RELATIONSHIP WITH
GOD
VI. SONS OF GOD.
"SONS" of God. Such is the dignity bestowed on all
believers on the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle John, as we have remarked in a
previous paper, dwells on the favour of our being "children" of God, whereas
the apostle Paul treats of both. This is in keeping with the ministry of these
writers. As John's gospel is full of the revelation of the Father, so his first
epistle, as we have already pointed out, treats of the fruits of the divine
nature, which should be, and as they should be, displayed in all those who
partake of it, viz., those born of God. Yet he does not treat of the subject in
a dry, didactic way, as one laying down a law, for he presents it to us in One,
whose walk through this world was the perfect expression of it. "We show unto
you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us" (1
John i. 2). "God is light" and "God is love."
These two short
sentences, penned by the evangelist and apostle John, briefly sum up the
characteristics of the divine nature. Hence, when fully displayed in a man,
they will be manifested in obedience, righteousness, and love. But where could
be found one who would furnish the sacred writer with a perfect example of it?
An example of one who manifested hatred of his brother the apostle finds in
Adam's firstborn. For an example of One in whom brotherly love was perfectly
shown forth, he had to run through four thousand years of the world's history,
and then could point to it as displayed only by Him who was conceived of the
Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary (1 John iii. 12, 16). How great the
contrast, though easily stated. In the one case, life was taken by force ; in
the other, it was willingly laid down. Cain in hatred slew his brother Abel;
the Lord in His love laid down His life for us. But more than this comes out;
for the ruined condition of Adam's race by the fall is clearly displayed, and
the virulent poison of sin is seen to have rapidly developed itself. The first
man of Adam's race who had a brother, slew that brother; and to no one born in
sin could John point as perfectly illustrating in his ways on earth true
brotherly love.
Such facts speak volumes to those who give heed to
them, and sound the death-knell to all pretension that the natural- man has in
him at the bottom that which is really good. So to Him who is the Second Man,
the Last Adam, the Beginning of the Creation of God, John turns ; for in Him
true love was perfectly displayed by His dying for us on the cross. "Hereby
know we the love, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay
down our lives for the brethren" (i John iii. 16). Let us mark the apostle's
language: "Know we," he wrote. This is more expressive to us than "perceive
we." We have known love, for it has been perfectly displayed, and that in a way
which never can be equalled, and never can be repeated. There is but one
Only-begotten Son of God, and He dieth no more (Rom. vi. 9).
But we are
sons as well as children. So as all the nearness to God, which the birth-tie
expresses, is ours who are His children, all that is connected with the
blessedness of His sons is ours too, who are saints of God. And as the
characteristics of the divine nature, and how they should be manifested in us
who are God's children, the Word, as we have seen, sets before us; so, on the
other hand, to certain features of the walk of saints attention is directed, as
proofs that such are thereby to be known as sons of God. In the one case, we
learn what we should be because we are children; in the other, we show that we
are sons by that which we do. In illustration of this last remark, the
following passages may be cited:- "Love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend,
hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be sons
(not children) of the Highest: for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the
evil" (Luke vi. 35). Again the Lord speaks, "Blessed are the peacemakers : for
they shall be called the sons of God " (Matt. v. 9). And St. Paul writes, " As
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God " (Rom. viii.
14).
In further confirmation of the way this term "son" is used, and as
helping, it may be, the reader the better to seize the import of it, we would
remark that the Jews, whilst by natural descent they were Abraham's children,
are called, as having a recognised position on earth in connection with that
patriarch, "sons of the stock of Abraham" (Acts xiii. 26). So also are they
always really styled in the New Testament, "sons of Israel," never "children of
Israel." "Sons," too, "of the kingdom" are they designated (Matt. viii. 12). By
natural descent they claimed a right to the kingdom on earth, though really
only the godly remnant of them will receive it when the Lord comes in power
(Dan. vii. 27). Christians, on the other hand, are called "sons" of Abraham,
but never children of Abraham. We are his sons who are justified by faith, he
being the father of all them that believe, for "they which are of faith, the
same are sons of Abraham" (Gal. iii. 7). We are not his children as offspring
of his stock - i.e., by natural descent.
Other instances of the use of
this term, but in awful contrast to what has just been stated, may here be
noticed. Scripture writes of those who refuse the gospel of God's grace as
"sons of disobedience" (Eph. ii. 2, v. 6). They were, in common with all of us,
"by nature children of wrath" (Eph. ii. 3). They are known by their rejection
of the Gospel as "sons of disobedience," having refused to obey it. Judas
Iscariot and Antichrist are respectively termed the "son of perdition" (John
xvii. 12 ; 2 Thess. ii. 3). The tares are designated as "sons of the wicked
one" (Matt. xiii. 38). Bar-jesus, the sorcerer, was addressed as "son of the
devil" (Acts xiii. 10) ; and the Lord termed the proselytes of the hypocritical
Pharisees sons of hell - or, rather, "of Gehenna " (Matt, xxiii. 15). Each and
all of these openly evidence by their ways what they are, and whither they are
going.
Again, speaking in this figurative manner, we meet with the term,
"sons of the bride-chamber" (Matt. ix. 15 ; Mark ii. 19 ; Luke v. 34), as being
professedly and openly connected with it; and Christians are called "sons of
light, and sons of day: not of night, nor of darkness" (i Thess. v. 5). Then
saints, in the parable of the tares, are designated as "sons of the kingdom"
(Matt. xiii. 38), for they will certainly inherit it; whilst mere men of the
world are called "sons of this world" (Luke xvi. 8), being in their generation
"wiser than the sons of light."
Instances enough, it is hoped, have been
adduced in illustration of the bearing of this term, which, it will be seen,
has reference to the position of those thus described. Let us now turn, in
connection with the subject, to that which more immediately concerns us who can
really rejoice in the privilege of being sons of God. That such a class should
be found on earth, Hosea (i. 10) foretold, and though writing of Israelites,
uses the term "sons," which, St. Paul teaches us, makes the passage applicable
to those who had been Gentiles : "And it shall come to pass, that in the place
where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people ; there shall they be called
sons of the living God" (Rom. ix. 26). In proof of God's grace to Israel, the
apostle quotes Hosea ii. 23 ; as showing God would bless Gentiles, he quotes
Hosea i. 10.
On this truth, viz., that believers are God's sons, the
Apostle Paul, we have before remarked, at times dwells, distinguishing it from
the blessing of relationship as a child, as well as from the condition of a
slave - a condition similar to which those under age were found. In Romans, in
a passage already referred to (viii. 14-16) we read about the former; in
Galatians iv. 7, we are instructed about the latter - "Wherefore thou art no
more a servant, but a son ; and if a son, then an heir through God." Now this
privilege, we thus learn, is common to all God's saints in the present time;
and though foretold centuries before the Lord's first advent, it was only
consciously known after His incarnation. A passage in 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18 may
here be quoted illustrative of the development of revelation in connection with
this line of teaching: "Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye
separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing ; and I will receive
you, and will be a Father unto you." So far is the teaching of the prophecy
(Jer. xxxi. 9), and of Old Testament revelation. The apostle now adds, "And ye
shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." Whose sons and
daughters will such be ? The sons and daughters of Jehovah, Israel's God, the
self-existing One, who showed that He was the true God when He executed
judgment on the idols of Egypt. The sons and daughters, too, of God Almighty,
the God of the patriarchs, and who revealed Himself as the Almighty to Abraham
when as yet He had no son.
But here we must make a distinction. It is
one thing to show by our ways that we are God's sons and daughters, and to be
allowed because of them consciously to enjoy in our heart the sense of that
privilege; it is another thing to become His sons. How is this brought about?
Scripture on this point is plain. " Ye are all sons of God " (so the apostle
wrote) " through faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal. iii. 26). We become God's
children as born again by the Word (i Peter i. 23); we become God's sons
through faith in Christ Jesus. Any word of God may quicken a soul. In all ages
of man's history has God had children. Faith, however, in the Lord Jesus Christ
is needed for any in the present time to become God's sons. So, only since the
ascension has the privilege been known of being God's sons. " Through faith in
Christ Jesus," writes the apostle. Now the Lord is never called Christ Jesus
till after the ascension.
Sons of God! The apostle, writing to the
Galatians, calls their attention to this, as he points out the difference
between an heir under age and one grown up. The former differs nothing from a
slave, being under tutors and governors, till the time appointed of the father.
Old Testament saints were always, and indeed all saints till after the cross
were, really, in that condition, which may be termed nonage. Now, saints are
sons as well as children, being viewed as grown up - come of age, as it were -
and so no longer infants; and this is true of all real Christians - as
Scripture would view a Christian, whatever the stage of Christian growth,
whether little children, young men, or fathers. For of little children, John
writes (i John ii. 13, 27), that they knew the Father, and had received the
Holy Ghost. Now it should be remembered, we do not become sons by receiving the
gift of the Spirit; we are sons through faith in Christ Jesus. "And because ye
(i.e., Galatians) are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our
(not your) hearts, crying, Abba, Father " (Gal. iv. 6).
The importance
of this to meet Galatian error becomes manifest. They conceived that they
needed more than they had got, and that they would secure it by being
circumcised and keeping the law. The apostle demonstrates that they were grown
up children already. To put themselves under law would be to get into a state
of nonage, out of which those Christians, who like Paul had once been in it,
had been delivered by the death of Christ on the cross for them (Gal. iv. 4,
5). The Galatian saints were not only children but sons. To have told them
simply that they were children would not have helped them ; to teach them that
they were already sons met the snare set for their feet. They enjoyed what
those under law did not and could not, the privileges of sons. Hence was made
transparent the folly of being circumcised and keeping the law to obtain full
Christian blessing.
The privileges, we have said, of sons. What are
they? To one connected with this relationship the Lord referred in Matt. xvii.
25-27 - "What thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take
custom or tribute, of their own sons, or of strangers? Peter saith, Of
strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the sons " (for of such He speaks)"
free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast
an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened
his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money ; that take, and give unto them,
for Me and thee." The Lord here associates Peter with Himself in the
relationship of son to the One to whom the kingdom belonged, intimating that
which would be subsequently taught as true of all believers now, that they are
sons of God, and therefore free.
On another occasion did the Lord touch
on this theme, when, surrounded by publicans and sinners, He uttered the
parable of the prodigal son, and told His hearers what the son thought to say
to his father: "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am
no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants."
Full well did the prodigal know the difference between a servant and a son. A
child he was by birth, but the position of a son in the house was a different
matter. To be reinstated* in that he did not expect, nor was he thinking of
asking it. But could he be anything but as a son in that house? That, he owned,
was for his father to settle. A son's place he clearly did not deserve. Yet he
was to have no other. His father settled the question, and rightly so. And he
let his son hear of it, as he called his servants to rejoice with him, saying,
"This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." All of
grace, surely; all of grace to us it is, certainly. Like the prodigal, we do
not deserve a son's place, but the Father is pleased to give us nothing less ;
for nothing less will satisfy His heart.
* A word on the form of this
parable may be helpful. The occasion which called it forth is stated in the
opening of the chapter (Luke xv.) : "Then drew near unto Him all the publicans
and sinners for to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying,
This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." The prodigal, then, was the
publican and sinner, who was an Israelite in common with the Pharisee, and
therefore had shared in all the privileges belonging to Israel. Hence he could
say, "am no man worthy to be called thy son" - language which could not suit a
Gentile who had never enjoyed the privileges of Israel.
This brings
us to notice another privilege connected with our subject - that of adoption.
God will not rest till we are displayed before all in the position of sons. To
Israel as God's first-born belongs the adoption (Rom. ix. 4). For any, however,
to share in that, they must be descended from Jacob. But a better blessing by
far is ours, though similar in character, for we are "foreordained unto
adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His will" (Ephes. i. 5). We shall be before God, holy and without
blame. But more than that is the desire of our God for us; He would have us
before Him in the position of sons, and He acquaints us with it as part of that
to which we are called, and of which now we are to know the hope (Ephes. i.
18). Hence the Holy Ghost is given to us as the spirit of adoption (Rom. viii.
15), whilst we await adoption, the redemption of our body (23) ; for God's
purpose in this stops not short of blessing for our whole person. For this,
then, we wait; and for it creation, which now groans under the weight and
sorrow caused by sin, also waits, even for the manifestation of the sons of God
(19). What a day that will be ! Till then, in the words of the hymn, we may say
-
"All creation Travails,
groans, and bids Thee come."
He will
come (Rev. xxii. 20). Meanwhile, we are furnished by the Son Himself with a
revelation of the Father, and are taught of the privileges which belong to
those who have a place in the Father's heart, a home in the Father's house, and
a portion in what belongs to the Father, as God's heirs and joint-heirs with
Christ. For we are free; we are sons in the house ; we shall have a son's place
before all for ever. Here the sketch of our subject, relationship with God,
naturally ends ; but the blessing and the joy of it will surely for us only
deepen throughout eternity.
THE END