God could not truly be a Father without offspring, and he purposed in love that we should be adopted as his children. When we think of adoption, we automatically think of legal proceedings in which an outside authority transfers a child from one guardian to another. This is not a correct representation of what happened in our case, for God simply accepted us in his Beloved. That is why the process is sometimes referred to as adoption and sometimes as a new birth. Adoption has to do with God's action on our behalf, birth is our response through delivery into the family circle.
Man is a disciple, a learner.
One of our mistakes is in speaking of one who became a disciple at a certain time, as if this is a one-action proposition which is over with the initiation. This is not correct, for one is always a disciple while he lives. It is a perpetual relationship. It is very difficult for those of us who are caught up in the human predicament to understand the wonders of grace, because we are selfish and restrained. We try to water down the concept and dilute it until we can explain and confine it, because our nature is opposed to it.