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never alone



"In a multitude of people is the glory of a king..." (Proverbs 14:28a ESV)

 "The believer, therefore, never stands apart by himself; he is never alone.  In the natural world every human being is born in the fellowship of his parents, and he is therefore without any effort on his part a member of a family, of a people, and also of the whole of mankind.  So it is also in the spiritual sphere.  The believer is born from above, out of God, but he receives the new life only in the fellowship of the covenant of grace of which Christ is the Head and at the same time the content.  If by virtue of this regeneration God is his Father, the church may in a good sense be called his mother.  In the world of heathendom also there is no believer or no gathering of believers except by way of the mission which the church of Christ sends them.  From the first moment of his regeneration, therefore, the believer is, apart from his will and apart from his own doing, incorporated in a great whole, taken up into a rich fellowship; he is member of a new nation and citizen of a spiritual kingdom whose king is glorious in the multitude of his subjects."

 ~ Herman Bavinck, Reformed Ethics

 Image credit: photo by Robert Tudor on Unsplash

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