INTRODUCTION
ADOPTION AS SONS
Through the foreknowledge of Almighty God, His saints have been
predestined to this "adoption":
So the Scriptures indicate that even here and now, as part of
this rebirth, we who are God's firstfruits have been taken into
God's family and accorded the rights of full sonship:
A REBIRTH
Notice how the apostle Peter describes our rebirth:
In mind:
and in heart and spirit:
BORN OF GOD
Jesus Christ's words to Nicodemus can now perhaps also be understood
a little more clearly:
CONCLUSION
As we draw near to the Feast of Pentecost which pictures the outpouring
of God's Spirit upon the firstfruits who make up the Church, it
is profitable for us to consider again the nature of our Christian
transformation.
Let us begin in the book of Romans:
Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and
labors with birth pangs together until now. 23 Not only that,
but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we
ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption,
the redemption of our body.
We are told that the entirety of creation is suffering, as it
were, birth-pangs, awaiting the springing forth of the new age.
The whole creation naturally would also include us, the saints
of God. The apostle Paul depicts us as waiting for an adoption.
The NIV translates the word as "adoption as sons".
The term has a cultural link to the society of the time, where
adoption was common among the Greeks and the Romans, who followed
the Greek law under which a stranger in blood could, by being
adopted into another family, receive full recognition and rights,
as though he were a natural son of that family. This act of adoption
was irrevocable and also accorded the adopted son full legal inheritance
rights, just like a son born into the family. It was as though
he had been reborn, this time into another family. This
imagery has a deep significance for God's firstfruits.
Eph 1:5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus
Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will
This sonship through a birth was typified by Israel of old:
Ex 4:22 (NRS) Then you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says
the LORD: Israel is my firstborn son.'
That is, Israel was a type of the first of what will be born of
God. This is the privilege of the Church, spiritual Israel, the
Israel of promise:
Rom 9:4 (NRS) They are Israelites, and to them belong the
adoption [as sons], the glory, the covenants, the giving of the
law, the worship, and the promises;
Paul continues to expand on this imagery:
Rom 9:8 (NIV)... it is the children of promise who are
regarded as Abraham's offspring.
Rom 8:15 (NRS) For you did not receive a spirit of slavery
to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption
["sonship" (NIV]). When we cry, "Abba! Father!"
16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that
we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ - if, in fact, we suffer with
him so that we may also be glorified with him.
This new birth, we are told, is made possible for us because we
have been given the Holy Spirit of adoption as sons, or
the Spirit of sonship. The allusion here is also to the
"Spirit of the Son", the Spirit transferred from
Christ the Son to the Christian; indeed John 14:18, Gal 4:6,
Rom 8:9-10 and other verses tell us that the Holy Spirit of the
Father is also the Spirit of Christ, who administers it.
We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, who also has yet
to fully receive His inheritance. The intent of these verses,
however, is that as heirs, we too have partially entered into
our promised inheritance, but before we can share in the glory
that the Son of God has already inherited, we are called upon
to live out His sufferings in this life.
Gal 4:4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God
sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to
redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the
adoption as sons.6 And because you are sons, God has sent
forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba,
Father!" 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son,
and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
No longer are we the children of wrath (Eph 2:3) - of a different
family - but instead we have been reborn as children of God; we
are now children of light (Eph 5:8; 1 Thes 5:5), of promise (Gal
4:28).
Paul describes this process of rebirth in various ways:
Tit 3:5 (NRS) he saved us, not because of any works
of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy,
through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
Baptism is the outward symbol of this new birth, which is an act
of God's Spirit.
Gal 3:27 (NRS) As many of you as were baptized into Christ
have clothed yourselves with Christ (See also Rom 13:14).
This Christian transformation or rebirth is, as it were, a new
life, a life reborn:
Rom 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism
into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life.
..... a new creation, or a re-creation, which takes
place through Jesus Christ dwelling within us:
Gal 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision
avails anything, but a new creation.
It must indeed be new, as the Scriptures show us that through
Jesus Christ all things are made new, or renewed (Rev 21:5).
1 Pet 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten
us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead,
Through the living Jesus Christ, the Word of God, who is indeed
imperishable and incorruptible, we, both individually and collectively
as the Church, the Israel of God, have this new birth - here
and now.
1 Pet 1:3 (NRS) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth
into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead,
1 Pet 1:23 having been born again, not of corruptible
seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and
abides forever,
1 Pet 1:23 (NRS) You have been born anew, not of
perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring
word of God.
1 Pet 2:2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the
word, that you may grow thereby,
Although we are born anew, we still have some growing up to do
until the next major step in the process is completed:
Gal 4:19 My little children, for whom I labor in birth
again until Christ is formed in you
Paul is describing himself as going through the same pangs of
childbirth, so closely does he identify with the spiritual struggles
of his brethren during this growth period.
Eph 4:13
till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ
A TOTAL TRANSFORMATION
Eph 4:15
but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things
into Him who is the head; Christ.
As in a birth, the new spiritual creation is totally
new:
We have seen this new birth described. Bearing in mind what has
already been established, let us now refer to some often misunderstood
verses. We have attempted to provide the most accurate rendering
of the Greek.
1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.
And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith.
The Greek is neuter - "whatever", rather than "whoever"
- and is so rendered in modern translations. It is our faith
- with which we are endowed from above by God as part of our new
birth - that continues to help us to overcome the world.
1 John 5:18 (NIV) We know that anyone born of God does
not continue in sin [John continues with the theme of sin he
was previously (verse 16) referring to]; the one who was born
of God [Jesus Christ] keeps him safe, and the evil one
cannot harm him.
Christ, who is forming Himself within His people, keeps them from
returning to their former life of sin.
1 John 3:9 (NIV) No one who is born of God will continue
to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning,
because he has been born of God.
The divine seed planted within each individual who has been reborn
makes possible a life that is no longer dominated by sin.
1 John 4:7 (NIV) ...Everyone who loves has been
born of God [past tense] and knows God (cf. 1 John 4:12).
This divine begettal thus makes possible the expression of the
love of God.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly,
I say to you, unless one is born again ["born anew, from
above"], he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Christ verified that this rebirth is essential if we hope to attain
to the Kingdom of God.
John 3:5 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to
you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter
the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh,
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel
that I said to you, 'You [plural: referring to all of
mankind] must be born again ["from above"].' 8 The wind
blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot
tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who
is born of the Spirit."
Christ was depicting the great contrast between human nature ("the
flesh") and the washing and purification that characterises
the spiritual rebirth. The fruit of the flesh is evil, that of
the Spirit leads ultimately to the Kingdom of God. The Spirit
of God is sovereign and works in the individual as God wills.
Its workings in those who have experienced the Christian rebirth
are as unfathomable and unmeasurable to the unspiritual mind as
the unpredictability of the wind's destination. There is no reason
to read any more than this into these words of Jesus Christ.
This concept of spiritual rebirth, of the need to be reborn anew,
from above, is wonderfully pictured in a little parable given
by Christ, referring both to Himself and to all His brethren:
John 12:24 "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a
grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone;
but if it dies, it produces much grain."
This principle of life through death, so vividly seen in the plant
world, holds true for all of us. Just as the kernel must perish
as a kernel if there is to be a plant - or many plants - reborn,
so each of us, if we are to experience true Christian conversion,
both personally and as a body, must allow the old self to die
and the new spiritual man to be reborn. Such is the true nature
of the Christian rebirth.