Will you please turn to the letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1?
We will read from verses 3 through 5:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ:
even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love:
having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
Then turn to Galatians, chapter 4, the first seven verses.
But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a bondservant though he is lord of all;
but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed of the father.
So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the rudiments of the world:
but when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
that He might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
So that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
And Romans, chapter 8, verse 23:
And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Dear Lord, as we gather here this morning, we thank Thee for what Thou hast done for us. We thank Thee for Who Thou art. To know Thee is eternal life.
So, as we gather here this morning, O Lord, we open our hearts and pray that Thou wilt speak directly to our hearts. Give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we may truly know Thee.
Dear Lord, we do want to be what Thou wantest us to be. Thou art the only One Who is able to bring us there. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
Thank God for gathering us together these days. The burden the Lord seems to put upon us for this time is sonship.
Sonship is so important to us because of the eternal purpose of God in Christ Jesus for us. We have mentioned again and again that God is a God of purpose.
Even before the foundation of the world, He purposed a purpose in Himself. Everything that He ever does is according to that purpose. What He purposed before the foundation of the world is what He is going to accomplish in the days to come.
Thank God that, when He created man, He created man with eternity in his heart—an eternal purpose. If we live according to that purpose, then our life is satisfactory. If we do not live in, or according to, that purpose, then our life is just empty.
For this reason, it is of utmost importance that we know God’s eternal purpose for us today. We thank God that His purpose for us is sonship.
You can see that in Ephesians, chapter 1. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”
What spiritual blessing has He blessed us with? He blessed us according as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.
When He chose us, even before the foundation of the world, He chose us for two things: that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love. Not only justified, but holy and blameless before Him.
And then, in the following verse, verse 5: “Having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself, according to His good pleasure.”
These are the two things that God has blessed us with. These are the two things that He has chosen us for. These are the two things that He purposed for us even before the foundation of the world.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, we begin to see how important sons and sonship are. God not only wants us to be His children; He wants us to be sons unto Himself. He wants us to enter into sonship.
This morning, we will focus our attention on this matter of sonship. We know that this word sonship is used especially by Paul.
The term in Greek means “placing of a son,” or “son-placing.” It is not only to be a son, but even to be placed in that position of sonship.
Sons and sonship are two different words. They can be distinguished, but they cannot be separated.
When you talk about son, you think of life. The life of Christ Jesus is in us. We are conformed to the image of God’s beloved Son. When you think of son, the emphasis is on life.
What kind of life do we have? Even what kind of life are we living? It is not we ourselves who should live; it is Christ Who lives in us.
But when you think of sonship, it is the expression and manifestation of our being sons. Or, to put it in another way, it is our responsibility.
The Bible tells us, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” There is a glory within us. God is working out a glory in you.
That glory is within you. But at the same time, in Hebrews 2:10, Christ, as our Leader, will lead many sons into glory. That glory is outside of you.
Not only is there a glory within you, but you enter into a glory. One is inward; the other is outward. These two things are what God has ordained for us. I wonder if you want to shout, “Hallelujah!”
According to the apostle Paul, when he wrote that letter to the Galatians, we must remember that the Galatian believers were mostly Gentiles.
Of course, with the Jews, they had a way of sonship. When a Jewish boy grew up, in our Lord’s day it was at twelve years of age, he would go through a ceremony called bar mitzvah. That means “a son of the law.”
Formerly, his parents were responsible for him. But when he reached the age of twelve, he became a son of the law. That is to say, he became a full member of the commonwealth of Israel. He had his rights and responsibilities as a member of the commonwealth of Israel.
When our Lord Jesus was twelve years old, He was taken by His parents to Jerusalem. There He was made a son of the law. To our Lord Jesus, it was a very real thing.
He did not go back with His parents, but stayed in the temple. When His parents found Him three days later, His mother said, “Son, how Thou hast worried us.”
And you remember what our Lord Jesus said: “Knew ye not that I must be in My Father’s house?” That was among the Jewish people. Today, the Jewish bar mitzvah is at age thirteen.
But with the Romans it was different. I believe that when Paul wrote this letter to the Galatians, he was speaking not according to Jewish tradition, but according to Roman tradition, because the Galatians were Gentiles.
So he said, “So long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a bondservant, though he is lord of all.”
A boy was born into a Roman family. He was the heir of the family. But when he was a child, he was no different from a slave.
You know, in the Roman world there were more slaves than free people. So, in a Roman family, usually they had many slaves. Many of these slaves were Greeks, and the Greeks were more cultured than the Romans.
When a child was young, he was put under guardians and stewards. These guardians and stewards were slaves. Yet the heir of the family was put under them. He was no different from a slave; or, may I put it this way, he was even lower than the slave.
The guardian took care of all his life, and the steward managed everything for him, even choosing his tutors. The father put his son under the guardians and under the stewardship of slaves.
During that time, he had no rights. He had to obey the guardians and obey the steward because they trained him. They helped him to grow, not only physically but also mentally.
They were responsible for his growth. The father gave these slaves absolute authority, and the son had to obey and submit to them absolutely.
During that period, the father would carefully wait and watch whether his son had grown up, whether he had matured. There was no fixed date; it all depended upon the father.
When the father realized that the boy was ready, they would go through a ceremony, and he was placed as a son.
With the Romans, when you were a child, your dress was short. But on that day, he would change the short dress into a long dress, because he was made a man.
What did it mean? It meant that from then on, he was to bear responsibility with his father. He would share with his father the inheritance as well as the debt.
It is at this time of the placing of a son that you really enter into all the responsibility of being a son.
Now, brothers and sisters, by the grace of God, we are children of God. We are born, and we are destined to be heirs, co-heirs with Christ.
But when we are children, we are no different from bondservants. Today we want to exercise our rights, but are you mature enough to exercise your rights? Because, if you can exercise your rights, you are equally responsible for your life.
Spiritually speaking, when we are just babes in Christ, when we are little children, we are also put by our heavenly Father under guardians and stewards.
But thank God, it is not many stewards and many guardians. One will train you this way, and another will lead you in another way. There is one Guardian Who is also Steward.
I believe you have already guessed Who that is. Of course, the Holy Spirit.
So, brothers and sisters, do you know what love our Father has? We say God loves us, so He saves us. Thank God for that. But if He merely forgave all our past sins and saved us, then left us alone, do you know what would happen to us?
Thank God, He makes every provision for us. He has not only given us His life, but He has given us the Steward and Guardian to train that life, to bring that life into maturity, that one day we may enter into sonship and be co-heirs with Christ.
Brothers and sisters, I do not know if you feel wonderful about it, but I feel it is so wonderful—how God loves us. He not only gave us His life; He gave us the Holy Spirit, and He never leaves us.
We may grieve Him. We may quench Him. But we cannot drive Him away. He is with us, and He is teaching us in great things and small things.
The Holy Spirit teaches us all things, great and small. Has He done that to you? I believe if you are the Lord’s, you must have experienced it.
Even when you say something, the Holy Spirit within you says, “Well, is it true? Is it too much?” The Holy Spirit takes care of our daily life.
He arranges our circumstances—whom you will meet today, what you will hear today. Everything is arranged by Him. He uses our circumstances to discipline us.
If you do not like the word discipline, the Bible calls it child-training. But child-training is discipline, because without that we cannot grow up. And He will lead us.
Brothers and sisters, our sonship is after the order of our Lord Jesus as the Son of Man.
We have mentioned already that our Lord Jesus is the only begotten Son of the Father. There is the glory of the Son of God that He shares with His Father. It is the glory of the Godhead. We have no part in it.
We are children of God, but we do not enter into the Godhead. We are forever men. But thank God that we become God’s children because our Lord Jesus came into this world. He died for us. He gave His life to us.
As we believe in Him, we are born from above. It is God’s will that we should be transformed and conformed to His image, that He may be the Firstborn among many brethren.
We are patterned after Christ Jesus. We ought to be like Christ. We are to be characterized by Christ’s character.
We will also come into the glory that the Father has given to Him. We have mentioned before that the glory of our Lord Jesus is of two kinds.
One is the glory that He shared with His Father even before the foundation of the world. In John 17, our Lord Jesus said, “Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” It is the glory of the Son of God.
But then, in the same prayer, He said, “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.”
That glory is the glory of the Son of Man. As the Son of Man, He accomplished the work of redemption. He returned to heaven, and God exalted Him. This is the glory that He will share with us. This is the glory that He will lead us into.
So, the glory of sonship is after the order of Christ as the Son of Man. If we want to know what kind of sonship that is, we have to look at our Lord Jesus.
I want to review with you a little concerning the life of our Lord Jesus. Thank God, He Who was equal with God took the form of a servant and was obedient to the Father even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
Our Lord Jesus was born into this world. He was born of the Spirit. On the eighth day He was circumcised.
On the fortieth day, after His mother was purified, His parents took Him to the temple to offer Him to God, because He was the firstborn in the family. Every firstborn belonged to God, and our Lord Jesus was offered to God.
We do not know much about the infant stage of our Lord Jesus. We only know from Luke 2:40 that He grew physically, increased mentally, and the grace of God was upon Him. That is the most ordinary and right way for the growth of a child.
Then we know that, when He was twelve years old, He was in the temple and became a son of the law. He had the consciousness that He must be occupied with His Father’s business.
But we find that He was obedient to His earthly parents. He submitted Himself to them and went home with them. We do not know much about those years.
We only learn from Luke 2:52 that, after He had returned home with His earthly parents, He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
He became a carpenter. In the Bible, people called Him the carpenter. He must have been the best carpenter. These were the hidden years of our Lord.
When He was thirty years old, He came to be baptized by John the Baptist. He was baptized, and when He came up from the water, the Holy Spirit came upon Him as a dove and abode upon Him.
The heavens were opened, and a voice out of heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”
Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus, during those hidden years, lived a perfect life. Unknown to men, but known to God the Father, God was pleased with Him.
The result of those years culminated in His baptism. In other words, His baptism revealed to us what happened during those hidden years: how He prepared Himself, how He gave Himself to do the Father’s will.
He had nothing to repent of, but He offered Himself to the Father for the whole world, to be the sacrifice. He was willing to die for the whole world. No wonder the heavens declared, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”
To me, I feel this is the first indication of His sonship.
Then you find Him again at work. You remember in John 5, He said, “My Father worketh even until now, and I work.” He said, “I can do nothing of Myself.”
“I see My Father work, so I work. What I hear, I say. My day, My time, is not Mine.” He lived a life of perfect obedience. He lived a life of self-denial. He lived His life for His Father’s will.
Then you find, in Matthew 17, our Lord Jesus went to the mountain with His three disciples. There He was transfigured. His face shone, and His garments were radiant. He was in glory.
Brothers and sisters, what kind of glory is that? This is the glory of the Son of Man. His life was so given to God that glory, as it were, diffused out of Him.
Moses and Elijah appeared, and they spoke of His departure. He had come into this world and lived a perfect life. He was the Man that God really wanted—the Man whom God had created, everything according to God.
They were talking about His departure. Brothers and sisters, if our Lord Jesus had made His exit from that mountain, you and I would be finished. There would be only one Man in heaven. He is the only One worthy to go to heaven.
But He refused that exit. He came down from the mountain and set His face toward Jerusalem.
Again, the heavens opened and the voice said, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” It is the recognition of His sonship.
Then our Lord Jesus went to Jerusalem. Even the Greeks wanted to see Him. Our Lord Jesus 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.” This He spoke concerning His death. He took His death as His glory.
He said, “Father, glorify Thy name.” And the voice came from heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” This was the third time He was recognized as Son.
Then we find that He went to the cross. On the third day He rose from the dead. For forty days He appeared to His disciples. Then He was taken up.
The Father 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.
This is the final recognition of sonship. He has entered into glory, waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool.
Dear brothers and sisters, in spiritual sonship, it is not just a fixed time. It comes gradually until it reaches the summit.
Or we can put it another way: the life of the Son grows in us, and in the same measure sonship comes to us.
That is the reason why Romans 8 says that even we who have the first-fruits of the Spirit groan within ourselves, awaiting the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
It does not mean that even today we cannot experience sonship. As the life of the Son grows in us, in the same measure we are placed into sonship.
In other words, there is not only life, but according to the life there is responsibility. The more mature you are, the more responsibility you are able to fulfill.
What is involved in sonship? Number one: it involves glory. Our Lord Jesus, our Leader, will lead many sons to glory.
Our Lord Jesus has already entered into that glory, but He will lead us also into that glory. We will see what the Father has given Him, and we will share with Him in that glory.
But the principle is this: unless that glory is working in us today, how can we stand the glory that we will one day enter into?
A person who lives in darkness, if he suddenly enters into a brilliant place, could he stand it? He could not.
So, dear brothers and sisters, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” If we allow that life to grow in us, if we are willing to go through the growing pains, if we experience this life of glory in us today, we are fit to be led into glory.
Number two: sonship involves the kingdom. The kingdom is a big subject in the Bible. Unfortunately, today in Christianity, people do not know what the kingdom is. Many problems cannot be solved because they are ignorant of what the kingdom is.
When our Lord Jesus was on earth, He talked about the kingdom of heaven. When the apostles were preaching, they preached the kingdom of God. At the end of the book of Acts, Paul was speaking about the kingdom and about the Lord Jesus.
The same principle applies: unless you live in the kingdom of the heavens in the Spirit today, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven when it appears upon this earth.
Third, sonship involves inheritance. Turn to 1 Peter, chapter 1, beginning with verse 3:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to His great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Inheritance is a great thing in the Scripture. What is our inheritance? Incorruptible, undefiled, and reserved for us.
You need to read the whole Bible to know what it is. In one word, Christ is our inheritance. He is our portion, and our portion falls in pleasant places.
The Scripture speaks of “the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” As we have Christ, He works in us until, to Him, we become glorious riches. Is that not marvelous?
Fourth, sonship involves reward. In the Bible, there is a place for reward.
Grace and reward seem to be opposites, because grace is free while reward has to be earned. But thank God, on God’s side, grace and reward work together. Reward is the result of grace.
If we allow the grace of God to work in us, God says, “I will reward you.” In the Bible, you find this matter of reward everywhere.
We today think of service. You remember the disciples came to the Lord. They were arguing among themselves who was greatest.
But the Lord said, “In the kingdom, it is not so among you; but I am among you as One that serveth.” He gave His life as a ransom.
Service is serving the will of God to people. Today we learn how to serve. One day, we will be true servants of God.
Even when the Bible says we will all be kings, a king in spiritual reality is one who serves. That is true service: we can serve according to God’s will.
Strictly speaking, only a son can be a real servant. Our Lord Jesus is the same. One day, we will all be sons and servants.
Dear brothers and sisters, we do rejoice before God. The love of our Lord Jesus is so complete. The Holy Spirit is so patient. He will work all things out to the glory of God.
Dear heavenly Father, in worship, we thank Thee because Thou hast done so much for us. We have to say, we are what we are today by the grace of God.
We want to give ourselves completely and allow Thee to work out Thy purpose in our lives, that Thou mayest be glorified. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.