LEGITIMATE CHILDREN

"When you come to the bar of judgment, God will demand that you pay the debt you owe Him or writhe painfully in hell's prison. If you hold false faith in your heart, He will not accept your payment, even though it is Christ Himself you believe in. He will give you over to the tormentor's hand not only for not believing but for counterfeiting the King of heaven's coin and placing His name on your false money. The judgment scene itself should be enough to stir our earnest determination to have true faith.

As your faith is, so are all your other graces. As a man's marriage is, so are all his children-- legitimate or illegitimate. Thus, as our marriage is to Christ, so all our graces are. Now it is faith by which we are married to Christ. "I have espoused you to one husband," said Paul to the Corinthians 2 Corinthians 11:2. It is by faith that the soul gives consent to take Christ for her husband. If our faith is false, then our marriage to Christ is also false; and if the marriage is illicit, then all our assumed graces are illegitimate also.

No matter how handsome an illegitimate child may be, he is still illegitimate. Our humility, patience, temperance-- they are all illegitimate. Just as "a bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord" Deuteronomy 23:2, no bastard grace can enter the congregation of the redeemed in heaven. A man who has children of his own will not make another's illegitimate child his heir. God has children of His own to inherit heaven's glory. And by His Spirit He has begotten heavenly graces in their hearts, which resemble His own holy nature. Surely, then, He will never give His glory to mere strangers, counterfeit believers who are the devil's brats.” 


Quoted material from, ”The Christian in Complete Armour Daily Readings in Spiritual Warfare” by Gurnall and James S Bell. http://www.moodypublishers.com/pub_productDetail.aspx?id=41823&pid=53617