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VI. EVERY MAN THE SON OF HIS OWN FATHER

IT IS entirely obvious that every man is the son of his own father; that is, he is like his father—a reproduction of him, of a similar essence, type, and character. This is more than a truism in the discussion of our subject; it has a most important bearing as a self-evident fact upon the discussion. For it follows that if Jesus is the Son of God in any special sense, he is entirely distinct from us.

In what sense can we justly and properly be called the children or sons of God? Is it not only when we are recreated through regeneration into His image and likeness? Of course, in the most general sense every one is the offspring of God, but he is not so in the Biblical sense until he is recreated into the image and likeness of God, for it is this sonship to which reference is so often made. But when a man is so changed from his carnal mind as to become