You Must Realize You Are Now a Child of God

“Behold what manner of love 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” (1 John 3 :1).

You are in a new relationship. Through Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son, we are able to be in God’s family—children in His house (1 Timothy 3:15). Since you are now one of His children, God expects you to think and act in a manner which will not bring shame to Him or the rest of His family. For example, in Matthew 5:43-45 you are told to love as God loves, even your enemies, so that “you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” In loving as God loves, you show yourself to be one of His children.

In Romans 8:17, the apostle Paul states that as a child of God you are an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. You share in all spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3). For this reason, the apostle Peter urges you and all other children of God to “conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear” (1 Peter 1:17). That means that you are to live with reverent respect for God your heavenly Father and conduct yourself at all times as one of His children should.

You Must Realize You Are a New Creation

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

As a new Christian you have now have new goals, new responsibilities, new attitudes, new outlooks and new standards. You are no longer to live as the rest of the world lives. You are to be different because you are to become more and more like Jesus Christ. Romans 6:4 says, “Therefore 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 we also should walk in newness of life.” You are not to be conformed to the world—its standards, conduct, etc., rather you are to be transformed into one who is in the likeness of Christ (Romans 12:1-2).

You are to abstain from “all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking” (1 Peter 2:1). Instead of giving yourself to those things, you should recognize that as a spiritual newborn in Christ (John 3:3-5), you must long for the “pure milk of the word” so that you can grow into a mature child of God (1 Peter 2:2) in the image of Christ, striving to live without sin.

According to Ephesians 5:27, Jesus cleansed the church, His body of believers, so “that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” As a member of that church because of your obedience to the gospel (Acts 2:47), you must no longer live as you did before but live in accordance with the will of God as a new creation in Christ.

You Must Realize You Are Not Your Own

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

By becoming a Christian, you now belong to the Lord. He has bought you with a price. He shed His precious blood to purchase you from sin (Acts 20:28; Matthew 26:28; Ephesians 1:7). In reality, then, as a Christian you no longer run your life—Christ does.

Everything you do must be done “in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17), i.e., you must do that which Christ would have you to do. You must allow Him to rule in your heart and let His will be that which determines your actions and thoughts. You cannot do something you want to do if it is forbidden by the Bible. You must follow the example of Jesus in this. When He lived on earth as a man, He was ruled by the will of the Father. He said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38). You and all other Christians must “humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God” (1 Peter 5:6). The will of God must always be more important to you than your own will.

You Must Realize You Need to Focus on Spiritual Things and Make Going to Heaven Your Primary Concern

“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:1-4).

Philippians 4:8 instructs you to think on things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that His disciples should “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). Do not be as the people who are presented in the Parable of the Sower as “those who received the seed among the thorns” (Matthew 13:22). They allowed the “cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches” to “choke the word” from them and they became unfruitful. Jesus solemnly warned in John 15:1- 8 in the figure of the vine and branches that those disciples who fail to abide in Him and become unfruitful will be cast out, thrown into the fire, and burned (v. 6).