Gerhard, Loci, Image of God, § 93 (3): Therefore one must think thus: the Logos alone is by nature the Son of God because of His eternal generation from the Father, but not through the grace of adoption or through creation. Adam is a child of God by nature and by grace: by nature, because he was created after the image of God and because God embraced this creature [plasma] of His with fatherly love because of the uprightness of his nature; by grace, because the human nature in Adam was elevated to this dignity by the singular blessing of the Creator and by a limitless but by no means deserved grace. The regenerate are the children of God by grace in Christ but not by nature; that is, they have lost that concreate integrity of their nature and the image of God but are adopted again into being the children of God again through faith in Christ, the natural and essential Son of God. Christ is the Son of God according to His human nature neither by nature nor by adoption but by union; that is, because the assumed nature was elevated into the very hypostasis of the Logos. Whoever does not distinguish all these points carefully misleads and does not teach or lead aright.