The Security of Sonship by Greg Austin

He sits, alone in the darkness of his own construction, in this macabre tomb of his destiny. Body and soul convulse with unfathomable tremors of primordial fear.

He is abandoned, lost, has been left behind. The recognition instigates a renewed and instinctual shuddering that courses through the whole of his being.

No fear can compare with this fear. Not the fear of falling or the fear of drowning, not the fear of the unknown or even the fear of death itself rivals this fear of abandonment, this dread of abject and utter lostness, this eternal and solitary aloneness.

Were it possible, he would, by an act of the will and with the complicity of the heart become, once more, unborn.[1]

God has not left humankind without evidence of His existence. The Creator of all, the great Designer and Architect of the universe has everywhere left indications, visible, perceivable signs of His handiwork and His creativity and His brilliance. Scripture succinctly but powerfully announces, the heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.[2]

Earth and sky, water and wind, trees and fields and all that is within them testify of a God of ceaseless originality and of endless ingenuity.

Not only has God left His indelible fingerprint on creation, He also provides definite signs, a substantiation that informs minds, that comforts hearts, that gives to the seeker of truth and to the implementer of faith in Jesus Christ the full security of familial relationship with God. There exists, as a gift from heaven a steadfast security and an unshakable confidence that holds the child of God securely when the winds of adversity blow and when the opposition of life and the devil presses against the door of the heart.

Solomon knew the connection and the intimacy when he wrote, I am my beloved’s, And my beloved is mine.[3] I am my beloved’s, And his desire is toward me.[4]

When we approach the subject of the security of the believer in Christ, we can have confidence, we can know beyond the shadow of any doubt that our faith brings a new and a living relationship between ourselves and our God, and that His Holy Spirit establishes, confirms and makes real that relationship.

We do not merely have hope that we are saved from ourselves and from our sins. When we are assaulted by the accusations of the evil one, when the devil reminds us of our former sins, offenses and failures, we remain secure in the knowledge that Jesus Christ has provided for our forgiveness and has paid for our freedom from our former selves. The same resurrection power that gave us new life also keeps us in Him, connected to and with Him, secure in Him, no matter the challenges and the fluctuations that life may bring.

This issue, the subject of the security of the believer has spawned a whole library of books, articles, sermons and teachings because it is so central to our entire experience in Christ and it is the arena in which Satan has found so much success in frustrating the work of grace since the beginnings of life on this planet.

If hell can erode our sense of spiritual security, if the follower of Jesus can be brought to doubt his salvation or become convinced that the Father’s grasp on our lives is tenuous at best, not only will our effectiveness for the kingdom of God be restricted but our very position in Christ, and hence our day to day existence in this life will be limited.

This subject is of such importance that Scripture uses two separate concepts to convey to mankind the condition that exists when we have come to Christ and have expressed faith in His sacrificial death and in His resurrection from the dead. As Paul writes to the church at Rome, and again as he writes to the church of Galatia he indicates that we are both adopted[5] into the family of God through faith in Christ and we are born again into His family. He tells the Ephesians that God has predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.[6]

We are adopted, because we are not naturally part of God’s family. We were born, by our natural birth into Adam’s family, a family that is inherently sinful. We belong to the human family and as such, we inherit the very nature and characteristics of our natural family – Adam’s nature is our nature.

All of Adam’s defects, all the evil that proceeded from his life by his acts of disobedience came to us by natural birth. By nature, we are not part of God’s family. Our DNA is tainted, contaminated and fraught with sinful tendency.

When we come to Christ, God removes us from our natural state in Adam, and by a supernatural process of the Holy Spirit of God, makes us legally sons of God and we become part of God’s family.

Through faith and by His grace, we are adopted into His family. It is also true that we have been born into God’s family. Through adoption, we become legal sons. The process of adoption settles and confirms our legal status within the family. All the rights and privileges of the family are transferred to us. Just as a child, adopted into a new family may claim the family name and the family home and the family’s privileges, so we, as adopted sons share in the same rights in God’s family and God’s house.

But there is more to our relationship with God than can be provided through adoption. Scripture teaches that we have been made to be partakers of the divine nature, by being born into the divine family.

By our adoption, we satisfy the legal requirements of the family; through birth we enjoy the very nature of our Father, God.

If you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you literally share in the divine nature of the God of all creation. Your connection with Jesus is so real that Scripture discloses that you are one with Him. Peter must have been filled with overwhelming wonder and with awe as he wrote that, His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world . . .[7]

In Christ, we are as much a part of God’s family as if we had originally been born into it, and we are born into the Great Family by the grace of God. You, by faith in Christ are a follower of Christ and a son of the living God, having been both adopted and born into His family.

John certifies that all those who have “received” Christ have been born into God’s family. For as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.[8]

Many have discounted the whole concept of being “born again” since Jesus only instructed one man to be born the second time. It is not within the scope of our current discussion to fully address that subject, but let us note in passing that there are numerous topics that Jesus addressed only once in Scripture. Certainly, we would not develop or denounce any doctrine based solely on the number of times any given topic is repeated in Scripture. John makes it clear, those who believe in His name . . . were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.[9]

In Christ, we are both adopted and we are born into the family of God, and thus we ever belong to Him and with Him.

Among the evidences, the “signs” of our sonship are strong and unmistakable indications that we are our beloved’s and that He is ours.

Paul encourages our hearts when he writes, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.[10] This is why the same author could write, if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law[11] since sons are not bound to families by law, but by biological actualities. True sons are further bound to families by love and by mutual concern and desire. Even those who forsake their families, and go before the courts to legally change their surnames cannot deny biological connection with their birth family.

Scripture reveals that the Spirit of God will teach (the sons of God) all things[12] and that He will remind us of the teachings of Jesus.

A further indication of our place in the Family is a growing love for the brethren. John declares that We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.[13]

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.[14]

Fannie Crosby identified this ministry of the Spirit as “Blessed assurance.” She wrote, “Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.”[15]

The Holy Spirit works within our hearts to vacate the former attractiveness of the world, while at the same time He makes God more real than life itself. The world becomes undesirable, and God becomes so very desirable. This is the ministry of the Spirit of God in the life of God’s sons.

We are given the impulsion, by the Spirit to address God in a way we had never been able to before we came to Christ. We do not, in our hearts address Him as “Creator” or “Divine Ruler” or by any other title so much as we now know Him as “Abba.” This Aramaic term is both emotional and intimate and it is the word of infants. The use of “Abba” provides solid theology for our hearts, because we immediately confess through its use that we are children of God and that He is Father, and that we are intimately, closely related with Him; so much so that we use a term of endearment to address Him in lieu of some other, formal terminology.

Continuing to address our security in Christ, we find in 1 John 3:20 powerful language to encourage us. There, John writes, If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart. “If” our heart condemns us. “When” our heart condemns us. When the accuser of the brethren launches his diatribes against our lives, when condemnation threatens to overwhelm us, when we find ourselves agreeing with an enemy who (correctly) points out our imperfections, God is greater than our heart.  There is an unshakable witness, born of the Spirit that provides the ultimate testimony and answer to Satan’s accusations: We are children of God!

Finally, there remains another “sign” of our sonship: Paul declares in Romans 8:18, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

There is, in the New Testament Scripture this curious alignment of two, apparently conflicting conditions: Suffering and glory.

. . . rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.[16]

Paul cries from the depth of his being in Philippians 3, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.[17]

We are eager to walk in God’s glory, but who would willingly suffer? Yet suffering is a part of knowing Him. Indeed, we cannot experience glory without experiencing suffering.

The fellowship of His sufferings is not a physical thing, but it is spiritual. This is not the flailing of one’s flesh with corded whips or crawling on the knees across rough stone in order to prove one’s devotion to God. The fellowship of His sufferings has little to do with physical pain or even mental pain or heartache. This is a spiritual suffering. It is greater and deeper than mere physical discomfort.

The eternal emblem, the universal symbol of suffering is the cross, the implement of death, the mechanism of shame and suffering beyond our ability to comprehend. But it is not a literal, material cross we are called to carry in order to walk in fellowship with Jesus, but it is the cross represented when we hear Paul cry out, I die daily.[18]

It is in dying to our desires, it is in surrendering our will to His will, it is in laying down our lives for Him and for others that we find ourselves dwelling in the fellowship of His suffering which will bring great glory. We cannot live for God; we cannot be sons of God until we first die to ourselves. We cannot live life in two arenas: We cannot serve both God and Mammon.[19] We cannot live as part of the world and as part of the kingdom of God at the same time.

And here is the glorious progression of our experience as sons.

We began our lives “in Adam.”[20] By faith, we were joined to Christ. Since we are “in Christ,” we are “in the Spirit,” seeing that it is impossible to be in Him without also being “in” His Spirit. For if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.[21] Since we are “in the Spirit,” we are able to walk according to the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit. If we are led by the Spirit, we are sons of God. If we are sons of God, we also are heirs of God.

All God owns is ours! And it is as incredible as it is true. We, who have become partakers of the divine nature are called by our Father both sons and heirs.

What God has prepared and willed for this fractured and driven race of men who now are redeemed by faith in Christ is beyond human description, but this much we do know:

What we possess now, by faith is not only hope for the future, but it is life and hope, deliverance and security now.

Greg Austin www.gregaustin.org