The Benefits for the Christian Over the Children of the Devil

Christians must never take the knowledge of the truth for granted. When Jesus comes to find one of His own, it is a new beginning for the one who has been born again (Jn 3:1–8; Rom 6:4; 2 Cor 5:17; 1 Pet 1:3).

First, God pours out His love in one’s heart (Rom 5:5). In other words, God has given him or her His Holy Spirit, to be a permanent resident (Jn 14:17; Rom 8:9, 11; Heb 13:5; Jas 4:5). The Spirit abides in the Christian’s heart and mind (the soul). His promise is to never leave nor forsake His new creation (Heb 13:5). In other words, the Father does not abandon His adopted children (1 Jn 3:1, 10), and the Son does not forsake His bride (Rom 8:35–39; Eph 5:25).

Second, love is manifesting to an ever greater degree. This is evidenced by a spiritual maturation (1 Pet 2:2), a conforming to the image of Jesus Christ (Rom 8:29). Believers in Jesus are not stagnant religionists. There is a growing in grace and the knowledge of truth (2 Pet 3:18), who is Jesus Himself (Jn 14:6). The Spirit illumines the indwelt saint, with the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:6).

Third, Christians have been given eyes to see spiritual things (1 Cor 2:15), hence, they are to fix their eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of one’s faith in Him (Heb 12:2). Faith is granted to believers (Phil 1:29), as a gift of God’s grace (Eph 2:8–9). He has made us believe in Him, by giving us the Spirit, who causes us to know Him (Jn 14:26; 16:13; Phil 3:9–10).

Fourth, with this burgeoning love, increasing light and knowledge, the child of God is more aware of the life given to him (Gal 2:20; 5:22–23). Just as a baby becomes a toddler, he knows his parents love him. He is more and more aware of his place in his family. He has been brought into a wholistic environment. The life of God’s family, Christ’s church, is now his new life. He belongs to Christ (1 Cor 3:23) and Christ’s body (Rom 12:4). The Christian’s life is abundant with the very things I am writing about here, but there is so much more (Jn 10:10).

Fifth, the life in Christ is also eternal. Eternal life is given by Jesus, to God’s elect people (Jn 10:28; 17:2; 1 Jn 5:11, 20), who He came into the world to save (Mt 1:21; Jn 3:16). They are also called “the redeemed of the Lord” which means Christ bought each one with His precious blood (1 Cor 6:20; 7:23; 1 Pet 1:19).

Because of the shedding of Christ’s blood (Mt 26:28; Heb 12:24), in His crucifixion, those who have this blood sprinkled on them (Heb 9:19; 1 Pet 1:2), in the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Heb 10:22), they have the forgiveness of sins (Lk 1:77; Acts 5:31; 13:38; Eph 1:7). We are saved by the application of this (Spirit) baptism because it has all the merits of Christ in it (1 Pet 3:21), which are credited to us as righteousness (Rom 4:5).

Sixth, the merits of Christ’s life and death are too many to even list here, but think of righteousness (right standing before God the Judge). Our Lord Jesus merited His position at God’s right hand (Ps 110:1) at the center of the throne of God (Rev 7:17). Who sits down on the throne of God?

With Jesus Christ, we have a Mediator (1 Tim 2:5) and an Advocate (1 Jn 2:1). Christians are granted access before the throne of grace, through Christ’s mediation of the covenant of grace. He is the door by which we safely enter (Jn 10:7, 9). Despite our innumerable sins against the holy God, Jesus pleads our case before God. As our great high priest, in the holiest place of heaven (Heb 9:24), Jesus presents His own blood upon the mercy seat.

Seventh, Christians have a substitute sacrifice that has successfully paid for all sins for all time (Rom 6:10; Heb 7:27; 9:12). Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:35–39). Jesus made atonement for His people, thus, reconciling them to God (2 Cor 5:18–20). He positioned Himself, as a propitiation, a shelter from the wrath of God (Rom 3:25; Heb 2:17; 1 Jn 2:2; 4:10). God’s just wrath was directed at all people because all are judged, already, as sinners deserving punishment (Jn 3:18; Rom 1:18).

In Christ, the believer has this protection from God’s justice, in that God has shown His people that they are vessels of mercy prepared for glory (Rom 9:23). This is in stark contrast with vessels of wrath prepared for destruction (Rom 9:22). The children of the devil are reprobate sons of Adam, who were not redeemed by Jesus Christ at the cross. The wrath of God is upon them because they are without excuse and without an acceptable sacrifice. Jesus Christ is not their high priest.

There is no acceptable defense for sinners, without an advocate who can plead the acceptable sacrificial offering. There is no mediation, either. God has no reason to sit down with these people to hear their case. They are judged and condemned already (Jn 3:18), and they reject Jesus Christ (1 Pet 2:8), even though God never required their opinion or decision regarding His One and only Son.

With dead souls (spiritually dead to God), the unredeemed reprobate is merely waiting for his biological demise. He will die in his trespasses and sins (Jn 8:42) and his resurrection on the Day of Christ’s return will be to judgment (Jn 5:28–29). This is his sentencing to the second death in the lake of fire (Rev 20:14–15).

The sons of disobedience do not have the Spirit of God’s Son at work within them (Rom 8:9). They have the spirit of the age, that is, the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4), whose children they are from conception to death. They have none of Christ’s benefits. With no Holy Spirit, there is no peace with God or others for that matter.

Christian, take time to count your blessings, today. Consider all His benefits bestowed upon you. Be mindful of the ever-growing expanse between you and the children of darkness, in whom there is no Light. These are the lovers of death, who have no Life in them.

Meditate, today, on the faith granted to you and growing in you, by His Spirit. He will finish it. His works, His merits, and His benefits are without number. If you have these, rejoice, and again I say, rejoice…because when you have them, you have them all (Eph 1:3). Those people without them have nothing.

David Norczyk

Spokane Valley, Washington

December 30, 2022