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The Ephesian Connection
In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.
God’s call upon us to be His sons is not an invitation to a life of spiritual independence, but to membership in His family. Sons of God are not spiritual hermits – those who seek to be spiritually mature apart from the local church. The Spirit we have received seeks to place us as sons (HUIOTHESIA) in very practical ways in His family. What are the implications of this strategy? Foremost is the truth of His fatherhood. Our God is our Father.
The most common term Jesus used when referring to God was “Father.” And He taught us to pray recognizing that we too are sons of God.
Pray, then, in this way: “Our Father who art in heaven.”
As we contemplate Jesus’ relationship with His Father, we can gain insight into how we should relate with God as well. Jesus was the perfect Son. And just as He loved His Father, so God was blessed with and pleased in His Son, and made Himself known to Him in the practical issues of life, in times of prayer, and as He read the Scriptures. As a result, Jesus amazed the teachers in the temple with His understanding even when He was but a youth. Such insight came from His intimate relationship with the One who had sent Him. And just like the temple leaders, when Mary and Joseph found Him at the temple, they were astonished too.
When they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.”
Though Mary pointed to Joseph as Jesus’ father, His immediate response was to make reference to His heavenly Father. Of course, she knew He was different from her other sons. The Holy Spirit had empowered her to conceive as a virgin. And not only that, the angel Gabriel had visited her, and shepherds who had seen a vision of angelic hosts testified to what they had seen and heard. Then there had been the wise men and the star shining down upon the place of Jesus’ birth. Not to mention Simeon’s declaration that in seeing Him, he had seen the salvation of God. And now Jesus Himself clearly wanted to verbalize to Joseph and Mary His unique relationship with Heaven.
A Dynamic Relationship
He said to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house [lit., in the things of My Father.]?”
Was this the first time He had spoken in this way? Was He now speaking of His relationship with His heavenly Father more openly than before? One thing is clear. Mary and Joseph did not fully understand the significance of what was happening. Despite this, the Father wanted Him to go home and continue submitting as a son to them.
And they did not understand the statement which He had made to them. And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth; and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
The fact that Jesus increased in favor with God does not indicate an increase of God’s love for His Son, but a relationship that was dynamic and maturing. Our Lord grew in the scope of His obedience.
He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.
It is not that Jesus was ever disobedient. He always did the will of His Father. But as He matured, the Father would require more of His Son. And our Lord’s heart was then stretched to embrace each new greater requirement. And as He perfectly obeyed His Father in each case, His capacity to express God increased. Here was the process of growth for Jesus. It is the pattern for ours. Then came the day of the supreme test. The Father pointed His Son to Calvary. There Jesus’ heart was stretched so far it broke. But He perfectly obeyed His Father.
The cross is the highest and most perfect example of obedience. This is why our goal is to be conformed to His death (Philippians 3:10).
Jesus’ earthly relationship with His Father was not static. As a child, He increased in the favor of God and was being prepared for His adult role as the Messiah. Then on the day of His baptism:
a voice came out of heaven, “Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased.”
The Son was ready for the next phase of His ministry. All that He had walked in up to this point had been necessary and preparatory. He had not come from heaven simply to minister as others before Him had done but to perfectly reveal the One who had sent Him. Thus He learned to spend time in His Father’s presence as a child. He was the perfect Son before He did any public ministry. As a result, He was able to say:
He who has seen Me has seen the Father, how do you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.
It is vital that we see the Father as we view the Son. His ministry to men depended upon Him being an accurate portrayal of the One who had sent Him. He would have been totally unsuccessful in His ministry if He had misrepresented His Father in even the smallest way. Some cults teach that Jesus is less than God, a lesser god, or in some way a created being. But the Deity of Christ is crucial to sound theology. If we dishonor the Son, we dishonor the One who sent Him (John 5:23).
Obviously, His identity as God’s Son preceded His ministry as the Messiah. The word “Son” refers to His relationship with His Father, the word “Messiah” refers to His anointed ministry among men. “Son” refers to who He was; “Messiah” refers to what He did, based on who He was. Therefore His ministry to men rested on the foundation of His relationship with His Father. And here is where Satan focused his attack. He did not say, “If You are the Messiah of Israel, turn these stones into bread.” Rather he said, “If You are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.” The enemy attacked Christ’s distinctiveness as God’s Son, but Jesus clearly understood who He was. And secure in His identity, He defeated the powers of darkness as the Messiah, the anointed One of God.
Herein lies a principle for spiritual victory. To the degree that we see who we are as God’s sons, we will overcome the enemy. The key is not primarily that we understand our ministry but that we are faithful to our Father. Ministry then will be the consequence of walking as faithful sons. Of course, this familial role will also involve walking together with our spiritual brothers and sisters. Together we will stand as God’s family, His end-time weapon for the final crushing of Satan.
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Christians mature as we yield to the Holy Spirit. Authentic New Testament ministry is the consequence of loving God as we increasingly come to know Him, as we discover who we are in Him, and then as we follow the Spirit’s leading. Such a lifestyle will crush the influence of the enemy both in our own lives, as well as in the lives of others.
Many believers wonder if they are called to be pastors, evangelists, teachers, prophets or apostles. But these ministry gifts are few in the Church compared with the overall number of God’s people. While most will not serve in these ministry functions, all are called to be God’s sons. Our spiritual fruitfulness will depend on how well we respond to our heavenly Father and to our brothers and sisters in His family.
In love He predestined us to adoption as sons [HUIOTHESIA] through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.
Today God is strategically placing each son in His family where we can each lay hold of our inheritance in this generation.
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