The Gospel: Rights Of Sonship Series

When you look at the coaching career of the winningest coach in division 1 basketball, Bobby Knight you see he has coached some pretty impressive players. He has coached Isaih Thomas, Michael Jordan (on the Olympic team) and other very notable players. Which one do you suppose was his favorite to coach?

There was a picture of Bobby Knight in the newspaper at the height of his coaching career at the end of a regular season crying and hugging a player. He was not known for showing a tender side. His reputation is based more about his bad temper. But here he was hugging his son Pat Knight who was finishing four years of playing for his father. The caption to that picture stated that Coach Knight said his son Pat was his favorite player of all time.

Why was Pat Knight his favorite? He has coached MVPs of national championship teams. Some of those he coached later became NBA champions. Pat Knight was destined for none of those honors. He was below most of the elite that Knight coached. In the four years he played he was never a starter. So why was he the coach’s favorite? The reason is obvious. It had nothing to do with scoring ability or ball handling. He was the coach’s favorite only because he is the coach’s son. This tells us about the power of Sonship.

The passage of Galatians 3:26-4:7 is about Sonship. We find here about the tremendous privilege of Sonship that comes with faith in Christ. We became Sons of God when we trusted Christ as savior. We actually become a child of the king. We are legal heirs to God’s spiritual riches.

Paul is not the only New Testament writer to emphasize Sonship. The beloved disciple John tells us about it too. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12).

What does it mean to be a child of the King? What is it to be “Heirs according to the promise, adopted sons of God the Father?” (1 John 3:1) It is the greatest privilege of all time. The more we understand what God has given us through the Gospel in the right of Sonship, the more we will desire to live our lives worthy of our family name. We will desire to have our lives as a testimony to the family of God.

Let’s look at Sonship, our great privilege in Christ. We became sons (and daughters) of God through Faith in Christ.

Galatians 3:26-29

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

This section of scripture declares the great promise for all who have put faith in Christ. If you are a Christian, recognized your sin, repented, put your faith in Christ then you are no second class citizen in God’s kingdom. You are a full fledged son of the Heavenly Father.

How was your status of sons of God brought about? Was it by your merit? No. Was it because of your social standing, or education or because you were following religious regulations? Again the answer is no. It came only through faith in Christ.

Verse 27 speaks of Baptism.

27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

You were baptized spiritually when you became a Christian. Your water baptism is an outward testimony of your new life. It signifies your new relationship. When you study baptism in the New Testament you find the pattern; They heard, they believed they were baptized. Baptism is a biblical mandate and the command of Christ.

Only those who have done what is required in verse 26, that is have put their faith in Christ, are candidates for baptism. Verse 26 “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Paul’s argument is faith in Christ plus nothing brings salvation. Your baptism is in no way a part of your Sonship, being a child of God.

It follows in verse 27 “clothe yourself with Christ.” The clothes you wear cover you. With faith you have clothed yourself in Christ. When you put on Christ you at the same time set aside the old warn out garments of sin and put on Christ. One man recently was baptized in the river and must have grasped this meaning. As soon as he came out of the water he took off his shirt and threw the old shirt down the river. The symbolism is great because when he came to Christ he laid aside his old life or metaphorically his old garments.