SONSHIP
SONSHIP
JT It has occurred to me that sonship is spoken of in two ways, one as a truth that affects deliverance from bondage, legality, as in Galatians; and on the other hand as setting forth the height of God’s thought in regard to us, as in Ephesians.
JV Do you mean “marked out beforehand for sonship”?
JT Yes, “by Jesus Christ to himself”, Ephesians 1:5. That would be the highest thought perhaps that we could conceive as to blessing; that we should be before the face of God for His pleasure.
WJ I suppose sonship is the peculiar blessing of christianity.
JT It is a very wide thought, and has a very wide bearing. It is applied to Israel, for instance, but whatever application it may have to others, as applied to the church it involves wonderful privilege. Anything applied to the church must have a distinctive character.
JV I suppose it was more national with regard to Israel. “Israel is my son, my firstborn”, Exodus 4:22.
JT Yes, that was an expression of God’s purpose. It was not really so then; it was only in His mind in regard of them. Sonship could never really exist until Christ became man.
JV You do find the remnant using the term in Isaiah; “Doubtless thou art our father” (Isaiah 63:16) and then you get God expressing Himself, “Ephraim, my dear son ... a pleasant child”, Jeremiah 31:20.
JT God predestinating us to sonship by Jesus Christ to Himself is a wonderful thought, and necessarily involves a heavenly position. He “has [p. 256] blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”, Ephesians 1:3. It is heavenly in regard to us; but then the light in which it is brought forward in Galatians has rather in view deliverance from legality.
WJ The passage, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed”, John 8:36, suggests liberty.
JT The Son abides in the house for ever.
EHC Do we come into sonship consequent upon Christ risen entering into the presence of the Father as Son?
JT I think it is on the ground of redemption, “that he might redeem those under law, that we might receive sonship”; but the Spirit of it is received from a risen and glorified Christ. “because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. Chapter 1, it seems to me, gives us the call. Paul says, “it pleased God ... to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen”, Galatians 1:16. We have there a true announcing of Paul’s ministry which delivers from all sectionalism. The Jewish saints would naturally become attached to Jerusalem. We all more or less become attached to our own section, but sonship is a truth that is universal in its bearings; that is, it involves Jerusalem which is above, the heavenly metropolis; and the influence of that metropolis must be universal.
HT We are not predestinated to be children, but to sonship.
JT Our position as children refers to our position here upon earth. We are here upon earth under the care of the Father; the objects of the Father’s love.
HT I thought that we were predestinated to sonship by Jesus Christ to God; that is, for His good pleasure; and that all who have the Spirit [p. 257] know the Father; but that entering into sonship was something in advance of that, entering into association with a glorified Christ before the Father’s face; but the way you seem to put it is that all believers are sons.
JT I think all believers are sons, and sonship refers to our place with God; whereas our place as children has reference to our position here in the world as the objects of the Father’s care.
JV In several cases where the term children is mentioned it is distinctly applied to our position here: Romans 8:17; Philippians 2:15; 1 John 3:1, etc.
JT The position of children is connected with our position here in an adverse world. Sonship is the great thought of purpose, because it is a question of abiding in the house.
WJ Heirship goes with the sonship. One is what we are with God, and the other is what we are for God.
JT You are in the good of the inheritance now by the Spirit, but the Son is the heir. If it is the Son of man, He is the heir; He is the heir to all that falls to man; and if it is the Son of God, He is the heir.
ASL John never uses the term “son” except in Revelation 21:7.
JT It is the family with John.
ASL It is remarkable that John uniformly employs the term “children”, but Paul nearly always “sons”. For instance, the disciples were children while the Lord was with them, but they were brought into the place of sons when the Lord in resurrection came into their midst after the message He had given to Mary.
JT I think that is right, but they were sons in the mind of God: “Then are the sons free”, Matthew 17:26. Matthew develops the truth of sonship.
[p. 258] You get the Son in chapter 2: “Out of Egypt have I called my son”, Matthew 2:15. That is to say, God reverts to His thought in regard to Israel. Christ was the true Israelite; He was God’s Son. Then in chapter 3 He is proclaimed from heaven as the Son: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”, Matthew 3:17. In Luke it is “Thou art my beloved Son” (Luke 3:22); in Matthew it is “This is my beloved Son”. The Son is brought forward, and He pursues His course on to the mount of transfiguration. Then we have another proclamation: “Hear ye him”, Matthew 17:5. The Son is to be heard: He is to be the Speaker. All communications proceed and come to us from a Person in the relation of Son. Moses and Elias were not sons; they had spoken, but they had not spoken as sons. Now christianity takes its character from the Person who spoke it; see Hebrews 1. So that if you have the truth brought out in the Son, others are brought into it. The moment the Son speaks, then the sons are brought to light. Hence in Matthew 17:26, you get “the sons”. The saints are brought in. The Lord says in connection with the tribute, “Then are the sons free ... give it to them for me and thee”.
WJ That is the key to the epistle to the Hebrews. The expression “for me and thee” characterises the epistle; we are companions of Christ.
EHC “Behold I and the children which God hath given me”, Hebrews 2:13.
GR You said some years ago we are in the day of sonship.
JT That is important, because it dismisses the thought of the necessity for state; sonship is light; sonship produces the state; it is light, but the light is to produce state.
WJ Satan is always seeking to defeat that, because it is the peculiar blessing of christianity.
[p. 259] He is always assaulting it and trying to keep us back from it; he does not object to other things so much as this most important truth; that is, the peculiar relationship in which we stand. As a matter of fact, I think we are very defective in regard of the consciousness of it.
JT Yes, and souls should be made acquainted with the fact that God takes account of us in that light. “ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus”, Galatians 3:26. There is nothing lower than that now.
JV “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman”, introducing a new order.
JT Yes, you have to see the Son here. You could not understand John 3:16 without seeing the position of the Son here, what He was to the Father, the One who was manifestly so precious to His heart. God gives His Son: “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son”.
Ques So the question is one of faith. Is that the meaning of “Ye are all God’s sons by faith”?
JT It is a question of light, though we are all the sons of God by faith. The Galatians, despite their state, were in that position; they were sons.
EHC Sons in Christ Jesus on the principle of faith in contrast to law.
WJ He is sent forth as Son for that very purpose; that we might receive sonship.
EHC It carries the affection of the heart with it: “because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father”.
JT I suppose relationship always produces affection. It is a wonderful thing to see that you have the liberty of the house. It gives you a footing in God’s house, and you are perfectly free there. The Son abides in the house for ever; a servant may be cast out at any time.
[p. 260] Ques Have the disciples the spirit of sonship in John 20?
JT No doubt, in pattern. We must distinguish between the brethren of Christ and the sons of God. John gives us a company of people on earth who were the brethren of the ascended Man. The brethren of Christ and the sons of God are not the same thought. One is our relation to God, the other is our relation to Christ. They are the same people. The Lord having become man, He has a place in God’s house permanently. Setting us free is really setting us free in sonship.
EHC Does that apply in the Scripture: “I will be his God, and he shall be my son”, Revelation 21:7?
JT I suppose so; that would be a very precious thought to any one here now in responsibility.
WJ Say a little more about the Son making us free.
JT It is based on the fact that the Son abides in the house for ever. The Lord having become man, He has a place in the house permanently; and I suppose we may apply the thought in Hebrews that He is Son over the house; so that, setting us free, it is really setting us free in sonship.
JV Do the ring and the shoes in Luke 15 illustrate it? The ring gave him conferred authority and the shoes involved the recognition that he belonged to the family.
JT We are set free really in sonship; that is, “in freedom”, Galatians 5:1. You have to add that in John 8.
ASL The liberty of the house is found in the life of Christ risen.
JT In the life of the ascended Man. He sets us free from the upper storey, so to speak; everything begins from the top with God. There were three storeys in the ark. The Spirit of sonship is from Christ in heaven, from the glorified ascended [p. 261] Man. Christianity is all from a heavenly platform. We are not only on resurrection ground, we are on ascension ground. You cannot understand John 20 unless you see that christianity is inaugurated from heaven by the ascended Christ. I think we have lost sight of the heavenly side of things. We have to see divine thoughts indicating a special place for us. God gave evidence at the outset of a special place both in connection with Eden, the ark, the tabernacle, and the temple. He planted a garden in Eden, but Eden was a wider sphere than the garden; the garden was special. The ark was built with three stories. The tabernacle was made with the holiest as well as the court; and in the temple there were three tiers of chambers, the nethermost, the middle, and the third. So it is with regard to the assembly. I think we want to get hold of the special place that God has for us; the wonderful place that He has given the assembly, nothing could exceed it. “I go to prepare a place for you”, John 14:2. The emphasis ought to be on you. “I go to prepare a place for you”.
Ques In referring to ascension ground, do you mean that there is something beyond resurrection?
JT Certainly; christianity is inaugurated from heaven. We have a resurrection scene in John 12. The Lord sat at the table and Lazarus was one of those who sat with Him. It is a risen man in association with Christ as such. But when we come to John 20 He says, “I ascend”; and the Lord entered into that company as having said that. Though He did not actually ascend, He came in principle as the ascended Man. It is a pattern. How could you get the Spirit without that? He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”, John 20:22. We are brethren of the heavenly Christ.
EHC In principle it is the gift of the Spirit.
JT It is. When we come to Acts 2 we have [p. 262] the actual descent of the Spirit. We leave out the greatest thought if we leave out “I ascend”. The Son has the liberty of the house, and He ascends. He has full title to go anywhere in the house, and He ascends. It is not merely that He is received up, but He ascends up. Christianity is inaugurated from heaven. There is nothing more important than that.
EHC John is complete in itself. We need Acts to complete Luke. John would not be complete without the gift of the Spirit, and we cannot have the Spirit apart from ascension; so ascension is involved in John.
JV “For their sakes I sanctify myself”, John 17:19. Did He have ascension in view?
JT You could not have the power of sanctification here without the ascension.
Ques Does the ascension bring in the peculiar place of the church?
JT I think so; the peculiar place the disciples were brought into. Resurrection is not the ground on which the assembly stands; that does not go beyond the earth. Resurrection in itself does not involve what is heavenly. Ascension is the ground on which the church stands. Sonship involves ascension. That is, the Son can go anywhere in the house; He can go up. He says, “I ascend”, and He has power and liberty to do so.
Rem When you come to association with an ascended Christ, you have sonship.
JT The name is not so much, it is the thing you want. You have ascension in John. You have not the historical account of it there, but the Lord says, “I ascend”. It is a question of the things with John; he deals with things essentially without calling them by name.
Ques Does sonship involve a new system?
JT It involves a city — “Jerusalem [p. 263] which is above is free, which is the mother of us all”, Galatians 4:26. It came out historically in Acts 9 when the Lord appeared to Saul. Saul called Him “Lord”, but in truth he knew Him as Son.
WJ It is the opening out of a new metropolis diverting from Jerusalem.
JT The house of God is universal. Place and country limit the affections to a section. Sectionalism has a great place among the people of God, but that is all wrong. That evil came out in Acts 6. The house of God is pervaded by the Spirit of sonship, and the affections which belong to it, and therefore our affections should be universal.
The Galatians had come under the influence of bad teaching. They had first heard a gospel announced by a man who had sonship in his soul. Paul says, “God ... revealed his Son in me, that I may announce him”, Galatians 1:16. They did not want anything more than that for gospel, but the erroneous teachers said, ‘You require something more’. They wanted to introduce the spirit of slavery into the house as well as the spirit of sonship; that is, to keep Isaac and Ishmael together.
EHC Paul calls it going back to weak and beggarly elements.
FK Why does sonship involve a city?
JT That Person, the Son, must have a centre, a metropolis; and so it is introduced in this chapter. Jerusalem had been the centre. Going back to the types; if a man purchased a house in a walled city, and it was not redeemed within a year, it belonged to the purchaser for ever; see Leviticus 25:29. If a field were sold he could redeem it, and if he did not do so it had to return to its original owner in the year of jubilee. Israel had wonderful privileges, but they did not take advantage of them. We have come into the inheritance, however, and we shall not lose it. We have come into certain blessings [p. 264] which belonged to Israel, and they have not been redeemed within the year, so they belong to the church for ever. If we go in for earthly possessions we shall lose them. Barnabas sold a field, an earthly possession, and he got a place in the city.
JV What answers to the year during which the man might redeem his possession? Is it God’s longsuffering with Israel after the ascension of Christ?
JT So it appears to me. The gentile has come into the “walled city”, and is placed there eternally. The truth is seen in connection with the types. We do not want to be fanciful, but if you have the truth of christianity in your soul you are safe in using the types.
JV They are but illustrations, but very forcible ones, and there may be many applications.
JT Yes; the “commandment is exceeding broad”, Psalm 119:96. If you have the thing you can use the types, but if you attempt to use the types without the things, you make havoc.
It is a great thing for a young believer to see that he has a title to be in God’s house. Many believers are on the ground of legality; they feel as they come in amongst us that there is a tax upon them. If we expect from one another we impose a tax. We have to be givers. To give occasion to the thought that we expect from one another is damaging, because that puts people under a tax.
WJ The enjoyment of life always precedes the expression of life. In the thought of the house we have a place of privilege and enjoyment.
JT God’s thought of a family is delightful: parents and children with reciprocal affections flowing out. If you are in the dignity of sonship you would not demand from anybody; you are great enough to impart; you become wealthy in love.
Rem “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another”, Romans 13:8.
JT If you are in the good of sonship you have plenty of that.
Rem One would not then complain about there not being much love in a meeting.
JT The only one to complain about would be one’s self. “Jerusalem ... above ... is the mother of us all”, Galatians 4:26. It gives us character; we are formed by it. A child begotten of a slave such as Hagar, would have the spirit of a slave. In other words, a christian brought up under legal conditions, a believer in judaism, is formed by the spirit of slavery and fear. Hagar could be cast out at any time, and rightly, as we know she was.
WJ In John 8 they are Ishmaelites.
JT Exactly; they were about to be cast out, whereas the Son was there and would remain.
EHC Do we get sonship in Romans 8? “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”, Romans 8:14.
JT Romans 8 treats of the Spirit of God more than of sonship, but it introduces sonship among other things. The apostle says, If you recognise the Spirit, that marks you off as a son. Sonship is one of the blessings involved in the Spirit.
Ques Does sonship involve state?
JT Certainly; you cannot think of God having sons without state, but you must have the light before you can have state. Sonship is light, but it produces state. In Galatians is really the gospel; the gospel is the announcement of God’s Son, “that I might preach him”, chapter 1:16.
ASL “God ... was pleased to reveal his Son in me, that I may announce him as glad tidings”. Would that involve that by the reception of the gospel they would be brought into sonship?
JT You are not content with your converts if they are not brought into sonship; and you must [p. 266] have the house of God for the enjoyment of sonship, because it is there that the relationship is enjoyed.
Ques Is there a connection between “Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20), and the enjoyment of sonship?
JT That is an allusion to Isaac. Isaac occupied the house.
ASL It is really the life in which sonship is known and enjoyed.
JT Quite so; you give him all the place in your heart; you are not thinking of yourself. When the feast was made Isaac was everything in the house; he occupied all the house.
ASL Then you have the blessed consciousness of being before God in the life of the risen One. “No longer live, I, but Christ lives in me”, Galatians 2:20.
JT The apostle says as much as he can about those to whom he is writing. He says of the Galatians that they are sons, but then he also says, “be as I am; for I am as ye are”, Galatians 4:12. They were sons as he was; but he wanted them to be in the liberty of sonship, that they should be led of the Spirit. We are led of the Spirit if sons.
ASL Christ formed in the saints is the normal state.
JT The apostle’s first exercise, the preaching, had brought that to pass in them primarily, but then they became affected by bad teaching. The introduction of the gospel requires great exercise on the part of the preacher. The apostle had to travel over the ground again, and it involved a great deal of exercise to him.
ASL Christ being formed in the saints, they would understand what it means for Ishmael to be cast out and Isaac to be [p. 267] supreme.
JT What a scene it was in Abraham’s house when the feast was made! Isaac was everything; he was weaned. I have no doubt that Abraham saw that Christ was there, in type, in that house.
ASL The natural effort is to keep both Ishmael and Isaac in the house.
JT In Christendom it has come to that.
ASL The man after the flesh “persecuted” the other. It is a remarkable expression to use, for when we come to Genesis we find that the persecution was merely mocking.
JT Isaac had no power to persecute. Ishmael could mock, he was fourteen years old, he had power to persecute; but Isaac was a babe, and he could not persecute. One who is in the good of sonship can never persecute. It is the man after the flesh who persecutes.