Sharing in Christ's Sonship

"For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, 

but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, 

by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!'"

Romans 8:15

At the heart of our relationship with God is our being adopted as true children. I sometimes wonder how this is possible and what this actually means. Becoming an adopted son of God is more often an abstract concept rather than the concrete reality in my life. So, how does this happen? And what does it mean?

The answer in our adoption does not lie in us. We were made to be sons and daughters of God, but we broke the relationship beyond human repair. Our hope is not in our ability to remake ourselves as sons and daughters. Rather, our adoption is rooted in the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Christ has perfect sonship with the Father. Our only hope of ever again becoming true children of God lies in our sharing in Christ's sonship that he already has with the Father. This is the good news of the gospel: that the Son of God became the Son of Man, so that he could unite men and women with God. He is able to do this because he is fully God and fully man, thus being able to mediate between the two and unite us to God. This is the foundation to our relationship with God. 

But, what does this mean on a day to day basis? Being united to Christ, and thus being made a son or daughter of God means that we are adopted into the same relationship the Son of God has with the Father.  In our adoption, we don't so much receive something from Christ, as much as we receive Christ himself. Jesus gives us his very self, and this is the heart of what we receive in adoption. Everything that is true of the Jesus Christ is now true of us. Jesus was God's beloved son, with whom God was well pleased. This is now true of us. Jesus and the Father were one. In Christ, we are now one with God. Jesus was sinless and incorruptible. We are now seen as sinless.  Jesus conquered death, resurrecting from the grave. Likewise, we will also be raised to life on the last day. 

One quick note on some of the things I just said. As those who have been adopted, we now share in the life of Christ and possess the many benefits of salvation. However, we do not share in the same substance that God has. We are still human. We are not divine. Yet, we are being restored to what it means to be made in God's image and what it means to be truly human. 

From Son to Curse

Another excerpt from Donald MaCleod's, 'The Person of Christ'. 

"He felt forsaken and he was forsaken….In the moment of dereliction, there is no sense of his own sonship. Even in Gethsemane, Jesus had been able to say, ‘Abba!’ (meaning Father). But now the cry is, ‘Eloi, Eloi’ (God). He is aware only of the god-ness and power and holiness and otherness of God. In his self image, he is no longer Son, but Sin; no longer the beloved with whom God is well pleased, but the cursed one: vile, foul and repulsive….

…But now, in the hour of his greatest need, God is not there. When he most needs encouragement, there is no voice to cry, ‘This is my beloved Son.’ When he most needs reassurance, there is no-one to say, ‘I am well pleased.’ No grace was extended to him, no favor shown, no comfort administered, no concession made. God was present only as displeased, expressing that displeasure with overwhelming force in all the circumstances of Calvary. Every detail in a drama which walked a fine line between chaos and liturgy declared, ‘This is what God thinks of you and of the sin you bear!’ He was cursed, because he became the greatest thief, murderer, adulterer, robber, desecrateor, blasphemer, etc., there has ever been anywhere in the world."

A somber reminder of the reality of calvary. At the cross, Jesus Christ, the 2nd person of the trinity, very God of very God, became a curse, and experienced absolute abandonment, taking upon himself the shame and consequence of sin; the consequence that we deserved. This is love. The Son of God stood condemned in our place. The cross wasn't some abstract event were the Son merely suffered theoretically, or only appeared to take on our sins. It is a concrete reality. The Son was really forsaken. He actually became a curse. He actually suffered the physical, spiritual and emotional effects of being under God's wrath. This is amazing love!

Who is This Mediator?

From the Heidelberg Catechism:

15. Q. What kind of mediator and deliverer should we look for then?

      A. One who is truly human and truly righteous, yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, one who is also true God.

16. Q. Why must he be truly human and truly righteous?

      A. God's justice demands that human nature, which has sinned, must for its sin; but a sinner could never pay for others.

17. Q. Why must he also be true God?

      A. So that, but the power of his divinity, he might bear the weight of God's anger in his humanity and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life.

18. Q. And who is this mediator, true God and at the same time truly human and truly righteous?

      A. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given us to set us completely free and to make us right with God.

"For there is one God, and there is one  mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all." 1 Timothy 2:5-6

Amen for that!

The New Age

"The Messiah came to usher in the new age. But the new age meant the death of the old age. He came to achieve the restoration of Israel. But that could only come about after the fires of judgement and purging. As Jesus looked at his own society, he saw it heading for that terrifying judgement. So much of his preaching has that urgent note of warning and impending disaster. Like John, he saw a 'wrath to come'; the wrath of Rome as well as the wrath of God. But the deeper awareness of his own messiahship lay in this, that he believed himself called to take Israel's judgement on himself at another level. For the Messiah was a representative figure. He was Israel. Their destiny was therefore his, and his theirs. Yes, at one level, national and political Israel was heading for destruction. But at another level, Israel, in the Messiah, would suffer judgement and then the restoration that God planned."

Christopher Wright in 'Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament'

So It Was Thought

"Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph,"

Luke 3:23

Who was Jesus? The second chapter of Matthew's Gospel ends with Jesus growing up in Nazareth. Nazareth was known as a town from which nothing good could come. In fact, the word 'Nazarene' may actually have been a nickname or slang meaning for something that was insignificant.

So what does Luke 3:23 tell us about who Jesus was/is. The phrase 'so it was thought' reveals that to human eyes, Jesus was the son of an unimportant carpenter from insignificant Nazareth. His human resume was not one to boast in. Yet, in reality, Jesus was the beloved Son of God, in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

"This is my Son, whom I love, the one in whom I am well pleased." Matthew 3:17

"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him" Colossians 1:19

In God's sight, Jesus was the Beloved Son. This was His true identity. In the same way, our human resume is nothing to boast about. There is nothing great about us. Our identity in ourselves is rather insignificant in the big picture. Yet, when we are in Christ, the reality of our identity is radically different. In God's sight, we are beloved children with whom He is well pleased. This is our true identity.