But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. - John 1:12
The man who is living for God invites attacks upon himself. This may seem to be a brutal and a discouraging fact, but it is true, nevertheless. Christ was hated because His teachings demanded purity of life. He refused to compromise with sin or to gloss it over with soft generalizations. Therefore, men who refused to clean up their lives also refused His love.
When divine power transforms us and we become "sons of God," we are open to severe attacks from the world because we have become members of the heavenly family. For almost six thousand years there has been a continual feud between the powers of darkness, who took control of this world, and the powers of light. When we take Jesus Christ as our Captain and pledge to follow Him until death, we may expect the enemy to attack us with a myriad of temptations.
"Our adversary will not allow us to rest. If we are indeed God's children, we shall be harassed and sorely beset, and we need not expect that Satan or those under his influence will treat us well. But there are angels who excel in strength, who will be with us in all our conflicts, if we will only be faithful." - Testimonies, vol 3, p. 526.
As followers of the Lord Jesus, we can claim His victory. "For in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Hebrews 2:10. Jesus endured the hardships, the torture, and even death at the hands of the enemy; but in all this He was more than a conqueror. And we, as sons of God and brothers of the King, can also claim His victory as ours. - Neff
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