“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (I John 3:2).

The Comforter
From the Epistle to the Hebrews (2:14-15) we learn that the devil, who had the power of death, kept people in bondage throughout their entire life through fear of death; from which death and fear Jesus came to deliver us. The reality of that deliverance is known through baptism in the Spirit, who Jesus referred to as the Comforter [paraklētos παράκλητος] of orphans [orphanos ὀρφανός] (John 14:18,26). In his Epistle to the Romans, Paul writes, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear [Heb. 2:14-15]; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Roman 8:14-16). The Spirit of adoption, or more accurately - of sonship, is none other than the Comforter who comforts orphans by bringing them into sonship with the Father. Because we were the offspring of fallen Adam, we were all orphans before God, until such time as we receive the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of sonship).

Israel an adopted nation
God was a Father to Israél, for God adopted them to be His own “peculiar people”, but none were born of God in Israél - God was a Father in type only. Desiring to be a real Father to them He made a New Covenant with them. “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 32:31). The writer to the Hebrews reminds them of this in his epistle (Hebrews 8:8-13).

A Chosen Generation and Holy Nation

When we are born of the Spirit and become the children of God, we become foreigners in this world and amongst our kith and kin (Matthew 10:34-36). We disown the world and are drowned by it (Galatians 6:14). We are now God’s “chosen generation”, “the people of God” - “ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy” (I Peter 2:9-10), of which Israél of old was the type.

Abraham’s Seed
The only begotten Son of God, through His spotless obedient life, His death on Calvary and His resurrection, created in Himself “one new man” - a new generation - children of God. None of the old generation of Adam can be in this new race of people, only those who are “born of the Spirit”, from “Jerusalem which is above”. Earthly ethnicity has neither baring nor part in this new heavenly generation - “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ* have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:26-29). "Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God" (Isaiah 66:7-9).

“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.” (Galatians 3:16-18). God retrospectively by-passed the law which came by Moses, in order that we may be born into the generation of Him who brought grace and truth, who is the seed of Abraham - “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58)

Beware of those preaching another Israél, and not the “Israél of God” (Galatians 6:16). Remember we are all the children of God “by faith in Christ Jesus”, not by works (Galatians 3:26). “Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:11-22). The “one new man” has no part with the old man, neither with types of the true which are now abolished. He is of the new creation which is in Christ.

If we are born of God, we are no longer “orphans”, but the sons (children) of the Living God. “…because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:6). “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (II Corinthians 6:17-18 [quoting Isaiah 52:11. LXX]).

*by the Spirit.