The Nature of God and Christ - Members Site - United Church of God

THE NATURE OF GOD AND CHRISTDoctrinal Study PaperNote how the apostle Paul summarizes this process: “But God demonstrates His own lovetoward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having nowbeen justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we wereenemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having beenreconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:8-10). Note that God demonstrated orcommended (Greek sunistao, to place together, to set in the same place, to bring or bandtogether) His love toward us. In commending His love toward us, He provided the means for usto receive the earnest of the Spirit, the down payment on eternal life. “Now He who establishesus with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spiritin our hearts as a guarantee [Greek arrhabon, down payment, earnest]” (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).God’s Purpose for HumanityThis brings us to the heart and core of God’s purpose for humanity. God will raise usfrom the dead using the same Spirit by which He raised Jesus from the dead. Thus, in theresurrection, we will be of the same essence as the resurrected Christ is now. The resurrectedChrist is of the same essence as the Father. He is one with the Father, yet distinct (John 17:20-21). This same distinction between the Logos and God the Father existed before the Word wasmade flesh and dwelt among us.In the apostle Paul’s inspired sermon recorded in Acts 13, he states that Psalm 2:7 wasfulfilled when Christ was resurrected: “God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He hasraised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: ‘You are My Son, today I havebegotten [Greek gennao, brought you to birth] You’” (Acts 13:33). Furthermore, he equates theresurrection of Christ from the dead with the Hebrew yalad (meaning to bring forth) and with theGreek gennao. In the physical family both father and mother have distinct roles to perform in thebirth process. In the spiritual family, God the Father will bring us forth as His sons through theresurrection from the dead.In the above paragraphs we see how humankind can be joined to God and receive thedown payment on eternal life. We can clearly see that we are now the sons of God, as the apostlePaul eloquently summarizes it in Romans 8:14-16. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,these are the sons [Greek huios, son] of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage againto fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption [Greek huiothesia, literally, sonship] by whom wecry out, ‘Abba, Father.’” It is unfortunate that huiothesia was translated “adoption” by the KingJames translators. Adopted sons have the rights and privileges of children, but adopted childrendo not come out of the loins of their adopted parents. Since they are not the biological children ofthe adopted parents, they do not possess the genetic traits of the adopted parents. Believers aregiven the very essence of God, the Holy Spirit, thus they are in every sense of the word—sons!The same Spirit that is in God is in Christ and is in us. We will inherit the very nature andessence of God, which is more accurately reflected in the word “sonship” rather than the word“adoption.” The apostle Paul clearly states, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into onebody—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink intoone Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13).Page 35September 2005© 2005 United Church of God, an International Association