Normal Chritian Birth (8)

THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

If baptism speaks of humility, then receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit speaks of God’s gracious act of ‘crowning’ us with His life as He did to Jesus at his baptism —and it is an observable and felt event.

God inhabits eternity in the three persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  God’s desire to share His life (referred to as ‘abundant life’ or ‘eternal life’) led Him to implement a plan to bring that life to the people whom He created but who had willfully decided to go their own way.

First, the Father gave that life to us in the form of a man — Jesus of Nazareth.  This man lived for thirty years to show us how a human can live in relation to God.  His life before his resurrection is a picture for us of life in the Spirit.  Jesus was not born ‘filled with the Spirit’ — that came later, as it does for the rest of us.

The things he did as recorded in the gospels were done because he was a man filled with the Spirit!  That’s how come he could say that the things he did we would do also, and even greater things (see John 14:12) – because he promised the gift of the Holy Spirit.

In this section of John, Jesus shows us how that is possible: “...because I go to the Father.”  The significance of that statement is that unless Jesus went from the earth and from the disciples whom he had made and called to be apostles, the Spirit would not come.  “If I do not go, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him.”, said Jesus (John 16:7).

He then lived for another forty days after his resurrection to show us what a glorified, transformed human is like.

Second, the Father gave that life to us in the form of “another, like Jesus” who would, He promised, be with Jesus’ disciples for ever.  As Jesus in human form could only be in one place at one time, the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Jesus; the DNA of God) could now be with all his disciples at all times, wherever they may be in the world.

Jesus ascended back to his Father so that they together could give the gift of this “God-life” to all; implant the DNA of eternal life in all.  This they did in giving the Holy Spirit whom Jesus referred to as “another like me”.

How Receiving the Holy Spirit Fits

We’ve seen that repentance and faith is our participation in the actual death and resurrection of Jesus.  We’ve seen that our baptism is our appeal to God concerning the reality of our sharing in his death and resurrection — and therefore it cannot be taken lightly.

Now we see that God seals all that He has done in us by the good news of Jesus:

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the good news of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession — to the praise of his glory.   Ephesians 1:13-14

God's theology is simple: if you repent towards God, put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, and submit to baptism, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  If we do not receive Him, either God is a liar or our repentance, faith or baptism are faulty — which is it?  The story of 12 Ephesian disciples recorded in Acts 19 is well worth reading and contemplating.

Some New Testament Principles

The New Testament shows us some important things about the giving and receiving of the Holy Spirit.

·       Luke writes: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” (Luke  11:13) – we need to ask.

·       Luke also writes: “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38) – we need to repent and be baptised.

·       Apostle Peter’s letter is addressed to those: “who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood.” (1 Peter 1:2) – we need to be obedient to the good news of Jesus.

·       Luke’s record in Acts 8 demonstrates that faith, baptism, asking and laying on of hands are needed.

·       Luke’s record in Acts 10 & 11 further demonstrate that faith, baptism and repentance are needed.

The full dimensions of repentance, faith and baptism in a person’s life demonstrate the desire to be obedient and the desire for whatever God wants.  This is the context in which God’s gift of the Holy Spirit becomes active.  There is, however, no indication of any importance attached to the order in which these elements of normal Christian birth are experienced.  We must be wary of insisting on an order of progression, and wary of those who do so insist.

The important issue is:

þ That we understand and participate in the ‘real thing’ in relation to these elements.

þ That our wills are set in a course of submission and obedience to Christ.

þ That our desire is set on receiving and passing on to others the full dimensions of Spirit life (including Titus 2:11-13).

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.  It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Spirit’s Presence and Vitality

Even a superficial reading of the New Testament reveals a vast array of evidences for the presence and vitality of the Spirit.  You cannot keep the Holy Spirit under wraps, out of sight or out of hearing!

There are certain evidences one could well expect to see in the life of one who has received the gift of the Holy Spirit:

First, God’s purpose in giving the Holy Spirit to christians is power: power for living a holy life and power for witnessing to the wonderful acts of God.  In light of that, we should expect to see Spirit-generated holiness and Spirit-led testifying (“evangelism”).

Second, as a fruit tree bears fruit, the Spirit bears fruit in the lives of those in whom he takes up residence.  In light of that, we should expect to see actual change for the better in people’s character — removal of the “warts”, so to speak, and the growth of healthy characteristics.  Galatians 5 is an excellent resource here.  In the table below, I have listed the words used by Eugene Peterson in his translation of Galatians 5:18-24.

 

Paul wrote to the Galatians, “Walk in the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh…  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”

Third, as the Spirit comes [and as a consequence of Jesus’ resurrection], he brings with him certain gifts — enablings or abilities.  In light of that we should expect to see Spirit-generated service; freedom and ministry according to gift with all the parts of the body serving and the elders outfitting and equipping the servants

Once again, there are three elements involved.  The scriptures say there are ‘gifts’, ‘ministries’ and ‘effects’ or workings or, as we might say, out-workings.  Paul says, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.  And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.  There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-6).

Gifts

The term ‘gifts of the Spirit’ is an English phrase adapted for our purposes because, in the New Testament Greek, the word is simply the plural of the word for ‘spiritual’.  It literally means ‘spirituals’.  So, given that these ‘spirituals’ are gifts from God by the Spirit, we generally use the term ‘spiritual gifts’ or ‘gifts of the Spirit’.  And there are many listed for us in the pages of the New Testament.  We should note that there is nothing in the New Testament that allows us to say there are none besides what are listed there.  If they are gifts of the Spirit and his work is to perfect the Body of Christ here on earth, he may well choose to give gifts that are not listed in the New Testament.

The main New Testament passages outlining such gifts are: 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4 and then a few miscellaneous references that indicate ‘gifts’ such as celibacy, hospitality, martyrdom, missionary and voluntary poverty.  It is not my intention here to go into the detail of these gifts or of how one determines which gifts God has given whom.  That is for another place and time.

Ministries

In the 1 Corinthians 12 passage above, Paul also talks about ministries.  If Jesus is the Head of the ecclesia, the Body of Christ, and that body is, as Paul says, made up of many parts, each doing its job, there are going to be all sorts of ‘ministries’ happening when the Body moves.  That word ministries is diakonion.  This is the same Greek word we transliterate to come up with the word deacon.  It means a servant.

Paul is saying that, while there is one Lord (Ephesians 4:5), there are many ways to serve him; there are many different jobs of service that can and must be done.  In the same way as fingers, toes, ears and eyes perform different jobs of service for our physical bodies, each one of us has different jobs of service to do, using our gifts, to complete the picture of the Body of Christ, the ecclesia!

Effects

In a similar way, Paul says there is a variety of ‘effects’, but the same God who works all things in all people to His ends.  I believe there are two possible meanings of the term used here.  The Greek word is ergon meaning ‘expressions of energy’.  When energy is present, it will be visibly expressed and evident in outworkings or outcomes.

The first thing I believe this refers to is God’s outworking of His purposes.  God has a will and that will is expressed in the fact that God has a goal, an aim and an agenda and everything he does – all His ergons – will be executed and carried to completion.  God will finish what He starts and what He starts is from His will, via His goal, aim and agenda.

The second thing I believe this refers to is what is commonly known as “the fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5.  When God’s power works, His ergons – His outworkings – will include the development of His own character in the lives of His many twice-born sons.  The centerpiece of His character is love: GOD IS LOVE (1 John 4).  That love outworks itself in joy, peace, patience, etc. as Paul lists in Galatians 5:22-23.

The receiving of the Holy Spirit is dynamic, obvious and often noisy.  The real thing will often be closed out of modern churches precisely because it is these things — because it is not always neat and tidy, but noisy and messy.  A browse through the New Testament looking for evidences of the Spirit’s presence will reveal a great deal.

Every person and every group of people born again of the Spirit of God will experience the gifts, ministries and outworkings of God.  The Holy Spirit cannot be present and these things not be in evidence.

I recommend a separate study of the following chapters / books of the New Testament looking for what evidences for the presence and vitality of the Holy Spirit were reported among the early assemblies: Acts chapters 2 to 7; Romans; 1 & 2 Corinthians; Galatians; Ephesians; Philippians; 1 & 2 Thessalonians; 1 John.

There are two final aspects of this gift of the Holy Spirit that I want to briefly discuss: 1) the difference between the baptism of the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit; 2) the use of the term “in the Spirit”.

The Spirit’s Baptism and Filling

In the New Testament, the term “receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit” is basically the same as “receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit” — the baptism of Jesus we spoke of earlier.  We need to understand, however, that there is a difference between the “baptism of the Spirit” and “being filled with the Spirit” as taught by Paul.  (See Ephesians 5:18)

 

 

In essence, the baptism of the Spirit is something that is done to us by God, as a grace gift, sometimes brought to us by the laying on of hands by Spiritual elders.  Being filled with the Spirit is essentially how we live our life – the extent to which we walk with the Spirit and allow him to guide and direct our life.  I love one of the terms Paul uses in Romans 8: “according to the Spirit”

For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:3-8)

In the Spirit

This is a wonderful idea and a wonderful term, but it has lost most of its meaning in modern church because certain legalists have made it mean only one thing.  A friend of mine has a term for these people: he calls them “the popes of Pentecostalism” because they populate the pentecostal denominations of church and act as ‘popes’, ruling the roost and deciding many things for the member of their congregations.

They are kind of like the Pharisee sect Paul talks about in Acts 15.  “In the Spirit”, to them, always means “in tongues”.  Hence, praying in the spirit is praying in tongues; singing in the spirit is singing in tongues; prophesying in the spirit is prophesying in tongues.  It doesn’t seem to bother them that when it comes to other things ‘in the spirit’, it makes no sense.  How does one dance in tongues, give in tongues, love in tongues and many other acts of service the Lord, the Head of the Body, asks us to do?

“In the Spirit” means to be (to ‘live and move and have one’s being’) in the zone of the Holy Spirit; in the zone where God lives and moves and has his being: eternity.  Unfortunately, many don’t understand that eternity is already here in part.  That is part of Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God.

And how it works practically is that we can live “in the Spirit” (with our head in eternity, as it were), while our hands and our feet and all the rest of us express on earth what we are seeing and knowing in the eternal realm.  We see the ‘unseeable’ and carry it out as an act of service to our Lord.  We hear the ‘unhearable’ and live it out on earth now.  We feel and experience with our spirit (instead of our fingers or toes or gut) and express those things in life today.

I believe that is how we are meant to understand ‘in the Spirit’.  And I suggest it is how Jesus and the first apostles lived.  Jesus, for instance, said “I do what I see the Father doing”.  Jesus himself said of the Spirit, “Whatever he hears, he will speak.”  Paul and his teams listened for the voice of eternity before venturing out into his works of service for his King.  And certain of the gifts of the Spirit are precisely for this purpose: gifts such as prophecy and the gifts of ‘word of knowledge’ and ‘word of wisdom’.

Conclusion

Jesus, the first apostles, and indeed our very own bibles have a lot to say about spiritual birth – and that it is not a ritual or a rite or the product of someone else’s intervention.  Unfortunately, much – perhaps even most – of what churches preach and teach largely misses the point of what Jesus, the apostles and our bibles are saying.

Any human being today can have a perfectly good and wonderfully intimate relationship with God our Father without what we know as ‘church’.  Church and what our bibles call ecclesia are not the same thing.  We cannot do without ecclesia; in fact it is not even a choice for us.  When we are born the second time (the spiritual birth) we are introduced into ecclesia and are members of it, not by our choice but by the will of the Father; it is a construct of God.  Churches we can join or not join since they are constructs of man.

In like manner, we can have a full and complete relationship with God without religion: without the priests, the rites, the confessions, the catechisms, the administered sacraments of man-made, man-led systems.  The relationship with God that Jesus, by the Holy Spirit,  takes us into, is complete and sufficient in and of itself; nothing more is needed, since, by definition, the relationship provides all that God demands.

In like manner, we can have a full and complete relationship with God without the bible.  The bible itself tells us this!  Under the new covenant inaugurated in Jesus, the laws and the word of God are, according to God’s own promise, written on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33); the writer to the Hebrews, quoting this very promise hundreds of years later, says: “This is the covenant  that I will make with them after those days:  I will put my laws upon their heart, and upon their mind I will write them; and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:16)  There is no saying this is old covenant since it is in the documents of the new covenant as we know it.  What is in the old covenant is the idea that we need a ‘book of the law’ to guide us.  We have the author of the book resident within us and that is far superior to carrying around with us a printed manuscript that is a tiny fraction of God’s will for us.  What would we do if tomorrow all our bibles were confiscated and burned and all on-line bibles removed?  We would have to rely on the Holy Spirit!

And to cap it off, we can have a full and complete relationship with God without the interventions of humans.  There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.  No other man is, or can be, or should ever be allowed to be, a go-between in our relationship with God.  Any father-son relationship that requires or insists upon a go-between is a dysfunctional relationship.  God doesn’t have dysfunctional relationships.

The relationship is this: God the Father, in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself through the perfect and complete work of Jesus.  It is God the Father (“for whom are all things and through whom are all things”) bringing “many sons to glory” through the sufferings of Jesus (Hebrews 2:10).  It is God the Father gladly welcoming rebels into his family as full sons by spiritual birth because they welcomed His first-born once-born Son, Jesus Christ the Lord, as Master and Commander.

That spiritual birth (the second birth) issues from repentance, faith and baptism and is blessed by God the Father with His imprimatur of forgiveness, adoption and the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Can anyone tell me what more is needed?

And no, I DO NOT BELIEVE one can do without ecclesia, the Body of Christ.  But that is hardly an issue given that ecclesia is us twice-born sons living with Jesus our Head, in the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit, not according to our own will but according to His will and His perfect intent for us.  I am in ecclesia if I am born again; and together we are ecclesia.  To suggest that we are somehow avoiding that by avoiding ‘church’ is the same idea that allowed the church to murder hundreds of saints and thousands of peasants in the name of God and still pretend it has the imprimatur of God.

What counts to God is new birth, because through that we are being transformed, piece by piece, into the likeness of His once-born, well-beloved Son, through the ministry of the Spirit of God.

Amen!  So let it be!

Cheers,

Kevin.

Normal Christian Birth (7)

ADOPTION AS SONS

Introduction

It is important to establish up-front an important understanding of the word son as it comes to us in the New Testament.  The Greek word is huios, but it does not primarily denote maleness.  It might be useful for us to ask the question, what defines sonship?  Only in strict biological terms is son defined as ‘male offspring”.

To the minds of the people of the era of Jesus and Paul, this is only a minor consideration.  What is vastly more important is the nature and the extent of the connection between the parent and the child beyond the biological connection.  And, yet again, there are three main parts or ideas involved: at its heart, sonship contains …

þ name

þ inheritance

þ DNA.

Every true son bears the name, the inheritance and the DNA of the father.  Of course there are exceptions in today’s world, often because of misogyny (men hating women) and misandry (women hating men).  But the general practice has stood for millennia that ‘sons’ carry the name of their ‘father’.

I have spent some time in Uganda, East Africa, and noted the practice among most men that they have many names.  The names they have come from different sources – different influences on their lives or different phases in their lives.  Many have names from the family, the clan and the tribe, as well as a special name that mum or dad has for them.  Many then add another name that comes from their chosen religion: Muslim or Christian or Buddhist or whatever.  Many of the men and women I have met, when they came to faith in Christ, took to themselves a “Christian” name either from the bible or from a European connection they have.  In some cases, they discard names they no longer wish to be known by.  In Uganda, your name is a vital identifier for you, placing you in time; in family, clan, tribe and region; in religious affiliation; and in spiritual life.

These are the things the Greek word huios (son in English) is intended to convey.  So when a person turns to God in repentance, faith and baptism, God not only grants them forgiveness of sins as we discussed earlier, He grants them adoption as sons.  This means they take their primary identity from Him, and that primary identity is SON OF GOD.

Two types of sons

But there are two distinct types of SON OF GOD.  Our old King James bibles use a strange term “only-begotten” son of God to describe Jesus.  Begotten means born; I’m not sure what “only-born” means; I think it was the translators’ way of saying that Jesus was different, but different in a way that means no-on else can be like him.

However, the Greek word translated ‘only’ can also be legitimately translated ‘first’ and ‘once’.  To me, this makes much more sense.  You may have noticed that I use the expressions ‘first-born’ and ‘once-born’ to describe Jesus.  Let me explain that a little.

In the Hebrew setting (Jesus was born into a Hebrew family), the first-born son traditionally got a double inheritance: he got two shares when each other sibling got only one.  For instance, if there were six children, there were seven shares of the inheritance and the first-born got two while the other five got one each.  In this way, the first-born was considered and treated as special.

At Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist, “a voice out of the heavens” declared, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”  Later, up on a mountain with Peter, James and John, Jesus is ‘transfigured’ in front of them and they are given a glimpse of the hidden glory of Jesus.  Matthew records that “a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!’  When the disciples heard, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified.  And Jesus came and touched them and said, ‘Get up, and do not be afraid.’  And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.”

Standing there, on that mountain, on that day, were two types of sons intimately connected by the love of God: Jesus the first-born once-born Son of God who bears away the sin of the world; and three twice-born sons: Peter, James and John – face down on the ground in awe of Jesus and the reality of God’s immediate presence.

Two births

In the household of God, there is only one Jesus: he is unique, he is special, and he is the first-born son.  But Jesus is also the ‘once-born’ son.  Part of Jesus’ uniqueness is that, while he did have a normal natural birth, he only needed to be born once, unlike us who (as Jesus himself said) “must be born a second time”.  Jesus always was fit for the family and the household of God and his natural birth did not change that; he always was the Father’s beloved son in whom He is well pleased.

We, on the other hand, by virtue of the systemic sin disease I spoke about earlier, are not fit for the family and the household of God without a second birth.  This is what Jesus teaches us through the story of Nicodemus in John 3.  But apostle John wrote a little about it in the first chapter of his gospel.  He says, “But as many as received Him [Jesus], to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:13)

For most of us, our natural birth comes with blood and it is the product of the desires of our flesh, and our human will to reproduce.  Our spiritual birth – or second birth – on the other hand is from another place altogether.  It is, according to Jesus in his discussion with Nicodemus, like this: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”  This birth is from eternity, where God lives, and it is entirely a work of the Spirit of God.

Many commentators believe that Jesus’ words ‘born of water and the Spirit’ indicate the two births: water = natural, physical birth; spirit = spiritual birth.  Others believe the water is a reference to water baptism as practised by John the Baptist, Jesus and his apostles.  Either way, in that conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus teaches that “that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6)  And flesh and blood do not inherit the kingdom of God.

Apostle Paul explains things in more detail in his first letter to the Corinthians:

So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.  However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual.  The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.  As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly.  Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.  Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. (1 Corinthians 15:45-50)

In summary,

C  we arrive in our earthly family by means of a natural birth, with pain and water and blood

C  we arrive in our spiritual (eternal) family by means of a spiritual birth, with pain and water and blood – but not our own: the pain is Jesus’; the water is Jesus’; the blood is Jesus’ (see John 19:34).

Jesus shed his blood and bore the pain for us to be born into the family and the household of God.  And he did this because it was the express will of God.  Remember John 1:13 – born “not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

What then does this spiritual birth introduce us into?  Our status as children (sons) of God.  We shall consider that now.

Humans as sons of God

Despite the struggles and strife of Israel throughout their history recorded in our Old Testament, it has long been God’s intention that He live with His people as a family, a household, in abiding relationships of father-son.  One of the places we see this is in the relationship God has with Israel’s King David and his son Solomon.

The Old Testament historian records this:

The LORD, the God of Israel, chose me from all the house of my father to be king over Israel forever. For He has chosen Judah to be a leader; and in the house of Judah, my father’s house, and among the sons of my father He took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel.  Of all my sons (for the LORD has given me many sons), He has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel.  He said to me, ‘Your son Solomon is the one who shall build My house and My courts; for I have chosen him to be a son to Me, and I will be a father to him’. 1 Chronicles 28:4-6

God had a very particular covenant with David and God takes his covenants seriously.  Prophet Nathan, speaking of God’s covenant with King David said this, as recorded in 2 Samuel 7:14-15:

I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him.

In David’s beautiful prayer of response, he says this to God:

Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that You have brought me this far? ... Again what more can David say to You?  For You know Your servant, O Lord GOD!  For the sake of Your word, and according to Your own heart, You have done all this greatness to let Your servant know … For this reason You are great, O Lord GOD; for there is none like You, and there is no God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

Later in Israel’s history, according to the prophet Jeremiah, they forsook the Lord – repeatedly.  Jeremiah records the word of the Lord in chapter 2,

I remember concerning you the lovingkindness of your youth, the love of your betrothals, your following after Me in the wilderness, through a land not sown.  Israel was holy to the Lord, the first of His harvest; and all who ate of it became guilty; evil came upon them.”  BUT, the word continues, “What injustice did you fathers find in Me that they went far from Me and walked after emptiness and became empty?

God lays so many charges against “faithless Israel”, yet He has never departed from His original intention and promise.  Jeremiah 3:19 records the word of the Lord like this:

How I would set you among My sons, and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of the nations! … You shall call Me ‘My Father’, and not turn away from following Me.

Despite their philanderings, God’s mercy ultimately prevails.  Jeremiah 30 and 31 record the word of the Lord as,

Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwelling places; and the city shall be rebuilt on its ruin, and the palace shall stand on its rightful place … and you shall be My people and I will be your God.  At that time, I will be the God of all the families of Israel and they shall be My people … I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.

The word continues,

There is hope for your future … I have surely heard Ephraim [one of the tribes of Israel] … Is Ephraim my dear son?  Is he a delightful child?  Indeed, as often as I have spoken against him, I certainly remember him; therefore My heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him.

Old Testament Prophet Hosea wrote the word of the Lord as follows:

Yet the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered; and it shall come about that, in the place where it is said to them ‘you are not my people’, it will be said to them, ‘you are the sons of the living God’. (Hosea 1:10)

And Prophet Isaiah records the word of the Lord:

And I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘do not hold them back’.  Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth. (Isaiah 43:6)

In the days of Jesus and the first apostles likewise, it was God’s intention, will and plan that He would relate to us humans not as a tyrant or a school principal or an affable grandad, but as a true father.  That is part of the good news of the kingdom of God as lived and proclaimed by Jesus and his apostles.

The writer to the Hebrew believers in the New Testament directly references the 2 Samuel 7 prophecy as he argues the case that Jesus is superior in every way to all the icons of the old covenant: superior to angels; superior to Moses; superior to the old priesthoods of Aaron and the Levites.  The writer asks pointedly and rhetorically: “To which of the angels did God ever say, ‘you are my son, today I have given birth to you’ or ‘I will be a father to him and he shall be a son to me’?”  Yet that is what God said of Jesus.

The same writer says a little later on that, “Both He who sanctifies [Jesus, the once-born son] and those who are sanctified [the twice-born sons] are all from same Father; for which reason He [Jesus] is not ashamed to call them brothers.”

In similar vein, apostle Paul quotes the Hosea and Isaiah references above when writing to the Corinthian believers as he urges them to separate themselves from the behaviours of the corrupt society they are living in because, argues Paul, we are the temple of God and God’s temple has no agreement with temples of idols and human depravity.  We are sons of God, says Paul, so let’s live up to that reputation.

Along a similar line, apostle Paul writes to the Philippians:

For this reason also, God highly exalted Him [Jesus], and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father … so, do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain” (Philippians 2:9-16)

The other extremely important passage in the New Testament is Romans 8.  From verse 12, Paul writes:

We are under no obligation to the flesh, to live according to its desires; for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.  All who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.  For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”  The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.  And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.  For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

Yes, it is true – our adoption as sons is not fully realised as long as we remain here limited as we are in time and space and matter.  In the eternal dimension, sonship is fully realised, but even as we live in hope of the full and rich outworking of sonship, we have the day-by-day reality that the Spirit witnesses with our Spirit that we are sons of God.

Earlier I pointed to three parts of sonship: name, inheritance and DNA.  This is what I am referring to:

Name

·         Philippians 2:9 above says that God highly exalted Jesus and gave him a name that is above every name so that, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow to his lordship and every tongue will confess that he is Lord – to the honour and glory of God the Father.

·         Hebrews 1:4 says that Jesus has inherited a name and he is as superior to angels as his name is superior to theirs.  Angels are servants and messengers; Jesus is a son.  But he is not just any son, he is the first-born, once-born Son of the Father.  The Hebrew word for ‘son of the father’ is Bar-Abbas.

[There is a bitter-sweet irony in the fact that, when Jesus [alias Bar-Abbas] was crucified, there was a criminal who was on death row but who won a reprieve from the Jews because they said they wanted the innocent Jesus dead in exchange for the life of a convicted criminal.  The name of that criminal was … wait for it … Bar-Abbas!  True!]

Jesus, according to his Father, is the much-beloved son with whom He is well-pleased.  But what is this name he has inherited that is far superior to angels?  SON OF GOD!  It is possible that the Hebrew aversion to saying or writing the actual name of God might have prevented the writer to the Hebrews from saying what the actual name is, but there seems little to support that idea.  The name that is above every name; the name that is superior to the angels; the name to which every knee will bow; the name which every tongue will confess – is this: THE LORD JESUS: THE CHRIST; THE SON OF GOD.  And what is the name of every one (man or woman) who welcomes Jesus and receives their right?  Son of God!

And …

þ each son bears the name of his Father.

þ in every son’s face, you can see the attributes of the Father.

þ in every son’s behaviour, the Father’s actions are reflected.

And, according to Paul, “we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”  Until we reach eternity …

Apostle John wrote:

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and truly we are. For this reason the world does not understand or recognise us, because it did not understand or recognise Him.  Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be.  But we know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.  And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.  (1 John 3:1-2)

Inheritance

Every son inherits.  What he inherits in detail is only fully known at the time of the actual inheritance.  In his high-priestly prayer for his disciples recorded in John’s gospel, Jesus said some very interesting things.  Like this:

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose to you.  (John 16:13-15)

The Spirit will disclose, bit by bit, what the sons of God inherit.  In general, Jesus inherits all that belongs to the Father.  In the Romans 8 passage above, notice verse 17.

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God [part of our inheritance], and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

All that belongs to the Father is inherited by the first-born once-born Son; as sons (twice-born sons), we are also heirs of God; that means we are joint-heirs with Jesus our elder brother.  We get to share all that belongs to God with Jesus – as our inheritance.  Think about that.  What belongs to God?  Perhaps it is better and easier to ask what does not belong to God?  Whatever that is, we don’t inherit that, but the rest – we inherit.

 DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid: DNA molecules are nucleic acids, informational molecules encoding the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms.  You wanted to know that didn’t you?  I am not a scientist of any sort and I understand little of DNA, but I can in part understand the above definition – which I got from Wikipedia recently.

Molecules of nucleic acids contain encoded information which constitute the “instructions” needed for life to develop and to be maintained.  One of the results of the presence and functioning of DNA within me as a person is that people looking at me can see, in my features and characteristics and personality, elements of my parents and grand-parents and great-grand-parents.  I can even see some of those things myself.  My wife says to me periodically, ‘sometimes you look just like your mother.’  And sometimes I act just like my father.

I am using DNA here as an analogy.  There is no scripture reference for what I say since DNA was not known at the time the scriptures were written.  We accept that God is three persons in one: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The terms and ideas of ‘father’ and ‘son’ are in everyday use and we have the mental structures within us to transfer those concepts to our understanding of God.  But not so with the ‘holy spirit’.

Many of our old English bibles used the term Holy Ghost and delivered to generations of English bible readers the concept of “the ghost of God”.  Is he an apparition that can come and go as he pleases, appearing and disappearing at will?  Is he the ‘shadow’ of a god who died long ago?  I don’t think so.

Many reject the whole idea of God as a Trinity, seeing it as incompatible with the teaching that there is one God and God is One.  I am not one of the many.  As a living breathing person, I am, at the same time, father, son and brother; and I am always all three simultaneously.  So I have no trouble believing that God can be Father, Son and Holy Spirit – simultaneously – and still be One God.  In a similar way, H²O can be water, ice and steam and still be H²O.

But coming back to me for a moment, I believe, I am, along with all humans, body, soul and spirit (1Thessalonians 5:23).  My body is a composite of bones, flesh and skin; my soul is a composite of mind, emotions and will; my spirit is a composite of conscience, intent and temper.  My children have inherited some traits of my body, some traits of my soul and some traits of my spirit – all quite differently.  When I die and my body and soul wither and decay, my spirit, as I see it, continues on since it is not subject to decay and destruction.  In this life, as Paul wrote, God’s Spirit witnesses with my spirit that I am a son of God – a child who inherits the kingdom of God.  And, as we noted earlier, flesh and blood do not inherit the kingdom of God.

I believe it is this way because God willed it this way and then created according to His will.  And we know that he created man after His own ‘image’.  If God is Spirit and has no body except for Jesus and the Body of Christ (the ecclesia); and if He has no facial image as we understand it, in what way are we created “in the image of God”?  I believe it is precisely this: that God created man with body, soul and spirit because that reflects His own image.

And just as my spirit is hard to define or capture an idea of, so is God’s Spirit.  I find it easiest to begin to get a handle on the idea of spirit by thinking of DNA.  Just as my children inherit my DNA and so develop features, characteristics and personality according to the encoded information in my DNA molecules, we as children of God are implanted with His DNA (His Holy Spirit) at the time of our spiritual conception and inherit features, characteristics and personality traits according to the DNA of God.

The Holy Spirit is given to every son, and the Holy Spirit contains, and brings with him, and implants within each one the encoded information necessary for the building and maintenance of spiritual life.

Paul said: “But just as it is written: ‘things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.’  For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.  Who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?  Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.”

But, as Paul clearly and evidently teaches, it is this Spirit of God that is given to the sons of God.  And “All who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” says Paul in Romans 8:14.

And there is no better way to introduce the last of the three gifts of God I am speaking of here: the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Cheers,
Kevin.