TFR Blog

What is the new convert? A child of God

The following list is adapted from a lesson on new converts.

The new Christian is a child of God who has entered the family of faith, Gal 6.10.

  1. The new Christian took advantage of the opportunity to become a child of God, John 1.12, as not everyone is his child.
  2. Jesus described immersion in water as the new birth – the spiritual birth, John 3.3, 5.
  3. God’s child, and only his child, has the right to address him in prayer as “Our Father, who art in heaven” Matthew 6.9.
  4. The reason for his purification through obedience was in order to live and demonstrate brotherly love in God’s family, 1Peter 1.22.
  5. Whoever calls God Father must be an obedient child who walks in the fear of God, 1Peter 1.14-17.
  6. The child of God shows that God is Father because he loves like God; he has a comprehensive love (the sense of “perfect”) that includes the just and the unjust, Matthew 5.43-48.
  7. Only the child of God can receive the inheritance from his heavenly Father, “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” 1Pedro 1.3-4.


 

J. Randal Matheny
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