SONSHIP
[p. 40] SONSHIP
Ezekiel 1: 26 - 28; Ezekiel 2: 1; Acts 9: 19 - 20; Ephesians 1: 3 - 6
What I wish to make clear is that the recovery of man for God is in sonship. God, having lost man in Adam’s fall, has recovered him in sonship, and hence in permanency. The recovery is in Christ who is the Son, and the Son abides in the house forever, it will be found that when God undertakes to re-establish anything He does it in permanency; sonship involves this as to man; and so henceforth he will be seen only in this state before God. It is true that after Adam’s sin, man, as in the flesh, was taken up and owned of God, as in Noah and Israel, but this was provisional in view of the coming of Christ. One mark of a son is that he has intelligence as to God’s mind, and he delights in what God accomplishes. When the earth was founded “the morning stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy”, Job 38: 7.
But I will dwell first on the passages read in Ezekiel, connecting a thought or two in them with Acts 9. There is what the prophet calls, “The appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord;” I desire to dwell on this, and I wish, also, to refer to Ezekiel, viewing him as son of man — the appellation by which he is addressed as commissioned to bear witness to the people.
God had been pleased to connect His glory with Israel, and this involved that His thought was that the nation should be the means of blessing on the earth; but the book of Ezekiel shows that it had utterly failed in this. In chapter 1 the prophet is seen outside the territory of Israel where, had the people been faithful, the glory would have been; he is in the land of the Chaldeans, by the river [p. 41] Chebar, and there the heavens were opened, and he saw visions of God. What he saw he speaks of as “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord”. The glory of God means blessing for men, and therefore the display of it involves that God has a free hand to act according to His nature and counsels. The gospel announces this, and so it is designated as “The glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God”, 1 Timothy 1: 11.
God has infinite resources, and so He is not limited to any individual or institution although He may take up one or other in His wisdom. Israel had utterly broken down, they had “not wrought any deliverance in the earth”, and yet would have assumed that God was limited to them; but we see in Ezekiel 1 a combination of divine agencies outside Israel, and independent of them. These agents suggest the dispensations under which they appeared, but they are marked by intelligence, strength, firmness, and rapidity, and they are perfectly united. The point is, that all this wonderful array of executive power is under God’s hand in the presence of Israel’s failure. The living creatures and the wheels are under the firmament, but they are under the control of a Man above the firmament. The agents of divine power are seen where human need is, but they are controlled by Christ in heaven. “Above the firmament ... was the likeness of a throne ... and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it”. This is not the throne of David, but a universal throne occupied by Christ as Man; it has reference to man as such. It is analogous to the Lord’s present position as Lord.
Acts 9 sets this before us. Here we see how the Lord, although in heaven, is controlling things down here with a view to the good and blessing of man. As in Ezekiel’s day, Israel had shown themselves utterly unfit and unwilling to be the agents of divine [p. 42] blessing. Jesus had been in their midst, and although they had crucified Him, He was ready to return to them, did they but repent. Stephen saw Him in heaven standing, and the glory with Him; that glory was reflected in the face of the witness, but it was of no avail; every overture was rejected. Had the Jews repented, Christ would have come back and reinstated them as the centre of God’s government on the earth, see Acts 3: 19 - 26. But instead of repenting, they stoned Stephen, and now the Lord is seen as operating and controlling agencies outside their territory — in Damascus. A light from heaven appears to Saul, and Jesus speaks to him. Saul recognises Him in authority; he says, “Lord”. That Man is above the firmament, but there are agencies down here which He directs for the blessing of men. Indeed, an almighty power is on earth on our behalf, but the authority is up there. The Holy Ghost acts in relation to the authority vested in Christ. The Lord had a servant in Damascus who would tell Saul what to do; this was Ananias. I refer to him as corresponding to the living creatures in Ezekiel’s vision. He was a bit rebellious, but still he does the Lord’s bidding; and he is in the spirit of his Master. Saul, on entering Damascus, finds a brother: Ananias says “Brother Saul”, etc. Who has placed that Christian, or that company of Christians, near to you? The Lord has done it, and they are there for your good. They love you and care for you. The words of Ananias must have been as balm to Saul. Ananias put his hands on this needy man — the touch of a brother! But all is from Jesus. Ananias says, “The Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me”. And now note the object in view in the mission of this servant of Christ: “That thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost”. What infinite blessing it meant for [p. 43] Saul, and through him, for men in general! But such is the character of Christ’s administration from the throne at the present time.
Let us now look for a moment at Ezekiel 2: 1 - 3, where the prophet is addressed as son of man. This was the title the Lord took when Israel’s rejection of Him came fully to light. The disciples should tell no man that He was Jesus the Christ, but there were those who should see the Son of man coming in His kingdom, Matthew 16: 20, 28. It was as if the Lord had said of the Jews, They have not appreciated Messiah’s presence in their midst, and they are about to kill Him; therefore I am taking a place in relation to men as such, as Son of man, so that I may render them the service which that relationship suggests. As Son of David the Gentiles had no claim on Him, but as Son of man He is available to all. A son in a family will do all possible to help the family if they are in need, and those in the family are justified in expecting this. There is nothing to fear from the Son of man, and now that He has died and risen, He is for men in all the value of redemption. The Son of man is a title taken in grace (it is a title involving universal dominion and glory too) and it has the effect of dispelling all fear from our hearts, and of establishing confidence in the Lord there. Ezekiel was sent to the people as son of man, and this was in keeping with the vision he had seen; and every true evangelist is imbued with the spirit and grace which the appellation involves. Therefore, there can be no doubt that Christ is glorified as the Son of man morally by the preaching of the gospel, and by what it has effected for men.
In Acts 9 Saul at once preached Christ as Son of God. This was the result of the impression made upon his heart by the Lord’s appearance; it was in accordance with his commission, Galatians 1: 16, although [p. 44] his apostolic ministry began in a regular way at Antioch, Acts 13. But Saul’s preaching at Damascus indicated a point of departure in the testimony. Jerusalem was now abandoned as a centre owned of God; a Man in heaven, in all the liberty and dignity of sonship with God, was now known in the heart of a man on earth, and announced by him as glad tidings among the nations. Christ was no longer waiting to return to Israel, as Stephen saw him: He was Himself the Centre of a new system altogether, and this should take character from Himself it should be free “Jerusalem above is free”. Galatians 4: 26.
It is of the very greatest importance that sonship should be understood. Many believers are like slaves or strangers in the attitude of their souls toward God. God has not pleasure either in a slave or a stranger. The slave has to go out of the house, Galatians 4: 30, and the stranger is under tribute, Matthew 17: 28. In Matthew’s gospel we may trace the order in which the truth of sonship came out. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight” (Matthew 3: 17) gives us the clue to it; this indicates that God had reached His thought in Man. Chapters 11: 27, and 16: 17, 18, agree, in a way, with Saul’s preaching in Acts 9. Christ being rejected by Israel, everything turns on the Son of God.
But the saints should come into the enjoyment of sonship and Matthew 17 helps greatly as to this. To pay tribute in God’s house means that you are a stranger. An unconverted man may well be placed under tribute in the assembly — there is no liberty there for man in the flesh — but the believer should understand that it is his place. The believer is a son, and the sons are free. Of course there is no liberty for the flesh, but God would impress upon us that He wishes us to be free and happy before Him. “God sent forth his Son ... that we might receive sonship”, Galatians 4: 4, 5. If we have slavish fear in [p. 45] His presence, God would assure us that we are sons and if we are possessed, in any degree, of the spirit of a stranger, and so feel that there is a demand upon us, He would tell us that we are “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God”, Ephesians 2:19.
Galatians treats of sonship in the way of light, so that saints should be preserved from bondage, or if in bondage, delivered from it; Ephesians connects it with God’s eternal counsels in regard to us. The Ephesian saints had been formed by the Spirit; they had not only the light and spirit of sonship, but were evidently formed in the intelligence and affection which the relationship implies. Hence they would appreciate what the epistle unfolds. God opens up His counsels to us as we are prepared to appreciate them. As in the realisation of sonship, we are in sympathy with God in all that He purposes to do. Sonship is not limited to the church, but at the same time, it will be known in a distinct way by us. Christians are blessed with “every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, ... having marked us out beforehand for adoption” (sonship) “through Jesus Christ to himself”. Ephesians 1: 3,5. There are blessings and relationships which the church enjoys in connection with heaven, but which are also shared by others in a modified and earthly way. But the more we enter into our own distinct, heavenly portion, the more are we sympathetic with God in what He accomplishes in the whole realm of His counsels.
May God grant unto His people that intelligence and liberty of affection which are peculiar to sons! Thus shall we answer to His thought in recovering man in Christ.