His sight day by day. He will not fail to help one who comes in sincerity. He has paid the price for every person and all have been redeemed, but no one who receives Him is lost, for eternal life is provided for all. Even the weakest believer belongs to His body and has the privileges of God's child, and living in humble dependence can become strong. Recognizing weakness, receivers place confidence in Him, take His yoke and learn from Him, and belief bears fruit leading to eternal life, offering the repentant free pardon and the relationship of a daughter who may call Him Father with grace to help in weakness.