The Spirit of Sonship— Part 1

I was taking one of my kids out one day when those kids who wipe windshields for money in traffic attempted to wipe ours; pitiful looking children, many of them less than ten years old. It occurred to me that if they had been my children, they wouldn’t be out there begging me for money or trying to do things to earn my blessing. They would be in the car with me, expecting me to do everything for them for free. 

I thought of my kids who enjoy all of my freely-given benefits — oblivious to the heat outside, busy playing with their phones as I chauffeured them to places that I did not even want to go. Unlike those kids who try to wipe my windshield  with likely germ-infested water in exchange for my pity or blessing— a work that I do not want because I feel that it makes my vehicle even dirtier — my kids can touch and hug me at anytime without me rushing off to take a hot shower afterwards. I eat their leftover food using the same cutlery. We take care of their every need and they enjoy all of our BENEFITS, even when they are being impossible. So much more, and all for one reason: they are our BELOVED children. 

Beloved of God, in Christ, we are BELOVED children of God, accepted in the Beloved, blessed with every right to be borne on the shoulders of the Good Shepherd like the sheep in the Parable of the Lost sheep. John 1:12 tells us—

“But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name—“

The Living Bible Version puts it this way: 

“But to all who received Him, He gave the right to become children of God. All they needed to do was to trust Him to save them.”

Beloved of God, before we became born-again, we all were like those street kids— utterly nothing but for the mercy of the “Driver” who had no obligation to give us anything because we were not His children, yet He sacrificed His own Son for us to make us His beloved children, because He is love and He so loved us. And now, we are BORN-again into the family of the Lord. In Christ, God is to us “Abba, Father.” Now, all of this reminds us of Psalm 103– because of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection, we have every single and freely-given benefit that accrues from His love sacrifice for us as outlined in Psalm 103–

2 “Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,  4 Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

Verse 13 of the same Psalm tells us that the way we feel about our beloved children is only a sample of His heart of compassion towards— Psalm 103:13–

“The same way a loving father feels toward His children— that’s but a sample of Your tender feelings toward us, Your beloved children, who live in awe of You.”

What would He not do for us and FREELY with Christ? Romans 8:32 shows us His heart of love towards us:

“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

Beloved, what did we do to get our own parents to love and give us the very best of their own benefits? Their love cannot even compare to the everlasting love with which our Heavenly Father in Christ has loved us. A normal child who knows that he is greatly loved will not want to disappoint his parents— 

something is horribly wrong when our kids begin to believe that they need to get down from their parents’ car and start to wipe its windshield while trying to escape being crushed by other moving vehicles IN ORDER TO get us to feed, clothe, house and give them the best of us, just like those street kids. They can’t even do a proper job of it. For starters, who knows what chemicals and germs are in that liquid that those kids use to wipe? Probably chemicals that will peel the paint off one’s car. 

Beloved, we do not expect such “trade-by-barter” works from our own children in order to give them the best of us. How much more our Father in heaven? This brings to mind Isaiah 64:6 which shows us what God really thinks of those righteous works which many do in order to get Him to bless or get into His good books—

“We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight…”

Something is horribly wrong with the way God our Heavenly Father is being portrayed in many places of worship — distant, cold, hard to please, ready to let the devil have a go at you for your sins, "trade-by-barter"-oriented and will neither bless nor let you  come close to Him unless you present receipts of 70 days fasting and clean living by human effort. These things do not represent our Heavenly Father whose nature we see in Christ’s portrayal of the Father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

I like to think that the returnee son was dirty, hungry and smelling of the pigs that he had been caring for. Christ using pigs as the type of animal that the prodigal son was caring for might mean nothing to we who are non-Jews. But He didn’t mention pigs in that parable for no reason: to any self-respecting Jew, what the Father did — embracing His son in his pigful state — it is unthinkable; pigs are unclean, so no practising Jew would ever touch the returnee son in his unclean state. Everyone would have avoided him, looked down on him and even demanded his punishment as his own big brother did. According to Deut. 21:18-21, he should have been stoned to death! 

Yet his Father JOYFULLY embraced and kissed him in his dirty and unclean "pigful" state, treating him to the best clothes and the fatted calf. He even ran to meet His wayward son when He spotted him from afar! What a sight! Your dad joyfully running to hug you the moment he sights you, and this after you have utterly messed up your life and wasted your inheritance. His Father never condemned him or told him to do restitution and fast for 80 days in order to be clean or “spiritual” enough before showing him love and restoring him. He accepted him just the way he was. Just imagine what you would do if you found your long-lost and beloved child wiping windshields for a living on some expressway! The son deserved to die according to Jewish law but he was treated like a prince instead. This is God's undeserved, unmerited favour. This is Grace. This is the goodness of God that leads to repentance! We really think the son would desire to go back to wallowing in the mud with pigs? 

Believers in Christ, that is the treatment you get when you come to our Heavenly Father just the way you are each time you mess things up, which we all do from time to time. Jesus Christ our Great High Priest, He came to save us from our sins. He knows how screwed up we all are of ourselves and He helps us in ALL of our weaknesses, believer. And God demonstrates His holiness (Grace) to us in His word to us concerning this Great High Priest of ours in Hebrews 4:

"15 For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.

16 Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God’s unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it]."

Notice “receive mercy” and “find grace”?  We receive "mercy" when we escape the punishment that we very much deserve. We find "grace" when we get the good that we do not deserve. It is the helpless who can draw near, beloved, and how helpless we all are of ourselves. Those who challenge God's word by thinking that they have some good in them cannot draw near. In reality, no one is good of themselves. Take the word of Christ for it. He says: "There is none good but God." 

Our salvation, even from sins and addictions, it is a finished work, beloved. Christ has done it all. It takes no effort on our part. No trying to fast or obey or clean yourself of your uncleanness/pigful state  in order to be accepted by God or to escape prison of lack and stupid mistakes. We are accepted in the Beloved. Our sins - past, present and future - are already forgiven in Christ once for all. We who trust in Christ can never stop bearing His name, just as our children can never stop being our children because they lied to is or disobeyed us; remember it's your job to teach your child to be well-behaved too. His behaviour is the direct result of the training that he receives from you. And we have a loving Father who can never fail in anything that He sets out to do, so we have no choice but to turn out good. Putting your trust utterly in Him for salvation from sin and death without bearing much fruit is even more impossible that jumping into the sea unclad without getting wet. 

Beware of preachers who put their trust in human effort (the arm of flesh) for living a godly life and distrust the power of the Holy Spirit to transform the sinner who believes from inside out. Such only testify to their unbelief in the power of Christ to save the sinner from his sins as His word says in Matthew 1:21–

"And she will have a Son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

This is Grace- undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour. Even our right living/living in triumph over sin and death is a gift of God’s Grace. In Christ, our Heavenly Father is forever HAPPY with us. Beloved, our God is a HAPPY God. Paul describes Him to Timothy and to us in 1 Timothy 1:11—

“according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.”

The word “blessed” above is translated from the Greek word “makarios” which also means HAPPY.

Our God is a HAPPY God. He is also YOUNG— growing old is a part of the curse; even the angel at the tomb on Resurrection Day was described as a young man—

“And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.” Mark‬ ‭16‬:‭5‬-‭6‬

That pictorial representation of God as some stern-looking, old, white dude with white hair and long, flowing white beard, occupied with marking your scripts against some checklist of rules and regulations to see which ones you have broken, it is quite inaccurate. I believe that the image is designed to make younger people see the church as a place filled with stuffy old stoics and where people go to retire when they become old. But even most of Jesus’ disciples were teens— 

recall the incident where Peter got money from a fish to pay temple tax for himself and Jesus? The Temple tax was one-half shekel per year for every Jew over age 20. Jesus told Peter to pay it for both of them and not the other disciples— they were all likely under 20. Jewish kids start following a rabbi from age 13. Some of Jesus’ disciples might have been that young. But in the movies, some of the disciples look like grandfathers, even older than the person playing Jesus! That idea of mainly old people following Jesus has been so ingrained in our subconscious that many can’t but associate church things with being stuffy, old-fashioned and advanced in age. But I digress. 

Our God is a happy and youthful God. He wants to see you youthful and happy (makarios aka blessed) always. So don’t be deceived by frowning and pensive-looking religious folk who make serving God seem like a chore, lug about their own obedience and 70 days fast as why God should bless; or church daddies who go about touting their own works and obedience to the law as the basis of their godliness and ability to have lunch with God everyday. Good works are evidences of Salvation in Christ, they are not conditions, so man cannot boast.

Continues in Part 2