Alamo Drive
Church of Christ

Chart #6: How Does This Relationship Start?

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God created life full grown and mature which then reproduced “after its kind.” 

 

• God created plants fully mature and then allowed each seed to reproduce after its kind.  Gen. 1:11-13.

• Plants today grow from seeds planted in a field after the plant from which the seed was harvested seems to have died.  That dead plant then gives a see from which new life springs forth.  Although God has power to bring life any way He wants, He has chosen to use only this process.  Cf. I Cor. 15:35-50, esp. 15:36-38.

• Note: Even with modern “test tube” agriculture, these principles are still valid.

• Spirituality also can be described as a seed, a Sower, a field, and a process.  Gal. 6:7, Lk. 8 (see below).

 

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God created animal life fully mature and then allowed each adult male and female to provide seed to reproduce after its kind.  Gen. 1:20-22, 24-25, 26-31, 2:7, 22-23.

 

• Animals – including humans – today grow from the union of seeds joined in the female so that seed, Sower, field and process bring forth life.  Although God has power to bring forth life any way He wants, He has chosen to use only this process.

• Note: Even with modern “test tube” births and cloning possibilities, these principles are still valid.

• Before a baby is born, it has no legal name, family membership nor legal inheritance although it is alive after conception.

 

 

God created Spiritual life fully mature and then allowed His seed to reproduce after its kind.

 

• God’s relationship to people through Jesus Christ came into being fully mature with Apostles, with Prophets, with Evangelists and with Shepherds (Pastors) and Teachers.  Later generations required that their purposes would be served by people who grew into maturity through the process of teaching and edifying with God’s word.  Eph. 4:11-16, I Cor. 12:12-30, esp. 12:27-30.

• God illustrates this process of spiritual growth with the Parable of the Sower.  Lk. 8:4-15/Mk. 4:3-20/Matt. 13:3-23.

 

1. The Sower is the teacher of God’s word.  Jn. 6:45.

2. The seed is God’s word.  Lk. 8:11, Rom. 1:16.

3. The field is the hearer’s heart, with the good and honest heart being the kind of soil required.  Lk. 8:15, Rom. 10:17.

4. The result of the process is new spiritual life.  Jn. 3:3-5, Rom. 6:3-7, James 1:18, I Pet. 1:23, I Cor. 4:15, I Jn. 5:1.  Cf. Jn. 1:12, 16:13.

5. This new life then spreads the seed – God’s word – even further so that more new life abounds.  Lk. 8:8, 16-18,
   Matt. 13:2-23, esp. 13:8, 23.  Cf. I Cor. 4:15, I Pet. 1:21, Rom. 1:16.
    

 

This new spiritual life produces a new relationship, a new name and a new inheritance.

 

1. Christians have a new family relationship with those who are also related to God in Christ.  II Cor. 5:17, Rom. 6:4.

2. Christians have a new name that identifies us.  Acts 11:26.

3. Christians have a new inheritance as Christ’s fellow-heirs.  Rom. 8:12-17, Gal. 3:25-4:7.

4. Christians have a transformed life when we follow God’s laws.  Acts 2:47, Col. 1:13.

 

God gives no indication that He will ever change these laws.

 

1. In God’s word, we never see life brought forth without the sowing, the seed and the field – not even in miracles!

2. In God’s word, animals always require male and female seeds united in the female – even in miracles like the virgin birth of Jesus!

3. In God’s word, spiritual rebirth always required a sowing, the seed and a new birth of water and spirit (see next weeks chart).

 

Next chart: What do we see when people began relating to God through Jesus
in the New Testament?