Volume 2, Issue 2

"Preparing Servants for the Nations"

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Our New Family in Christ

Rev. Lawrence "Buddy" Martin
Senior Pastor
Christian Challenge

The apostle Paul said, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.” This is a very interesting Scripture. If we leave it as it is, it is saying that the Father has placed all His creatures into family groups. This would include angelic families as well as the human family. In another place the apostle says that Christ is the head over all creation, so regardless of the family, Christ has the authority over it.

But what we want to look at in this article is God’s redeemed human family. When God created Adam and Eve, He made them in His own image and likeness. Of all this may mean, we do know that Adam and Eve were given a spiritual nature like God’s own nature. He had breathed His own life into them. They were God’s very children.

It goes without saying that Adam and Eve were glorious to look at. In Psalm 8:5, David says that our first parents were crowned "with glory and majesty." The term for glory, that is, kabod, speaks of abundance and splendor. Adam and Eve were adorned with an abundance of splendor.

The Psalmist actually says they were made a little lower than God. The term 'Elohim' is a generic term. It includes the idea of a 'divine representative.' Even angels and magistrates are sometimes spoken of in the Scriptures as Elohim. So while Adam and Eve were not gods, they did carry in their personhood the divine image and likeness.

Adam and Eve were special. All the angels knew this. Satan was jealous of them. When the Scriptures reflect on Christ’s exaltation, they refer back to the angelic creation. It says, "But to which of the angels has He ever said, 'Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.'" No angel was ever given the exalted position of that of Adam and Eve. The angels have their own family groups. The boundaries were not to be transgressed.

But when sin entered the picture, Adam and Eve found themselves naked. They lost their glory and majesty. So they set about to cover themselves by sewing fig leaves together. Sin always takes what is beautiful and makes it shameful.

Now we need to leap across history to the point where God’s Son enters into the darkness of our world. God had made a promise to Adam and Eve, and to Satan, saying, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel." The heel spoke to the cross and the humanity of Jesus. The bruised head spoke of Satan’s authority.

This was the original gospel. From that point on, God continued to speak through the prophets, expanding on the message of redemption. Promise after promise. One in particular said, "The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them." (Isa9:2) And so the Son of God was born into our world of darkness, born of a woman, but not of darkness Himself. The apostle said that God sent His Son "to be the propitiation for our sins."

But there remained one problem. Not everyone wanted the Light. Some men loved the darkness and wanted to walk in evil. But for all who would take to themselves Jesus as Lord and Savior, God would grant them a place in His kingdom. The Son of God was to be the "last Adam." In Him God’s new family would find their redemption.

This is what being born again actually means. It says, "As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12,13)

So in the world today there are two kinds of humans. One group continues to walk in darkness. They are simply referred to as 'darkness.' Their spirits are empty of any divine representation. Then you have children of God, who are also called “children of light." (Cf. Eph5:8)

In one place the Lord speaks of Himself as the light of the world. But when he looks at those who would make up the family of God, He said, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden." Then He said, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Cf. Matt5:14-16)

What about the lost glory and majesty? They will be fully restored in their proper time. Jesus came to return us to the lost glory. It says, "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings." (Heb2:10) Through the finished work of the cross, the Father was able to give us the perfections of Christ. This is why the apostle said that your 'whole' life has now been hidden with God in Christ.

When it is time for all the family to come home to our own city, the apostle said that we would be glorified with Him. Another apostle says, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is." (1 John 3:2)

It is difficult for us to even imagine what the lost glory will mean to our future appearance and to our total being. And because we are so aware of our own present physical limitations and struggles, it is even more difficult to imagine why God could love us so much. But He does. It says, "For God SO loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

There you have it --- We are the Christ family. We take His name to ourselves as Christians. And, no, God didn’t sent His Son into the world to give us another religion. He sent Him to bring the children home. Jesus came to bring us to ‘our’ Father’s house. We are a family. God is our Father.

Paul said it well enough, when he said, "There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of our calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." (Eph4:4-6)

Is Christianity a religion? Certainly we worship together in our respective flocks, but we are a family. We been born of His Spirit, and washed in His blood.

Bro. Buddy and his wife Betty founded Christian Challenge in 1976 after having pastored and evangelized for several years. He serves as Senior Pastor and General Overseer. Bro. Buddy and Sister Betty have 3 children and 9 grandchildren, all of whom worship at Christian Challenge.