If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 2 Cor 5:17
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Go to the source! Discover what the Bible says about …
These pages are designed to aid study or investigation for Christian discipleship through individual Bible study, Cell groups, Home groups, or meeting one to one. The questions could be used alone allowing each person to use their own Bible.
Introduction
God is our Father. He is our Father because He created us. We are very precious to Him and He longs for us to respond to His love. He is also Father in a special way to those who have received His Spirit. They are His Spiritual children, children born of God. However none of us compare to the only one who is God’s Son by nature, Jesus.
Bible Zone
The zone below looks at the following passages.
- The Creator God - Our creator desires that we seek Him.
- God’s children by the Spirit - Being born of the Spirit, we are God’s children.
- Traits of God’s children - As God’s children we become like Him - principally love.
- Jesus, God’s Son by nature - People are adopted, Jesus is God’s natural Son..
God is Father because He has created us all. This means that He is Father to everyone and everything in all of creation. The Bible describes our Creator God. In Acts Paul speaks to Greek philosophers in Athens.
- What has God made?
- What place does God have over creation?
- What special place do people hold in God’s heart?
- How does God want us to approach Him?
Acts 17:24-28 24 "He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn't live in man-made temples,25 and human hands can't serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.26 From one man* he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.
27 "His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us.28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your* own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'
Those who receive the Spirit become God’s children in a special way. John tells us of becoming a child of God.
- By what means does someone become a child of God?
- What difference in relationship does this dimension of childhood bring?
John 1:11-13 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
Children often have similar character traits to their parents. They often inherit physical and personality traits, but through being with their parents they learn to behave in a similar way. God who is Spirit does not pass down what is physical, but those who grow in being His children pick up His character.
- What characteristic of God should we develop?
- How is this characteristic shown by God?
- How can this characteristic be developed?
1 John 4:7-13 7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.
Remember that we are often our own worst critics. It can be hard sometimes to see anything of love in our lives. Lets not judge ourselves but ask those who are mature in Christ and know us well what they see in our lives.
We are God’s children because He created us, and some receive His Spirit and become His children in a special way, Jesus, however stands out above us all.
- How is Jesus, ‘the Word’, described in this passage?
- What difference is there between our being sons and Jesus being God’s Son?
John 1:1-5, 14 1 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 4 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.
14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father's one and only Son.
FATHER
