Will you please turn to Ephesians, the letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 1, Verse 5?
Having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
And please turn to Romans, Chapter 8. We will read Verses 14 through 17.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God:
and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, as we gather together here this morning, our hearts do bow low before Thee, worshipping Thee and thanking Thee because of Thy great love toward us—what Thou hast done for us.
So wonderful, so glorious, so complete, so lasting. O Lord, what can we say before such love?
We only pray, Lord, that our love will constrain us, that we will not in any way fail Thee, but by Thy grace may arrive at that which Thou art after. It is all for Thy praise and glory.
We commit this time into Thy loving hands, trusting Thy Holy Spirit to guide us, to teach us, and to lead us into the truth. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
I think it is not necessary for me to remind you again what I think is spiritual sonship. I believe that you must have remembered the text for that thing.
I thank the Lord that this matter of spiritual sonship is not a small thing. Because even before the world, God was pleased in His heart for such a thing.
It pleased Him. It is something that He wanted; it is something that gave Him pleasure. And He has marked us out—we who are believers in Him, sanctified in Him, and faithful to Him.
What does He want in us? He wants us to receive sonship. This is what He wants to give to us.
And if we should fail Him, we shall fail to reach sonship. How that must hurt His heart.
So, dear brothers and sisters, this is something important. We have to take it to heart—not for our own sake. As a matter of fact, whether we fail or succeed, it is nothing; but it is a matter with God, which is His pleasure. It is something that we should be very, very serious about.
Now, we have mentioned before: what is sonship? Sonship is the placing of the son.
In other words, when the child is born, he is an heir. Yet, while he is a child, he is under guardianship and stewardship. He is no different from a bondservant, because he cannot make any decision on his own. He is dependent.
He needs to be trained, instructed, and disciplined. He needs to grow up. And as he grows up, the father is watching all the time.
The father is watching whether that child has grown up and arrived at a certain maturity, so that he can share with the father responsibility and also enjoy the privilege. He will be almost like a second self to him.
And this is the day that a father is looking forward to. Now, what if the child never grows up? He may grow up in age, but he does not grow up in character. How he will disappoint the father.
Now, if this is true in the whole human world, how much more true it is in the spiritual world.
So, dear brothers and sisters, I do feel that it is not just your matter or my matter. Our matter does not count. But it is a matter with our heavenly Father; it is a matter with our Lord Jesus—His tremendous love for us and the great price paid for us. It is all for that one thing: that the day will arrive when the Father can place us in the position of sons.
Son and sonship are closely related. You cannot separate these two things, but they can be distinguished, and they should be distinguished.
The moment we believe in the Lord Jesus, we are born from above. You know, it is a strange thing: in the Bible, in some translations, you will find the word sonship translated as adoption.
I was asked by one brother yesterday, “Are we really adopted?” Are we?
In one sense, we are. You know, in human adoption, usually, when you think about adoption, you adopt someone who is not born into the family, who does not have the same life.
But he is adopted. In other words, you go through a legal transaction, and he is made a child, a son, of the family. That is adoption.
Now, in one sense, we are adopted, because God is God and we are human beings. Yet this adoption is very strange, because in adopting us, He gave us His life.
So probably the better translation would be sonship and not adoption. We are grateful to be adopted by God, and we are doubly grateful because this adoption is not earthly adoption; it is heavenly adoption. He gave us His own life.
We are His born children. And how He expects us to really grow up into sons and daughters, so that we can share responsibility and privilege with Him together. So, sonship is the placing of the son.
Now, we mentioned also, when you talk about sonship, what does it include? Is there anything by which we can describe this sonship? We mentioned three things.
Number one: it is glory. Not only will we be transformed and conformed to the image of God’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; not only will we be justified and sanctified, but even glorified, taking up the character of our Lord Jesus.
One day, we will enter into glory. He will lead us into glory. We may see His glory, and we may even share in His glory.
Number two: inheritance. He has prepared an inheritance for His sons. It is unfading, incorruptible, forever pure, undefiled, and reserved for us who are kept by His grace.
And there is the kingdom: we shall have a place in His own kingdom.
Number three: reigning. He that endures, he that continues on to the end and follows Him to the very end, shall reign with Christ. And that is sonship.
Now, this morning, we would like to share together on this matter of the way to sonship. Knowing what sonship is, of course we want to know the way. How can we really receive such sonship?
Sonship is something given to us. According to Galatians 4, our Lord Jesus, in the fullness of time, came into this world, born of a woman and born under the law, that He might redeem us out of sin, that we might receive sonship.
Now, how are we going to receive it? Again, we say, the principle that governs sons and the principle that governs sonship are the same, because one leads to the other.
When we believe in the Lord Jesus, we become the children of God. As many as received Him, who believe on His name, He gave the right to become children of God.
They are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So, dear brothers and sisters, we who believe in the Lord Jesus—he that hath the Son hath life. We have the life of Christ in us, and this life is the life of the Son.
This Christ in us is a perfect Christ. It is not a little bit of Christ. In experiencing Him, that is true, we experience Him more and more. Yet when He comes into our life, when He becomes our life, that life is the life of the Son. It is perfect. It has already arrived.
And the Spirit of God that is given to us is the Spirit of the Son. It is the Spirit of sonship. In other words, because it is the Spirit of the Son, there is a longing, a desire, and an urge to go on unto sonship.
But still, we are babes in Christ when we are first born again. Now, brothers and sisters, just think back. After you are saved, how do you grow in the Lord?
How do you grow out of babyhood and grow into young men? How do you grow out of young men and grow into the fathers, as it were, in the family of God? Now, how do you grow?
I remember I have a little sister. One day, when she was very little, she and my cousin, also about the same age, were sitting on the stairway talking. Somebody overheard them.
You know what they were talking about? They were complaining: “We are so young. Look at our brothers and sisters, older. They have certain privileges we do not have.”
They were longing to grow up that they might have the same privileges. But do not forget: the same responsibility.
Now, brothers and sisters, are we like them? Or will we be content just to continue to be babies, to be cared for—no care, no responsibility, but no privilege too? Are we willing to do that?
Now, how do we grow? You know, as we grow in life, there are actually two parts in it. Why? Because there are two parties working together: there is God, and there is you and me. These two parties are involved.
So far as God is concerned, remember, He has already done it. He has already completed it.
But so far as our part is concerned, we need to enter gradually and increasingly into it. That is why we say there is the objective truth—that is what God has done, what He has done in Christ Jesus. That is done once and for all, and it is completed already.
That is the reason why God can give sonship to us: because it is completed. But there is a subjective part—our part, our experiential part—and this is something that we have to enter gradually into. These two parts have to come together.
So far as the objective truth is concerned, so far as God’s part is concerned, it is finished. You remember our Lord Jesus: when He died on the cross, before He gave up His spirit, He said, “It is finished.”
The work that He had come to do had been done—finished. The Father proposed it; the Son prepared it. So everything is done.
There is nothing you can add to it. All you can do is believe and receive. It is all grace. You cannot do anything more.
Now, that is on God’s part. On our part, we need gradually to see what God has given to us and gradually enter into it. These two parts have to come together.
Thanks be unto God, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.
All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily, and you are complete in Him. In other words, when God gave His beloved Son to us, everything that is of God is there.
And when you receive the Son, every blessing is already there. You cannot ask God to give you something more. If you do, God says, “I have nothing more to give. I have given My all to you.” It is done.
But on our part, we find that not only do we need to know more about what He has done for us, but also to see how many obstacles, hindrances, and things that are not of God are in us. These things have to be dealt with and gotten rid of before we can really enter into that fullness.
It is just like the children of Israel. God had already promised them the land, and as God promised it, it was as though it was already done. So far as God was concerned, it was done.
But so far as the children of Israel were concerned, they had to put their feet down, step by step. They had to conquer all the enemies and claim what God had given them as their own. And so, brothers and sisters, this is what it is.
Again, we say, the life that is given to us is the life of the Son. It is all there, but we need to grow into it.
And as we grow into it, how does it work? We thank God, because what God has proposed and what Christ has prepared for us, the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Son, the Spirit of sonship—is now in us.
He is there to reveal what God has already done for us—not to be done, but already done; already given. What God has already done and already given to us, He will reveal to us. And He will not only reveal it, but He will bring us into all truth.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we thank God that the Spirit of God is in us, the Spirit of the Son is in us, the Spirit of sonship is in us. We thank God for the work of the Holy Spirit.
The work of the Holy Spirit in us has two sides.
Number one: the revelation, the revealing of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells within us. He will reveal Christ to us.
That is His work. He will reveal Christ to us in an increasing manner, so that we may really know Him.
Number two: the discipline of the Holy Spirit. He will arrange our circumstances—everything that we encounter in our daily life.
Dear brothers and sisters, to us believers, there is no such thing as by chance, because our heavenly Father has arranged everything for us. The Holy Spirit is in charge of that.
He will arrange our circumstances, our daily happenings, the people we will meet, the people we will be together with, and the things that happen to us in our daily life—in our home, in our work, in society, in the church, everywhere.
The Holy Spirit will discipline us. He will arrange our circumstances, and through these circumstances, He is trying to get rid of all the obstacles in our lives that keep us from growing into sonship. He will add Christ increasingly into our life.
So, brothers and sisters, by these two works of the Holy Spirit, He will help us to grow from babyhood to young people, and then to fathers. That is the part of the Holy Spirit. But what is our part?
Our part is to trust and obey. You know, we cannot do anything. We can be a hindrance, but we cannot be a help to the Holy Spirit. So the hindrance has to be set aside.
When the Holy Spirit begins to reveal Christ to us, when He begins to arrange the environment for us, we begin to learn our lessons. That is the way that we learn.
By the grace of God, if we can trust and obey—believing in Him, obeying Him, allowing the Holy Spirit to take away the hindrances and bring Christ to us—then we grow.
So, dear brothers and sisters, these are the principles in growing, and the same principle applies to sonship.
So let us turn to 2 Peter, Chapter 1. We will read Verses 3 and 4.
Seeing that His divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that called us by His own glory and virtue;
whereby He hath granted unto us His precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Now, here you find God’s part—what He has done for us. His divine power has given to us. In other words, He has already given.
His divine power has given to us all things that relate to life and godliness. We need life, and life is given. That life is the life of the Son.
We need godliness; that is, we need to be like Him. We need to grow up, and all things that relate to godliness have been given. Not only is the life given, but the way to grow into sons and sonship is already there.
Through the knowledge of Him that called us by glory and virtue, God called us by His glory and by His own virtue. We can enter into that knowledge.
He has given us the greatest and precious promises. So all the promises are there, and by these promises we can become partakers of His divine nature.
In other words, everything that we need for sonship has been given. Life has been given. Godliness has been given through His promises, by the knowledge of Him who has called us by glory and virtue. That is God’s part.
But then you find our part. From Verse 5 onward:
Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge;
and in your knowledge self-control; and in your self-control patience; and in your patience godliness;
and in your godliness brotherly kindness; and in your brotherly kindness love.
Now, because God has done it, God has given it, God has provided it, what should we do? For this very reason, using all diligence—that is what we need to do.
In other words, we cannot be complacent. We cannot lie back—lazy, idle, unfruitful. Since God has done all things for us, that ought to inspire us to use all diligence, to apply ourselves.
In faith, add virtue. Not only just believe, but let this faith be turned into virtuous character, so that we begin to take up the character of our Lord.
And in virtue, knowledge. In life and in character, we begin to know Him even more. You know, sometimes our knowledge of God is mental. It may be correct, but it is not living.
But when you know God, when you know Christ in character—that is to say, you begin to have the same nature, you begin to have the same character—then you know Him much more, and it is a living knowledge.
And in knowledge, self-control. Self-control actually is Spirit-control: you are being controlled by the Holy Spirit.
And in self-control, endurance. Then you can endure. You can endure the cross. And in endurance, godliness, that you will be like God; and in godliness, brotherly love.
You know, brotherly love is not cheap. Not everyone has brotherly love. You have to add, and add, and add until that brotherly love comes out from you. And from brotherly love, love.
For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be neither idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For he that lacketh these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is our responsibility. This is our part, in which we have to cooperate.
Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble:
for thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
God has called us. Now we have the responsibility to make our calling and election sure. He has elected us; He has marked us out beforehand for sonship. Now we have to make it sure.
For in doing these things, you will never fall. The entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ shall be richly furnished unto you. So, dear brothers and sisters, this is the way to sonship.
God has done His part. How about us? It is not that because God has done it, therefore we do not need to play our part and can be idle and unfruitful. No.
It is because God has done it that this should be the incentive. By His grace, we shall press on. We will forget the things behind and press on toward the goal.
To me, I think the best example—now, we have been using different examples to show this matter of sonship—but to me, I think the best example is our Lord Himself.
Because in Hebrews 2:10, it says:
For it became Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
You know, brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is not only our Savior; He is also our Leader.
He is our Savior. What does that mean? It means that He saves us. He does everything for us.
We are saved by grace through faith, and this is not of ourselves; it is the gift of God. Our Lord Jesus is our Savior, a full Savior. He saves us to the uttermost. He saves us even to sonship. He has done it all for us.
But remember, our Lord Jesus is not only our Savior; He is also our Leader. In some translations, it is said He is our Originator, or He is our Captain—the One who leads us.
He is leading the way. He opens the way, and He calls us to follow Him. In following Him, He has made every provision for us that we may be able to follow Him. Even that is grace.
So, brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is the Leader who leads us into glory. He has gone that way before us. He has opened up a new and living way for us, and that is the only way that you can enter into glory.
So let us see how our Lord Jesus leads the way, that we may follow.
I mentioned yesterday: our Lord Jesus is the eternal Son of God. He and the Father are eternally one. His sonship is never questioned. He does not need to grow into sonship; He is already there.
He is placed in equality with God, and it is not something to be grasped. That is where He is.
Now, if He should remain in His glory, what would happen to us? We would have no way.
So the only way that He could lead us into glory was to come into this world. That is what Philippians 2 tells us.
Brothers and sisters, the incarnation of our Lord Jesus is a great mystery. We can never fathom the whole mystery of it, but it is tremendous.
In Philippians 2:6, it says:
Who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.
That is what our Lord Jesus is. He subsists; that is to say, that is what He originally is. In what form? The form there is not the external form. The form there, in the original, is the inward essence—the reality, the nature, the very image.
You find that our Lord Jesus is the eternal Son of God. He has the exact image of God. He has the same character as God, the same nature of God, the same essence as God. What God is, that is what He is. He is equal with God, one with God.
He is the eternal Son. He has eternal sonship. He never needed to grasp it. It is originally and eternally His.
Now, that is where our Lord is. But in order to bring many sons into glory, what did He do? He emptied Himself.
So, brothers and sisters, that is the beginning: He emptied Himself. He poured out Himself.
Of course, He could not empty Himself of His deity, because that is what He is. But He emptied Himself of all the glory, honor, and place as Son. He emptied Himself of all these in order that He might come into this world to be a man.
You know, it is not easy for God to become a man. The Creator, to be a man—He had to empty Himself.
And when He came to be a man, what form did He take? Yes, outwardly He took the fashion of a man. He looked like a man. He was a man. He was a perfect man.
He had everything that a human being has: a spirit, a soul, and a body. Even though that spirit, soul, and body were perfect, undefiled, sinless, born of the Spirit, yet outwardly He was perfectly a man.
He had His own thought, His own will, His own emotion—everything like us. But that was only the outward fashion. What was His inward feeling? What was His mind? His mind was the form of a bondservant.
From the form of God, He took up the form of a bondservant. In other words, He condescended Himself to be a man, and as a man, He became a bondservant to God.
Instead of striving to be equal with God, He was willing to come under God. That is where man’s position is.
So, when our Lord Jesus was on earth, that was His mind. And, brothers and sisters, if we want to arrive at sonship, what is the first step that we should take?
No, we are not so full or so rich as our Lord, because all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him. All the glory and honor belong to Him, so He had much to empty.
And what do we have to empty? We have to empty our sin. We have to empty our pride. We have to empty our self—all these things that will hinder His purpose.
So, brothers and sisters, the first thing to start with is that we need to have the mind of Christ. We need to understand that we, as human beings, are not our own masters.
God created us to be His bondservants, to do His bidding, to do His will.
Just as when the Lord revealed Himself to Saul the Pharisee: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.” You are just an ox, pulling a load according to My will, but you want to have your own will.
So you need to be touched by the goad to show you who is the Master. Brothers and sisters, we as human beings, created by God, ought to be servants—born servants—of God. That should be our mind, and that is the first thing to start with.
And then we find our Lord Jesus, being a man, grew up from babyhood until He was thirty years old.
We know very little about that period. Only in Luke 2, we have three records there: our Lord Jesus grew in strength physically, in wisdom psychologically, and in the favor of God spiritually.
Then, when He was twelve years old, as a Jew, He was made a son of the law. And sure enough, you remember the story: He remained in Jerusalem. His parents tried to find Him and worried about Him, and He said, “Why did you seek Me? Did ye not know that I must be in My Father’s house?”
In other words, from the day that He was made a son of the law, He was occupied with the Father’s business—not His own business. But because He was still a minor, He had to learn His Father’s business under His parents’ control. He obeyed His parents.
He lived thirty hidden years. We do not know what happened. We only know again how He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.
But when He was thirty years old, He came to be baptized by John.
Now, all these hidden years were years of preparation: growing before God, learning to be obedient to His parents, learning a trade, learning to be a member in the family, a member in society, a member even in the city of God.
He was learning, submitting Himself to God and submitting Himself to those over Him.
And what He learned, brothers and sisters, we need that too. In order to grow, we need to have a heart to be occupied with the Father’s business.
Now, do you have such a heart? It is a sign of growing. Are you occupied only with yourself, with your own interest?
Usually, when we begin to grow, even unto mature age, what are we occupied with? We are occupied with ourselves, with our own future. We are not occupied with the Father’s business.
This should be our heart’s desire. Even though we cannot really enter into public service, yet we should have that heart and learn obedience, have fellowship with the Father in secret, and know the Father more and more.
When He was thirty years old, He was baptized with the baptism of John. You know, He had nothing to repent of. John sensed His perfection and said, “No, You should not be baptized. I should be baptized by You.”
But the Lord said, “Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” This is the way of God for the time being.
And you remember, when He was baptized, what happened? Heaven opened, and a voice from heaven said:
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Now, is not that sonship? Recognition. Recognition that He had grown to be a Son. He was now able to take up responsibility. He was given the privilege of serving God.
Then you find, for three years, how He traveled all around, preaching the gospel, healing the sick, casting out demons, and proclaiming that the kingdom was coming.
During those three years, He worked the work of God. In John 5, He said, “My Father worketh even until now, and I work.” I work the work of the Father.
In John 8, He said, “What I see My Father doing, I do. I do nothing of Myself. I do everything pleasing to the Father.”
In His three years of public life, He did the Father’s will. It is the fulfillment of Psalm 40: not sacrifice, not offering, but to do the Father’s will.
Dear brothers and sisters, when we are serving, are we doing the Father’s will? Or are we just doing what we like to do, what pleases us, what will bring glory to ourselves?
But here you find our Lord Jesus being obedient to the Father. During those three years, He lived a perfect life.
Then you find in Matthew 17, on the mount of transfiguration, again the heavens opened:
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.
You know, during three years of public life, He lived such a perfect life. He did such a perfect work, serving the Father’s will. Never did He do His own will or go His own way.
He was ready to return to the Father. He had demonstrated the Father to the world. He had declared the Father. He had demonstrated to the world what man ought to be—the man that God created man to be.
He was ready to return, for His exodus out of this world. But He refused, for our sake.
Recognition—such is growing, growing into sonship. The Father really could commit all to Him.
He was obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. The last half year, He was with His own disciples, but His face was toward Jerusalem.
When some Greeks wanted to see Him, as if the whole world would go after Him because He had raised Lazarus from the dead, many believed in Him.
He said, “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.”
“He that would serve Me, let him follow Me. He who loves his life shall lose it; he who loses his life shall keep it.”
“Father, save Me from this hour”—the cross. “But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name.”
And a voice came: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
Brothers and sisters, another recognition of sonship: “You are truly My Son. You have that place. You do what I want to do. You accomplish My heart’s desire, even unto death.”
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the way to sonship.
And finally, after three days in the grave, He was raised from the dead. After forty days of appearing, He ascended to heaven.
And in Philippians 2, it says that the Father highly exalted Him and gave Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
In other words, He has arrived at that sonship. This is the glory that He will share with us. This is the sonship that He has given to us. This brings us into glory.
So, dear brothers and sisters, what should we do? We should thank God for what He has done for us in His beloved Son, and not just thank Him, but follow Him.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, Thou hast called us. Thou hast elected us in love and in grace.
We pray that we may not fail; that we may believe and put our faith in Thee, not in ourselves; that we may obey and follow Thee all the way.
And let Thee lead us into glory, that the Father’s heart may be satisfied.