How does one enter God’s family?

Welcome to Midway Church of Christ

What’s Your Question? for July 28, 2010

The Bible uses two figures to describe our relationship with God. First, a person is born again. Jesus said we must be “born of water and the Spirit” (Jn. 3:3-5). Paul said we are cleansed by “the washing of water by the word” (Eph. 5:26). These are two ways of saying the same thing. The new birth is experienced when a believer exercises his right to become a child of God by obeying the words of the Spirit (Jn. 1:12), thus being forgiven of his sins (Rom. 6:17,18). Second, a person may be adopted. God predestined that those who obey Him would be adopted as sons in Christ (Eph. 1:3-5). We were children of Satan, but were “baptized into Christ” (Gal. 3:27), thus adopted into God’s family, becoming “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:16,17).