Romans 8:15 "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry 'Abba, Father.'"
I am sure you have heard that we are all sons and daughters of God. But I always took that for granted. Yeah, God loves us like children. He created us. But Son of God is kind of an elevated title. I mean, in the old days sons eventually took their fathers place in the family business, carried on the name through generations, cared for their father in his old age, etc. So, being called sons (and daughters) of God is a big deal. I think it doesn't just happen, we receive it. How? Through JC. Jesus is the original Son of God, and if we are united with him in his death and ressurection (Romans 6:1-6), married to him (Eph 5:22-25), part of his body, etc, then we can also take on his sonship properties. In this way we will become brothers and co-heirs with Christ.
This view is also useful to support the divinity of Christ. John 10:34 mentions humans as 'sons of God' which may dillute JC uniqueness in that claim. However, if we get it through the one and only original son of God, it works!
29 August 2011
3 earth stages
This is a conjecture:
Stage 1: God let's man run rampant without any direction except the instructions for sacrifice implied by Cain and Abels behavior. Man doesn't listen, so God destroys them all with the flood. 10 generations. Given the time, if each couple had a kid on average every 25 years (reasonable? most didn't have kids at all until average 100) that would put the populations at around 3 billion.
Stage 2: God selects a chosen people, gives them the law, disciplines them, etc. Abraham. Israelites, you know the story.
Stage 3: God does the work for us, by saving us through his son, and requests only our belief.
Avoid error: this does NOT mean that God tried increasing involved stages to save his people when the first ones didn't work. Both stage 1 and stage 2 involved sacrifices that pointed towards the final, irrevocable sacrifice of JC on the cross.
So why is there a progression? I don't know. It's just something I noticed.
Stage 1: God let's man run rampant without any direction except the instructions for sacrifice implied by Cain and Abels behavior. Man doesn't listen, so God destroys them all with the flood. 10 generations. Given the time, if each couple had a kid on average every 25 years (reasonable? most didn't have kids at all until average 100) that would put the populations at around 3 billion.
Stage 2: God selects a chosen people, gives them the law, disciplines them, etc. Abraham. Israelites, you know the story.
Stage 3: God does the work for us, by saving us through his son, and requests only our belief.
Avoid error: this does NOT mean that God tried increasing involved stages to save his people when the first ones didn't work. Both stage 1 and stage 2 involved sacrifices that pointed towards the final, irrevocable sacrifice of JC on the cross.
So why is there a progression? I don't know. It's just something I noticed.
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