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| Begetting and Parenting; Sonship and Discipleship. They are distinct! |
Sonship: a
condemned, dead, alien sinner being justified, regenerated and adopted into the
family of God - is by God's free grace alone, completely monergistic; it is
God's work alone, man being dead in trespasses and sins, is completely passive.
It is God's free and sovereign activities of producing His children.
John 1
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Discipleship is by
the deliberate choice of God's children in rendering obedience to God's will in
Jesus Christ, in response to God's grace working in them. It is synergistic;
God's children are actively involved. Their carelessness and negligence can
lead to the shipwreck of their faith; God's children can fall from faith, and they can
end up barren.
Phl 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
