Making Us His Own: New Nature

Sunday we considered the type of sonship given us through Jesus Christ. The righteous Son of God became man to live successfully under the law. The Father chooses him to be the firstborn of his family and lead his children in righteousness. The sonship we receive is a righteous sonship.

Sonship comes with family responsibilities though. As adopted children we are called to be holy, aligning ourselves ethically with our righteous Elder Brother. But as we read in Scripture, no one is able or successful at that. This is where the richness of grace shines brightly. The Son gives us his Holy Spirit to transform us into his likeness. Peter says that through Christ we escape corruption and share in the “divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Paul says God chose us to be “holy and blameless before him” (Ephesians 1:4) and that our holiness is accomplished through his adoption (Ephesians 1:5).

In order to present us holy before him, he adopts us in his holy Son’s family and gives us his Spirit of holiness to transform our lives so that we actually become holy and share in his divine nature. This development in our lives is called sanctification and it is carried out by the Son’s Spirit. Paul tells us that we put to death the deeds of the flesh through the Spirit, Romans 8:13. Our development in holiness is not dependent on us, but on the Spirit of God.

Without holiness, we cannot fellowship with God. But the grace of God is bigger than our legal transaction, it includes our moral transformation. Truly he thought of everything! Join us Sunday as we explore the fulness of our adoption.