Will you please turn to the letter to the Colossians? Colossians, chapter 1.
We begin with verse 12 through verse 19: Colossians 1:12-19.
Giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;
Who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love;
In whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins;
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;
For in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
All things have been created through Him, and unto Him;
And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
And He is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.
For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fullness dwell.
May we look to the Lord in prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee that we may gather together here in the name of Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We confess that, in ourselves, it is impossible for us to exalt Thy beloved Son as we should.
So we just look to Thy Holy Spirit to enable us to absorb Thy Son this evening, that He may be highly exalted and glorified in the midst of Thy people. We commit this time into Thy hands and ask Thee to give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of God. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We mentioned last night that the thing we are considering together before the Lord is sonship. It is the eternal purpose of God to give us sonship in His beloved Son.
Whenever we consider this matter of sonship, we cannot consider it without first considering the Son, the Son of God’s love. Why? Because our sonship is actually included in His being the Son of God.
Or, to put it another way, the Son shares the glory of His sonship. So our sonship is in Christ Jesus. If we want to have a good understanding of what sonship really is, I believe the first thing to do is to consider the Son.
We thank God that it is the will of God. In Romans 8, we are told that, according to His foreknowledge, He has foreordained us to be conformed to the image of His Son, that the Son may be the firstborn among many brethren.
So from this verse you can see very clearly that it is because of the Son that we receive sonship. It is the will of God that we should be conformed to the image of God’s Son, that God’s Son may be the firstborn among His brethren. And that is how we enter into sonship.
So this evening, we look to the Lord that He will enable us to consider the Son of God’s love.
First of all, we find that this Son is the eternal Son. Let us consider the eternal sonship of our Lord Jesus.
Before we go into the Scripture, I would like to read to you something written by a man called Willox. He wrote an article on the eternal sonship, published in The Dawn magazine, edited by D. M. Panton. D. M. Panton was considered one of the best students of prophecy.
I think, probably at the very outset, I will read something from that article to give you a little idea of what the sonship of our Lord Jesus really is.
Christ’s sonship is a relationship inside the Godhead. That is to say, He is Son in His divine nature.
The Son, asserting that God was His own Father, was making Himself equal with God, as the Jews saw. Now, when the Son, in claiming that God was His own Father, was claiming equality with God, it cannot be that He was merely claiming to be a son by adoption. For this would not be claiming equality with God.
Believers are sons of God by adoption, but believers are infinitely far from being equal with God. It cannot be that He was merely claiming to be a son by office, for that would not be claiming equality with God. The ancient judges were sons of God by office, if you go to the Old Testament you will find it; but they were infinitely far from being equal with God.
It cannot be that He was merely claiming to be a Son by His miraculous conception. For the Holy Spirit, being almighty God, if He so pleased, could cause the miraculous conception of a human being that would have no superhuman nature at all.
It cannot be that He was merely claiming to be a Son by the possession of a human soul produced in an extraordinary way by the Father. For the Father, being almighty God, could, if He pleased, create a superhuman being—a being that would not be God at all.
It must be that He was claiming to be the Son by something inside the Godhead. He was claiming to be the Son in His divine nature.
His claim clearly implies that, just as an earthly son is human in exactly the same sense in which an earthly father is human, so the heavenly Son is divine in exactly the same sense in which His heavenly Father is divine.
The Son, then, is Son by something within the Godhead: the paternity of the Father and the filiation of the Son. Paternity and filiation are inside the Godhead. The filiation involves no inferiority whatsoever in the Son, for it is by this filiation that the Son is equal with God.
The Son of the Father, then, is Son in His divine nature. He always has been and always will be the begotten Son of God. He is the begotten Son of God by eternal generation. The generating is something without either beginning or ending. That is to say, the generating is eternal.
Now let us turn to the Gospel according to John, chapter 1.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
Here we find it is said, “In the beginning.” Now, of course, this beginning is the beginning of all beginnings. In other words, it is not the beginning of the creation of the heavens and the earth, as we find in Genesis 1:1.
In Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created.” That is the beginning of creation. But what we find here in the Gospel according to John—“In the beginning was the Word”—is the real beginning. It is the first beginning, the beginning of all beginnings.
Why? Because the Word is the beginning. God is the beginning. We remember our Lord Jesus said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
In the beginning was the Word. The word Logos means the speech, the utterance, the expression. That is what the Word is.
And this Word, this speech, this utterance, this expression, is in the beginning. It is self-existent. It is pre-existent. And, of course, we know this refers to the second Person of the Godhead.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” That tells us that He has a distinctive divine personality. “And the Word was God.” That tells us there is union and oneness with God.
“And He was in the beginning.” That tells us of His co-existence with God. So, brothers and sisters, immediately you find that our Lord Jesus, as the second Person in the Godhead, is the eternal Son.
He is the beginning. He is with God. And He is God Himself.
This Word is the Son of God because it is the Son who declares the Father.
No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.
God is invisible and unknown. But this unknown God is now made known through the Son, through His Word. Of course, one way to know a person is when that person begins to talk. By his word, we are able to know what is in his mind and what is upon his heart. We begin to know that person and to understand that person.
In the same way, we find that God is not only invisible, but He is unknown. But thank God, Christ the Word expresses the Father. He reveals the Father. He makes the Father known to us.
And He exists from the very beginning, in eternity. So our Lord Jesus is the eternal Son.
Then, of course, you will find in Hebrews 1, verse 2:
At the end of these days hath spoken unto us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.
In former days, God spoke through the prophets to our fathers in many ways and in many forms. But at the end of these days, He spoke not through the prophets; He spoke in the Son.
Or, to put it another way, He spoke in One who has the character of being the Son of God. And because of this, you find that in the Son we are able to hear God wholly and completely.
He is the Word, the speaking of God, the revelation of God. No one knows the Father but the Son. No one knows the Son but the Father. And no one knows the Father but those to whom Christ, the Son, reveals Him.
So, dear brothers and sisters, at the very outset, we need to see that the Son of God’s love is the eternal Son. He is equal with God. He has all the attributes of God. He is one with God, and He is the very expression of God.
Therefore, you find in Hebrews, in the same chapter, that He is “the effulgence of His glory” and “the very image of His substance.” He is the very expression of God’s glory and the expression of His substance—that is, His essence.
Whatever God is, the very essence of God, you find its full expression in the Son. And whatever the glory of God is, you find its expression and manifestation in the Son. Why? Because the Son shares the glory with the Father.
So, dear brothers and sisters, the One whom we worship is the eternal Son. He is God. He has all the majesty, all the glory, all the honor. How we need to bow down and worship Him, because He is the Son, the eternal Son.
We remember in John 17, in the prayer of our Lord Jesus:
Father, I desire that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.
Before the foundation of the world, He is the Son.
Now, what is the relationship between the Father and the Son? You find in John 3:35:
The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand.
And also in John 5:20:
For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth; and greater works than these will He show Him, that ye may marvel.
Now, being the eternal Son of God, we find that He is the Son of the Father’s love. He said, “The Father loves Me.” Notice that, when the Lord Jesus said, “The Father loves Me,” even though He was at that time upon this earth, He did not say, “The Father has loved Me.” He used the words, “The Father loves Me.”
In other words, that love is always there. It is always present. That love which the Father has for Him as the Son exists not only in the days when He was upon this earth, but that love exists even before He came to this world. The love that the Father has for His Son is forever there.
“The Father loves Me.” There is always that love between the Father and the Son.
It is in this connection that we have this term, “the only begotten Son of God.”
You know, the term “only begotten Son,” when it is referred to our Lord Jesus Christ, is only used by the Apostle John. It is used five times in the New Testament as the only begotten Son of God.
The first time we find it in John 1:14:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
“Only begotten from the Father.” Now, what does that mean? The only begotten here does not refer to a time, because it is outside of time. The only begotten here does not mean that there was a time when He became the only begotten Son of God.
The term refers to a relationship. There is a divine relationship, a relationship between Him and the Father, and their relationship can only be expressed by this term, “only begotten Son.”
We cannot try to understand this term in human ways. In human ways, we say, “Well, if you are begotten of the Father, then one day you are born.” You become the son by the father’s generation. But you cannot think in terms of that human expression.
The only begotten in Scripture tells us of a relationship that has always been there. There is no beginning and there is no end. He is the only begotten of the Father. He is the love of the Father. He is the very heart of the Father. He is in the very bosom of the Father.
So, brothers and sisters, just remember: when we think of the only begotten, it is very easy for us to think that perhaps there was a time when He became the only begotten. But this is not true, because when you think of the Godhead, that always exists, there is no time factor involved.
It is simply a way to express a relationship between the Father and the Son.
The second mention is in John 1:18:
No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.
In this instance, you find that the only begotten Son is used to show us that union with the Father. He is the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. It speaks of that union.
Whatever the Father is, that is what the only begotten Son is. Whatever the Father has, the only begotten Son has, because They are in oneness, in union.
Then the third place where the only begotten Son is mentioned is John 3:16. This is a verse with which we are very familiar:
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
This tells us that what the Father gives to us is of such great value, because He gives to us none other than His only begotten Son. When He gives us His only begotten Son, He gives us all—everything that He has, everything that He is.
So this verse is actually trying to tell us the great value of the tremendous gift that God has given to us. He gives us His only begotten Son.
Then the fourth time is in the same chapter, John 3:18:
He that believeth on Him is not judged: he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.
In this connection, what he is trying to tell us is that everything that God is is in the only begotten Son: His love, His mercy, His grace, His salvation. Everything that God has for us is in that name—in the name of the only begotten Son.
Therefore, if you believe in this name, you will have eternal life. If you do not, you will be judged. Or, to put it another way, the only begotten Son is the object of our faith.
What do we believe? Whom do we believe? We believe in the only begotten Son of the Father. When we believe in the only begotten Son of the Father, we believe the Father; we believe in God. He is the object of our faith.
Finally, the fifth time this term is used concerning our Lord Jesus is in 1 John 4:9:
Herein was manifested the love of God in us, that God hath sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.
Here what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us is the love of God. How great is God’s love toward us. He gives us His only begotten Son. He has sent His only begotten Son into the world.
In doing that, there is absolutely no doubt—there can be no doubt—that God so loved the world. So you find that in these five places, when the only begotten Son is mentioned, it is always telling us of His relationship with the Father and, through Him, how the Father is manifested and revealed to us.
He is the only begotten Son of the Father. Even before the foundation of the world, you find that He was there with His Father, because the glory belongs to Him. Whatever is the glory of the Father is the glory of the Son.
Then we find in Hebrews 1, the same verse, verse 2: “Whom,” that is, the Son, “He hath appointed heir of all things.”
This eternal Son, the Son of the Father’s love, the only begotten Son of God—God has established Him the heir of all things.
If you turn to Colossians 1:
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Now, brothers and sisters, in His relationship with God, He is the image of the invisible God. In His relationship with creation, He is the firstborn of all creation.
What is an image? The word “image” in Scripture means two things. Number one, it means representation. An image is the representation.
Now, God is invisible, but here you find the Son is the exact image of the invisible God. He represents God. He is the perfect representation of God. He said, “If you see Me, you see My Father.”
You remember, even at the very last, His disciples were so blinded that Philip asked, “Show us the Father, and we are satisfied.” The Lord Jesus said, “Philip, thou hast been with Me so long, and art thou still asking such a question? Dost thou not know that if thou hast seen Me, thou hast seen the Father?”
Why? Because He is the image of the invisible God. God is invisible, but in that image God is made visible. He is the full representation of God.
The word “image” in Scripture also means, secondly, manifestation. He is not only the full representation of God, but He is also the full manifestation of God. He is able to manifest God in fullness—not merely in part, not in fragments, but to represent God fully and manifest God fully.
That is His relationship with the Father. Now, what is His relationship with creation? He is the firstborn of all creation.
First of all, the term “firstborn” usually carries the thought of the first of the rest. It carries the thought of an exalted, privileged position in the family.
As we mentioned last night, a firstborn has a birthright, and the birthright is that he will have a double portion of the inheritance. So “firstborn” usually means one who is in a privileged position, who is first among the rest.
Usually, in human ways, he who is born first has that position of firstborn. But it is not always so. Even in Scripture, you find it is not always like that.
Among the Jewish people, we mentioned last night about Jacob. Jacob was not born first; Esau was firstborn. But Jacob got the birthright.
You also see it among the sons of David. David had many sons, and certainly Solomon was not the firstborn. Yet, of all the sons of David, Solomon was made first among his brethren. He inherited the firstborn right.
So the word “firstborn” usually carries with it a privileged position. But, of course, when it is applied to our Lord Jesus, you find the same idea there, but there is a difference.
Why? Because when you say He is the firstborn of all creation, it does not mean that He is the first among created beings.
The word “firstborn” in Scripture is used in two different ways. There is one way which is the ordinary way: firstborn means one who is born first among others who are born after him.
But in Scripture, the word “firstborn” has a special use. This special use is not only used concerning our Lord Jesus; you find it used even with Israel. We mentioned last night Exodus 4:22-23:
Israel is My son, My firstborn.
As a nation, Israel is not the firstborn nation. Even at the time when God said to Moses, “Speak to Pharaoh. Say, ‘Let My people go. Israel is My son, My firstborn,’” the nation of Israel was not established yet.
They were still a people, slaves in Egypt. But God said, “Israel is My son, My firstborn.” In other words, among all the nations, God had sovereignly chosen Israel to be the first of the nations, even though she was not the first nation that was formed.
Egypt, at that time, was already a great nation, and Israel was not formed as a nation yet. Yet God said, “Israel is My firstborn,” the firstborn among the nations.
We find this also used in Psalm 89:27, concerning David:
I also will make him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.
Before the nation of Israel had kings, the nations around them already had kings. Because the nations around them had kings, they came to Samuel and said, “Give us a king like the rest of the nations.”
They did not understand that God was their King. So kings existed upon this earth long before Israel had a king. David was king of the nation of Israel, and God said, “I will make him firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.”
These two instances tell us that “firstborn” has a special application in Scripture. Sometimes it is used in the ordinary way, and at other times it is used in a special way.
We cannot use “firstborn,” when applying it to Christ, in the ordinary way. If we do, we make the firstborn of all creation as though He were the first created. So it has to be applied to our Lord Jesus in the special way and in a special sense.
In this special sense, firstborn means two things. Number one, it is priority. He is prior—before all creation. Before creation was created, He was already there.
And secondly, His sovereignty. He is not only prior to creation, but He has sovereignty over all creation. That is what firstborn really means.
In reading Colossians 1, you can find that this word is proven to be used in this special way. Why? Because it says, “firstborn of all creation.”
Why is He called the firstborn of all creation? God is going to give all things to Him. God has established Him to be the heir of all things. In order to do that, all things had to be created, and He became the firstborn of all creation.
What does it mean? The word “because” gives us a clue. He is called the firstborn of all creation because in Him were all things created.
In the original manuscript, this should be translated “in Him.” In Him all things were created: the things in the heavens, the things upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities. It is all-inclusive.
In Him were all things created. Now, translators, when they come to translate this, find it difficult. Why? Because they cannot see how all things could be created in Him. So they use another expression, “by Him.”
But, of course, we find the word “through” later on. In the same verse, it says, “All things have been created through Him and unto Him.” So, strictly speaking, this is “in Him all things were created.”
Now, how can all things be created in Him? To use a simple illustration, you find here a table. This table is built by someone—we say, a carpenter.
This table actually is built in him. Why? Because it is in the mind of the carpenter that he conceives an idea of making a table. He has a kind of imagination of how the table would look.
Oftentimes, you find whatever you build, in a sense, reveals what you are. If this carpenter is a very artistic person, then, of course, the table he designs will be a very beautiful table. If he is a very orderly, symmetrical person, then what he builds reveals that he is a very symmetrical person.
So, in a sense, you will find that this is created, or built, in him. He is the designer. He designs it according to his pleasure, according to his character. So this table will take upon itself the character of the carpenter.
I think this is true in whatever you build, in whatever you do. You find that the work of your hands actually reveals who you are and what you are, because anything you make takes the character of you.
This is the same thing with all things, brothers and sisters. Whether you look at the things in heaven or upon the earth, whether they are principalities or authorities—that is, angelic beings—you find it is all-inclusive. The angelic beings, the celestial beings, and all created things were all created in the Son.
He is the designer, the architect. He conceives the thought. He gives the idea of everything. Therefore, everything will tell of His glory, will reveal His divinity, and will reveal His power, because everything is designed by Him. He is the designer of all things.
Secondly, all things were created through Him. He is not only the architect, the designer; He is also the engineer, the contractor. He not only designed it, but He built it Himself. All things were created through Him—heaven and earth and all things in them.
Thirdly, all things were created for Him. He is not only the designer, the architect; He is not only the engineer, the contractor; He is also the owner, the heir of all things, because everything that He has created is for Himself.
It is the will of God that He should be the heir of all things. Brothers and sisters, this is what firstborn really means when it is applied to our Lord Jesus. He has priority before all things, and He has sovereignty over all things.
You remember in Revelation 4, it says, “All things were created for Thy pleasure.” There is nothing that is created not for the pleasure of God, for the pleasure of God’s Son.
All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him, that He may have the preeminence in all things. Now, this is the Son.
Then we find in John 1:14:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Here we find that He is not only the eternal Son, the Son of the Father’s love, the only begotten, the firstborn of all creation, and the heir of all things; but one day, the Word that was in the beginning became flesh—the incarnate Son.
The Word became flesh. But remember one thing: when the Word became flesh, it does not mean that He is no longer the Word. He is still the Word, but the Word took upon Himself human flesh.
Therefore, you find that He does not cease to be the Son of God when He becomes the Son of Man. In incarnation, He took upon Himself human flesh, but within that human flesh is the Word—the expression, the speech, the utterance of God.
And the Word dwelt among men. The word “dwelt,” of course, in the original means “tabernacled,” or “pitched a tent.” Immediately, you are led back to the story of the children of Israel in the wilderness.
God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt and brought them to Himself at Mount Sinai. God began to reveal His mind and His heart to the children of Israel. He said, “I want to dwell in your midst. I want to live with you.”
“You are a redeemed people. I have brought you to Myself, and I want to live in your midst. Build Me a tent, a tabernacle, that I may dwell among you.”
Here you find the same word is used concerning our Lord Jesus. When the Word became flesh, He tabernacled among men. He is the tabernacle, because in Him is the glory of God.
The glory of God dwelt in the tabernacle. You remember, after the tabernacle was built and erected, the glory of God came into the tabernacle and took possession of it. God dwelt through the tabernacle among His people.
So here you find, in the person of our Lord Jesus, when He came into this world, He was that tabernacle of God. The glory of God dwelt in that Man.
At that time, when the Lord was on earth, there was a physical temple in Jerusalem—a temple built by the remnant who returned from captivity and beautified by King Herod. But the glory of the Lord was not there.
The glory of the Lord was in a Person, in the incarnate Son. He tabernacled among men.
Whenever you think of a tabernacle, a tent, you know it is temporary. It is not permanent. Therefore, when the Lord came upon this earth, He was in His tabernacle of a man only for thirty-three years. It was not a permanent dwelling; it was temporary, in order that He might reveal God.
He revealed the glory of God in terms of grace and truth.
Brother Sparks said there is the naked glory of God that no man can stand.
In Old Testament times, the glory of God sometimes appeared. When the glory of God appeared, men had to prostrate themselves. It is intolerable, because He is so glorious and so mighty. No one can see the glory of God.
When Moses asked to see the glory of God, God said, “You can only see the back; you cannot see the face.” Because no one can see God. If anybody should see God, he will be smitten to death.
Every time the glory of God appears, you find people as if smitten to death. Even those nearest to God, when the glory of God appeared, were as if dead. That is the naked glory of God.
The naked glory of God will judge us. Even Daniel said, “My beauty was turned into corruption.” Who can stand before the glory of God? Everything becomes shameful and inglorious—corruption. That is the naked glory of God.
But thank God, when the Son came upon this earth as the incarnate Son, you find it is the same glory of God. The glory of God has not changed one bit. But this glory of God is no longer naked.
In other words, it is now in a Person. When that glory is revealed and manifested, it is grace and truth.
This glory, in terms of grace and truth, is something that is not only tolerable, but something that draws us to Him.
Think of the life of our Lord Jesus upon this earth. He is full of grace and truth.
In a sense, I feel that the way the Gospel according to John is written is really following this thought, because the Gospel of John tells us of the glory of the Son. This glory is in terms of grace and truth.
That is why you find, almost in every chapter in the beginning sections, that there is an incident, a story, something that happens—a miracle, perhaps. But it is not called a miracle in the Gospel according to John; it is called a sign.
The emphasis is not on the thing itself. The emphasis is on what is behind that thing. It is a sign pointing us to the glory of the Son.
You remember the first miracle of our Lord Jesus: He turned water into wine. That is the first time He manifested His glory—the glory of the Son of God.
Every chapter, or every time you find there is an incident and the Lord does something, it is followed by a teaching. Then He begins to say something. Whatever He did was grace; whatever He said was truth.
No one deserved what He did. That family had the wedding. They should have prepared the wine for the guests. If their wine ran out, they could not demand that God supply wine for them. They had no right to make such a demand.
It was the grace of our Lord Jesus—how He graciously met the situation and provided the best wine. He provided such abundance to show forth the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters, today we can look at the glory of God and not be blinded, not be smitten to death. Why? Because we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, full of grace.
Oh, how gracious He is with the Samaritan woman. How gracious He is in feeding the five thousand. How gracious He is in healing that man with thirty-eight years of infirmity.
It is very striking that it was thirty-eight years. It makes you think of the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness for thirty-eight years. Here you find the grace—the glory of God in terms of grace—coming upon people: a man born blind, a woman caught in adultery, a man dead four days and buried, called into life. That is grace.
But the grace is the glory of the Son of God. Every time the Lord did something, it was followed by His beginning to say something.
He began to say, “I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the good shepherd. I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by Me. I am the resurrection and the life.”
Here you find He begins to tell us something. He begins to tell us the truth. Now, what is truth? Truth is ultimate reality. Here is the truth that reveals the glory of God.
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, what our Lord Jesus accomplished upon this earth! He fully manifested His sonship while He was on earth in two very special ways.
Number one, you find that He revealed His sonship in the way of obedience.
As God, when you think of God, you cannot think of obedience or submission. You submit to God. You obey God. But God knows no one to obey or to submit to. Obedience is something unknown to God.
Because in the very makeup of God, there is no such thing as obedience or submission. He is God. He is to be obeyed and submitted to.
In a sense, you find that the eternal Son, when He came upon this earth, assumed a relationship with God His Father. In that assumed relationship, He had to learn obedience by the things which He suffered.
I think this is a most glorious thing. Think of what He is. He is the eternal Son. He is God. He does not know what obedience is, because He is always in command. That is His prerogative, His nature.
But finally He assumed that position. In Philippians 2, we are told that, being equal with God, He did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but He emptied Himself.
Now remember, when He emptied Himself, He emptied Himself of all the glory, honor, majesty, and worship that accompanied the Godhead. But remember, He could never empty Himself of His deity.
Do not think that He emptied Himself of deity. No, He is still God. He is always God. He cannot cease to be God.
When He came upon this earth, He emptied Himself of all the honor, glory, and worship that accompanied the Godhead, and He took upon Himself the form of a slave. That is an assumed position.
The form of a slave. He put Himself under His Father. He recognized His Father as God above Him in order that the work of redemption might be done.
Remember, He is equal with God in essence. But in order to accomplish the work of redemption, there was agreement between the Father and the Son to work out that redemption. In working out that redemption, the Son was to take a lower position and learn obedience by the things which He suffered.
Sometimes we feel it is very difficult for us to learn obedience. It is very difficult for us to submit, even to God. We find it difficult to obey God and difficult to submit to God, not to mention submitting to one another.
But think of our Lord Jesus, the Son of God. That is what He is, and yet His obedience to the Father is perfect: being obedient to God even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
In that, He fully demonstrated to us His sonship.
The second thing is the cross. In obedience to the Father, He went unto death, even the death of the cross. He was willing to go so far for us.
So far as He Himself was concerned, even as the Son of Man, there was no need for Him to go to the cross. We often say that one day the Lord Jesus took three disciples, and they went up into the mountain, and He was transfigured.
In other words, the glory that was hidden within that human form began to filter out. There you find the glory manifested, and Moses and Elijah came and talked with Him.
What were they talking about? They were talking about His exodus. The word in Greek is exodus. That is, how He would go out from this world.
He came into this world by incarnation: the Word became flesh. Now they were talking about His leaving the world—how He was going to exit from the world.
This is a very important subject to talk about. How would He exit from this world? He had lived upon this earth for thirty-three years. He had declared the Father. He had fully represented the Father and manifested Him.
He had lived a sinless, perfect life. He had lived a life that God requires of man—the Man of God’s heart. He had fully pleased the Father: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
He had lived such a life. Now, how was He going to return to the Father, to exit from the world?
He could very well have exited from the Mount of Transfiguration, because He deserved it. But He did not go out that way. He came down from the mountain, and He went all the way to Calvary. He made His exodus at Calvary, on the cross.
Dear brothers and sisters, that is the full demonstration of His sonship—coming as the incarnate Son.
Finally, He is the exalted Son.
In Philippians 2, it is said that God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
After He had died on the cross, on the third day He was raised from the dead, appeared to His disciples for forty days, and then He ascended up to heaven. God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name that is above every name.
Now, people sometimes wonder what that name is. People become very curious about it. What is that name that is above every name? I do not know. I personally think that name is Jesus.
In the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the Father’s glory.
In Hebrews 2, referring to our Lord Jesus, of course, it is a quotation from Psalm 8:
What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?
Or the son of man, that Thou visitest him?
Thou madest him a little lower than the angels;
Thou crownedst him with glory and honor,
And didst set him over the works of Thy hands:
Thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet.
For in subjecting all things to Him, He left nothing that is not subject to Him. But now we see not yet all things subjected to Him. But we behold Jesus, who hath been made a little lower than the angels because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He should taste death for every man.
He has tasted death for everything, and now He is crowned with glory and honor. He is now seated at the right hand of God, waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool.
He is waiting for that day when He shall return to receive His own unto Himself. He is waiting for that day when He shall bring many sons into glory. This will be the day when He will inherit all things, and we are to be made co-heirs with Christ.
Brothers and sisters, this is the Son. It is at that time that His sonship is fully realized.
Now, in one sense, the sonship of our Lord Jesus is never in question. He is the Son, and He has the sonship. It is never in question.
But in another sense, you find that when the Lord Jesus returned to glory, as we find in John 17, He returned to a double glory.
Why? Because in John 17, verses 5 and 24, there is mention of glory. In verse 5 He said:
And now, Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.
That was the glory that belonged to the eternal Son. Being the eternal Son of God, He had with the Father glory before the world was. He left that glory when He came to be the Son of Man, and now He was returning to the glory that He had left thirty-three years before.
Then, in verse 24, it is said:
That they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.
In other words, you find there is not only a glory that He had with the Father in eternity, from eternity to eternity, but because He came to be a man and completed the work of redemption, when He returned to glory, He returned to the Father not only as the Son of God, but also as the Son of Man.
As Man, He was given glory. That glory is something given to Him, not something that He had with the Father in eternity. It was given to Him because He was willing to come into this world and finish the work that the Father had committed to Him.
So it is a double glory. In one sense, His sonship is never in question. But in another sense, His sonship is fully realized when He returned to that double glory in heaven.
Now, this is the Son, and this is His sonship.
Dear brothers and sisters, why do we need to consider Him? Because when we consider Him as the Son—His eternal sonship—we see that He is God, nothing less than what God is.
It brings forth from us worship. Oh, how we need to bow down and worship Him, because He is the eternal Son. All glory, majesty, honor, and power belong to Him.
When we think that He is the Son of God’s love, all the purpose of God is in Him. Everything that God does is done in Him, by Him, through Him, and for Him.
Brothers and sisters, how we need to thank God for the beloved Son, because without Him, where would we be? How we need to recognize our place and our relationship with Him: that we belong to Him; we are for His pleasure.
When we consider Him as the incarnate Son, brothers and sisters, how our hearts are deeply moved that He who is equal with God was willing to take such a humble position, even to die on the cross just for you and for me.
How can it be? It is because of His tremendous love for us.
Thank God, when we think that He is now the exalted Son of God, on the one hand our knees bow before Him and our lips confess Him as Lord. On the other hand, what a hope we have before us!
Because one day, when He is to assume the full sonship and inherit all things, we are to be co-heirs with Him.
This is glory. Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, we acknowledge that it is beyond our ability not even to describe, but even to think, how great is Thy Son.
Our Father, we just ask Thee that, by the Holy Spirit, who is the only One able to exalt the Son, He will reveal the Son in us.
Oh, that we may see the Son as He is, in all His glory, in all His humiliation, in all His beauty and exaltation; that we may have a right attitude toward Him; that we may have a right relationship with Him; that we may know to kiss the Son, and to love Him, and to worship Him.