Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Luke 3:21-22 | Date: February 4, 2018 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Open your Bibles, if you will, to Luke chapter 3. And I’d just like to mention before I begin that even though we have read this morning Acts chapter 20 about Eutychus, the church would always want its pastor to model his preaching after the apostles. Last Sunday, Pastor Boyd dismissed the service at 11:35. And he told me on the way out that he had achieved favorite pastor status. I said, all that means is I get an extra half hour next week.

We’re continuing our series on the Bible’s story of salvation. Today we take up the theme. We have seen that that story is carried by a number of different themes that run through the Bible and are intended to carry that story. We’ve seen a number of them, and today the theme is God’s faithful son.

Luke chapter three, beginning with verse 21:

Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved son. With you, I am well pleased.” Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about 30 years of age, being the son, as was supposed, of Joseph, the son of Hali, the son of Methat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Janai, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathias…

And on, the son of, the son of, and we’ll pick it up with verse 37:

…the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalil, the son of Canaan, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted of the devil. And he ate nothing during those days, and when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone.” The devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory for it has been delivered to me and I give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you to guard you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” And Jesus answered him, “It is said, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” When the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report of him went out throughout all the surrounding country, and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, we are grateful again for the privilege that we have to open your word together. We ask that again you would show us yet a new aspect of the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Open our eyes to him, open our hearts to him. We pray in his name, amen.

For two years now, I have been reminded of what I have known for 31 years now, and that is the delight of having a son. This time around, it’s a grandson. But it’s reminded me again of the delight of having a son. There is a particular affection, a particular delight, and all of you fathers know the same, a particular fellowship that’s enjoyed in that. That my son is like me in some respects is a consideration that gives mixed emotions. But of course, that’s part of what sonship entails. There are shared characteristics. There’s a particular delight of a father, particularly when it is a faithful son, an obedient son.

When they’re young, when they’re grown up, there’s a particular delight that’s taken by the father in a faithful son. And the other side of that coin is there’s a particular pain, of course, for a father whose son has showed himself to be foolish and unfaithful. You wouldn’t want to say that you love the son more if he’s faithful, but there’s a particular delight, a particular aspect of love that is called out for a faithful son. And the Bible reflects that in Proverbs chapter 10 in verse 1: “A wise son makes a glad father.”

Adam As God’s Son

The Bible presents for us Adam as God’s son. It’s not a prominent theme in the Bible, but it is there easily enough to see. He is God’s son by virtue of creation. God is his father in the sense that he made him. He’s also God’s son by the virtue of the fact that he bears God’s image. That connection is made several times in scripture. For example, in Genesis 1, Adam is made in God’s image. And then Genesis 5, Adam bears a son in his image, reflecting the father.

Adam is God’s son by right of creation. He’s God’s son by right of the fact that he bears God’s image. And if there were any doubt, we are told here in Luke chapter 3, when Jesus’ genealogy is drawn all the way back to Adam, Adam is named for us in verse 38: “the son of God.” So Adam is presented for us as God’s son.

The problem, of course, is that Adam was not a faithful son. And that, in a sense, sets up the whole Bible for us in the plot line of Genesis 1, 2, and then finally chapter 3, where we have Adam commanded to obey God. That obligation was inherent by the very relationship that he bore, being God’s creature, bearing God’s image. He’s responsible to reflect God to the world, to be a faithful son, imaging God and obeying. And yet we come to Genesis chapter 3, and the threefold temptation of the serpent comes, and Adam rebels against God, and in turn he’s banished from Eden from the presence of God.

And so we have set up at the very beginning of the Bible another theme that carries the Bible story. Remember, we have said over and over and over again that the Bible is a story. It is a story that focuses on Jesus, and it is a gospel-shaped story that focuses on Jesus. And that’s important to recognize as we go back through each of these themes. And all of this now that we’ve seen this morning sets up the Bible story with yet another theme, and that is: Will God have a faithful son? The son that he made, Adam, proved to be unfaithful. Will God have a faithful son?

Israel As God’s Son

Well, it’s not surprising to you, probably after all that we’ve looked at together here, that that sonship theme is picked up again with the nation of Israel. You remember the famous passages in Exodus, particularly Exodus chapter 4. God sends Moses to Pharaoh. “Israel is my firstborn son. Let my son go.” Israel is God’s son. And the question then that comes up is, will he be a faithful son? Will Israel serve God as a faithful son?

It is clear that God made Israel his son for that purpose. In fact, he tells that to Pharaoh, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” And so the question: Will Israel be the obedient son? Will he be faithful where Adam failed? Exodus chapter 19, we have the great giving of the covenant. Chapter 20 outlines it with the Ten Commandments and the giving of the law in the following chapters. And it is stated for them up front, “If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you will be my treasured possession among all peoples.”

But of course, again, Israel’s history is a long history of rebellion against God, of breaking the covenant, and often in their times of rebellion, God would remind them not only of their covenant responsibility to obey, but specifically remind them of their status as God’s son—that they should be an obedient son. So, for example, in Hosea chapter 11 and verse 1: “When Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt I called my son.” In Isaiah chapter 1, an extended passage regarding Israel’s rebellion against God, it’s introduced with this very kind of language: “Children I have reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know. My people do not understand.”

Israel was a disobedient, an unfaithful son. And of course, as you read through the scriptures then, as we’ve seen so many times, that ends up in exile. Both the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom were carried off into exile because of the rebellion against God. And still the question remains then, following that theme in the story: Will God have a faithful son?

The Davidic King As God’s Son

There’s one other high point in the Old Testament that picks up this theme, and that’s what we’ve seen several times as well: 2 Samuel 7, with the Davidic covenant, when God makes a promise to David. You remember the scene. It’s one of the big events of the Old Testament. David decides that he’s got this beautiful palace to live in. It’s just not right for him to have this big house and God to be living in a tent. And so David says to Nathan, “It’s not right that it should be this way. I’m going to build a house for God. I’m going to build a palace. I’m going to build a temple for God to live in.”

Nathan says, “That’s a good idea. Go for it.” That evening, God speaks to Nathan and says, “I didn’t tell you that was a good idea. You never asked me about that. You have no right to take that kind of initiative. He will not build a house for me. I will build a house for him.” There’s that pun that’s intended. He intended to build me a temple (house); I will build him a dynasty (house). “His son will reign on his throne forever.” And then the language of sonship comes up again: “I will be to him a father, and he will be to me a son.” This is 2 Samuel chapter 7, verse 14.

And so the Davidic king now is God’s son. And in 2 Samuel chapter 7, there’s a tension built into the storyline. “He will reign on your throne, your son, David, your son, who will be my son. He will reign on your throne forever. But if he’s disobedient, I’ll punish him with the rod of men.” And so this tension is built in again. Will the king be an obedient son?

Well, of course, the history of the kings in the Old Testament is the story of failure again. And there’s one disobedient king after another, after another, after another. There was an occasional good king in the south, but never in the north. But eventually, there was so much unfaithfulness, so much disobedience, that Israel is taken into exile. And we read that repeated refrain about the kings throughout Kings and Chronicles: “He did that which is evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

And yet there is the promise: “Your son, who will be my son, will reign on the throne forever.” And so it opens up this theme that’s picked up in the Old Testament, not only of the coming Messiah who will come, who will reign, not only the king who will sit on the throne and reign, but God’s son who will come. And so we have, for example, in Psalm 2 and verse 7, “You are my son, this day I have begotten you.” A messianic psalm speaking of the enthronement of the Davidic king, God’s messiah, God’s son, who will be enthroned by God himself, recognized as God’s faithful son, administering God’s kingdom in the earth. In Jeremiah chapter 23, we have the same imagery with a different wording. It’s still the Davidic son theme, but the language here is a branch of David, a son of David, a branch from David’s line. So Jeremiah chapter 23, verses 5 and 6: a branch of David will come and he’ll be known as “the Lord our righteousness.”

Jesus As The Son Of God

Well, of course, as you know, and as you’ve been conditioned to think in all of the years that you’ve been in church, and particularly through this series, all of it’s pointing us to Jesus. And so we come to the theme particularly picked up in the New Testament. This is just a hurried overview of it all, but that is of Jesus as the Son of God.

Now at this point, the theme becomes a little complex because Jesus is God’s son now in at least two senses. He’s the Davidic king, David’s son, as it’s often referred to—great David’s greater son—who is God’s son. “I will be a father to him. He will be my son.” The Davidic king as God’s son. And sometimes when you find it in the New Testament where Jesus is called the son of God by others, it’s pretty clear that’s the sense in which it means it. He’s the Davidic king, God’s son.

But there’s another sense in which Jesus is God’s son, and that is, of course, his eternal sonship as God the Son, the second person of the Trinity. And that’s reflected often in the Gospels as well as in the Epistles of the New Testament. And I’ve often thought it must have been somewhat stunning for the disciples as they heard Jesus refer to God as “my father.” It was referring to God with such intimacy that it reflected more than just a messianic title. “My father,” and he would pray, “Father, the father has sent me. The father loves the son. The son loves the father and does whatever he commands him.” And there’s a sense of intimacy between Jesus and God with his Father-Son language that reflects, as I say, much more than just a messianic title. And in fact, it’s referring to the eternal relations of God the Father and God the Son.

The doctrine of the Trinity is, as you’ve heard me say so many times, the leading mystery of the Christian faith. Not just that God is One in being and three in persons—and remember to keep that distinction. Critics of Christianity love to mock at this point. “Christians don’t know how to add. For Christians, one plus one plus one is not three. For Christians, one plus one plus one is one. Christians don’t even know how to add.” And of course, if it were that simple, the doctrine of the Trinity would have died long ago. Christianity has never taught that God is one in the same sense that God is three. That would be nonsense. But God is one in terms of his essence, his being, his nature, but three in person who share equally in that being and nature so that God, the one God, subsists in three persons.

I don’t expect you to get it all. But I do expect that we see that at least it’s not a self-contradiction. It is the leading mystery of the Christian faith. And this, I think, takes us into some of the deepest theological waters that we come to in anywhere in the Bible: that God subsists, the one God subsists in three persons. And these three persons—the doctrine of the Trinity is not just that there’s one God and three persons. The doctrine of the Trinity insists that this one God subsists in three persons who sustain a particular relationship to one another. A relationship that is identified in their names: Father, Son, and Spirit.

Now with these first two, the father and the son, which is what we’re dealing with here, it raises an interesting question. Does God have a son? How’d that happen? And what does that mean? And in fact, in much of Islamic theology, they are taught that Christians believe—and they believe that you believe—that God has a son because God had sexual relations with Mary and had a son, and that’s “God the son” that you believe in. They think that’s disgusting, and they don’t know that we think that would be disgusting too. That’s not what we mean.

We are saying there is an eternal relation of God the Father and God the Son. That there are three persons who share as one God, equal in glory, equal in majesty, equal in every way what God is, but distinct from one another in the relations as Father, Son, and Spirit. And this is an eternal relation. And in fact, the Father-Son relationship—there is in that a sense of “fromness.” A father begets a son. The language of the scriptures is Jesus is the “only begotten” of the father. It’s carried off in other kinds of metaphors in the scripture as well. The father gives the son his name. The son is the image of the father; never is the father the image of the son, but the son is the image of the father. The son is the imprint of his nature. The son is the brightness of the father’s glory. And there’s an identification of substance and yet a distinction in person. And so the doctrine is that there is this “fromness,” and yet it’s always been that way—an eternal sonship of Christ.

Well, there’s so much to that. But given all of that in the relations of God the Father and God the Son, when it comes then to the outworking of God’s redemptive purpose—which is something God did not have to do, but given his determination to save—there’s an appropriateness that it was the Son who was sent because he is the Son. This is not a subordination of the son, but it’s the relationship that is sustained between father and son. And so given God’s determination to save, the one who would be sent to accomplish the salvation is properly the son. And the father and the son send the spirit. This is reflective of their eternal relations together. In other words, then, the way that God has revealed himself in the outworking of redemption, as Father sending the Son, the Father and the Son sending the Spirit, is reflective of the way it really is with God forever in the relations, the internal relations of their being.

And so Jesus is God’s Son in a dual sense. He is God’s eternal Son who became incarnate. And becoming incarnate, he is the messianic king, God’s son. And what’s striking now in the Bible story is this something new: that in Jesus we now have a faithful son, an obedient son. And this is something that’s picked up in several places in the scriptures. Luke has a particular way of presenting it. In fact, if you want to look back a page in Luke chapter 2, we find it in Jesus’ earliest days. You remember the temple scene. We are told on the way home, after they have left the temple, verse 51: “He went down with them, he came to Nazareth, and was submissive to them.” He was obedient to his parents. But yet not just that, in verse 40 and in verse 52, we learn of Jesus growing in wisdom, and growing in favor, not only with men, but with God as well—increasing in favor, increasing in wisdom, increasing in favor with God even.

And then we come to Luke chapter three, which we’ve read. We come to Jesus’ baptism and God the Father makes the announcement from heaven, “This is my beloved son in whom I’m well pleased.” And then he picks up the genealogy of Jesus, which culminates in Adam, the son of God. Jesus, God’s son, traced back to Adam, God’s son, and then the narrative picks up with the temptation. With all kinds of allusions back to the Garden of Eden. You’ve got the serpent tempting, you’ve got the threefold temptation. Mark throws in a detail for us that Jesus was with the wild animals—more allusions back. But what’s different here is that despite the serpent, despite the temptation, here God has a son who obeys. A faithful son has come.

We can find it in further passages: Luke chapter 9, at the transfiguration. You remember, not Peter’s finest moment. “Let’s build a tabernacle here for Moses, for Elijah, and then one for you as well.” And God the Father speaks to clarify the situation: “No, no, no, no. This is my beloved son. In him I’m well pleased. Listen to him.” And here’s the faithful son yet again. And in fact, this is carried through to the end of Jesus’ life, where we have even Pilate, Jesus’ judge, saying, “I find no fault with him.” And in fact, Jesus himself can make the claim: “Which of you convinces me of sin? I always do the things that please the Father.”

Here is God’s faithful son. He is not like Adam. He is not like Israel. He is not like that long line of disobedient kings. Here we have a faithful, obedient son. God the son, come incarnate, the messianic king, to whom God is father—this son obeys God.

Adoption As Sons

Now, from this point forward, following the story, the sonship theme begins to expand. When the disciples heard Jesus pray, they heard him say, “Father.” When they asked Jesus to teach them to pray, you remember how he taught them to pray? “Our Father,” extending the privilege to them. And in fact, often Jesus would refer in conversation with the disciples, would refer to God as their father. And it must have been something of a stunning thing, I think, for the disciples to hear Jesus speaking with such intimacy with God as his father, and then extending that privilege to them: “When you pray, pray, ‘Our Father.'”

Now, Jesus always maintained a distinction. We are not God’s sons in the same sense that Jesus is God’s son. And so just before his ascension, he’ll say to the ladies in the garden, “I return now to my father and to your father.” There’s a distinction that’s always maintained. But nonetheless, by extension, by virtue of our association with Jesus, God’s Son, we are God’s sons. And this becomes a big theme in the New Testament.

Look at, for example, 2 Corinthians chapter 6. 2 Corinthians chapter 6—we don’t have time to look at the passage in the whole context. Paul here is giving the famous exhortation about the unequal yoke. Let’s pick it up with verse 16:

What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God said. And here Paul now strings together passages from the Old Testament into a single quote. “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing. Then I will welcome you and I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me,” says the Lord Almighty.

Now here Paul is stringing together quotations from Leviticus, from Ezekiel, from Isaiah, a couple in Ezekiel actually, and also from 2 Samuel 7:14 that we’ve looked at earlier. And he says, “I will be with you. I will be your God. I’ll walk with you. You’ll be my people.” But what’s most important for our purposes here is verse 18: “I will be a father to you.” And then Paul, in stringing together the quotations, pulls from 2 Samuel 7:14, but he makes a couple of changes that are interesting. You remember 2 Samuel 7: “I’ll be a father to him. He will be my son.” Notice how it comes out with Paul: “I will be a father to you and you will be my sons (plural) and daughters.”

So Paul makes two tweaks with it. Not just son singular, but sons plural, and then he adds daughters as well. I don’t know what sense to make of that except to say that he’s affirming God’s promise to all believers. It’s not just Jesus; it’s not just super saints; it’s not just men. It’s all believers, men and women. They have become in Jesus, God’s sons and daughters.

Well, this comes out in Paul, of course, in the famous doctrine of adoption. And let’s move forward a little bit further to Galatians. Galatians chapter 4, verses 4 and following. I’ll wait for you to get there.

All right, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son (okay, there’s our theme), born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, so that what? What was the purpose of it all? So that we might receive the adoption as sons.

So God sent forth his son so that we might be made sons. The newest book on the doctrine of adoption written last year by my professor from Westminster is entitled Sons in the Son. And it captures it very well, doesn’t it? We are sons of God—ladies don’t be offended, sons and daughters—but we’re sons of God by virtue of our association with God’s Son, Jesus. We are sons in that we are in union with God’s Son, and by extension we are God’s sons.

Now Paul amplifies on that for us here in this passage: “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman”—what’s the significance of that? He’s one of us, right? “Born under the law”—what’s the significance of that? He’s required to be obedient. We’re required to be obedient. And he in his life, born under the law, worked out that obedience perfectly. So that what? “Born under the law to redeem those who are under the law.” So here we have one perfectly qualified to offer himself as a substitute for sinners because he has been the perfect obedient son, and now offering himself in sacrifice in our place, we in turn, by virtue of our association with him, become God’s sons.

Now Paul picks up on the privileges then of our sonship. Verse 5: “to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Notice how he amplifies: “Because you’re sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts crying, ‘Abba, Father.'” So the Trinity is involved in this. The Father sent the Son, the Son came and did all that was required of Him, a faithful Son, and by offering Himself in redemption for us, God has sent His Spirit to confirm with us that sense that we are God’s sons. Sons in the Son.

Now this takes on another dimension in the New Testament. And again, we can’t take time to unpack it or explore it far. I’ll just give you a couple of tastes of it. And that is the “son of” language often has the idea of shared characteristics. So that a “son of Belial,” son of worthlessness, what does that mean? That means he’s worthless. A “son of Satan” means he’s like Satan. Or in a positive sense, Barnabas, the “son of consolation,” means he’s a consoler. “Son of” often means you take those shared characteristics.

So for example, in Matthew chapter 5, in verse 9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.” That is, God’s a peacemaker. And when we make peace in that respect, we are like God. We’re acting like his children. Or, for example, Matthew chapter 5, verses 44 and 45: “Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Why? So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven,” sharing his characteristic, who, like no other, loves his enemies. This is picked up again in 1 John, John’s first letter: If we are God’s children, we will love God’s children, because God loves his children. And so we are sons of God by virtue of our union with Christ, and then becoming God’s sons, we begin to share his characteristics. And this brings us into what we call the doctrine of sanctification.

Now one more passage I’d like to look at quickly, and that’s Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 where Paul picks up this theme with the doctrine of adoption. What he’s been emphasizing to this point is that we have received the Spirit who works out in us God’s purpose for us. Verse 14: “All who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.” That is, the Spirit of God is given to all believers. And we, by virtue of that, are God’s sons. It is the Spirit of Christ who is given to us, and we are sons.

Verses 15 and 16—it’s identified as the spirit of adoption: “You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you’ve received the spirit of adoption as sons. By whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.” That is, God has sent us his spirit because we belong to Christ. All who belong to Christ receive his spirit. And it is, in fact, the spirit of sonship. And one of the great primary works of the Spirit, one of His great first purposes in coming to us, is to minister to us a sense, a felt sense, of our sonship.

So we have not inherited a spirit of fear where God always appeared before to us as someone to be afraid of and dreaded because he might judge us. Instead now, the Spirit of God has been sent to us so that we will sense God’s love for us as our father and us as his children. In the language of Romans chapter 5, the Spirit has come to shed abroad in our hearts a sense of God’s love for us. So that now for the believer, the instinct, for example, in difficulty, in trial, is not the same as the instinct was before we knew Christ. Before we knew Christ, it might be anger: “Why do you do this to me?” It might be fear: “God is judging me.” And now the instinct is different: “Oh, Father.” And in the joyous times as well: “God is my Father,” and I sense even that he loves me. And the Spirit works within me to give me that sense of sonship.

Paul expands on that further in verses 17 and 18: “If children (notice how he just unpacks it), if we’re children then we’re heirs. No wait, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him.” That is, if Jesus, if God the Son, is the Son of the Father, then he will inherit all things. That was true of the Messianic king. He will inherit all things. “Ask of me and I’ll give you the nations for your inheritance.” And he’ll inherit glory, and Paul is simply unpacking that: Wait a minute. If he will inherit all glory, and if I am in union with him, and being in union with him, I am God’s son, then I will inherit with him the glory that he inherits. Joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Because we are God’s sons.

Now in verse 19—well, verses 17 and 18, he unpacks a little further: “I consider the suffering of this present time not worth comparing to the glory that shall be revealed to us.” That is the glory of joint heirship with Christ. Verse 19: this sonship is not yet evident. “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.” It’s not quite evident that we are God’s sons. We’re not blessed with all that glory yet. That’s pretty evident. So are we sons? Is it evident yet that we are sons? Well, it is and it isn’t, isn’t it? Isn’t that right? It is evident in verses 15 and 16 that we sense the work of the Spirit attesting to us that we are God’s children. And yet there’s not the full manifestation of it yet.

And so in verses 20 and following, he speaks of the fallenness of creation. And we wait, verse 23: we’re in the pains, not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption as sons, the redemption of the body. We wait for the adoption. We have the adoption. We’ve received the spirit of adoption, but we wait for the adoption in its full sense, which he identifies then with the doctrine of glorification, the redemption of the bodies, when we are made like Christ, body and soul, perfected and made like him.

Revelation chapter 21, verse 7 picks up on this theme finally with regard to God’s people in the eternal state. I’ll just read it for you: “The one who conquers will have this heritage. I will be his God and he will be my son.” The full manifestation of God’s sons in glory.

God has a faithful son. And in Him, He has many faithful sons and daughters. And we don’t have time to unpack that now as we’ve looked into here just in a brief way, but this is the very highest of God’s blessings given to us. And I want you to hear that. This is the very highest of divine blessings. You think, what could be greater than saying, my sins have been forgiven? I’ll tell you what could be greater is not only have my sins been forgiven, but in Jesus, I am God’s son. And he loves me and has committed himself to me. It’s evident now in my own experience, but it’s not fully manifested yet. And I am God’s son now, not perfectly, but I am God’s son truly. And I’ve been transformed by the Spirit of God and he continues that work in me until finally it will be perfectly completed when I am a co-heir with Jesus in glory. And so we have as God’s sons in Christ the Son: God’s love, God’s intimacy and fellowship with God, acceptance before God, access to God, confidence before God. We have as God’s sons a prospect of glory and a future hope of inheritance with Jesus himself.

Well, a couple of things quickly. One, in terms of the big picture, what we’ve been studying is that there’s this Bible story that relentlessly drives us to Jesus and his redemptive works. And there are various themes that carry the story. Today, the story is carried by the theme of God’s faithful son.

Related to this, I should mention just quickly—you hear it often—that God is the father of us all. “The universal fatherhood of God, universal brotherhood of man.” You find this referred to in the popular press very often. And of course, there’s a sense, a sense in which that’s right, that God is the father of us all by right of creation and a shared humanity and all of that. But in terms of this intimacy, in terms of this fellowship, in a redemptive sense, it belongs only to those who are in his son. No matter how religious you may have been, no matter how well you thought you’ve done, you do not have God as your Father unless and until you’re resting in His Son. Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Father, we praise You for Your Son, Jesus Christ, in whom we have all things. We thank you for him, we offer our praise to you for him, we offer our praise to him with great gratitude for all that we have because of him. In his name we pray.