Phil 2:15 That you may be blameless and guileless, children of God... 2 Pet. 1:4 Through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust.
The expression "children of God" is very rich in its implications. It implies that God has actually been born into us and that we possess His life and nature. Christians often say, "I'm just a sinner saved by grace." Although this, of course, is true, it is very shallow compared with the revelation in the New Testament. If we know the truth of the Word, we shall not say we are merely sinners saved by grace. We shall have the assurance to declare, "I'm a child of God born of the Spirit!" If you have truly seen the vision that you are a child of God, you will be filled with joy, wonder, and praise. In a proper sense, we need to boast of our status as God's children. No doubt, we are sinners who have been saved by God's grace. But because we have also been born of God, we are now His children. How marvelous! According to Paul's word in 2:15, we are to be children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation. The generation in which we live is crooked, warped, and twisted. We, however, as children of God, must be different. Because we are God's children, we should be both blameless and guileless, without blemish. We can be children of God only by having the life of God. How marvelous it is to have God's life! All those who are truly the children of God need to realize that they have the divine life within them. Along with the divine life, we also have the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). Although we cannot fully define the divine nature, we know that as God's children we partake of it and have it within us. Every living thing acts according to its own nature. Everything it does comes out of its nature. For example, a peach tree produces peaches because it is in keeping with the nature of a peach tree to do so. It would be absurd for anyone to charge a peach tree not to bring forth apples, but only to produce peaches. As ridiculous as this is, in principle many Christians are doing this very thing. In giving commandments to others to behave in a certain way or to improve themselves, they neglect the fact that as children of God all genuine Christians have the divine nature. This nature should govern and direct us. Everything in the Christian life is according to the nature of God. How wonderful that we have God's life with His nature!
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Philippians, pp. 112-113. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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