OUR SONSHIP
1 Jn. 3:2
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. Rabbis are notoriously stubborn individuals, by necessity. One day 4 Rabbis -- Bloom, Levy, Victor and Morris -- were having a theological argument. At the conclusion, they voted and it was 3 to 1, with Rabbi Victor being on the losing end. But Rabbi Victor decided to appeal to a higher authority.
2. "Oh God," he cried out, "I know that I’m right and they’re wrong! I would be most grateful if you would give us a sign to prove to them that I am right."
3. At that moment a storm cloud obscured the sunny sky, let out a mighty rumble and then dissolved. "See!" said Rabbi Victor, "that was a sign from God. I knew I was right."
4. But the other rabbis disagreed, pointing out that it wasn't unusual for storm clouds to form on hot days.
5. Just as Rabbi Victor was getting ready to ask God for a gigantic sign to end the argument, the sky turned pitch black, the earth shook violently, and a deep, booming voice says, "He’s Right!"
6. Rabbi Victor smiled, turned to the other three rabbis, and said, "So! Are you now willing to admit that I am right?"
7. To which one of the Rabbis answered, "Well, we’ll certainly admit that the vote is now 3 to 2!”
B. TEXT: 1 John 3:2
“Beloved, NOW are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”
C. THESIS
1. Maybe some of you ladies have felt the unfairness of you being born a woman and men having the upper hand. 2. Maybe you’ve wished you could’ve been born a man.
Gender discrimination causes pay differences between men and women.
3. Let me tell you a wonderful truth: in Christ God has taken that difference away! Gal. 3:28 says; “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
4. We’re going to look at why you ladies are as good as any “son.” We’re looking at who Jesus the Son of God is, what being “in Christ” means, and the implications of our Sonship. The title is, “Our Sonship.”
I. JESUS WAS/IS UNIQUELY THE SON OF GOD
A. THE “ONLY” SON OF GOD
1. The Nicene Creed says, “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty …And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made …”
2. Jesus was God’s Son before He was physically born of Mary (Ps. 2:7,12; Prov. 30:4; Heb. 1:2; John 3:17).
3. John 1:14,18 & 3:16,18 tells us that Jesus is the Father’s “mono-genes,” the only genetic Son. The angels are sons by creation, we are sons by adoption, but Jesus is “The Son” (87X in N.T.) by eternal coexistence. Jesus alone is of one substance with the Father.
4. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus called God, “Abba, Father!” (Mk. 14:36), using the intimate words a child might use to say “Daddy!”
B. JESUS CLAIMED A SPECIAL, UNPARALLELED RELATIONSHIP WITH THE FATHER
1. John 5:18 “calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” Jn. 8:54, “My Father, whom you claim as your God….” John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.”
2. John 1:18, “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” NIV
C. SPECIAL PRIVILEGES OF THE SON OF GOD:
a. He has all powers of Judging (John 5:22-23);
b. Owns everything that belongs to God (Jn. 16:15);
c. He alone possesses immortality (Jn. 5:26; 1 Tim. 6:16; 2 Tim. 1:10);
d. Jesus alone will raise the Dead (Jn. 6:40,44);
e. He alone has ever seen the Father (Jn. 6:46);
f. Only through The Son can the Father be known (14:6);
g. If you’ve seen Jesus, you’ve seen the Father (14:9);
h. The Son dispenses the Holy Spirit (Jn. 15:26; 16:15);
i. Prayers in the Son’s name are answered by God (15:16);
j. The Son was glorified and loved by the Father before the world began (Jn. 17:5, 24).
D. ILLUSTRATION: Access to High Places
1. During the Civil War, a man’s son deserted his post in battle and was to be shot by a firing squad. So the father went to Washington DC seeking the President’s pardon.
2. But he couldn't get passed the front gate to the White House; the guards denied him access.
3. So he sat on the bench outside crying, fearing his son's death. Day after day, hundreds of people pass him, but no one noticed....
4. One day a small boy saw him crying and asked him why, what was going on. He told the boy about his son and what was going to happen. The boy was touched. He said, "Follow me."
5. He walked up to the front gate, looked up at the soldiers guarding it and said, "It's okay. He's with me." The gate opened.
6. The boy and the man marched right up to the front door of the White House, opened it and walked in. He knew exactly where the President was.
7. He knocked on the door, and entered a meeting of the President with his cabinet. The little boy nudged his way through to the President and jumped up on his lap. An intermission was called.
8. The boy said, "Daddy, I want you to meet a man. He needs your help." The man was brought and told his story. Lincoln took out his pen, signed a document and handed it to the man. "Presidential Pardon, Signed, Abraham Lincoln, President of the U.S."
9. The man's SON had been pardoned! His tears of sadness became tears of joy. As he was leaving he turned to the President and asked, "Why did you do this for me?"
Lincoln replied, "I did it because my SON took an interest in your situation!” (David A. Sargent)
E. SUMMARY
1. So we see how Jesus is eternally the Son of the Father, having existed forever in loving union with Him. There is no other Son, and He and the Father are so closely united that all life, creative force, and wisdom are shared.
2. It’s to this Son that all life and blessings flow. The key to US having God’s life and blessings is to be in relationship with the Son, Jesus Christ. We do not possess eternal life independently of the Son.
II. WE ARE NOW “IN CHRIST”
Paul often uses the formula "in Christ" or "in Him" to refer to the new position of the believer in 3 ways:
A. “IN CHRIST” HISTORICALLY
1. The Christian, “in Christ,” is to apply to himself what once took place to Christ -- being crucified, dead, buried, and risen with Christ (Romans 6:3: Galatians 2:19; Colossians 2:12, 13, 20; 3:1,3). These have in spiritual reality happened to the believer also in Christ.
2. We’re to reckon ourselves to be dead to this world and alive to God, seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6), and of appearing with Him in glory (Col. 3:4).
3. As Levi was in Abraham when he paid tithes to Melchizedek, so we were in Christ, our representative Head: when he suffered, died, rose again, and ascended to His throne. Historically, we have experienced all these things with Him.
B. “IN CHRIST” PNEUMATICALLY
1. The work of the Spirit is the new work of creation in progress. Paul’s doesn’t just speak of a new "creature" but of the new "creation."
2. This is expressed in 2 Cor. 5:17: "If any man is in Christ, he is (belongs to the) new creation. The old things have passed away, behold! all things are new."
3. Pneumatically, we are in spiritual union with Christ. 1 Cor. 6:17 says, "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him." Eph. 2:5 says, “[He] has quickened us together with Christ” (see also Col. 2:13.)
4. Obviously "being in Christ," isn’t a communion that exists only in certain sublime moments, but rather is an abiding reality for the Christian. “Be filled (present continuous imperative) with the Spirit!” Eph. 5:18.
5. We’re to “abide” in Jesus! John spoke of this union when he said, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” 1 John 5:11-12.
6. It’s THE SON in us that constitutes US as Sons. It’s the Spirit of Jesus in us which is the Spirit of adoption. Gal. 4:6, “God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’” Without Him we’re nothing. With Him, we’re part of God’s family.
C. “IN CHRIST” ESCHATOLOGICALLY
1. Eschatologically, being “in (the risen) Christ” makes us cosmically part of the coming new creation.
2. When Jesus rose from the dead (to use a current sci-fi illus.), He established a “wormhole” connection to the coming Age where there’s no sin, death, or corruption, and brought it back into this Age.
3. When He rose, He rose with an eternal, glorified body, transformed from the matter of this Age into the spiritual material of the coming Age. He’s already a part of it NOW.
4. So when we become “In Christ” (get the Risen Jesus inside us), we become predestined to that future as part of Him!
5. “In Christ,” we are also partakers of His unique relationship with the Father. The relationship HE has, is the relationship WE can have!
III. IMPLICATIONS OF OUR SONSHIP
A. WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT SONS OF GOD
1. It’s an incredible act of the love of the Father that we should be called the Sons of God! 1 Jn. 3:1.
2. The creation itself is eagerly anticipating being liberated from its bondage to decay and entering into the freedom and glory of the Sons of God (Rm. 8:19, 21).
3. The Sons of God have been predestined to this status from the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:5).
4. What are some facts about the Sons of God?
a. They can no longer die (Luke 20:36).
b. They are peacemakers (Mt. 5:9).
c. They are led by the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:14).
d. Their bodies will be redeemed (Rom. 8:23).
e. They are blameless and harmless (Phip. 2:15).
f. They will all have to endure chastening (Heb. 12:7-8).
5. How do we get to be Sons of God?
a. “You are all sons of God through FAITH (Gal. 3:26).
b. “Yet to all who did RECEIVE Him (Jesus), to those who BELIEVED in His name, he gave the right to become children (Gr. ‘sons’) of God…born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but ‘born’ of God, John 1:12-13.
c. You received the Spirit of adoption/sonship (Rm. 8:15,23).
B. A NEW PARENTAGE
1. WE ARE NOW SONS/DAUGHTERS OF GOD!
1 John 3:2, “Beloved, NOW are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”
2. WE ARE NOT LIKE OTHER PEOPLE AROUND US!
a. We were predestined to be God’s kids from all eternity. We were chosen by Him before the world was!
b. We’re in this world, but not of it! We have a different origin, a different destination, a different nature, and different goals. We may look like them, but we’re very different! Don’t try to be like the world, instead try to be like Jesus!
3. DIFFERENT PARENTAGE: GOD’S DNA
a. Seed of the Word of God planted within us. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever” 1 Pet. 1:23. b. “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God” 1 Jn. 3:9.
c. Tremendous Power of the Seed. Within the seed is everything the full-grown plant will be.
d. The DNA is a genetic Blueprint of the fully grown Creature. God has planted His DNA in us: Christ implanted in our souls. Only add the right environment and we will grow up into Him, who is the Head, even Christ.
4. Therefore, being born again means something much more than turning over a new leaf, it means getting a new Daddy! (See Jn. 1: 12-13; Gal. 4:6; 2 Pet. 1:4). The origin of
our life is no longer Adam, but Jesus Christ. We become a new person from the inside out.
C. LEADERS, NOT FOLLOWERS
1. ILLUS.
a. Once a U.S. President had 2 daughters. They went to private schools with other elite kids.
b. They came home one day wanting to get a ridiculous haircut because it was in style at their school. Their father, the President, sat down with them.
c. “Girls, you’re not like anyone else. You’re the daughters of the highest official in the world. You don’t follow the fads other’s set – you make the fads and others will follow what you do.”
2. If we’re sons and daughters of God, we should think, act, and be different from everyone else. Rom. 12:2, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
3. We should exhibit the fruit and the gifts of the Spirit. We should expect the miraculous and point others to Christ and to heaven. We are on our way to our mansions!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: ANALOGY OF BIRDS
1. The offspring of a bird displays every bird-like faculty and characteristic. The moment they are born they are miniature copies of their parents. They eat, breathe, move, think, like a bird.
2. There comes a time when, like a bird, they spread tentative wings and take to the air. The son of a bird can fly! It can also sing.
3. The offspring of an Earth-born creature cannot fly, nor sing. It has the wrong nature.
4. The heaven born sons of God should evince heavenly, that is supernatural, characteristics. Don’t try to be like the barnyard ducks and chickens when you have the lineage of the Eagle!
B. THE CALL
1. Listen to Paul’s insight in Col. 3:1-4; “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set
your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
2. Some of you may not have Jesus in your hearts. Realize that the key is not church membership or receiving sacraments, or even being a “good person.” The key is relationship/ union with Jesus.
3. Would you like to invite the Savior in this morning? If so raise your hands. The Bible tells us to repent of our sins and to believe on Jesus as our Savior and Lord. Let’s do that right now.
4. For all who are Christians, where do you need improvement in becoming more like Jesus? Are your priorities focused on heavenly things or earthly? Let’s pray about that now.
[Section 2 has concepts by Herman Ridderbos, Paul: An Outline of his Theology]
