First John: 1 John 2:29c-The Person Practicing Divine Righteousness is a Child of God Lesson # 95 (2)
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If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. (ESV)
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday October 24, 2017
www.wenstrom.org
Lesson # 95
If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. (ESV)
“Has been born of him” is composed of the following: (1) preposition ek (ἐκ), “of” (2) genitive third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), “him” (3) third person singular perfect active indicative form of the verb gennaō (γεννάω), “has been born.”
The verb gennaō means “to father, to become the father of” and refers to the act of God the Father fathering the person who practices His righteousness in the sense of causing their regeneration and birth as His child at the moment of justification.
The genitive third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos means “Him” referring to the Father and not Jesus Christ since we have already determined that the prepositional phrase ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ refers to the Father fathering the believer who practices righteousness.
This would then indicate that the intensive personal pronoun autos is referring to the Father since its nearest antecedent is θεοῦ.
The intensive personal pronoun autos is the object of the preposition ek, which means “by” since the word functions as a marker of means with the implication of something proceeding from or out of the source.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase is expressing the idea that the person who practices divine righteousness has been fathered “by” God and would imply that God is the source from which they are able to practice righteousness and that He is their spiritual father.
If each of you possess the conviction that He is righteous, then each of you know experientially that any person who at any time does practice that which is truly righteousness has been fathered by Him. (My translation)
In , John is teaching the recipients of this epistle that a person practicing God’s righteousness marks this person as a child of God and confirms that they are children of God.
That is why it is important for a believer to make it their habit of practicing righteousness because if they don’t they could lose this reassurance of their eternal salvation.
Thus, those who faithfully practice righteousness in their lives will continually receive assurance that they are a child of God.
Only those who have been regenerated and declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ have the capacity to practice the righteousness of God in their lives.
The child of God has the capacity to practice God’s righteousness in their lives because they received the gift of Jesus Christ’s righteousness the moment they were declared justified by the Father through faith in Jesus Christ (; ).
The non-believer does not have the capacity because they do not possess this divine righteousness or the indwelling Spirit.
The Christian way of life is a supernatural way of life which demands a supernatural means of execution, the Holy Spirit’s omnipotence.
Therefore, the person who is practicing divine righteousness in their lives is manifesting the fact that they are a child of God who is righteous Himself as John teaches in .
Thus, righteous conduct is not a condition for being born again or regenerated but the direct result of being regenerated or born again.
The believer has the capacity to experience fellowship with the Trinity because they have the capacity to practice God’s righteousness.
Thus, the practice of divine righteousness manifests the fact that a believer is experiencing fellowship with the Triune God.
Thus, the proto-Gnostic teachers, whom John describes as “antichrists” in and who he describes as non-believers in , were not practicing divine righteousness.
In fact, they believed that salvation was by acquiring knowledge and they also rejected that Jesus was human being, thus, they could never receive eternal salvation.
They could never be declared justified by the Father and consequently, they could never experience fellowship with the Trinity because justification and eternal relationship and fellowship with the Trinity is based upon the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
The Son of God became a human being and suffered a spiritual and physical death on the cross in order to provide sinners an opportunity to enter into an eternal relationship and fellowship with the Trinity.
The Father enters the sinner into a relationship and fellowship with Himself and the other two members of the Trinity based upon the merits of Jesus Christ and His death on cross.
Thus, these “antichrists” were making false claims that possessed a relationship with God and were having fellowship with Him.
When John mentions the believer being “fathered by” God in , he is referring to the doctrine of regeneration, which is one of seven ministries the Holy Spirit performs on behalf of every believer the moment they are declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
John mentions this new spiritual birth in , , , and 18 and he also mentions this doctrine in his gospel (cf. ; ).
“Regeneration” refers to the spiritual birth of the sinner who is declared justified by the Father through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone when the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit appropriates for the sinner justified by faith in Jesus Christ, the benefits of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.
But when the kindness, yes the love for mankind originating from the Savior who is our God was manifested, 5 He saved us, by no means on the basis of meritorious actions as constituting its source. In other words, on the basis of human self-righteousness which we ourselves have done. But rather on the basis of His mercy as constituting the standard, by means of a washing produced by regeneration, specifically, a renovation produced by the Spirit who is holy. (Author’s translation)
Regeneration is our spiritual birth and is a theological word for being born-again.
Every person born into this world that has human life is born spiritually dead and receives the imputation of Adam’s original sin in the garden making them spiritually dead but qualified for grace.
When Adam sinned, the entire human race sinned ().
God imputed Adam’s sin to every person born into the world in order that He might show grace and mercy to everyone ().
So that when any person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ when they hear the gospel communicated to them, God the Holy Spirit cleanses them from the sin nature and personal sin as a result of appropriating for the justified sinner the benefits of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.
The result is that they are now spiritually alive.
When the sinner becomes born-again or regenerated through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, they have passed from spiritual death to spiritual life.
Regeneration is a part of God’s grace policy directed toward us.
Grace means that the sinner can never earn or deserve to be born again.
It is a gift from God.
The justified sinner can never take credit for the fact that they have been born again since it is entirely the work of the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit.
Regeneration or being born again is the justified sinner’s entrance into the plan of God.
There are several passages that support this doctrine (cf. ; ; , ; ).
Therefore, the Scriptures teach that not everyone is a child of God.
Some people are children of the devil.
God the Father is the Father of all believers and is not the Father of unbelievers.
God is the Father of all those sinners who were declared justified by Him through faith in His Son Jesus Christ and are sons of God through regeneration (; ; ; ; ).
Regeneration takes place at the moment of justification when a person expresses faith alone in Christ alone (, ; ; ).
Those who are sons of God through regeneration are considered by God to be His children as a result of honoring His Son by accepting the Son as Savior.
The Father deals with believers as a father in the natural realm would deal with his children (; ).
Unlike the Greek philosophers of the ancient world and of modern twenty-first century society, the New Testament considers only those who have accepted Christ as Savior as children of God.
Unbelievers are considered children of the devil and are designated “sons of disobedience” (; ; ; cf. ).
It is true that as Creator, God is Father of all but in terms of relationship and fellowship, He is the Father of only believers who have been born into the royal family of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (, ).
One cannot claim to have or know experientially the Father without the Son (; ; cf. ).