The purpose of the manifestation of the sons of God is to destroy the works of the devil. It is the manifestation of the sons of God, Christ and His army, that will bring in the Kingdom Age. The Kingdom Age is the period of time when the influence of Satan is removed from our earth for a season.

Whoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his [God's] seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. (I John 3:9)

We have been so conditioned by the teaching that it is inevitable that Christians sin while they are in the world, and that grace is little more than an excuse for the sins of believers, that I John 3:9 (above) may be incomprehensible to us.

But notice:

In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. (I John 3:10)

The passage just quoted (above) is important because it provides a method of testing the genuineness of Christian experience. It is neither a profession of belief nor some kind of religious behavior that enables us to discriminate between Christians and non-Christians. The test of Christian experience is whether the Holy Spirit is bearing the fruit of godliness in the individual.

When Paul was testifying to Felix, the governor of Caesarea, Paul did not advise Felix to make a profession of "faith," after which he could continue his life as before. Rather, we find that Paul warned Felix concerning the wrath to come:

And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. (Acts 24:24,25)

How many evangelists of "grace," after the modern definition of the term, have preached that Felix would not make a simple profession of belief, preferring a "convenient season"?

But the Scripture states that the Apostle reasoned of "righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." If we of today who claim the name of Christ are to draw back from our adulterous union with the world and to seek Him whose Gospel we claim to teach, then we must proclaim righteous, temperate behavior with a view toward the judgment to come. Righteousness and self-control are essential parts of the Christian Gospel.

We are re-created in righteousness by means of the work of Christ in us. It is through the Gospel that we learn self-control in the use of the world and so escape the riotous living that destroys the bodies and souls of our neighbors.

It is through the Gospel of the Kingdom of God that we learn to fear the Day of Wrath that will dawn in fire, and through that fear turn from the lusts of the world and present our bodies a living sacrifice before God in Christ. It is not surprising that the worldly Felix trembled.

To be continued.