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The History of the De-Emphasis Of The New Birth

Compiled By Robert Wurtz II (used with permission)

Section IIX - BRINGING MANY SONS UNTO GLORY

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
II Corinthians 3:18

The great objective of God in creating man was that He might bring many sons unto glory (Hebrews 2:10). He desired that man would be a living manifestation of the nature and character of God. This does not mean that man was created as Deity, but was created upright or righteous in harmony with the personality of God. When God created man from the dust of the earth, it is said that in His image and in His likeness created He him. God is a spirit without a definite shape, as we would know it.
God exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Man was created as Spirit, Soul, and Body. Man was created ‘upright’ and in the image of God, but Sin has marred that image. Because Sin has entered (Romans 5:12), man has sought out many ‘inventions’ (Ecclesiastes 7:29) Sin came into man and ruled the heart of man in place of God (Romans 5:21). God formed man’s physical parts in a moment of time, but desired a different process for shaping the inner man. God had given man a free will and any shaping of the inner man would require mans cooperation. God was the Potter and man was the clay.

Beginning with Adam God desired to bring many sons unto glory. Ron Bailey has rightly pointed out that God needed nothing before He created man, but He desired to bless a people with His glory and presence (John 17). Before we were born again we were alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was in us and because of the blindness of our hearts (Ephesians 4:15-24). Simply put, we were not compatible with God. Our human spirit had been severed from the life of God and the spirit of disobedience ruled in the heart and mind. This is what it means to be dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2). Death is separation. As we have quoted before, Christ did not simply come to make bad men good, He came to make dead men live (Ravenhill). Man is born spiritually dead; that is, he/she is dead towards God.

Spirit, Soul, Body (Man as a Tripartite Being)

The spirit of man is that which allows man to be God conscious. The body of man makes him physically conscious. The soul of man makes him self-conscious. The soul is said to be that true part of man that existed when man was spiritually dead and will exist when he/she is physically dead. This defines man as a tripartite being (I Thess. 5:23, Hebrews 4:12).
In this model the soul is the ‘center’ of the person where the mind, will, and emotions exist. At the center of the soul is the seat of the affections commonly called the heart. In fact, the whole workings of the soul, in the lower and sensual, as well as in the higher spheres, has its origin in the heart.
Proverbs 4:23 informs us that it is out of the heart that are ‘the issues of life.’ The word ‘issues’ is literally ‘goings out’. Jesus took this up in Matthew 12:35; A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. There was only one good man and that was Jesus Christ. All others were evil men with evil hearts (Romans 3:12).
This is the condition of man unsaved. His body is cursed with the creation, filled with infirmity. The soul at its heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9) The human spirit is dead to the life of God (Ephesians 2:1). Unregenerate man is physically dying, spiritually dead and morally corrupt.
So why does Paul say in I Thess. 5:23, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass”? (NASU) How can man be entirely sanctified to God when they are fallen in Sin? God’s answer is regeneration.
Man has to be regenerated or as we commonly say, born again. The word ‘regeneration’ is the Greek palengenesis. It means in modern usage ‘an exact representation of ancestral characteristics.’ (R.B) What were the characteristics of Adam before the fall? More excellently, what are the characteristics of Christ? Adam before the fall was made ‘upright’ or ‘right’ in the eyes of God. Jesus Christ was all that and more- for if you had seen Him you had seen the Father (John 14:9).

PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE

There is only one Father, one eternally uniquely Begotten Son, and one Holy Spirit. There is only and will ever only be one God. As God says in Isaiah 45:18, For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. So what does Peter mean when he writes, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (II Peter 1:4)?
The object of all God’s promises and dispensations was to bring fallen man back to the image of God, which he had lost. This, indeed, is the sum and substance of the religion of Christ. We have partaken of an earthly, sensual, and devilish nature; the design of God by Christ is to remove this, and to make us partakers of the Divine nature; and save us from all the corruption in principle and fact which is in the world; the source of which is lust. This is the Greek word epithumia, which in this context, means irregular, unreasonable, inordinate, and impure desire; desire to have, to do, and to be, what God has prohibited, and what would be ruinous and destructive to us were the desire to be granted. (Ed. Adam Clarke)
God so designed that man would not only be a demonstration of His personality and character in the earth, but a truly compatible being with which to have fellowship. Remember that our section is to the effect of bringing many sons unto glory. Though we stress this often, we must understand that when Sin entered the human race the image of God in man was marred and a total restoration to that image had to be accomplished before God could restore man to fellowship. Spiritual ‘death’ is man seperated from the life of God. Man needed ‘life’, that is, eternal life. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3) If you recall the Garden of Eden in light of this passage, it is almost as if man had chosen the knowledge and experience of Sin over a knowledge and relationship with God.

A READINESS TO OBEY

If there is a word that is completely out of vogue it is obedience. The word has even been deleted from marriage vows in many cases. The word implies a readiness to submit our will to another. Folk don’t like to be told what to do or not to do. This attitude must be utterly forfeited when coming to Christ. Humility implies subjection. Not only towards God, but a prevailing attitude towards one another (Ephesians 5).

And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people.

This is a bad mixture, God who demands total obedience and a stiff-necked people? God wanted to bless Israel with His glory and presence, but they desired a life totally incompatible with God.
When we say ‘glory’ we are not referring to God’s sovereignty, worship, and praise. We are not saying God was about ready to share His throne. God says in Isaiah 42:8 that He will not give His glory to another or His praise to graven images. God was saying that there is a glory due to Him, and to Him alone.
What we are referring to is what Jesus spoke of in his prayer to the Father in John 17:22-23;

And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

This is the glory of God’s person, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). The prayer is for all those who should believe on Him through the Apostles word (John 17:20). As Christ, according to his human nature, is termed the Son of God, He may be understood as saying: “I have communicated to all those who believe, or shall believe in me, the glorious privilege of becoming sons of God; that, being all adopted children of the same Father, they may abide in peace, love, and unity.” For this reason it is said in Hebrews 2:11, Christ is not ashamed to call them brethren. (Clarke) Why? Because they have the nature and mind of Christ and are no longer incompatible with Him. This is not Deity, it is the fruit of the Spirit; the evidence that the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

THE MAKING OF MANY ’sons’

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure
I John 3:1-3

We are the children of God by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ. We have been born of God through an incorruptible seed, which is the word of God (I Peter 1:23). Our temples (body+soul+spirit) have been set in order and cleansed, endued with the living presence of God. Formerly our spirit was dead towards God, but now it has been quickened. The Holy Spirit is in contact with our spirit. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Ababa, Father. The Spirit itself beater witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (Romans 8:15, 16). As the children of Israel followed the fire and cloud in the wilderness, so also;

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God - 8:14

As our Lord had said, “My sheep hear my voice and another they will not follow.” This implies personal relationship. Shepherds often give each of their sheep a name and call them by that name. This is more than knowing about God, it is knowing God in a personal way.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 7:15 pm and is filed under Evangelism, The Betrayal of the Ages, Theocracy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.