[UntoHim]

Originally Posted by Terry

I think in part to emphasize having God's life and nature, but not in the God-head. To accept "adoption as sons" would seem to nullify this teaching.

Actually the term "adoption as sons" does not nullify that we have received God's life and nature - they are very simply descriptions of two different aspects of our rich, wonderful and complete salvation.

Two very negative things happened to man at the Fall -
Through their disobedience man lost his "legal" standing to be sons of God. Though God was indeed their creator, and in a very real sense their Father, they lost this legal standing and thus lost all the rights and privileges that are naturally bestowed upon a son. They were then ejected from the Garden.

Through their choosing of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (over the Tree of Life) man lost the opportunity to become partakers of God's life and all that this entails. Whether or not one believes the Tree of Life literally contained God's life or that it was a symbolic figure of sorts, it does not change the basic fact that man missed his opportunity to become partakers of God's life, and by extension his nature as well.

The Gospel addresses both of these negative things that took place in the fall -
One: God, through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, has restored our relationship with the Father - we have been legally and officially "adopted" back into the family as sons, with all the rights and privileges that go along with legal and official sonship. All praise and glory to the Father who has accepted us through his Son....who has called us brothers!

Two: The Gospel also addresses the other negative thing from the Fall - The missed opportunity to receive the Life of God into our entire being. At the Creation, God "breathed into man the breath of life" - So man did initially receive God's life, if nothing else as the animating, enlivening energy for his body and soul, though we know that this was not a full and complete reception of God's life. Then came the second "breathing" - And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit." (John 20:22). Now, along with our legal and official adoption as sons we become "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). The reason we can partake of the divine nature is that God has breathed into us his very life - the Spirit of life, the Holy Spirit. Thank you Lord for the second breathing!

So adoption as sons and receiving God's life and nature are simply two aspects of God's comprehensive and complete salvation. They are not in the least in "competition", much less antithetical as Witness Lee would have us believe. And to be sure, let's all be clear that if any particular teaching from man seems to be "nullified" by scripture, then by all means let it be nullified, and even obliterated. "yea, let God be true, but every man a liar".