The doctrine of Regeneration 1 John 5:1-5

Regeneration as the Spiritual Change Wrought by the Holy Spirit

If you would, turn in your Bibles to the book of 1 John chapter 5 and we are going to read the same five verses that we read to you last week because we couldn't get through all the message last week.

Some may say, well, we was here for a while, I can't help it. There's a lot in the doctrine of regeneration. And it's very, very important. It's very, very necessary. Today, concerning the doctrine of regeneration, we're going to be looking at more so what happens when regeneration takes place as compared to last week when we really considered why regeneration is necessary.

Regeneration is necessary because a person cannot see the kingdom of God except he is born again. Jesus spoke to Nicodemus. We looked in John's gospel in the third chapter and we saw how Nicodemus came to Jesus by night and Jesus just came right out and said, you must be born again.

Salvation is not a matter of what we do or what we achieve or what we attain unto, but salvation is a matter of what was accomplished on the cross at Calvary by Jesus Christ. And salvation cannot be applied in any other way to any person, any man, any woman, any boy or any girl outside of the work, the sovereign working of the Holy Spirit of God in that person's life.

So basically the long and the short of it is if you say that you are saved, you are saved only because of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross, what Jesus Christ did in the resurrection and what Jesus Christ or what the Holy Spirit has applied to you as the individual believer in Jesus Christ.

So last week again, basically why regeneration is necessary. Remember this term that we're going to read here in first John to be born of God. That means regenerated or to be born from above, to be born again.

That's what it's talking about. So if we could, let's read those first five verses. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.

By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.

And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the son of God. Lord, I just want to come to you just for a moment here to say I love you.

Lord, to say I'm so grateful and thankful, dear Lord, for who you are. I'm thankful, dear God, for you setting forth this great truth in your word concerning regeneration. And I pray that as your people, God, that we would set our hearts and our minds constantly to searching and seeking out the scriptures to know what you have said in your word concerning the work that you have accomplished so that we might be better able, dear God, in that to communicate to people when questions come about.

For it's in Jesus name I pray. Amen and amen. I read you a quote last week from B .B. Warfield. He was a theologian from the late 1800s and early 1900s concerning what he said about regeneration. I'm just going to read that again.

He said this regeneration is the spiritual change wrought in the heart of man by the Holy Spirit in which our inherently sinful nature is changed so that we can respond to God in faith and live in accordance with his will.

It extends to the whole nature of man, altering his governing disposition, illuminating his mind, freeing his will and renewing his nature. Regeneration or the new birth is an inner recreating of fallen human nature by the gracious sovereign action of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible conceives salvation as the redemptive renewal of man on the basis of a restored relationship with God in Christ. And it presents it as involving a radical and complete transformation wrought in the soul by God, the Holy Spirit, by virtue of which we become new creatures no longer conformed to this world, but in knowledge and holiness of the truth are created after the image of God.

That is good stuff right there. I think about the the hymn writer that wrote the old song to God be the glory. Great things he had done. So loved he the world that he gave us his son who yielded his life, our redemption to win and open the life gate that all may go in.

Oh, perfect redemption, the purchase of blood to every believer, the promise of God, the vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus, a pardon receives great things he had taught us, great things he had done and great our rejoicing through Jesus, the son, but pure and higher and greater will be our wonder, our transport.

When Jesus we see to God be the glory, great things he has done. And the course of that old song says, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Let the people rejoice. Oh, come to the father through Jesus, the son, and give him the glory. Great things he has done. That ought to always and ever be our focus as believers, that Jesus Christ receives glory and honor and power and praise for he and he alone is worthy of those things.

John Gill, in his commentary on this first verse of the first epistle in the fifth chapter of John, back in the seventeen hundred said this, Wherefore, to be born of God is an instance of great grace and a high honor and privilege of the greatest moment and importance.

That's somewhat an understatement, even though it's a great statement. It is of the utmost importance. Regeneration is not owing to the power and the will of man, but to the abundant mercy and goodwill of God.

How true a statement that is. And when we think about this first verse last week, again, we talked about why regeneration is necessary. Whosoever, John says here, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.

If you remember in First Corinthians, chapter 12 and verse three, the apostle Paul told the church there that if a man is going to be able to say that Jesus is the Christ, it's going to have to be by the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost has to bring an individual to an understanding of their need of salvation. Some would say, well, preacher, why do we have to endure listening to preaching like we do? Well, I don't know.

All I can tell you is what the word of God says, that God chose by the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. I'm thankful to have the privilege to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.

The evidence and the assurance of salvation is that if you can say that Jesus is the Christ, it's not just only something that you feel in your heart, but it's something that you know in your mind as well.

God does not just change the heart, but he will change the mind because the two are interconnected. Some people walk around like they ain't got the brain in their head, right? But guess what? Truth be told, you have to have your brain in your head or you ain't going to be walking around.

It takes the mind and the heart to keep on keeping on. So he said this, if we come on down just a little bit further, actually come down to the fourth verse, he said, whatsoever is born of God. There's that phrase again, regenerated, born from above or born again, whatsoever is born of God, overcomes the world.

Now, some may say, big deal, I'm an overcomer. I sing songs about being an overcomer. We sung that song just then about overcoming and truly, truly, that is the real deal. But have you ever stopped and considered what it is that in Jesus Christ, we the believer have overcome?

I mean, it's one thing to say we're a winner. There's that song that says I'm a winner either way, if I go or if I stay, that's true. But what have we overcome? What is involved or what goes into the act of regeneration when God does his sovereign work within the heart and the mind of those whom he calls unto salvation?

Remember, last week I shared with you something else, too. I keep going back to this, but it's important when I can't preach the full message in one day for just for myself, because I'm a lot simpler than some of you.

I can't remember a whole lot. It takes me being refreshed, so I have to refresh myself. But if you'll remember, we spoke about the act of regeneration when regeneration happens. It's a moment in time and in that moment of time when the Holy Spirit regenerates the the individual, what is happening is that individual, be he male, female, boy or girl, adult or child, that individual is brought to life because the scriptures teach us that we are dead in our trespasses and sins before we come to Christ.

And so it takes the the quickening of the Holy Spirit being brought to life so that we can recognize and respond to God. It does again. It doesn't matter if you go to the funeral home and you see the person lying in the casket, you can take the sharpest pin that you want to take and poke them and there will be absolutely no response whatsoever because they're dead.

And we were in the same condition before we were regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God. We could not respond to God. We were unable to respond to God. So when regeneration takes place, not only in that moment does regeneration take place or happen, but the legal act of justification happens, the legal and the spiritual act of adoption takes place.

So what we see is three wholly separate doctrines actually all happen in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, if you would have it, quicker than you can bat your eye like that. All of these things take place when God rebursts the individual.

But you can't, it's hard to get to understand that when we just say these simple little statements. It takes talking out the doctrine of regeneration to get it. It is beautiful. But he says whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

John Murray passed away in 1975. He was a theologian, I guess, of the prominent theologian, one of the prominent theologians of the 20th century through the 1900s. He said this concerning faith, the embrace of Christ in faith is the first evidence of regeneration.

And only thus may we know that we have been regenerated. A man may ask the question and the whole purpose of John writing this epistle was so that you may know that you have eternal life, not that you have to guess, not that you have to wonder, not that you have to worry, not that you have to calculate and cipher and figure if you do this, this and this, but so that you will know that you have eternal life.

Now, eternal life, the Bible says, if you turn over in your Bible to the book of Ephesians chapter two, Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, nine and ten, the scripture says Paul speaks clearly concerning what happens when regeneration takes place.

He says this, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is it being grace and faith. It is the gift of God. Grace and faith themselves are a gift from God. Wow, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast for we are created.

Listen to what he said there in Ephesians chapter two, verses eight, nine and ten. In that 10th verse, this is what he says, for we in verse 10, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Faith is the first evidence of regeneration. How do I know if I've been born again? How can I have assurance of salvation? Because you have believed by faith that Jesus is the son of the living God. You see, again, through this entire epistle, it's not only been orthodoxy, right belief that has been that has been pressed, but it's been orthopraxy, right practice, living what you believe, faith and work, working hand in hand, simultaneously, together, flawlessly.

So he said he went on there in that same in this same verse. If we continue just a little bit further, I want to read you something that was that was that was spoken concerning regeneration, regenerating faith.

If you would have it concerning concerning this passage of Scripture from the Council of Orange, it was a group of of men of God who met to to to hammer out details and to lay out a scriptural standing and a and a clearly set forth statement so that men, women, boys and girls alike might have a right knowledge of what regeneration is.

And this was all the way back from the year five hundred and twenty nine. This is what they said. If anyone affirms that we can form any right opinion or make any right choice which relates to the salvation of eternal life or that we can be saved by sin to the preaching of the gospel through our natural powers without the effectual work of the Holy Spirit, who makes us all whom he calls gladly and willingly assent to and believe in.

That's the faith in the truth. If anyone says otherwise, he is led astray from the plain teaching of Scripture. By exalting the natural ability of man and does not understand the voice of God who says in the gospel, for apart from me, ye can do nothing.

And the word of the apostle, not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us. Our competence is from God. They were he's basically they're basically stating and affirming the fact that salvation must and always will be from the Lord, that if a man is to be right in the sight of God, he is going to be right in the sight of God because of the work that God does in his heart and in his mind in turning him unto himself.

That is incredible. If we go to Titus, flip back over to the book of Titus, Titus chapter three. So you go first Timothy, second Timothy and then in Titus, Titus chapter three. And I was just going to read from verse four, but I was studying just a bit more last night and I decided I want to read verse three as well because it's it's very, very important because remember, we're talking about what takes place, what happens at the moment of regeneration, what it is that we have overcome by being able, made able to trust in Jesus Christ for our salvation.

The book of Titus chapter three and verse three, Paul said, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish. That fits everybody, the shoes are laid out, you might as well go ahead and just put them on. We also ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.

This is the condition of the unregenerate man, woman, boy or girl before being born again. It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from, you can be from another country, you can live on an island that is uninhabited by most people and be one of few or the only human there.

The truth is still going to be the same for that person as it is for anyone else who has ever lived or shall ever lived. We were, the Bible says, we were also ourselves sometimes foolish. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.

Some may say, well, I've never been an atheist preacher, so you missed me on that one. I beg to differ with you. For when you were separated, when you were unregenerate outside of the grace of God, you may not have verbally said, I will never believe in God.

But by the life that you and I have lived, we have lived that as a testimony, a statement without making a statement that there is no God, because we will say within ourselves, I will do what I want to do.

I'll go where I want to go and I will be what I want to be. The problem there is all the eyes in those statements. We are not called to look in at ourselves. We're called to look unto Jesus Christ. Jesus, the word of God says, look unto him, look unto millions of the earth and be saved.

Foolish, disobedient. Everybody knows what that means, right? Means we didn't do what we were supposed to do. We were deceived. There's a lot of people that are deceived today. And guess what? We were no different before we got saved.

We were deceived. We were believing a lie. We were serving diverse lusts, serving different lusts and different passions of the flesh. You see, something that needs to be considered while we're considering this, what happens in regeneration, what it is that we have overcome.

We've got to understand something. I mean, a lot of things in a lot of our lives. I'm not saying that my life's been super easy, but I've not had to go through some of the things that even some of you have gone through in your life.

And vice versa, some of you could say the same things about others. But I will tell you something, that being unregenerate, being outside of the grace of God, that every one of us were overcome by the world, the flesh and the devil.

I don't know if you've ever been pinned in. Have you ever been pinned in? You get in trouble and you're just hemmed in on every side. I'll tell you what, I always go back to my dog days. As I get older, I'm getting a little less afraid.

Still some, not going to lie. But I always think about that or maybe if I was to even bring it to something, probably even maybe even more, more relatable to your minds. How many of you ever seen the Jurassic Park movies?

How many of you know what Jurassic Park is? Where dinosaurs live, it's a movie. It's not real, just so you know. But there are raptors. The raptors are kind of the big deal, one of the big deals about Jurassic Park and they hunt in packs.

Typically, there's three of them so that when one sees his prey, the other two are going around, one will go this way and one will go this way. So that when they get their prey in their sights, their prey may see one of them and try to run.

But when he tries to run, there is the other. And when he tries to run from that one, there is the other. And he's hemmed in and he's trapped on every side. Friends, before we got born, before I got born again, I can't speak for you, but I'll tell you something.

I was hemmed in by the world, by the flesh and the devil. There was no getting out and there was no getting away from him. I had no, I was overcome. But Jesus came. And when a man, woman is regenerated, Jesus made the way.

Well, praise God, the great evidence and assurance of being born again is found in both the legal and the spiritual reality of salvation in and through the scriptures. The legal reality, I told you, regeneration.

Regeneration means to be born from above. John said, John said there, and let me go back to it there. He said, Whosoever that believeth Jesus is the Christ is born of God. So again, a man cannot be born again except he's regenerated because he can't recognize that Jesus is Christ.

A man can not understand and know and recognize the truth of the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ, which is what John addressed here in this. If you'll remember some previous messages or previous messages and previous chapters before this, John addressed that issue of the deity of Christ.

There can be no compromise on that. Jesus was either the son of God or he was not. If he was not the son of God, then the death that he died was of no effect for anyone. It is no different than the animals that were sacrificed through the Old Testament times.

But if he is Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God, not one of many sons, he is only begotten son, the unique one. A person can never know this. You say, well, we hear it every week, but I still don't get it, preacher.

Well, you're not going to get it until and unless the Holy gets you to that. And it's not something that I can do. It's something I can proclaim, but it's not something that I can do. Whosoever believe it, that Jesus is the Christ.

Who has been regenerated, who has been given a new heart, who has been given a new mind, who has been given new eyes, who's been given new ears, who has been given the ability to know and to see from the Word of God this truth concerning Jesus Christ, that he was born of a virgin, that he lived a sinless life, that he died on the cross to make the propitiation for our sins, the atoning sacrifice for our sins, that he physically and literally died in the body, in the body.

There's false teaching that says Jesus died spiritually. No, he did not. He was perfect. What he did was took upon him our sins. Don't ever let that this phraseology get you mixed up by some people. Some people will say Jesus became a sinner.

He did no such thing. He did not become a sinner. He took upon him our sins. He bore the burden and the guilt and the weight and the penalty of our sins. But he in himself was never a sinner. He was perfect and sinless.

He died a physical, literal death and he was raised literally and physically from the dead. And he ascended to the Father according to the Word of God, where he ever lives to make intercession for his people.

And one day he's coming back. He'll come back. He'll show up in the clouds one day and the dead in Christ will be raised first. And then we which are alive and remain will be caught up together with him in the air.

And so shall we ever be with him. There'll be a period of time, according to the scripture, where there'll be tribulation on the earth, unlike this world has ever seen. After that time of tribulation is done with, Jesus Christ will come back, set foot down on this earth, rule and reign for a thousand years.

And according to the Word of God, after that period has ended, the heavens and the earth will melt away with a fervent heat and be dissolved. And God, in his final creative act, will create and make the new heavens and the new earth where sin will never have its effect again.

It's not going to be a repeat. There's not going to be a sequel to man falling into sin. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice.

I love that. Well, so regeneration happens simultaneously. Justification takes place. Justification is a legal term. It's a forensic term, and basically it means the opposite of condemnation. As regard to its nature, it's the judicial act.

What is justification? Here's the definition. It's the judicial act of God by which he pardons all the sins of those who believe in Christ and accounts, accepts, and treats them as righteous in the eye of the law.

Justification is something that happens legally to you when you are regenerated. Basically, it means this, that though you deserve death, though you deserve hell, and though you deserve the wrath and the wrath of God to abide on you, Jesus Christ, in taking all of that upon himself, has cleared the record, and now in the sight of God, we are justified by and through the person of Jesus Christ.

Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. Just a few more verses. If you all hang with us for just a few more minutes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I've only been preaching 32 minutes, so if anybody needs some time.

So Acts chapter 13, Acts chapter 13, and we're looking at the scriptural evidence for justification. Acts chapter 13, in verse 38 and 39, the scripture says this, Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.

And by him, by him, all that believe. Remember, how can you believe? You've got to be regenerated to have faith. Faith, grace and faith themselves are the gift of God. But he says, and by him, all them that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

How good is that? Galatians, if you turn over to the book of Galatians, so you go first and second Corinthians, Galatians, Galatians chapter two and verse 16, Galatians chapter two and verse 16. Paul told the Christians, the believers there in Galatia, this fact, he said, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ.

You see how this, it just, this is, this theme, this doctrine, it runs throughout the whole of scripture. It is consistent and that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

If we go over to chapter three of the same chapter or book in Galatians, Galatians chapter three, verse 21 through 29 is the law then against the promises of God. God forbid for if there had been a law given, which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law, but the scripture, the scripture has concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe, but before faith came, before faith came, before belief came, before regeneration took place, we were kept under the law.

We were overcome. See, it's all going back to that, that passage. We were overcome. We were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith, which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith.

But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. And I want to make a note right here, again, a caution for you. As you hear men teach things that are contrary to the word of God. There are some who teach that after you're saved, you don't have to obey the law of God.

Children, I want you to listen. Children, young people, old people alike, that is not the truth. We are still called to obey the word of God. There's the doctrine of libertinarianism that says basically that when you get saved, your sins are forgiven and you'll never sin again.

That is a lie. Read first the first epistle of John one time through in one setting. And you're going to hear that numerous times. That if a man says that he has no sin, he makes God a liar and he is a liar.

Don't be that one who we have to say, liar, liar, pants on fire. Right? All right. So he said this, you're 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, neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female for you're all one in Christ. And if ye be Christ, then ye are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

Regeneration in a moment, justification in a moment, happening in the same moment, at the same time, functioning flawlessly and simultaneously. And last of all, if we consider adoption there, because listen, the truth be told that the scriptures teach us that we are adopted into the family of God at the moment of regeneration.

We are regenerated. We're reborn. We are justified by and through the work, the finished work of Jesus Christ and legally and spiritually speaking, we're adopted into the family of God. I looked up the definition of adoption.

The definition said this, adoption is the giving to anyone the name and place and privileges of a son who is not a son by birth. That's awesome. I mean, Joseph Ramsey is April and my son. He's got special privileges at our house because he's our son.

But guess what? If we were to adopt a child, that child legally would have the same rights and privileges as our natural born son. You see, the trouble with that, with this is this, that no one has a right to the privileges of the sonship of God.

Naturally speaking, it's only if that person is born again, born from above. What's the scripture say? When we'll look through these scriptures and we'll close. Romans chapter eight, Romans chapter eight, chapter eight, verses 10 through 17 concerning adoption.

That's Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and then Romans, Romans chapter eight, verses 10 through 17. The apostle Paul says this, if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin. I'm sorry. Yeah. But the spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. For, or therefore brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live after the flesh.

We don't owe the flesh anything. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. That's orthopraxy. That's right living.

Stemming from correct orthodoxy, having right belief. Verse 14, for as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not, or ye have not received the spirit of bondage again, I like that, to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, I'm a father.

Amen. Listen, if you've looked at all into adoption as a legal act, it takes exponential amounts of money. It takes large amounts of time. But in the regeneration of God, it happens in an instant. There's no red carpet.

Praise God. There's no waiting when God says he is. Wow. For you have not been given the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, I have a father. The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

Again, the whole point of this first epistle of John that we've been preaching through, verse by verse, is so that ultimately and finally, if a person is regenerated and born again by the spirit of God, they can know that they have eternal life.

The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and join heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.

Back over in Galatians again. Well, my fingers are getting tired, preacher. Get used to it. Galatians chapter four, Galatians chapter four, verses one through six concerning adoption. Now this I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he is Lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.

Even so, we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. We were overcome. That's what he's saying. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

We might have been overcome, but in Jesus Christ, we are overcomers. We are no longer the victim, but in Christ Jesus, we have been made the victor. That's why I believe that that songwriter wrote that hymn, Victory in Jesus, my savior forever.

He sought me and he bought me with his redeeming blood. He loved me heir. He loved me before I, amen. And that is what the scriptures teach, that he purposed before eternity began to save those whom he would.

Well, the scripture said, and because he, our sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, father, wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

And last of all, in the book of Ephesians chapter one, verses two through six, the apostle Paul in beginning this, which Ephesians might be one of the, it in Romans might be one of the most, I'll call it doctrinal heavy books of the new testament.

But in this, uh, this letter to the Ephesian believers, he says this grace to you and peace from God, our father, and from the Lord, Jesus Christ, blessed be the God and the father of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

He's, he said on folks understanding that the two are tied together and not tied together, just the two, but the three God, the father, God, the son, and God, the Holy spirit. The scriptures teach a Trinitarian view that three equal parts functioning as one are one in the same, that they're co-equal co-eternal and co-existent that there never was a time.

Here's something else that you need to know that'll be taught to you. There's some people will say, uh, it's a certain point in time that God, the father function and the other two didn't function simultaneously.

And some will say, Jesus functioned at this point and God, the father and the Holy spirit took a backseat. No, my friend, there was never a time before history began or shall be until history ceases to be that God, the father, God, the son, and God, the Holy spirit do not cease to all work simultaneously and flawlessly together at the same time.

That's the Trinity. That's the doctrine of the Trinity. He said, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According as he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us to the adoption of children.