But brother aiki, the Word did mention that the children of God have certain qualities to them that distinguish them from the children of the devil.
Yes, you're right about that. I think I actually list some of the distinguishing characteristics of a genuine child of God in one of my posts. Here's what I wrote in my first post to this thread:
1.
A sensitivity to sin. When the Almighty Creator sends His Holy Spirit to reside within a person at conversion, the Spirit's holy nature begins to convict that person of their unholiness.
John 16:7-8
7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.
8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
Things that were once comfortable sins become very uncomfortable for the new believer. As God's Spirit continues to shine His holy light upon the dark corners of a person's life, they should be increasingly repulsed by their own fleshly, sinful urges and the corrupt, carnal preoccupations of the world, and increasingly drawn and conformed to the purity and holiness of their Maker.
2.
A hunger for the Word of God. God's Word is our "daily bread," our "milk" and the "meat" by which we grow strong in the Lord. Just as a newborn craves its mother's milk so a new-born child of God should crave the spiritual food God has provided them in His Word, the Bible. (
1 Pe. 2:2; Matt. 4:4)
3.
A love for the brethren. When one is saved, one is placed into the Body of Christ, the Church. That community of saints, every believer in Christ, will, as a result of being made a part of the Body, desire to be in fellowship with other children of God, to be connected to and functioning within the Body. (
1 Thess. 4:9, 10; 1Pe. 1:22; 1Jn. 3:14)
4.
A desire to tell others about Christ. No one could shut the apostles up when it came to the gospel. The natural by-product, or fruit, of their conversion was a desire to share the good news of salvation with any who would listen. Leading others to Christ is a part of what is meant by "bearing fruit" spiritually. Any one who professes to be a Christian but refuses to share the Good News of Salvation with others is, IMO, highly suspect in regards to their salvation.
Not all who claim to be children of God are indeed His children.
Certainly, Christ himself spoke of wheat and tares, which are extremely similar in appearance, abiding together in the Church. And of course there's that famous "Lord, Lord, -- I never knew you" speech that Jesus also gave.
No, I do not mean to say you are not a child of God, but I am pointing out a fact that one can easily call himself/herself a child of God when he/she really isn't.
Yes, this is true.
Just like one can falsely profess that he/she is a Christian when he/she has no faith in Christ, the same can happen when professing to be a child of God. That is why it is IMPORTANT to see the fruits/qualities of a professor to see if they really are who they claim to be.
As you can see from what I wrote above in my earlier post, I certainly agree.
I think you have misunderstood what the other brother is saying. What he means is that we should often test ourselves to see if we are in true faith and whether we abide in Christ or not. Even the apostles exhorted us to work out our salvation with "fear and trembling".
And the very next verse says,
"For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." We simply work out what God has already worked in. Our salvation is secure because of what
God has done, not because of what we do - or do not do.
One's faith can slip and grow weak and one can fail to abide in Christ and yet one can still be a child of God. I don't take "testing ourselves whether we be in the faith" to be an ongoing thing. This is because I don't believe my salvation is so tenuously mine that any wayward moment can erase it. I don't see that in Scripture at all. I need to make certain, once for all, that I am God's child and, having made that certain, I need to go on into spiritual maturity with Christ trusting that he will "never leave me nor forsake me" as promised in God's Word.
But this fear has nothing to do with fearing punishment for our sins, but rather fearing that we are departing from the faith which also means we will lose our connection with Christ and with God and ultimately leading to eternal separation from Christ and God.
I don't believe this process can occur as you've described it here. I believe the Bible teaches we can lose our fellowship with God but never our relationship to HIm. Just as I am always my earthly father's son no matter how closely I relate with him, I am always my heavenly Father's son no matter how closely I relate with Him. And God takes pains to draw me and keep me close to Him. Sometimes this involves experiencing His discipline, sometimes it is the goodness of God, His kindness and mercy that lead me to repentance and into fellowship with Him again. It is no easy thing to wander off spiritually; for God pursues and keeps His own passionately and inexorably.
You say that "this fear has nothing to do with fearing punishment for our sins" and then finish by speaking of "eternal separation from God." It seems to me that eternal separation from God is the ultimate punishment for sin, which makes your comments rather contradictory.
The key here, brother, is to put on Christ and to abide in Christ. Clearly God will not help us to put on Christ, neither will He abide in Christ on our behalf.
My goodness! I couldn't disagree with you more here! God draws us to Himself (
Jn. 6:44) and He is the One ultimately who places us in Christ. My faith (
He. 12:2), my love for God (
Ro. 5:5), my desire and ability to serve Him (
Phil. 2:13) all come
from Him. As Jesus says in
John 15:5 "without me you can do nothing."
WE have to put on Christ and WE have to abide in Christ, not relying on God to do them on our behalf.
In
John 15 Christ uses the analogy of a vine and branches to picture what it means to "abide." Does a branch work to remain in the vine? No. It simply is part of the vine. The life-giving sap of the vine flows into the branch without any effort on the part of the branch. Simply being connected to the vine is enough to provide life to the branch. Moreover, all of the fruit the branch bears is not a product of the effort of the branch, but the result of the life of the vine flowing unhindered into and through the branch. The branch is essentially a vessel expressing the life of the vine. It is in light of these facts that Christ says,
John 15:4-5
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
When Jesus says, "you can do nothing" I believe him to mean that any and all spiritual effort is impossible without his enabling power. It is not without reason that he is called the "author and finisher of our faith." Believing you can work with Christ from your own resources, that you are a "co-pilot" as the bumper sticker says, is to badly misunderstand what Christ is saying in John 15.
It does take our effort to put on Christ and to abide in Him, and this must be done UNTIL THE END.
God does it all, Terene, which is why He gets all the glory. We are simply vessels in and through whom He works. When we start working and making an effort we have forgotten to abide as a branch in the vine. When I say this do I mean we sit like puppets waiting for God to physically move us to action? No. I mean the Christian life - the Bible reading, the prayer, the righteous living, the self-sacrificing love we extend to the world - all flow naturally, without effort or work, from one who has yielded completely and joyfully to God and counts on Him to be one's life.
Once we stop putting on Christ and we stop abiding in Him, God's acceptance no longer applies to us. Do you not see the possibility that we can stop putting on Christ and stop abiding in Him?
Sure we can. But we cannot
work ourselves into the place of abiding, which is first and foremost a place of rest. (
Matt. 11:28) This is a place entered into by faith through full submission to God. It is a place of
being, not doing; although the being inevitably gives rise naturally and easily to doing.
Selah.