READING ON SONSHIP

John 1: 14; Romans 8: 29; Galatians 3: 26, 4:6;

Ephesians 1: 3-5; Revelation 21: 7

J.P. In seeking to learn the truth from the scriptures, the first thing must be Christ; every part of the truth of Christianity is set forth in Him, and the only way we can learn it is in Him; we must see it in Christ. So, with sonship. That is why we read John 1: 14: “And the Word became flesh”—(not “was made”)—“and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a Father”. There is the beginning of sonship! In the light of Romans 8: 29 and Ephesians 1, it is plain that to have sons was God’s primary thought from all eternity in respect of man, and Revelation 21: 7 shows conclusively that in the eternal state that will be that relationship between God and man. “He that overcometh shall inherit these things”. The seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 give the overcomers in various lights, but the overcomer in this verse (chap 21: 7) is the final overcomer; he is the overcomer when all the dispensations which God has appointed and established have run their course. The kingdom—the mediatorial kingdom, has come to an end and the eternal state has set in. “He that overcometh shall inherit these things”, and God says, “I will be to him for father, and he shall be to me for son”, Heb 1: 5. That is the relationship in eternity between God and man.

I think we need to consider the Lord as Man. One would speak reverently, though confidently, for I am sure the more He is before us, and that we are engaged with Himself, the more the Spirit of God will help us. “The Word became flesh”. It has been said that human definitions and statements about incarnation are to be very much avoided—they are very misleading—‘very God, very man, one Christ’ is one of the definitions, but that is outside the Bible. The scriptural statement is: “The Word became flesh”. A divine and eternally existing Person entered into a condition in which He was not previously. For the term “flesh” is not a term of personality, it is a term of condition; for instance—“Who, in the days of his flesh, having offered up both supplications”, &c, Heb 5: 7. Take another statement: “But if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer”, 2 Cor 5: 16. It is plain from these scriptures that “flesh” is not a term of personality but of condition. One does not forget the first verse of the chapter: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. There are three things affirmed there—eternal existence, distinct personality, and absolute deity. Here is a divine Person—One who is God, He has become flesh, and the writer associating others with himself, says, “and dwelt among us”. In that lovely little parenthesis he further states: “and we have contemplated his glory”. What a wonderful thing incarnation is! It brought a glory within the range of human contemplation that had never been seen before. He is the brightness, or effulgence, the outshining of God’s glory, according to Hebrews 1, and He is the expression of divine substance. “We have contemplated his glory”. “A glory as of an only-begotten with a father”. That, I apprehend, gives you the first great thought of sonship.

I am no scholar, but our brethren, who are scholars, tell us that the expression translated “only-begotten” has no thought of begetting in it, but that it means “only one”, the same expression occurring in Genesis 22: 2, where God says to Abraham, “Take now thy son, thine only son whom thou lovest, Isaac”. Whether in the Hebrew or the Greek, it is the identical expression that is translated in John 1: 14—“only-begotten”—God’s ‘only one’. There we get sonship. There is Christ—the Son as Man. There is a Man in relationship with God as an “only-begotten [an only one] with a Father”, and there He is as Man, and as such, He is the peculiar and distinctive object of God’s love. God said to Him: “Thou art my beloved Son”, Mark 1: 11. And at His baptism, as He comes up out of the water, the heavens open and God’s voice is heard: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. Then there is another thing that God said about Him, as He brought Him into the world—“I shall be to him Father: he shall be to me son”. There is the relationship of sonship! God says of that One: “Thou art my Son; I this day have begotten thee”, Ps 2: 7.

Then there is another thing which belongs to sonship, and that is “holiness”. The angel Gabriel said to the virgin Mary, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore, also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”, Luke 1: 35.

So, in these passages we see Him as Man in this wonderful relationship with God, the object in a peculiar way of divine affection; and it is also Man in holiness. Adam as created was man in innocence. But here it is Man in holiness—holiness as to His origin, as to His nature, as to His very being. “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”.

Now what I desire is that we might get a conception in our souls as to what sonship is, and for that we must look at it entirely apart from ourselves.

Rem. I suppose that is why you have referred to Christ so much.

J.P. Yes. I know that we are all prone to look at things and consider them in relation to ourselves. And that is why many of us remain in a fog instead of being in the sunshine. We are never able to think truly about the application of truth to ourselves until we have learned it in Christ. Many of us undertake to learn truth in connection with our experience, but we never learn truth really in that way; we must see it in Christ. So with sonship. He is the Son of God. He will always be the Son of God to us pre-eminently; and He is the pattern of the heavenly family. He is the pattern of the many sons whom He is bringing to glory.

We might add another word or two about Christ. You find He is a different order of man, and that is a great point. In 1 Corinthians 15 you have two men—the first man and the second Man. The point is there is contrast as to the origin of the two, and you will find in scripture that origin and order go together, your origin fixes your order. The first man is out of the earth, made of dust—that is his origin. And what is the order? Earthly, of course. His order agrees with his origin. What about the Second Man? “The second man out of heaven”. And, if so, what is the order of His manhood? Heavenly! “Such as he made of dust, such also those made of dust; and such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”. Sonship was never set forth in the man out of the earth. It belongs exclusively to the second Man out of heaven.

We may see the Lord Jesus Christ as second Man in two conditions. I can give you one verse that embraces the two. Read Hebrews 2: 9. There He is made “some little inferior to angels”, that is His condition; and then, at the end of the verse, it says He is “crowned with glory and honour”—the same Man, the second Man, the heavenly Man.

Sonship is not connected in Scripture with man in innocence, and surely it is not connected with man according to the flesh. If you and I are to come into sonship there must be new creation—that is obvious.

Now I would ask, Have you and I got the light of sonship? Are we talking about sonship without having the light of it in our souls? The light of sonship is a wonderful thing.

Ques. Where is the light of it?

J.P. The light of it is wherever the faith of it is found. We are all the “sons of God”, but do not leave out the next few words—“by faith in Christ Jesus”. Your faith does not help me; have I the faith of it myself?

Ques. Do you get the thought of where He is the Firstborn among many brethren?

J.P. Yes. And we might look now a little at our birthplace. Where is the origin of the sons?

Rem. “If one died for all, then were all dead … that they which live”, &c, 2 Cor 5: 14, 15. Is that the beginning of it?

J.P. That is the object. “That they which live”, &c., but it does not tell you how they live. Look at John 12, where the Lord said, “Except a grain of wheat [‘corn’ should be ‘grain’] fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit”, John 12: 24. The “much fruit” is “the sons”. Hebrews 2 gives you a kind of account of it—“For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one”. Note that little word “all”. That is the derivation—the origin, the order. “For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”. Now in what scripture does He first call them brethren? In John 20. There He appeared to Mary Magdalene—to one person. It is quite a private affair there. Paul will give you a meeting in 1 Corinthians 14. But in John 20 it is to a woman He appears. He appeared to her and said, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go ...”. To whom? To “my brethren”. There it is—“For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”. The grain of wheat has fallen into the ground and died. There is the origin of sons—the death of Christ. “If it die, it bringeth forth much fruit”. There is where we have sprung from—His death.

Brought into human bounds by incarnation’s grace,

The holy One of God must still abide alone;

Until His death has formed the suited place,

For the ‘much fruit’—Himself and they ‘of One’.

There is the new order and the new origin. The point of derivation was His death. Take Ephesians. There are two things predicated of Christ in Ephesians 2, and three things of the saints. Christ is not said to be quickened: He is said to be raised and seated. The saints are quickened; raised and seated. That is the order—quickened, raised and seated. Raised up together takes you away from where you have been quickened. When you get up there in the heavenlies you are raised up and made to sit down; you are at ease; you are at home, “made us to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”.

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Continuation of Reading in the evening of same day.

J.P. I thought that we might proceed with the point we reached this afternoon in regard to our origin.

Let us look at the scripture which we read in Galatians 4. It is an advance really upon chapter 3—the fact that we are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. We have seen that we could not be sons of God in connection with the flesh. But we might advance on that and say that we could not be regarded as sons of God in connection with our actual condition down here. Sonship could not be predicated of us in our actual condition. It can be predicated of us while our actual condition remains, but it could not be predicated of us in our actual condition.

Then in chapter 4 there is a further advance. “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. That is the spirit of sonship. It is not only the present light of it in connection with faith, but there is the spirit of sonship. We are not constituted sons by the Spirit. It is because we are sons that God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. In connection with the Lord Himself it is very beautiful. The first time the expression “Abba, Father”, occurs, it is as used by the Lord Himself in the garden of Gethsemane.

Then we may look at sonship as it affects us here and now. I think there is great instruction as to that in the Epistle to the Galatians. It is very striking and interesting to see how the Spirit of God, through the apostle Paul, brings the truth of sonship to bear upon those Galatian saints. We are exposed to the working of leaven, not only in the Corinthian form, but in the Galatian form. It is a very subtle thing, and I think that, if we have been in any measure touched by leaven as it is presented in the Epistle to the Galatians, our recovery, our deliverance from it is by the spirit of sonship. The apostle brings in the light of sonship and the spirit of sonship. It was brought in for the deliverance and correction of the saints in Galatia. You remember how in that epistle the Spirit of God speaks of the Jerusalem which is down here, and what characterises those who are in any way connected with it is bondage. And in contrast to that we have the statement about “the Jerusalem above”, which is our mother, and free. I suppose many of us, by virtue not only of our lifelong associations but perhaps the training we have been brought up under, would recoil from anything in the shape of the Corinthian leaven. But the leaven in Galatia had a distinctly religious character, and many of us, while on our guard against what is called immoral, might be taken in by leaven when it presents itself in a religions form.

There is a very beautiful illustration in Matthew 17 of how sonship works in this connection, and where Peter is asked the question, Does your Master pay tribute? Peter says, “Yes”; he thought a great deal of his Master. Then the Lord asks Peter the question—when the kings of the earth levy tribute do they levy it from strangers or from their sons, and Peter had to say, “from strangers”. The idea of the king’s sons paying tribute! And the Lord answers, “Then are the sons free”. That shows that sonship sets the soul in perfect liberty, and it is liberty connected with Christ. In Galatians he says further on: “Christ has set us free in freedom; stand fast therefore, and be not held again in a yoke of bondage”, chap 5: 1.

In connection with the statement that when some heard Him say certain things, they were ready to take the place of being His disciples, the Lord said: “If ye continue [or abide] in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed [or truly]; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”. If you read the text, you will find that the freedom spoken of there is freedom from sin. But the Lord goes further. He speaks about the “house”, and how the servant does not abide in it for ever, but the son abides forever. Then He adds: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed”. The knowledge of the “truth” will set you free from the bondage of sin, but the Son sets you free in connection with the house—He sets you in the freedom of the house of God. In sonship you have a permanent place in the house of God, and you are in perfect liberty.

Ques. Is the idea of the spirit of sonship formation in us?

J.P. Of course. “God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts”. That is where the Spirit of His Son is sent—the spirit of adoption. Romans expresses it thus: “ye have received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father”. I do not object to the expression ‘formation’, because it is something in our hearts.

Ques. Crying “Abba, Father”, is response, is it not?

J.P. It is. That is what sonship involves. It is not only on God’s side as expressed in what God said to Abraham—“Thine only son whom thou lovest”; and what God Himself expressed when Jesus was here—“This is my beloved Son”—not only that, but it is the response to it—“Abba, Father”. The response to the love of God known and enjoyed. That is where we want to get to; then we shall be in real liberty.

Rem. It is the outgoing of the sons to the Father.

J.P. Yes. We might add the remark—just to keep the distinction clear—we are brethren in relation to Christ—He is not ashamed to call us His brethren, but we are not brethren of God, and we are not sons of Christ. We are brethren of Christ and sons of God, “Son” expresses the peculiar relationship in sonship between the soul and God.

Ques. Does the first come out in Galatians 4—“God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts”?

J.P. Yes. We can only receive it on the ground of redemption. Redemption was necessary. God created man in responsibility, and God will never ignore the responsibility of man, so redemption came in, that He might redeem those under the law, and that we might receive adoption—sonship.

Ques. Is sonship for God’s pleasure?

J.P. It certainly is, according to Ephesians 1.

Ques. What is the difference between sonship as it is presented in Galatians and in Ephesians?

J.P. In Galatians sonship comes in for recovery; in Ephesians it is no question of recovery. Sonship comes out in Ephesians normally and for the pleasure of God.

Ques. The thing itself is the same in each epistle, is it not?

J.P. Sonship is always sonship. But then you have it presented in scripture in different ways and connections, and we get instruction by observing the different way in which things are presented in scripture. It is no question of recovery in Ephesians. Some one has said that the two great normal epistles are Romans and Ephesians. But Galatians is evidently corrective and for recovery. Ye did run well; who stopped you? That is Galatians. “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?” Sonship will put an end to the bewitchment and start you going if you have been “stopped”.

Ques. Why is sonship brought in in Romans 8?

J.P. Because the great theme in Romans is the Spirit, and everything lies in the good of the Spirit. Sonship is alluded to, but it is not opened out in Romans. It is wonderful what breadth there is in Romans 8. The question there is not to receive the Spirit; it supposes that you have received the Spirit. The question is—Are you in the good of it? That is Romans 8. And so it goes on; it touches sonship; it touches the purpose of God, for all that lies within the good of the Spirit. But if you are intelligent, you would not expect to find in Romans the unfolding of new creation, or what it is to be in Christ; it is there, but you will go elsewhere for the unfolding of it.

Ques. How do you fit in what you spoke of in the afternoon—the quickening and raising—in relation to the way you speak of it now?

J.P. It is very interesting to take account of quickening in the New Testament scriptures, especially in the epistles. “Quickening” in Romans is not present, it is future. See chapter 8: 11—“He ... shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you”.

Ques. Does resurrection give us the position?

J.P. Resurrection in Romans is future, not present. When you come to Colossians 2: 12 you are “risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead”.

Ques. Ascension then would give us the position?

J.P. I should say so. Resurrection is a new condition in the old place; ascension is another place. The Lord stayed down here for forty days after He was risen—a Man actually risen on the earth; in the old place, but in a new condition.

Ques. What about quickening in the other epistles?

J.P. You must take account of the difference between Colossians and Ephesians.

Ques. Would quickening come in relation to the grain falling into the ground and dying, and we associated with Him in life?

J.P. No doubt. The order of Colossians is reversed in Ephesians. The last thing in Colossians is the first thing in Ephesians, and the first thing in Ephesians is the last thing in Colossians. Quickened, raised, seated; that is Ephesians. But Colossians is—dead, buried, risen, then quickened. You are buried in Romans, not because you are dead, but you are buried to have part in His death. You are buried in Colossians because you are dead.

Rem. We want to know something more of the spirit of sonship.

J.P. We all need to know more about it. We have lectures on sonship and readings on sonship, but there is nothing like having the Spirit of God’s Son in your heart, crying, Abba, Father. It is because ye are sons (not to make you such) God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Ques. Does the spirit of sonship in Galatians bring in activity, while in Ephesians we get the place of sonship?

J.P. I think it does. It brings in activity where most of us need it, and where many of us lack it. There is activity in your affections God-ward when you cry Abba, Father.

Ques. What kind of activity?

J.P. Ah! we want more of the activity of love—the spirit of sonship; it would greatly affect us. Individually and in our meetings, we go sometimes as I imagine Pharaoh’s chariots went in the bottom of the Red Sea when the wheels came off—they drove heavily. Part of my early days in London I was familiar with what is called hyper-Calvinistic Baptists. You could hear of election and pre-destination and fore-knowledge by the hour, but I never was amongst such a dead-and-alive lot. It is the spirit of sonship, crying, Abba, Father, that awakens your affection; there is freedom “Jerusalem above is free”. It connects you with God’s centre where He is, and with all that wonderful system of things—the heavenly system—which finds its centre in Himself. Free! When the Son makes you free you are free indeed.

Ques. Is there any connection between spirit of sonship and worship?

J.P. No doubt of it—a most intimate connection.

Ques. Crying Abba, Father, is worship, is it not?

J.P. It might be said so.

Rem. In the spirit of sonship you would have perfect liberty in the presence of the Father.

J.P. You have the best kind of freedom. In His presence you are free in the sunshine of His love, and your heart is responsive to His love. Worship must be connected with that.

Rem. “Let my son go, that he may serve me” (Exod 4: 23)—that is the principle.

J.P. Yes. Many a beautiful statement in the Old Testament scriptures gives the principles of sonship.

Rem. What God wants is worship.

J.P. We have too much missed the true thought of service in these last days. We have been brought up to talk about activities man-ward being service, but the idea of service in scripture is very largely worship God-ward. So with the young Thessalonian converts, there was not only the work of faith, but there was the work of love. They served the living and the true God, and they served in the activities of love.

Rem. They must have learned God in the Son.

J.P. Yes; we learn it all in Him.

Ques. Is it brought out in Luke 15, where the sinner is brought into the house?

J.P. Certainly—he is brought in with the sandals on. If you went into a well-appointed Eastern house and saw a young man barefooted, you would say that is one of the servants; but if you met a young man in that house with sandals on, you would say that is one of the sons. He was brought in with the best robe, and the ring, and the sandals, too, were not lacking. God brings you into the house and puts the shoes on. “Put shoes on his feet”.

Ques. It says in Galatians, “Jerusalem above … is our mother”. What is the thought in “our mother”?

J.P. It is the heavenly system of things connected with Christ that is your mother. The earthly system, which was the mother of a good many people, was represented by Hagar, who was bondservant. So, Jerusalem is in bondage with her children; but the Jerusalem which is from above is in freedom with her children, and the children are in freedom with her.

Ques. The spirit of sonship is connected with a heavenly system.

J.P. Certainly. We are speaking of being in the good of it now, as it affects us here. But sonship belongs to heaven and to eternity. It is our calling on high. Our King James Version gives “high calling”, but it is our “calling on high” (Phil 3: 14); that is sonship—our heavenly calling, “Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling”. All goes together.

Rem. Its home is future; it is active now.

J.P. Yes. Romans puts all these things in the future. We wait for the adoption in Romans; to wit, the redemption of our body. Meanwhile we have received the spirit of sonship, but the actuality of it is future and involves the redemption of our body—“shall quicken your mortal bodies”, &c.

Rem. Then you make a distinction between reality and actuality.

J.P. A great distinction. Someone said a few years ago that Christianity is not a system of actualities, it is a system of divine spiritual realities. The actualities of Christianity belong to the future.

Rem. Referring to the spirit of sonship again, the measure in which one takes in the revelation of God in the Son would be the measure of the response formed in us. Is that right?

J.P. Well, it is in a way. But when you come to sonship you have to emphasise not simply the broad statement of the revelation of God, but you have to emphasise the point of divine love and relationship according to that love. I think that is what I would emphasise in regard to sonship. If it is simply the revelation of God as such—the only true God and the knowledge of the only true God, that stands more connected with the question of eternal life than with sonship. I am sure that sonship gives great prominence to the thought of God’s love; it is a relationship in love. “Thou art my beloved Son”. Sonship is in the “Beloved”. The Spirit of God does not use these terms at random. We are accepted in the Beloved, graced in the Beloved. If you say, Why use that term there? I reply, You had better be simple about scripture, and what you do not understand the Lord may give you to understand; you may depend upon it that the right word there is—“Beloved”.

Rem. The expression, “Abba, Father”, is the response to divine affection.

J.P. Yes; it is the response of affection in your heart to God’s affection. It is “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. You may know more as a son than I know; that there are varying measures of spiritual intelligence no one would deny; but I do not see that these varying measures touch the question of sonship.

Rem. Then it is not a question of degree; it is a question of character.

J.P. It is a question of being a son. Then, if you are a son, it is a question of God sending forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart, crying, Abba, Father.

Ques. Do we get a divine principle in looking at Abraham when Isaac was weaned; he made a great feast?

J.P. Yes. Mr Stoney used to speak of it as ‘coronation day’¹⁸. That is a great day in your soul’s history. But on that day what an evil thing happens! Ishmael mocks! The flesh may mock, but, nevertheless, the coronation day is a great day in your spiritual history.

Rem. That comes out in Galatians.

J.P. It does indeed. The truth of sonship is wonderful and intensely practical. If we were in the good of it, I am sure that it would make a great change with us individually, and also when we come together. Alas! our meetings are not always marked by the dignity and liberty of sonship. They ought to be.

Ques. Do the sons say anything more than “Abba, Father”?

J.P. What do you mean by not saying anything more than “Abba, Father”? It is a simple expression, but a very wonderful expression. “Abba, Father”, is response to the heart of God. Think what that must have been to God’s heart when those words went up from that blessed One in the garden of Gethsemane. What an hour of agony that was! We are so occupied with our difficulties and trials—we do not give time to think of what His sorrows were when He said “Abba, Father”. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”, Rom 8: 14. God is love, and He has come out in the revelation of Himself, that He might be known, and when He gets to be so known our hearts are responsive, and I am sure that divine delight fills the heart of God when He gets response. We have thought a great deal of activities. But that is not it. It is “Abba, Father”. That is the music that delights the heart and ear of God.

We have not said much about the future; that is the end of everything. But I would like to speak a little about the rapture. I think the rapture is in a peculiar way connected with sonship. It is the taking of the sons to the place to which they belong. Do not think that one wants to make little of the resurrection, which is God’s victory over sin and death here upon the earth; but the rapture—the sons going home (as the Lord said, “if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself” (John 14: 3))—is that wonderful moment.

Ques. Is it the bringing of the many sons to glory?

J.P. That is Hebrews 2. But I think the rapture is peculiarly connected with the truth of sonship.

Ques. Is there no responsibility?

J.P. It is altogether a love affair.

Rem. They are wanted at the top.

J.P. They belong to the top. He has gone to prepare a place for us.

Ques. Is it the rapture in John 14?

J.P. Well, it is the same point, but the other side of it. John and 1 Thessalonians 4 are in accordance, but it is the lowest side in Thessalonians and the highest in John. It is from the point of His affection in John; it is from the point of their sorrow in Thessalonians—“So encourage one another with these words”, 1 Thess 4: 18. There is nothing like it for encouragement now under such circumstances.

Rem. There was sorrow in the hearts of His disciples when He said “I will come again”.

J.P. Yes. So He says, “Let not your heart be troubled ... I go to prepare a place for you”. We are His companions, and we shall be His companions in heavenly glory. Of course it involves resurrection, because sonship in its completeness involves the entire person of the saint—spirit, soul, and body; all are embraced in sonship. There is first the resurrection or change. The rapture is not brought in in 1 Corinthians 15, there it is the victory of God down here over sin and death—“Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”, v 54. It is the same word in both in the Greek.

Ques. Does sonship extend beyond the assembly?

J.P. There is an expression I wanted to speak of, and what you say recalls it to me. I wanted to call your attention to sonship as characterising the assembly. We are familiar with the assembly as the body of Christ, the house of God, and all that. But there is a beautiful expression in Hebrews 12: 23, which speaks of things we have “come to”, and one is—we have “come to the assembly of the firstborn”. That is the assembly viewed as composed of the sons.

Ques. Is it the firstborn sons?

J.P. Yes, it is plural. “The assembly of the firstborn”. Then mark! —“who are registered”. Where are they registered? In the place they belong to. When the Roman emperor called for a census Joseph had to go down to a certain place where his name was registered. We are going directly to where our names are registered—the sons are going home.

I think that you will find that sonship in its ultimate results is not so much connected with display down here as it is with enjoyment up there. “Father … I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”, John 17: 24.

Rem. The whole creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.

J.P. In Romans 8: 19-21 we have, “for the anxious looking out of the creature expects the revelation of the sons of God”. That is one thing. Now we will look at the other: “For the creature has been made subject to vanity, not of its will, but by reason of him who has subjected the same, in hope that the creature itself also shall be set free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God”. The liberty of the glory of the children. The liberty of the revelation of the sons. The sons are the children. They are the same persons; it is only the difference in the way in which the Spirit of God speaks of them.

Things are set in certain distinctions in scripture, and those distinctions at the present time are important. But lines that are distinct now converge in the future; they come together, and the line of the children and the line of the sons converge by-and-by. Anybody can observe the distinction, and it is not a distinction without a difference. We are all the sons of God in Christ Jesus; but can you find me a passage where we are said to be the children of God in Christ Jesus? There is not one. Sonship was God’s primary thought for man, and so at last, when all the dispensations have closed, we find, when we come to the eternal state, man in that relationship with God. God says, “I will be to him for father, and he shall be to me for son”, Heb 1: 5. There is sonship at last and forever.

Rem. You said that sonship was more connected with enjoyment than with display.

J.P. I think it is primarily, but we get also “the revelation of the sons of God”.

Rem. In Ephesians we have, “That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus”. That is display, is it not?

J.P. Yes, to show “the exceeding riches of his grace”.