The Heart of the Gospel: Adoption through Atonement (Gal. 4:1-7)

Intro.

Two controlling Motifs: the true and false gold heirloom & the infant/youth child and the adult child

Imagine a moment a family heirloom that has been passed down from generation to generation. There are stories surrounding it, but the assumption is and has always been it was real gold and jewels. Then one day, it becomes the curious thought of the most recent descendant that I should find out if this is in fact all that I’ve been told. They get it checked. To their chagrin, it is not only not precious, but it made of a sort of bronze plated mixture and mere crystals inlays. The appraiser announces this is only precious insofar as it is dearly held, but nothing more, ah here, feel and view the difference of this diamond encrusted golden bangle which looks so similar. The heir takes it and is shocked that the stories and almost legends attached to this are either completely fabricated or have been so embellished from the truth the real story of this has become irretrievable. Is this someone’s story today about the central claims of Christianity and the biblical Gospel. You’ve inherited a faith, but a faith that is unfounded when weighed against the biblical gospel.

In story two, I ask you to put yourself in a time capsule and remember your youth. Pretend you a good upbringing, for many of you I know this is not the case, but suppose you did. What was so magical about it? What made that “freedom” or supposed innocence so wonderful in your recollection. If your childhood was anything close to mine and so many others I know. Your relationship was extremely conditioned in relation to your parents in what you could or could not do. It had stipulations and expectations which demanded a certain response without which you were to never taste the fulness of what was being offered you. Now, how has your relationship changed, still as a child to your parents, but now grown, established in your career and with a family and making your own decisions (whether for better or worse). Have you become less a child or more a child to your parent? I suggest neither. Your experience of childhood is what has changed, the freedoms now present in adulthood eclipse the once restrictive childhood demands. For some of you, you’ve been a Christian for a long time, but you have effectively lived with a Peter Pan syndrome of childhood naivete, being submitted to a life of dos and don’ts and relating to your Father in Heaven as either a taskmaster waiting to reprimand your every slip or a permissive grandfather (or in John LoRusso’s case, Babu), who is there to let you run wild and free and exercise your individuality, shower you with gifts (and let your parents deal with disciplining you). Is that some of you today?

Brief word on Exposition and disjointedness of the text

Background in the Hebrew Scriptures

Locating Paul’s argument in the Hebrew Scriptures: the Law and Promise dialectic of the Hebrew Scriptures (Gal. 3:15-29)

Galatians 3:15–29 ESV

To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

The example of Hagar and Sarah and a biblical typology of sonship (Gal. 4:21-31)

Galatians 4:21–31 ESV

Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.” Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

Roman adoption motif (below is for review)

Paul’s ‘Spirit of Adoption’ in its Roman Imperial Context (Adoption and a Plan for Succession)

The Apostle Paul would have been familiar with the metaphor of adoption in the context of Imperial succession. Roman religion, coinage, and civic imagery all cooperated to solidify the metaphor of adoption in the mindset of residents of the Empire. Adoption was the key social construct for the preservation of Imperial power and made this metaphor accessible to Paul’s first-century Roman audience.

Adoption had a direct bearing on the practice of Roman religion. When someone was adopted, not only did family relationships change, but worship changed also. The adoptive family spirits became the spirits of the adoptee. The adoptee was expected to preserve the family cult and celebrate the worship of the genius of his new family. This was the expectation, not only in the Roman domestic cult, but certainly in the newly developing Imperial cult. Each Emperor was expected to serve and promote the Imperial religion that was begun in earnest under Augustus.

The legal forms of adoption, when applied to the highest-ranking family in the world, brought religious overtones, as well. Although Augustus may have deferred the notion of divinity while he was alive, that did not stop his successors either from fully dismissing the notion (Claudius) or from thoroughly embracing it (Caligula and Nero). The religious ideas that coalesced in Rome with the Imperial family may provide clues as to how Paul was able to use the term ‘spirit’ in order to qualify the kind of adoption that believers in Jesus experienced. The specific context where this would have impacted Paul is in the Imperial cult in the provinces, and from the reports he would have heard from his associates in Rome.

Paul’s ‘Spirit of Adoption’ in its Roman Imperial Context (Genius and Numen in Roman Religion)

The legal practice of adoption was long established by the first-century. Widely attested as a means of care in old age, adoption was used to procure an heir for purposes of inheritance, for the important task of funerary arrangements, and for the preservation of the family cult. James M. Scott notes the three broad areas that were concerned with a Roman adoption: ‘A person who was not by birth part of the family was made son of an adoptive father, in order that he might carry on the nomen (name), the pecunia (estate), and the sacrum (sacred rites) of a family which might have otherwise died out.’ From the Republic and into the early Imperial period, however, the additional concerns of patria potestas became a more prominent motivation for adoption. The adopted son was subject to the authority of the adoptive father in every way. This would allow for political and social maneuvering beyond what physical relationships allowed. The authority of the adoptive father was critical, but so too, was the necessity of caring for the household gods. This is the precise way that Roman Imperial adoption is connected to the Imperial cult and Roman religion. As we shall see, this matrix of associations made it possible for Paul to add the ‘spirit’ to his adoption metaphor in Romans 8:12–17.

The first desideratum for establishing a connection between Paul’s use of the adoption metaphor in Romans 8 and the Roman Imperial context is to understand that adoption was critically necessary for the succession and ideology of the Empire. The role of adoption in the making of emperors and the preservation of the Empire was understood in the socio-political map of Paul’s letter to the Romans. That is, Paul’s use of the adoption metaphor drew upon the social and political realities of persons living in the capital.

A connection must be made between adoption and spirit terminology both in the Roman Imperial context and Paul’s letter. The necessary connection is made in terms of Roman religious practice in the family and the Empire. When a son was adopted, he changed allegiance from his natural family to his adoptive family and took on the cultic practices of the adoptive family. There was a new paterfamilias who also carried complete authority. All financial ties and obligations of the adoptive son became the financial ties and obligations of the adoptive father. Significantly, the household gods of the adopted son switched from that of his natural family to that of his adoptive family.93 This switch in household gods is essential in understanding the significance of adoption in Roman power politics and also in understanding the broader implications of the Roman Imperial cult.

From slaves to Sons (4:1-3 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.)

Slaves to the elementary principles of the world

New Testament VIII: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians (Serving New Moons before the Promise Fulfilled)

SERVING NEW MOONS BEFORE THE PROMISE FULFILLED. AMBROSIASTER: By the “elements” he means new moons and the sabbath. New moons are the lunar days that the Jews observe, while the sabbath is the day of rest. Therefore, before the promise came (that is, the gift of God’s grace) and justified believers by purifying them, we were subject, like those who are infants and imperfect, to our fellow servants as though to custodians. Our pernicious freedom was the matrix of sin. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.3.

POSSIBLE VIEWS OF THESE ELEMENTS. JEROME: He has used the name “elements of the world” for those whom he called tutors and overseers above.… Some hold that these are angels that preside over the four elements. … Many think that it is the heaven and earth with their inhabitants that are called the elements of the world, because the wise Greeks, the barbarians and the Romans, the dregs of all superstition, venerate the sun, the moon, … from which we are liberated by Christ’s coming, knowing them to be creatures and not divinities. Others interpret the elements of the world as the law of Moses and the utterances of the prophets, because, commencing and setting out with these letters, we imbibe the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom.… The Mosaic law and the prophets can be taken as the elements of writing, because through them syllables and names are put together, and they are learned not so much for their own sake as for their usefulness to others.… Regarding our interpretation of the law and the prophets as the elements of the world, “world” is customarily taken to signify those who are in the world. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.3.

Here we seem to have a picture of Paul as a Jew under the law, but also a relating or sympathizing with the way pagans were ruled by their understanding of relating to the seasons, Sun, moon, and stars and the way this directed all aspects of life from fertility/fatherhood to crops/commerce to lands/legislation.

These people were very truly ripe for the Gospel when they received it by the Spirit, but equally ripe for deception and being as Paul says "bewitched" into adopting a Judaizing kind of Gnostic teaching which would bring to completion by the flesh, what God had begun by the Spirit--this of course was and is a completely false notion that Paul says is damnable.

Gospel movement from under the law to under grace, law to liberty or slave to son

The faith of Abraham was a faith in which a man who was well past the age of ability to father a son and Sarah to bear him, is told, “I who am good as dead” (old as dirt) will be a father to one through whom the nations of the earth shall be blessed. I don’t see how, but because it is Yahweh (the Lord God) who says so, it is good as done. The writer of Hebrews states it:  Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. The works of obedience established His faith, but the object of his faith was in the promise God had made to Him. Abraham’s faith was not in what was seen, but unseen, what God had promised not in what he could conceive of as true.

A breaking of the law in one point is a breaking of it in everything; whereas, as a trusting in a promise of God is a trusting in all of God’s promises. In both points they are inseparable.

Thus, when we conceive of law breaking vs promise trusting, we need to see parallel realities at play. In the former, James writes: For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. This mercy that causes us to triumph is that which comes through the promise. For in the promise we have a set rule. In believing what God had commanded, Abraham was counted as justified in His sight and His works demonstrated that belief. Likewise, our faith in who God has declared His only begotten Son to be for and in us is met with a fulfillment of all His promises for us which as Paul writes: For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes.  For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us,  and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

“Were I asked to focus the New Testament message in three words, my proposal would be adoption through propitiation, and I do not expect ever to meet a richer or more pregnant summary of the gospel than that.” - J.I. Packer (Knowing God, pp. 194)

Inseparable operations of God (4:4-6)

1. Father Appoints (when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son)

Gen. 20:15-21; Acts 2:22-23; Now, specifically how is this word fulness used? Mark 1:45; Acts 1:7 What other redemptive-historical example do we have of this?

Genesis 15:16 Then the Exodus and God redeems His people from under the tyranny of enslavement to Egypt, which Paul elsewhere relays is a picture of being under the bondage of sin. This picture of Israel typifies the fuller and greater universal salvation of the Lord Jesus. He is fulfilling the Promise to Abraham: through your seed, the nations will be blessed (see Gen. 15-18; select passages). Give cursory overview

Genesis 15:4–6 ESV

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 15:7–16 ESV

And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

Genesis 17:4–7 ESV

“Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

Exodus 3:6–8 ESV

And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Exodus 3:14–15 ESV

God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

Joshua 1:2–9 ESV

“Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Example of Israel's liberation to be an instrument of God's justice (judgment of the Canaanite peoples) and then a time of peace. We are pillaging the kingdom of darkness as we preach the Gospel to the nations, and then there will be an everlasting peace (see Jesus’ language “against the gate of hell,” Paul “kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved son” and “the ruler of this age” vs Jesus’ “all authority in heaven and on earth.”)

What does fulness of time or the fact God appoints seasons tell us about God (specifically the Father)? That nothing is outside his control, that everything has a purpose, because it is working towards something (i.e., a fulness). Therefore, because God has sent forth his Son, he shows his hand as it relates to His intention with humanity. He gave His Son, or as Paul writes elsewhere, "He who did not spare His own Son...will he not graciously give us all things?"

2. Son Accomplishes (born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.)

Passages which talk about Jesus coming under the law for us and our salvation and the accomplishment of atonement (specifically, propitiatory sacrifice)

One thing that is very clear about Jesus is that he knew he had been sent. He was no self-appointed savior, no popularly elected leader. He had not just arrived. He was sent. This awareness of a purpose and a mission seems to have developed alongside his consciousness of being the Son of his Father, even from a young age, as Luke tells us (Lk 2:49). But it became crystal clear...at his baptism. - Christopher Wright (Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament, pp. 142)

born of woman...

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Luke 1:35–37 ESV

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”

born under the law...

Luke 2:22–24 ESV

And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”

Matthew 3:13–17 ESV

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

to redeem those who were under the law...

2 Corinthians 5:19, 21 (ESV)

that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation...For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Romans 5:12–14 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

John 1:11–13, 16-17 (ESV)

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God...For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

3. Spirit Applies (And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”)

Passages which speak about adoption, the sealing of the Spirit, the New Covenant, and the promise of the Father (i.e., Joel 2, Jer. 33, Lk. 24:44-49; Acts 1:1-5; Eph. 1:11-14, etc.)

Summary:

In Adam, we—along with him—have rebelled against the Father, rejecting his good gifts and exchanging right worship of Him we have instead worshipped idols and become worthless and unrighteous in our self-satisfied states. The self-righteousness of our being and pursuit of God’s good gifts at the expense of knowing Him has led to our just condemnation and excited the wrath of God. Therefore, we stand rightly in opposition to God as spiritually dead men walking who in our deadened state will eventually, completely and eternally be cut off from the life of God. This has led to us living lives in which a false knowledge informs our every life and leads to a false wisdom of which all the false religions of the world are premised. This also leads to a false sense of power and security that we are in fact able to control our lives and—as it were—create our own destinies. This is the “unholy” kind of trinitarian fall that has occurred.

Now, what does the Spirit apply to us?

The Father has elected us and created us anew—in Christ Jesus—to be law-loving children of His who thank Him for His good gifts—in Jesus name—but only worship Him through the Son and by the Spirit. We being unrighteous and dead in our sins have had our sins passed over through the shedding of the Son’s blood and been given a new life in His name. We stand complete in the Lord Jesus Christ with a new standing before the Father as that of perfect and spotless lamb—without spot or wrinkle. We relate now, to the Father, as our true Heavenly Father, by whom we’ve been given a heavenly new birth, and thus, truly are His children. This has produced a right knowledge of God as our Creator and Redeemer which translates to rightly understanding the world we live in and how we are to relate to it. Also, how we are to relate to others who bear His image, and for the redeemed are being made into his likeness. We now accept, that God is overall and in all things, and all things are moving toward a climatic end for which we are being prepared—the restoration of all things in the new heavens and earth.

All of this has come to us by the Spirit who is the mind of Christ in us.

God’s calling to sonship is so we might have an eternal inheritance (4:7- So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.)

You sum up the whole of New Testament teaching in a single phrase, if you speak of it as a revelation of the Fatherhood of the holy Creator. In the same way, you sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God. (Knowing God, pp. 182)

What is the inheritance of our sonship?

Gal. 3:18, 29 (see also Matt. 6:3-4, 19-21, Rom. 8; 1Cor. 15; Phil. 3:17-4:1, 1Pet. 1:3-12)

Provision for sonship is complete, now preparation for the inheritance

the legal provisions of adoption have been made through the atonement

now the Christian life is adoption in preparation for the inheritance

what is richest in the life of an adopted orphan: that it is a legal adoption or that they have been adopted and are loved by their new parents?

“Our first point about adoption is that it is the highest privilege that the gospel offers: higher even than justification. This may cause raising of eyebrows, for justification is the gift of God on which since Luther evangelicals have laid the greatest stress, and we are accustomed to say, almost without thinking, that free justification is God’s supreme blessing to us sinners. Nonetheless, careful thought will show the truth of the statement we have just made. That justification—by which we mean God’s forgiveness of the past together with his acceptance for the future—is the primary and fundamental blessing of the gospel is not in question...But this is not to say that justification is the highest blessing of the gospel. Adoption is higher, because of the richer relationship with God that it involves. Some textbooks on Christian doctrine— Berkhof’s, for instance—treat adoption as a mere subsection of justification, but this is inadequate. The two ideas are distinct, and adoption is the more exalted. Justification is a forensic idea, conceived in terms of law, and viewing God as judge...But contrast this, now, with adoption. Adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as father. In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship—he establishes us as his children and heirs. Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship. To be right with God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is a greater.” (Knowing God, pp. )

Final Application

How are you relating to God now? Is it your works that are justifying you and is everything in terms of a faith that I can control that either validates me as acceptable to God and therefore in the family of God or is it a faith that terminates on the Lord Jesus and all that he is in us and for us? Are you in Christ, but only willing to go so far as what you are willing to make time for or seems worth the effort? Is your life guided by the principle of ‘let go and let God’ or equally misguided: God will never give me more than I can bear, and if he does it must not be of God and I am not in His will or somehow His will could never be for me to suffer? Are you most comfortable with a spirituality in which you know the rules and you will follow them or else pay the penalty or there really are no rules and God accepts me just as I am? Again I say to you, the current you is not what the final you will be or else the resurrection is of no value, and what is more if you worship and serve a God who lives inside your box of control and expectations then your God may be one of your own imagination and not the one who can create the heavens and earth out of nothing. The God who can make dead men come alive, the God who makes a man past fatherhood (good as dead) the father of many nations.

What does this sonship look like? What does this look like fleshed out?

In Eph. 5 Paul writes it's discerning what is pleasing to the Lord: “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.”

and in Rom. 8 he writes of being led by the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the flesh. “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

In both instances, we have a putting on, putting off kind of lifestyle not a do and don't lifestyle. We have a live as you are not a live so that you might become. We are sons of God because the Son of God purchased our adoption with His blood, and the Spirit united us to Him by faith. We are co-heirs with Christ because we are sons of God in Christ, and the Spirit testifies this to us.

Illustration: The fullness of our enjoyment of anything in life stems from our habitual practice of it or its consistent presence in our life by which it is shaping us and in turn, we are learning of it and inviting its influence. Hence, to fully enjoy or tap the potential of something or someone’s benefit in our life we must discipline ourselves to view, savor, and pursue it with full abandon. Without our whole heart in pursuit we will only get as much as we have given ourselves over to knowing and experiencing it. If this is true of our earthly vocations, passions, and relationship then how much truer is this our calling to be sons of God, in which we ought to desire to know Him, who decidedly and unambiguously revealed Himself to us—primarily and most clearly through the sending of His Son.

“So in summary, how will we ever know God and love Him more fully if we don’t make our ever present aim to be with Him and to please Him? Our Triune God has not and will never be the one in question as to whether or not He loves and wants to be with us. The question is: will I avail myself of what has already been provided?”

Conclusion: So while on one hand I will remind us all in the words, again, of our friend Packer: “I need not torment myself with the fear that my faith may fail; as grace led me to faith in the first place, so grace will keep me believing to the end. Faith, both in its origin and continuance, is a gift of grace.”

But let our final word rest with the Apostle when he states: I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.