Dear Partner,

Several years ago there were billboards along the highways of the USA that showed lots of faces of people from every race on earth. White people, Black people, Indian people, Asian people, and so forth. The words on the billboards read, "We Are All The Children Of God." That sounds so right, doesn't it? Did you know that is not what the bible teaches? The bible says all people are God's creation, but God's "children" are defined only one way:

Gal 3:26   For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

God loves every human being on earth. He loves the saints and the sinners. It is because of His great love for all humans that He sent His Son Jesus as the Lamb of God to shed His blood so they could be saved.

John 3:16   For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Notice that phrase, the "only begotten Son." Did you know that God called Isaac Abraham's "only son" even though Abraham had previously produced a son named Ishmael? Notice, three times in the 22nd chapter of Genesis God calls Isaac Abraham's "only son":

Gen 22:2   And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

Gen 22:12   And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

Gen 22:16-18   And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Why is there no mention of Ishmael? Ishmael was Abraham's firstborn, yet God does not consider him to be Abraham's "son" anymore. We find this pattern continues in the two sons born to Isaac. His firstborn son was named Esau. He was heir to the birthright. Yet we find that Esau placed so little value on his birthright that he sold it to the second born son (Jacob) for a single serving of pottage. The second born son, Jacob, became the heir according to the birthright instead of the firstborn son. What is going on here? What is God teaching us through these types and shadows from the Old Testament?

1Cor 15:45-47   And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. (46) Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. (47) The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

Adam is called "The son of God" in Luke's account of the genealogy of Joseph [Luke 3:38]. All dominion on earth was given to Adam before he sinned in the garden. He was the firstborn of God on planet earth. But, like Esau, Adam relinquished his birthright for a morsel of food when Eve offered him the forbidden fruit. Adam died spiritually at that moment and became more "earthy" than he was "spiritual." All of the generations of children produced through Adam are products of the flesh, like Ishmael, and are not considered heirs because they are no longer spiritually "children of God." This brings us full circle to why all the naturally born people of the earth are not automatically "children of God." In order to be a child of God, you must be spawned from the spiritual loins of the last Adam … Jesus Christ. When you received Jesus as your Savior, you were literally "born again." Your spirit passed from death to life. You are no longer the spiritual offspring of the "first man Adam." You are now the spiritual offspring of the "last Adam" and God has become the Father of your spirit. You, Christian, are born of God. That's why all through the New Testament you will find phrases that link your inheritance with words like, "In Christ, in Him, in Christ Jesus, etc." Here is a prime example:

Eph 1:3   Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

Being "in Christ," every believer has the "birthright" of being God's own child. God has restored everything that mankind lost at the fall of Adam. We have been born again and blessed with ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS because we are "in Christ." Let us learn how to walk in this vast inheritance that Christ purchased for us with His own blood.

Sue and I love you and appreciate you.   We thank God for your generous and giving heart.   God bless you!

Your friend and co-laborer,

Gary Carpenter

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