The Family of God
Welcome to the Family of God. The Father has been waiting for you all this time. The Lord Jesus Christ has already introduced you to the Father and the heavenly orchestra has organized a welcome celebration for you… And of course, the Holy Spirit, whom you have already met, the One that opened your eyes to the beckoning love of God and led you hand in hand through the process of New Birth, and is resident inside you, is here also.
You are a citizen of the Kingdom of God. And more than that, you are royalty, for you’re a child of the King of kings; the Possessor of Heaven and Earth. You are His ‘New Creation’, His handiwork, His masterpiece, His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them(Eph 2:10). You are a part of the ‘New Creation” nation. Doesn’t matter whether you’re tall or short, fat or skinny, bald or Absalom-level hairy, or whether you’re brown, black or white; you are automatically a member of the ‘New Creation’ nation once you accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord.
But some who are haunted by what they did before accepting Christ as Savior might still have one major lingering question. And if this question is not answered correctly so they are clear in their mind, they could go back and start digging up the grave of the old-man. So let’s help them ask this question and then joyfully answer for them:
What happened to my old life and to the old-man of sin and all his atrocities? How does God see me in the light of what I’ve done?
Answer: The Old Has Gone, the New Has Come.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”(2Cor 5:17)
Every born-again child of God needs to understand this so they are not living under the guilt and condemnation of past life that has been done away with, dead and buried with Christ’s and in the sea of God’s forgetfulness. We all need to know that:
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom 8:1)
You are now a new creature, member of the household of God, and part of the royal Priesthood, you belong the company of priests and kings unto God.
“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy” (1Pet 2:9,10).
And there’s much more, the Lord Jesus says that “the Father Himself loves you”. Listen to Him in the 16th chapter of the
Gospel of John say: “At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.” (Joh 16:26, 27 ).
So now, if you just became a ‘new creature’ in Christ Jesus, that is you just got born-again recently, follow the words of the Lord and Master, suspend everything right now and reverently walk into the Presence of your loving heavenly Father and salute Him. He’s been waiting for you. You have an open invitation to come in to Daddy and communicate in love with Him anytime, the more frequent the better. He wants to hear your voice and desires to speak to you. He also has gifts, blessings, and graces, prepared specifically for you.
Prepare yourself, and with reverent excitement and joyfulness, enter into His “gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. The Apostle admonishes us to “therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” ( Heb 4:16”)
And for those among us who have been born again for some times now, maybe few months ago, or few years ago, or few decades ago, or maybe even over a century ago, the same invitation daily awaits us all. He remains the loving Father for us all. “His steadfast love never ceases, His mercy never comes to an end, they are new every morning, great is His faithfulness”.
Speaking to His disciples and to the multitudes about the Father, Jesus once said, “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your Father, which is in heaven” (Mat. 23:8-9). We all have one Father.
“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all (Eph 4:4-6)
You belong to the Family of God Almighty. And there is only one God who is the Father of this family. Every child born to this family have the same status, they are all endowed with full citizenship rights. There are no classifications or distinctions like Jews or Gentiles, Greek or Barbarians, educated or illiterates, black or white, tall or short, rich or poor.; Unlike man’s family and corrupt society, there are no favoritism, racism, or nepotism in His Family and in the Kingdom of His Dear Son. And there’s only one body of Christ, one Church, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one Family, one Father, and one God. And this one Father and God is above all and in us all.
Now, You Make an Announcement
While we’re still talking briefly about the Family, and you’ve met and spoken to the Father yourself, face-to-face, as a child speaks to his Dad, let’s get you if you haven’t yet done so, make an announcement. Through this announcement you will declare to the world and to the devil and in the presence of your family members that you are for Christ Jesus.
Through this announcement you are physically, though metaphorically, demonstrating what already happened to you spiritually in Christ Jesus at your new birth. For ‘Baptism by water’ is a symbolic act, literal demonstration of what already took place. By getting ‘water-baptized’ which must be after you’ve been born again, you are making a loud declaration of your identification with Christ in His death and ressurection. Think of it as you getting on a loud speaker that can be heard from everywhere on earth and you saying:
“Hear ye, Hear ye!
This announcement is to let heaven and earth know,
And the world and all that’s in it,
And you devil and your little cohorts,
That I (insert your name, e.g. ‘Joeboy Jesusaves’ or JJ initial), has been crucified with Christ, and I died with Him, and I was buried with Him in Baptism, and now I have been raised up together with Him to a newness of life.
Yes! I am now a ‘New Creation’ in Christ Jesus.
I am for Christ! I will live the rest of my life for Him, who died and gave His life for me”; I am His for all eternity.
It doesn’t matter if your baptism takes place in front of one person or a million people, the cloud of witnesses are there, the devil sees it, and the world knows about it too. You do this to obey and honor Christ, and to slap the devil, the defeated one, on the face.
“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” This is the real meaning of baptism of which the outward water baptism symbolizes. Water baptism does not bring us salvation and it’s meaningless and useless if performed before a man is born again, but should be an experience of every born-again child of God. It should be by immersion in water, for that’s what that symbolism represents—that we have been ‘buried’ with Christ, and then ‘raised up’ with Him into new life.
I was water baptized in the early 1960’s in the Anglican Church before I was born-again. Had to memorize several Bible passages which I accurately recited during the ceremony before the Arc-Bishop sprinkled ‘holy water’ on my face. That was a useless religious exercise. I got baptized properly after I was born-again. If your experience is like mine, you should get baptized properly, because you have never being baptized. Again water baptism is not what brings us salvation, but it is an outward demonstration and outward identification with Christ from you and me, and should be done properly. It also symbolizes the real baptism that has already taken place. That real baptism, the process which the Holy Ghost took each of us through when ‘immersing us in Christ” is what Eph 4 quoted above as ‘one baptism’ and also Peter speaks about as the baptism that saves us. 1 Pe 3:21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
This baptism is carried out on each of us by the Holy Spirit as stated in the Epistle to the Colossians: “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit” (1Co 12:13).
We have all been immersed into the same Body of Christ by the same Spirit. And this has made our identification with Him in His death, Burial, and resurrection possible.
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:3)