THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians
Message Four—The Sonship
Scripture Reading: Gal. 3:26-28; 4:4-7, 19
I. God’s eternal economy is the dispensing of Himself into His chosen people to make them His sons for His corporate expression—sonship is the focal point of God’s economy—Gal. 4:4-7:
A. God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy by predestinating us unto sonship—Eph. 1:4-5:
1. The choosing of God’s people to be holy is for the purpose of their being made sons of God, participating in the divine sonship.
2. To be made holy—to be sanctified by God by His putting Himself into us and then mingling His nature with us—is the process, the procedure, whereas to be sons of God is the aim, the goal, and is a matter of our being joined to the Son of God and conformed to the very image of the firstborn Son of God—Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:15.
B. Sanctification is for sonship; God’s sanctifying us is His “sonizing” our entire being to make us His sons in a full way—Heb. 2:10-11; 1 Thes. 5:23:
1. The regenerating sanctification in our spirit brings forth many sons of God to form an organism for God’s corporate expression, which is the organic Body of Christ, the church—John 1:12-13; 2 Pet. 1:4; Gal. 3:26.
2. The transforming sanctification in our soul transforms the regenerated believers by renewing and conforming them to the glorious image of Christ that they may become a heritage of worth, a treasure to God as God’s private possession—Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:11, 14, 18.
3. Te consummating sanctification in our body transfigures the believers’ body by redeeming their vile body into God’s glory that they may be fully and wholly sanctified in their spirit, soul, and body to be a consummated corporation of God’s many sons who are matured in the processed Triune God as their life that they may express God as the New Jerusalem for eternity—Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:23; Rev. 21:2, 7.
C. We are the sons of God because we have believed and have been baptized into Christ, we have put on Christ, and thus, we are all one in Christ; this is to enter into Christ, to express Christ by living Him, and to practice the church life as the one new man in the reality of the divine sonship—Gal. 3:26-28.
II. Christ’s judicial redemption is to bring us out of the custody of the law into the sonship of God that we may enjoy His organic salvation, His divine “sonizing”; the goal of Christ’s redemption is sonship—Gal. 4:4-6; Rom. 5:10:
A. God “sent forth His Son” for our judicial redemption; God “sent forth the Spirit of His Son” for our organic salvation—Gal. 4:4, 6; 3:13-14:
1. God sent forth His Son, who was born under law, to redeem God’s chosen people from the custody of the law that they might receive the sonship and become the sons of God—vv. 23-24; 4:4-5.
2. God sent forth the Spirit of His Son, the Spirit of life, to impart His life with His nature into us that we might become His sons in reality—Rom. 8:2; Gal. 4:6; 1 John 5:11-12; 2 Pet. 1:4.
3. The Spirit of the Son is another form of the Son; when the Son died on the cross, He was Christ, and when He enters into us, He is the Spirit—John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b.
B. “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!”—Gal. 4:6:
1. Abba is an Aramaic word, and Father is the translation of the Greek word Pater; the combining of the Aramaic title with the Greek title expresses a stronger affection in crying to the Father, implying an intimate relationship in life between a genuine son and a begetting father—Mark 14:36; Heb. 5:7; Lam. 3:55-56; cf. Luke 15:1, 20-24.
2. The Spirit of God’s Son was sent into our hearts; actually, the Spirit of God came into our spirit at the time of our regeneration because our spirit is hidden in our heart—John 3:6; Rom. 8:16; 1 Pet. 3:4.
3. On the one hand, we who have received a spirit of sonship cry in this spirit, “Abba, Father!” on the other hand, the Spirit of God’s Son is crying in our hearts, “Abba, Father!” —Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6.
4. This indicates that our regenerated spirit and the Spirit of God are mingled as one, and that our spirit is in our heart—1 Cor. 6:17.
5. This also indicates that the sonship of God is realized by us through our subjective experience in the depth of our being—cf. Matt. 5:3, 8.
6. The more we cry, “Abba, Father,” in the spirit, the deeper will be the sweet and intimate sense in our heart in our relationship with our Father.
7. When we cry, “Abba, Father,” the Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are God’s children, possessing His life; such a witnessing also limits us and restricts us to a living and walk that are according to His life, in keeping with our being children of God—Rom. 8:15-16.
C. Since we are God’s sons, we are also heirs who are qualified to inherit the Father’s estate, all the riches of what He is to us, for eternity—4:13-14; 8:17; Gal. 3:29; Titus 3:7.
III. Paul’s preaching was to bring forth Christ, the Son of the living God, in the believers; he was travailing that Christ might be formed in them for their full sonship—Gal. 4:19; cf. 1:15-16; 2:20:
A. To have Christ formed in us is to allow the all-inclusive Spirit, as the blessing of the gospel, occupy every part of our inner being, to have Christ fully grown in us—Gal. 3:14; Col. 2:19; Eph. 4:15-16.
B. Christ’s being formed in us is needed that we may be sons of full age and heirs to inherit God’s promised blessing, and that we may mature in the divine sonship—Heb. 6:1a.
C. Christ’s being formed in us is for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem as the aggregate of the divine sonship for the corporate expression of the Triune God—Heb. 2:10; Rev. 21:7, 10-11.
Ministry Excerpts:
SONSHIP—THE FOCAL POINT OF GOD’S ECONOMY
In verses 4 and 5 Paul goes on to say, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, come of a woman, come under law, that He might redeem those under law, that we might receive the sonship.” The fullness of time in verse 4 denotes the completion of the Old Testament time, which occurred at the time appointed of the Father (v. 2). In this verse Paul describes the Son as “come of a woman, come under law.” The woman is, of course, the virgin Mary (Luke 1:27-35). The Son of God came of her to be the seed of woman, as promised in Genesis 3:15. Furthermore, Christ was born under law, as revealed in Luke 2:21-24, 27, and He kept the law, as the four Gospels reveal.
God’s chosen people were shut up by law under its custody (3:23). Christ was born under law in order to redeem them from its custody that they might receive the sonship and become the sons of God. Hence, they should not return to the custody of law to be under its slavery as the Galatians had been seduced to do, but should remain in the sonship of God to enjoy the life supply of the Spirit in Christ.
According to the entire revelation of the New Testament, God’s economy is to produce sons. Sonship is the focal point of God’s economy, God’s dispensation. God’s economy is the dispensation of Himself into His chosen people to make them His sons. Christ’s redemption is to bring us into the sonship of God that we may enjoy the divine life. It is not God’s economy to make us keepers of law, obeying the commandments and ordinances of the law, which was given only for a temporary purpose. God’s economy is to make us sons of God, inheriting the blessing of God’s promise, which was given for His eternal purpose. His eternal purpose is to have many sons for His corporate expression (Heb. 2:10; Rom. 8:29). Hence, He predestinated us unto sonship (Eph. 1:5) and regenerated us to be His sons (John 1:12-13). We should remain in His sonship that we may become His heirs to inherit all He has planned for His eternal expression, and should not be distracted to Judaism by the appreciation of law.
It is difficult to give an adequate definition of sonship. Sonship involves life, maturity, position, and privilege. To be a son of the Father, we need to have the Father’s life. However, we must go on to mature in this life. Life and maturity give us the right, the privilege, the position, to inherit the things of the Father. According to the New Testament, sonship includes life, maturity, position, and right.
THE SPIRIT OF THE SON
In 4:6 Paul declares, “And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!” God’s Son is the embodiment of the divine life (1 John 5:12). Hence, the Spirit of God’s Son is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). God gives us His Spirit of life, not because we are law-keepers, but because we are His sons. As law-keepers, we have no right to enjoy God’s Spirit of life. As the sons of God, we have the position with the full right to participate in the Spirit of God, who has the bountiful supply of life. Such a Spirit, the Spirit of the Son of God, is the focus of the blessing of God’s promise to Abraham (3:14).
In verses 4 through 6 the Triune God is producing many sons for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. God the Father sent forth God the Son to redeem us from the law that we might receive sonship. He also sent forth God the Spirit to impart His life into us that we might become His sons in reality.
Basically sonship is a matter of life. The position and the right depend on the life. In order for us to enjoy God’s sonship, we need the Spirit. Apart from the Spirit, we cannot be born of God to have the divine life. Once we have been born of the Spirit, we need the Spirit in order to grow in life. Without the Spirit, we cannot have the position, right, or privilege of sonship. All the crucial points regarding sonship depend on the Spirit. By the Spirit, we have the divine birth and the divine life. Through the Spirit we grow unto maturity. Because of the Spirit we have the position, right, and privilege of sonship. Thus, without the Spirit sonship is vain, an empty term. But when the Spirit comes, the sonship is made real. We fully realize God’s sonship in life, maturity, position, and right. The Spirit of sonship cannot be replaced by anything. On the contrary, everything, the law in particular, must be replaced by the Spirit of sonship.
Paul’s concept is that the law was a custodian, a warden. Although the law could keep us in ward, it could not give us the life, maturity, position, and right of sonship. The law cannot bestow a position upon a child. It can only serve as a child conductor. The Spirit, in contrast, gives life, maturity, position, and right. Therefore, the law should not replace the Spirit; the Spirit must replace the law.
Since the law could not produce the reality of sonship, you may be wondering why the Spirit was not sent forth earlier. Why did the Spirit not come before the law? The answer is that the promise given to Abraham needed a period of time in order to be fulfilled. Although God is not slow, He waited two thousand years before sending His Son to fulfill the promise. Actually, God did not act quickly even in giving the promise. He did not come in immediately after Adam’s fall to give to Adam the promise He eventually gave to Abraham. Yes, the promise was given in Genesis 3 that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. However, God waited until man’s cursed and fallen situation had been fully exposed at Babel before He intervened, called out Abraham, and made a promise to him. At Babel, mankind became confounded, confused, and divided, fully exposed as being under the curse. With such a background, no doubt Abraham deeply appreciated God’s promise. Abraham appreciated this promise more than Adam would have appreciated it, had the promise been given to him immediately after the fall. Therefore, the reason for the delay is found on man’s side, not on God’s side.
The principle is the same with respect to the fulfillment of the promise in the coming of Christ. Suppose Christ had come immediately after the promise was given to Abraham. If such had been the case, the fulfillment of the promise would not have been nearly as meaningful. Consider all that happened between the time of Abraham and the birth of the Lord Jesus. During the course of this period of two thousand years, God’s chosen people were fully exposed. On the one hand, the law exposed their corruption and helplessness; on the other hand, the law kept them until the coming of Christ. The law fulfilled a necessary and useful function in keeping the children of Israel for God. The law preserved God’s chosen people even while it was exposing them.
THE FULLNESS OF THE TIME
In 4:4 we see that God sent forth His Son when the fullness of the time had come. Christ came at exactly the right time. Earlier would have been too soon, and later would have been too late. Christ came when the time was right. This is illustrated by the picking of ripened fruit from a tree. If the fruit is picked too soon, it will be unripe. But if it is picked too late, it will be overripe. Christ came at the appointed time, at the fullness of time. For this reason, His coming was full of meaning.
TWO SENDINGS
In verses 4 and 6 we read of two kinds of sendings. In verse 4 Paul says that God sent forth His Son, and in verse 6, that God sent forth the Spirit of His Son. According to the promise in Genesis 3:15, Christ came under law as the seed of the woman in order to redeem those who were under law, that they might receive the sonship. The goal of Christ’s redemption is not heaven, as many Christians believe; it is sonship. Christ redeemed us so that we may have God’s sonship. Through His redemption, He has opened the way for us to possess the sonship. However, if the Spirit had not come, our sonship would be empty. It would be a sonship in position or form, not a sonship with reality. The reality of sonship, which depends on life and maturity, comes only by the Spirit. Therefore, verse 6 declares that God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.
We should not believe that the Spirit of the Son is a person separate from the Son. Actually, the Spirit of the Son is another form of the Son. We have pointed out that the One who was crucified on the cross was Christ, but the One who enters into the believers is the Spirit. In crucifixion for our redemption, this One was Christ, but in the indwelling to be our life, He is the Spirit. When the Son died on the cross, He was Christ, but when He enters into us, He is the Spirit. First He came as the Son under the law to qualify us for sonship and to open the way for us to share in the sonship. But after He had finished this work, He became, in resurrection, the life-giving Spirit and comes to us as the Spirit of the Son. Thus, first God the Father sent the Son to accomplish redemption and to qualify us for sonship. Then He sent the Spirit to vitalize the sonship and to make it real in our experience. Today sonship actually depends upon the Spirit of God’s Son.
THE SPIRIT IN OUR HEARTS
In verse 6 Paul says that God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Actually the Spirit of God came into our spirit at our regeneration (John 3:6; Rom. 8:16). Because our spirit is hidden in our heart (1 Pet. 3:4), and because the word here refers to a matter that is related to our feeling and understanding, both of which belong to our heart, it says that the Spirit of God’s Son was sent into our heart.
Romans 8:15 is a verse that is parallel to Galatians 4:6. Romans 8:15 says that we who have received a spirit of sonship cry, in this spirit, Abba, Father, whereas Galatians 4:6 says that the Spirit of God’s Son is crying in our heart, Abba, Father. This indicates that our regenerated spirit and the Spirit of God are mingled as one, and that our spirit is in our heart. This also indicates that with us the sonship of God is realized by our subjective experience in the depths of our being. In this verse Paul appeals to such an experience of the Galatian believers for his revelation. This appeal is quite convincing and subduing, not merely because of the objective doctrines, but because of the experiential facts.
Abba is an Aramaic word, thus a Hebrew word, and Father is the translation of the Greek word pater. Such a term was first used by the Lord Jesus in Gethsemane while praying to the Father (Mark 14:36). The combination of the Hebrew title with the Greek expresses a stronger affection in crying to the Father. Such an affectionate cry implies an intimate relationship in life between a genuine son and a begetting father.
As humans we have not only a spirit, but we also have our person, our being. The center of our person is our heart. For us to become sons of God not only involves our spirit, but also involves our heart as the center of our personality. The New Testament clearly reveals that the spirit is in the heart (1 Pet. 3:4). Therefore, it is not possible for the Spirit to be sent into our spirit without also being sent into our heart. It is important for us to realize that our spirit is the kernel, the central part, of our heart. When God’s Spirit was sent into our spirit, the Spirit was sent into the kernel of our heart. When the Spirit cries within us, He cries from our spirit and through our heart. Hence, concerning sonship, our heart must be involved.
The inner sense we have as we call on the Lord from our spirit through our heart is mainly in the heart, not in the spirit. This implies that to be genuinely spiritual we need to be emotional in a proper way. Brother Nee once said that a person who cannot laugh or cry cannot be truly spiritual. We are not senseless statues; we are human beings with feelings. Therefore, the more we cry, Abba, Father, in the spirit, the deeper will be the sweet and intimate sense in our heart.
The sense we have when calling in this way is sweet and intimate. Although the Spirit of sonship has come into our spirit, the Spirit cries in our hearts, Abba, Father. This indicates that our relationship with our Father in the sonship is sweet and very intimate. For example, when a son calls his father “Daddy,” there may be a sweet and intimate sense deep within. However, the sense is not the same if he tries to say the same thing to his father-in-law. The reason is that with the father-in-law there is no relationship in life. But how sweet it is when little children, enjoying a relationship in life with their fathers, say tenderly, “Daddy.” In like manner, how tender and sweet it is to call God, Abba, Father! Such an intimate calling involves our emotion as well as our spirit. The Spirit of sonship in our spirit cries, Abba, Father, from our heart. This proves that we have a genuine, bona fide relationship in life with our Father. We are His real sons.
NO LONGER SLAVES, BUT SONS
Since we have the Spirit of sonship, we no longer need to be held under the custody of the law. We do not need the law to be our guardian, steward, or child-conductor. In 4:7 Paul says, “So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, an heir also through God.” The New Testament believer is no longer a slave to works under law, but a son in life under grace. Instead of the law to keep us in custody, we have the all-inclusive Spirit. This Spirit is everything to us. Whereas the law could not give life, the Spirit gives life and brings us into maturity that we may have the full position and right of sons. The custody of the law has been replaced by the Spirit of sonship.
HEIRS THROUGH GOD
As sons, we are also heirs through God. An heir is one who is of full age according to the law (the Roman law is used for illustration) and who is qualified to inherit the Father’s estate. The New Testament believers become heirs of God not through the law or through their fleshly father, but through God, even the Triune God—the Father who sent forth the Son and the Spirit (vv. 4, 6), the Son who accomplished redemption for sonship (v. 5), and the Spirit who carries out the sonship within us (v. 6). (Life-Study of Galatians, msg. 22)