Musick-al note # 217
The church is God’s house or family (1 Tim.3:15). When you obeyed the Gospel, the Lord added you to His church (Acts 2:47), you became a part of his family. “We are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus, for as many of us as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal.3:26-27). John wrote, “All who believed and received Jesus receive the right to become children of God. They were born of God in obedience to Him. This new birth was by water and the spirit by which they became children and entered the kingdom of God (John 3:3-6). Those obedient believers were added to the group of ‘called out’, the church, that belongs to Christ (Matthew 16:18, Acts 2:41, 47).
As children of God we must become like our Father, for Peter said in 1 Peter 1:14-17 it is written, “As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in the days of your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all you conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your sojourning here in fear.”
Those who obey the Gospel are born into the family as Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:3 “I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This “new birth” is of “water and spirit” (John 3:5). Obedience to the Gospel is giving “new life” to those who obey (Romans 6:4) thus Christians begin their life as “babes”. Peter said in 1 Peter 2:2, “As newborn babes, long for the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.”
When one is baptized into Christ, he becomes a child of God (Galatians 3:26-27).
Gordon Musick
Musick-al Notes 