Scripture Reading: 1 John 3:1; 2:29; Rom. 8:16, 14; Gal. 3:26; 4:6-7; 2 Pet. 1:1-4; Rev 1:6; 5:10; Rom. 6:22; 1 Pet. 2:16; Rom. 8:29
Ⅰ
Before we were saved to be believers, we were sinners, sons of disobedience, chil-dren of wrath, children of the devil, enemies of God, and sons of Gehenna (Rom. 3:23; Eph. 2:2-3; 1 John 3:10; Rom. 5:10; Matt. 23:15), but after being saved, we become different persons, experiencing a great change.
Ⅱ
The believers in Christ are children of God—1 John 3:1; 2:29; Rom. 8:16:
A
The believers are born of God, not of blood (the physical life), nor of the will of the flesh (the will of fallen man), nor of the will of man (the will of the man created by God)—John 1:12-13.
B
The believers are children of God through receiving the Son of God by believing in His Name—vv. 11-12, 16; 3:32-33; 5:43-44; 17:8; 7:37-39; 20:22.
C
The believers have the eternal life—the life of God with the divine nature—3:15-16; 2 Pet. 1:4.
D
Those who contain God's divine life have the authority to become children of God—John 1:11-12.
E
All these children are God born of God.
F
They are regenerated of God the Spirit to be spirits—gods (3:6b), belonging to the species of God to see and enter into the kingdom of God (vv. 3, 5).
Ⅲ
The believers in Christ grow up to become sons of God—Rom. 8:14; Gal. 3:26; 4:6:
A
God's economy is to make us sons of God, inheriting the blessing of God's promise, which was given for His eternal purpose to have sons for His corporate expression—Heb. 2:10; Rom. 8:29.
B
As sons of God, we have received the spirit of sonship with the sonship; the sons of God have the life, the position, the right, the privilege, and the blessings of a son—v. 15; Gal. 4:5-6.
C
The last step of God's great salvation is to bring us, His many sons, into glory; when we are brought into this glory, creation will be delivered from vanity, corruption, and slavery— Rom. 8:19-21, 23.
D
The New Jerusalem is constituted of all these sons who have been born of God—Rev. 21:7.
Ⅳ
The believers in Christ are partakers of the divine nature—2 Pet. 1:4:
A
We partake of the divine nature through the allotment of equally precious faith which brings to us "all things which relate to life and godliness" as the divine "scenery" of God's New Testament economy to be our real inheritance through the "clicking," the substan-tiation, of our faith—vv. 1, 3.
B
We enjoy the riches of the divine nature as the riches of what God is through God's pre-cious and exceedingly great promises, such as those in Matthew 28:20; John 6:57; 7:38-39a; 10:28-29; 14:19-20, 23; 15:5; and 16:13-15.
C
Through the cycle of escaping the corruption which is in the world by lust and partaking of the divine nature, the riches of the divine nature will be fully developed—2 Pet. 1:4-7.
Ⅴ
The believers in Christ grow to maturity to become heirs of God—Gal. 4:7:
A
An heir is one who is of full age according to the law and who is qualified to inherit the father's estate.
B
Being children of God is our initial, or primary, relationship with God; we need to grow to become sons of God, and then we need further growth to maturity in order to be heirs of God.
C
Christ is the Heir of all things (Heb. 1:2), and the believers are destined to be joint heirs with Christ—Rom. 8:17.
D
The believers are heirs according to the promise given by God to Abraham—Gal. 3:29.
E
The believers are "heirs according to the hope of eternal life"—Titus 3:7b; Matt. 19:29.
F
The believers are heirs of God through justification by the grace of Christ—Titus 3:7a.
G
The believers have become heirs of God through regeneration in the resurrection of Christ—1 Pet. 1:3.
H
Through regeneration in the resurrection of Christ, we have become heirs to inherit the Triune God as our inheritance with the Holy Spirit as the pledge—Eph. 1:13b-14.
I
As heirs of God, the believers share with all the saints in the light the Triune God embodied in Christ as their portion—Col. 1:12; 2:9; Acts 26:18.
J
As heirs of God, the believers will also be glorified with Christ—Rom. 8:17b; Col. 1:27; Matt. 17:1-2; 2 Pet. 1:17.
K
As heirs of God, we inherit an inheritance kept in the heavens as a living hope—1 Pet. 1:3.
L
Our inheritance is incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading—v. 4.
M
The consummation of the believers' receiving an inheritance is their being made God's inheritance (Eph. 1:11); such an inheritance is in the saints, with the sealing of the Holy Spirit, and full of the riches of God's glory—vv. 18, 13.
Ⅵ
The believers in Christ are priests of God—Rev. 1:6; 5:10:
A
As to our person, we are sons of God; as to our spiritual occupation, we are priests of God.
B
As priests of God, we have been released from our sins by the blood of Christ—1:5; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 5:10; 20:6; 22:3, 5.
C
In order to make us priests, the Lord Jesus purchased us to God by His blood—5:9.
D
Being a priest is a matter in the resurrection life—20:6.
Ⅶ
The believers in Christ are slaves of God—Rom. 6:22; 1 Pet. 2:16:
A
As slaves of God, we have been freed from all bondage—Gal. 5:1, 13.
B
We are freed from sin and enslaved to God—Rom. 6:22.
C
We were bought with a price—1 Cor. 6:20.
Ⅷ
The believers in Christ are brothers of Christ as the firstborn Son of God—Rom. 8:29:
A
We are predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son.
B
As brothers of Christ, we were born through the resurrection of Christ—Acts 13:33; 1 Pet. 1:3; John 20:17.
C
The firstborn Son of God, as He who sanctifies, and we, the many sons of God, as those who are being sanctified, are all out of one Father, for which cause He is not ashamed to call us brothers—Heb. 2:11; cf. Lev. 23:13, 17 and footnote 171.
D
The firstborn Son of God declared the Father's name to His brothers, considering them the church and singing hymns of praise unto the Father in their midst—Heb. 2:12; John 20:17, 19-23; 1 Pet. 2:6-9.