Friday | 14 November 2025
A son of God has received the Spirit in a firstfruits measure and has been born as a new creation by the seed of the divine nature ministered from Christ, the Sheaf of firstfruits. Nominating this point on the pathway of salvation, Paul wrote, ‘Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ [through new birth], he is not His.’ Rom 8:8‑9. Although they are an individual son of God, they belong to Christ, the Sheaf of firstfruits.
At the conclusion of His offering and suffering journey, the Son confessed to the Father, ‘Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given Me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion.’ Isa 8:18. The believer is brought by Christ ‘to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God [the Father], the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven’. Heb 12:22‑23. God abides in them and they belong to Him! However, this tremendous birthright is insufficient for salvation. The believer must abide in God to obtain the blessing of the adoption. 1Jn 4:13‑16.
The apostle Peter highlighted these two fundamental implications of the gospel in his second epistle. First, he celebrated God’s initiative towards us, writing, ‘His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises’. 2Pe 1:3‑4. Peter then explained that a believer receives everything that pertains to life and godliness so that they ‘may be partakers of [or participants in] the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust’. 2Pe 1:4.
Further Study:
2 Peter 1
References:
Rom 8:8-9
So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Isa 8:18
Here am I and the children whom the LORD has given Me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion.
Heb 12:22-23
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect.
1Jn 4:13-16
By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Saviour of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
2Pe 1:3-4
As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.