Life - Part 2: Children of God

If you missed the first in the series of Life, which was part one, I would encourage you to listen to it. God made the human body, the human life, to be lived well by following His laws. The Bible is like an instruction manual or a user manual for how to live a very good life. And the result of that is very good. It can be very, very good. You see, during the millennium phase, humans will live God's way, they'll be taught His laws, and they will have very good lives. They'll get rain in due season, they'll have vines and fig trees, and the harvester will overcome the sower. And there's just going to be a lot of bounty and plenty and good quality lives. The Feast of Tabernacles symbolizes a good life as a human being, and we celebrate that every year. And we want to teach others in that millennial time, that thousand-year reign of Christ, how to have a good life. However, as great or wonderful as a good human life can be, it has some limitations.

First of all, it's a very temporary existence. As those of us who have run up the clock quite a way, you find, wow, this has gone faster than I thought.

It just doesn't slow down, and it seems to push you towards the date in which you're going to get to rest, you're going to get to sleep.

So, it is fond, it is enjoyable, it is very good, but in one sense it's somewhat empty. It's transient. It's empty in the sense that all the things that Solomon could do or all the things that they will do in the millennial period, once you've eaten the food, you've enjoyed the sunshine, and you've had kids and grandkids, you're going to go to rest, and that'll be it for that human life.

And it sort of leaves one empty in a way when it's based on that.

So, let's continue moving forward and reviewing the Bible's three types of life that God hopes that all humans will experience.

Last time we examined the first type of life in the Bible.

That word in the Hebrew, in the Old Testament, is nefesh, means somebody who's alive, a living soul, a living thinking, fully complete human or animal creature.

It is physical. In the New Testament Greek, the word is suke.

Suke means a living being or a living soul. As an example of that, we can turn to John chapter 10 and verse 11 in the New Testament and see a living being, a soul as it's called, using the word Greek suke, referring to Jesus Christ.

He calls himself that in John chapter 10 and verse 11.

He says, I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd gives his life, suke, for the sheep.

So his physical life, that living being that Jesus Christ had when he was on earth, he gave that life for his sheep.

A very good human life is God's gift.

But this life, again, is, as the old English would say in the book of Ecclesiastes, is vanity or temporary.

And Jesus Christ lived for 30, 3 1⁄2 years, and that was temporary.

His body died almost 2,000 years ago. It was a short life. Of course, he lives on spiritually.

When you think of life through the first phase, you might call it the early phase in life, the pre-conversion phase, the time any human gets to live and apply God's laws and benefit from that, we could sum it up like Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 12.

Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 12.

He says, I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God.

Now, many have done that before you and I were alive. Back through time, the memory of them is largely forgotten.

The deeds they did is largely forgotten. The things they made is largely erased.

So there is sort of a limitation to that, isn't there? There is a limitation.

Now, if we examine this life type number one, and the focus is on a quality of life, an enjoyment of life, the benefits of life, we're looking at the quality of life for one's self.

That's what Solomon was focused on, in building all his gardens, having all his wives in concubines, all the things that he tried, all the mirth, and the excitement and the entertainment, and all the buildings.

It was about one's self. And that kind of doesn't take us to the next level of life that God wants us to have.

So now we're going to progress to the New Testament term, where life also gets translated from a completely different Greek word than the one we just saw applied to Jesus's physical life, his sukeh, but a different word.

There is no similarity between that word translated life and the word we're going to look at life, which is quite a step up, in a type of life that God wants all humans to live. We're going to discover here a higher level of life that God wants humans to rise to, and it involves godly relationships.

Godly relationships takes one to a completely different understanding, a completely different activity, purpose, and outcome in life, with fulfillment that runs deep.

The title of part two here is Life Part Two, Children of God.

God wants people to experience life as his children in the flesh, physical children, just as Jesus came as the Son of God.

He wants us to have this experience as well.

Now, sadly, not too many very good lives are lived in this present evil age.

Solomon also found in Ecclesiastes 7 and verse 29 this caveat to happy lives on earth.

Truly, this one only I have found that God made man upright.

God made man good and upright to pursue a right way of life, but they have sought out many schemes.

You know, with Satan's influence, humanity schemes more for the self and less for others and less to please God and fellow man.

In Psalm 53 and verse 2, David said that God looks down on the children of men to see if there are any who understand or who seek God.

Every one of them is turned aside. They have together become corrupt. There is none who does good, no, not one. So even in pursuing that first level of life, humanity isn't doing it. They're not following the instruction book. They're not receiving the principles that we will teach during the millennial phase to people.

And thus, they're not reaping the rewards from that.

Instead of Philadelphia, a love of brother or a love of siblings, a familial relationship— notice in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 1 what humanity is driven by. It's a feelia, it's a love, but let's see what it's driven by.

The motive, as it were. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 1.

But know this, that in the last days, dangerous or perilous times will come, for men will be feelia, lovers.

But it's not feela delphia. Here it's feela utos, lovers of themselves.

Oh, okay. Then going on. Lovers of feela gutos, money.

You drop down to verse 4. Traders headstrong haute, lovers of pleasure, feela donos, rather than lovers of God, feelo theos.

So mankind is off the mark, off the track, from what would have provided him with a good life.

Philadelphia, the city in the United States, was founded by William Penn in the 1600s, who was a Quaker who came over and wanted, instead of what he saw in the world, he wanted to create an environment of brotherly love among those Quakers, those people who had really tight directives that they kind of came up with to be separate from the world. Ironically, Philadelphia, two years ago, was the murder capital of the United States, 2021.

It was the number one murder capital city in the U.S. per capita. It hasn't worked out. It doesn't work out.

So instead of a life based on quality relationships, we have people wanting to live it up. Live it up. According to the Urban Dictionary, live it up is to enjoy yourself by doing things that involve spending a lot of money or to enjoy yourself completely without worrying about anything else.

Kind of sounds like 2 Timothy 3, doesn't it? Just about me, see?

A successful life out in society like that is not considered life by God, not by the God family. Let's see what Jesus says about this in Matthew 8, verse 21. Matthew 8, verse 21.

An individual who was not walking with him came up with an excuse as to why he wanted to live life his own way. Matthew 8, verse 21.

Then another of his disciples said to him, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. There's a good excuse.

But Jesus said to him, Follow me and let the dead bury their own dead. Who are the dead that are burying other dead?

That's those who are pursuing a life of self, a life apart from God, a life without relationships with God.

God doesn't consider that to be life. That's not one of the words for life mentioned in Scripture. He calls it dead.

So human life by itself is missing a crucial element, relationships within the God family, relationships within the God family.

And that can extend not only to God, not only to those God is working with now, but to all humanity who ultimately will be given the opportunity to be sons and daughters of God. So that really extends to everyone. It's a real awareness and a desire to love and serve God and love and serve all that God has made.

In Romans 9 and verse 9, it says, those who are children of the flesh, these are not the children of God.

So we're going to talk now about life as children of God, those who are of the flesh. In other words, their mind and all is set on themselves and of the flesh and breaking the laws of God and following whatever carnal thoughts come to their mind. It says, these are not the children of God.

So let's talk about children of God versus children of men for a second. Some background.

God called the twelve tribes of Israel. He formed them, developed them through Abraham and down through Jacob and twelve tribes. And He called them out of Egypt to be His people. He said, this is the people I have chosen.

Now in chapter 7 and verse 1 of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 7 and verse 1, here's what God says to them.

When the Lord your God, it's not the God of everyone because they have rejected Him or they don't know Him or they've been deceived. But speaking to His people, He says, when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and has cast out many nations before you, verse 3, now He says, you shall not make marriages with them.

Verse 4, for they will turn your sons away from following Me.

Okay, now this is the background scripture because now we're going to go to Genesis chapter 6 and verse 2. Just so you know here, don't make marriages outside the family because they will turn your sons away from following Me.

Now here we see the distinction between children of God and children of men in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 2.

The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful.

The sons of God are those who were called by God, called out by God. These were the righteous line that came out of Adam. They were righteous for a short time until they saw the daughters of men, foreign individuals of a different mindset.

And they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And what happened? Verse 5.

So we have right from the beginning the Bible some who are called or chosen or worked with by God, they have a relationship with God to the point they're called sons.

Family, children, children of God in this age. But if they're not careful, they can be enticed to break that relationship and go into self-serving or some other satanic form.

In the owner's manual here, for living a very good life, we find in Deuteronomy 5, verse 29, Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and their children forever.

Notice the wording of this. If they would revere me, well, there's a relationship with God, and keep all my commandments, which is love God, love your fellow man, that it might be well with them, not individuals, but them as a family group and their children.

See how this suddenly has what God wants is a relationship, a godly relationship with him and each other. And in that selfless love for God and man, it would be very, very well with him.

So in addition to just living a good life, God wants a chosen few at this time to be upgraded in their life experience to being a child of his, children of God, a son of God, a daughter of God.

Now, becoming a son or a daughter of God is a process. It doesn't just happen. We find in Philippians 2 and verse 15 that this process takes some effort, and it also requires God's direction.

Philippians 2 and verse 15 says that you may become, not that you may be or that you are, but that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.

So the children of God here, in stark contrast to society, as light to darkness, they're in somewhat jeopardy, but they're also in a transition because they are trying to become blameless in a crooked and perverse world. You know, in verse 16, holding fast the word of life. Now, here we stumble upon a different New Testament word, life.

It's different than the word for Jesus's body, his physical body that was killed. It's different than just life, you know, and living a good life. This word is zoe, and it really refers within the Bible's use and the writers of the Bible to a godly life, a God-family life.

Life as part of the God-family, that's what God wants us to step up to in our physical experience. A life as a member of the God-family. So we hold fast the word of life, God-family life. Now, this can only come through invitation. You can't give it to someone else. It's only through a calling or a drawing or through an invitation.

In John 6 and verse 44, Jesus said, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. You know, drawing, if you put a rope on something and you draw it, there's resistance. Anytime you just reach out and grab something and draw it, there's resistance. Whether it's gravity or inertia or even little resistance, you tug on some things and they might eventually come, but there's resistance. That's what drawing is about. And so there's part of this process that at first we might have some resistance, but more and more we yield to God. We submit to the drawing. We submit to the direction where God and Christ are trying to take us. Verse 65, and he said, Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father. So the invitation, the calling, the drawing, that begins with God. And if a person hasn't had that, they can pray and ask for that. My father started when I was young with me and my two brothers telling us, pray and ask God. Ask God to call you. Ask God to choose your career for you. Ask God to choose your spouse for you. Ask God to lead you in the things that he wants. And I did that as a child.

And my life was totally different than I ever could have imagined at any time in my life. It just goes different directions. But if we ask for that and ask God for the invitation, for the calling, he can give it if it is his will to do so. It says in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 16, He who calls you is faithful. So there's that calling, there's that drawing, there's that invitation, and God gives that to us, followed by something called repentance.

In other words, I desire to be there where God is drawing me, or what become what God is drawing me to become rather than where I am. And that repentance also is a gift of God. That God may, by chance, give someone repentance, again, if it's his will. Regarding the gift of repentance, you can't give it to yourself. Anybody can say, oh yeah, I make mistakes.

But you can't see yourself like God does and understand that your nature really is of a corrupt form. You think it's good, I think it's good. It feels good. It feels right for me. I remember, oh, about a hundred miles from here, one time back in the, probably the 70s or 80s when I was pastoring in eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas, a really nice lady, older lady, sweet gal, wanted to be baptized. Of course, we looked at the elements of baptism in their order of faith.

She had faith. Repentance. Well, what would I repent of? I mean, she was a sweet, sweet lady. She really, really was. And I said, well, you know, of sin. I haven't ever committed a sin. I've never done anything wrong. I've been a good girl. And then she said, well, tell me where I've sinned. It's not my place here, but I could give you some suggestions. Have you ever been selfish? No. And I would have to probably agree with her. She's surrounded by family and grandkids, a very outgoing lady. Long story short is I told her to pray and ask God for repentance, because she couldn't see it. And so, you know, maybe six months later she'd ask me again, and I still couldn't see anything wrong.

A year, couldn't see anything wrong. Nothing to repent of. She was trying. She just couldn't see it. A poor lady eventually died, and she was a really nice lady. And it just made it poignant to me that repentance is something that God gives as a gift.

We can understand what we need to overcome. Now, what compromises this upgraded life that God has called us to? Well, we could use one or two verses. Let's go to John 10, verse 10. Let's use one verse that Jesus said that I think encapsulates the entire endeavor here. John chapter 10 and verse 10. Jesus said, the thief—I believe this is a reference to Satan, who wants to steal the sheep— the thief does not come except to steal and kill and destroy. Now, look at the world. Look at the history of the world. Look at the prophecies ahead for the world. We see the thief, Satan, he's come to steal and kill and destroy.

And lives down through time have pretty much followed this course. Just look at worldly life today everywhere in society at all levels, and you'll see people destroying and just ruining life as the Bible would direct it. Jesus now says, I have come that they may have life. This is the Greek word zoe, different than suke. They've already got life. Everybody around him was still—I mean, they're all alive.

He says, I have come that you'll have something different than just being alive, that you would have what is called zoe, and that they may have it more abundantly. It's a different word than we read well ago in verse 11, where he says the good shepherd gives his suke, his physical life for the sheep. Let's look at this word life. It comes from the Greek word zoe. Vine's exhaustive dictionary says this. It means life as God has it. Life as God, the God family. So we're talking about God family life here.

We're not talking about eternal life. We're just talking about life as God lives it, that which the Father has in himself, and which he gave to the Son to have in himself, and which the Son manifested in the world, and of this life that men become partakers of through faith in Jesus Christ, who becomes its author to all such as trust in him.

Now we have a rich mindset of life, see, that God's mindset, Christ's mindset, that which they place within us through the Holy Spirit. In John chapter 8 and verse 12, go back just a little bit, John chapter 8 and verse 12, Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life, the Zoe of life, the God-family life, the God-family life. In fact, when you look at most of Jesus's statements, you go back to John 6 and you read about him being the bread of life.

It's that Zoe. I am the bread of God-family life. And when he speaks of life and when the writers in the New Testament talk about life, that's the word they're using. And they're using it in the sense that maybe the Greeks wouldn't have used it, but they're using it like the church would know it being God's life, God-family life, Godly life.

Mr. Shaby in a sermon said that this Zoe is like the church speak of the New Testament. It's a word that the New Testament-era church just sort of grabbed like they did agape. You know, agape and philia in Greek don't have much of a difference. They're kind of used interchangeably, evidently. But within the Bible they are. They could take these words that were used in society and they could use them. You know, agape is godly love, and philia is sort of a physical human love.

And so life in Sukei could be your life just breathing. But when you come to this Zoe life, we're talking about divine mindset, divine action, life of the God family, God family life. And so in John 6 and verse 63, Jesus says, It is the Spirit which gives life. See, this kind of life, this godly life, the God family life, doesn't come through any other source except the Holy Spirit. And it is the Spirit which gives God family life to us. The flesh prophets nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, spiritual, and they are God family life. So, see, now we move up, way up, into the realm of thinking and acting like children of the God family as literal sons and daughters, thinking like dad and elder brother and having a relationship with them and having them and us and us and them and us and each other.

We are family, God family, with God family life. You remember Romans chapter 8 and verse 14 regarding this Spirit. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Aha! God family life. God wants us to have a life as His children. Sons of God, daughters of God, in a real sense, not just in sort of a kind of a religious-y sense, but God has claimed us through sonship.

Some say it's a Roman form of adoption where you took somebody and you adopted them, but actually they became your heir. Well, we might counter that. We could argue that, but we might counter that by saying, we were always God's children. He created us. Satan didn't. So it's not like he's having to adopt us, because we're already created in His image and in His likeness. Maybe we got... when somebody steals you... what's that word called? Don't come to mind. What? Abduction. Abduction. Thank you. We got abducted, not abduct... Thank you. We got abducted, right?

And so a ransom got paid by Jesus Christ's blood, and now we're back, we might say. So some of these analogies may or may not be 100 percent, or they could be argued at least. But if you're led by the Spirit of God now, and we are in Christ, and we are sons and daughters of God, then these are the family of God, sons of God. Remember, we went back to Genesis, and they were sons of God then, but they drifted off, intermarried with others. In 1 John 3 and verse 1... 1 John 3 and verse 1, I like how the Apostle John lived the longest of anyone we know of in the New Testament from those who had walked with Jesus personally.

And he's able to write some 60 years later and fill in with detail that is really, really helpful. And he says in 1 John 3 and verse 1... Behold what manner of agape the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him. Again, a very big distinction between just trying to live life, have a good life, and if you follow some of God's principles, in the short term you'll have more blessings, as it were, a better time here.

But all of a sudden now, God has bestowed upon us his Son, and we are children of God. Now, converting to God's mindset, again, is a process. Losing the human carnal nature that is very self-serving and moving and replacing it, you can't leave a vacuum, but replacing it with the godly nature, that's a real process. We have a booklet called Transforming Your Life. And this booklet I like to read from time to time. It's a fascinating booklet that really gives us good direction. It's got great material. And in it it says this...

Our primary inclination is to serve ourselves and resist living according to all of God's Biblical instructions. And we deceive ourselves thinking that our nature is not so bad. That's just the way our human mind works. So, again, it's a process. In Romans 8 and verse 13, the rest of this passage that I quoted a while ago, it says this... If you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. So that gives the context of that statement. Those led by the Spirit are sons of God. It's in the context of putting to death the deeds of the body. And that's a constant work. It's an effort. It's a busyness that is good to do. And the more we do it, the better the relationship with God, the better relationship with each other. And the better quality of this type of life as a child of God becomes. It's really, really worth all the effort. We need to have God's Spirit to help us conquer our nature, to see it first, to dislike it, then to go about conquering it. You can't just conquer something you love. One's had a person tell me, I'm really trying to overcome. I'm really working hard at it. Then a little later he told me, I really like doing what I'm trying to quit. I really like it. I think it's good for me. You know, how much success is he going to have overcoming that problem? Well, if you and I feel that the nature we've developed is pretty good, we're not going to be very successful. So we need repentance and baptism. You know, in Acts 2, verse 38, it says, Repent, gift of God, let every one of you be baptized, in the name of the Lord Jesus, gift of God, for the remission of sins, gift of God, and you will receive the Holy Spirit, gift of God. All of this comes, our gifts from the Father of lights. So we must receive that and request that and treasure those gifts. In chapter 2, verse 16 of Acts, Acts 22, verse 16, And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. So we need to pursue those things and ask, and not just indefinitely put those things off.

Now Paul, in Romans chapter 6, verse 3, explains the connection between Christ's death and our baptism, and it's very profound. Romans chapter 6, verse 3, Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? So this is a landmark, what would you call it? Baptism. It's not a status. It's not necessarily a choice. It's a really contract covenant that is life-changing. Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death. The old nature symbolically is, I don't want to be that person anymore. I want to be a member of the God family.

What happens here is the change from being a human, having a nice life, going by some of the laws of God and being blessed with Him, going from that to being a child of God. Baptism makes us a child of God, a child, a son, or a daughter of God.

We were baptized into His death. We were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so also we should walk in newness of life.

So the baptism is a commitment that we make to an inward change of heart and mind.

In Colossians 3, verse 9, we see the mindset that goes along with this.

Colossians 3, verse 9-10, The son or the daughter of God, you see, who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created Him.

After baptism, Jesus Christ offers us the Holy Spirit to help us conquer and replace our own nature, and the result is a lifetime of loving and serving with God's help, spiritual growth, developing attributes that are honorable, respected, helpful.

It really, really improves one's life. It replaces our selfish human nature with a divine, thoughtful, outgoing, concerned, loving nature.

Let's notice the upgraded life that this brings.

In 2 Peter 1, verse 3.

When you compare what we're about to read with what we covered last time, a beautiful life, lots of nice animals, lots of things you can see and do in this enjoyable life that God has given us with the abundance and all the five senses, and that's great. But notice this upgraded life brings us more.

2 Peter 1, we'll begin in verse 3.

As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life, Zoe, God-family life, He's given us all things that pertain to God-family life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly in 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, but also for this very reason, notice how our lives are suddenly moving on to respectability, honorability, appreciation.

And I can't tell you when sometimes I get cards from individuals, and they're extolling things that, like, wow, when you live God's way of life, other people sense that you're a person of, I don't know, integrity or value, and they appreciate that.

And it's because, notice here, for this very reason, giving all diligence, a life of diligence now.

Diligence for what? Add to your faith, oh, a life of faith. And we add to the faith now virtue, virtuous deeds, virtuous thoughts.

And to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, a person who is controlling his self, his words, his thoughts, his actions, to self-control perseverance through any and everything with God's help, to birth-severeance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, the word is Philadelphia, Philadelphia, fraternal affection, and to brotherly kindness agape love.

For if these things are yours and abound, you will be very fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now look at that life compared to just enjoying some nice vistas, some good food, and having some fun in life. All of a sudden, your life is rich and it's honored. People are saying, wow, you're a person of character, you're a person of, you know, something. But it all comes back to God. It's not about us as human beings.

It's the God family. It's God-family life.

That's what God wants us to appreciate, enjoy, revel in, be people who confound the ones who are considered to be the mighty and the knowledgeable in the world, and to be ready to give an answer for the hope, the hope that we have, and to live with the love and the joy and the peace along with the long suffering and the gentleness and the goodness and the self-control and this great life.

Now we can see that God has given us spiritual guidance to where we become individuals like Him. And we have a relationship as a child like Him, a human child.

As it says in Romans 8, 14 again, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Dropping down to verse 16, the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

So if that spirit is working in us in all those ways, then it bears witness that we are children of God.

In Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10, find out that we're not doing this alone at all. We can't even take credit for it. But Ephesians 2 and verse 10 says, God is working in us. He's helping us. He's developing us. We're like clay in His hand if we are like clay in His hand. If we are not resisting Him, we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So we're not just created for good lives. We're created for good works. And that's good works in service and in love towards God and towards fellow man.

When we have God's family life as a son, as a daughter of God, we have a relationship that is very, very unique. It's very family. For instance, we're siblings with Jesus Christ. He's a brother.

We are wife of Jesus Christ in the sense that we are betrothed already through baptism. We have made that choice. We are going to marry Him.

Your life is in Christ. We're in the body of Christ.

We're the temple of God's Holy Spirit.

God and Christ dwell in us, and we in them through that Spirit. The Bible says over and over.

We are fellow citizens with God in the heavenly country.

We are already in the—notice carefully—kingdom has two meanings. First is the rulership. We're already under the rule of God, Jesus Christ being our Lord and Master.

The second definition is the actual kingdom, the divine kingdom of God. We look forward to the kingdom of God, but right now we are in the—and under the rule of God.

I mean, that's a great relationship, great, wonderful life that we have right now.

In Matthew 5, verse 48, it says, Therefore you shall be—perfect. That's future tense, if you look it up in the Greek— you shall be, future tense.

That shows this is a progression. It's not a status. It's not static.

We are to continue to conquer. The word overcome means to conquer.

We are to continue to conquer aspects of our selfish human nature and replace that with a godly nature.

The mindset of God, progress. So therefore you shall be, as if we're progressing, complete whole, just as your father—oh, he's our father because we're in the family. We're his child. Because your father in heaven is—that's present perfect. He already is perfect, complete. We are on the way, like a child is growing up, right? And they kind of imitate and emulate their parents a little more as they age.

First there's kind of rough—some rough 2's and 3's. But, you know, gradually they'll get there. And we're like that. God is our father, and we're gradually progressing like that. So you shall be, future tense, perfect, just as your father in heaven is perfect.

So we're coming more and more.

I think the term, you're doing well, would be applicable to us. Although we're always beating ourselves up, always finding faults—and that's a good thing. Like the Apostle Paul, you know, that's—you know, I hate that when I find it, and I'm trying to put it out. That's fine. That's a good way to be. But at the same time, he also said, I'm doing well, and there's a crown of life laid up for me, right?

At some point, Jesus will say, well done. Come into the kingdom. Which means we're doing—we're doing well. Don't get discouraged. You're doing well.

In Colossians chapter 1 and verse 22, notice what it says here.

It's fitting for God's sons and daughters that have lives led by His Holy Spirit. They are—they're having the life of the God family. This is fitting for them. Colossians 1, 22, In the body of His death—in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless, above reproach in His sight, if you continue in the faith grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you heard. So keep up the good work. Keep up the good work. He sees you as holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight. And that's a great relationship to have.

So let's go back in conclusion to Romans chapter 8.

Romans chapter 8, this life that God wants all humans to experience at some point in His timing is a very special level of life that He wants humanity to rise to.

Romans chapter 8, verse 16, So at this level of life, if we succeed in developing the mindset of the family, as God is working with us to do as true children of His, there is one more level of life that God wants us to experience.

And we're going to cover that next time. It's found in the next verse here, verse 17. So next time we'll examine the Greek phrase translated eternal life in life part 3, eternity.