Sonship's Manifestation
By John Gavazzoni

I will state the premise upon which this article is based at the very beginning: sons of God are born of God, and from the spirit substance of their sonship, God formed/crafted/carved-out a material version of ourselves for existence within the ages. Even the ages, within which humanity lives, were formed out of that same spirit-substance. Always, in God's Way, the container and the contained are one essence. This truth is at the heart of creation's groaning travail to behold the liberty of the glory of the children of God. The creature yearns to know from Whence it has come, and What its nature is. Realizing experientially one's own glorious sonship requires that it be manifested, uncovered, unveiled, not only to creation outside of ourselves, but first out from its hiddenness within our own creaturehood.

This is a present process that is an ongoing, continual, habitual, continuous happening, not simply something to happen suddenly in the future... though the process leads to an existential consummating finality. The present ongoing continuance of this administration of God is most clearly pointed out in Jonathan Mitchell's Translation of the New Testament, amplified, expanded and (with) alternate renderings. One would do well to obtain a copy for both reading and as a reference work when seeking the best possible take on the meaning of the Greek New Testament.

Within our creaturehood is hidden our sonship. God has hidden it...that is the sonship we have in THE Son, the sonship of the Son in us...for the suffering of enduring concealment is the Way God draws forth the full glory of His Son in all His sons. Strange as it may seem to one's thinking that God conceals that He might reveal, it is the nature of the timeless to be fully manifest by coming forth out of temporal concealment. [Note: "Like the Seed hidden within the soil so that Its glory can be revealed in the Plant; or: the kingdom hidden in the dough of humanity so that it can be revealed in the risen Loaf; or: the Sperm hidden in the womb of humanity so that God's glory can be given birth from out of our innermost being." - JM] The timeless, eternal God, inclusive of His sons, becomes within time more and more of all that He is out of the depths of all that He is. Divine glory is seen in its full glory thusly. He, inclusive of us all, is the God who IS, and the God who BECOMES.

This is what is meant by Paul's declaration that, "...we bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifest in our bodies." You see, the dying of Jesus is not only a historical fact, but in the Spirit, it continues as a living dynamic at work in us. It's not a yet-to-occur death, it is an already accomplished, once-for-all death, presently at work leading to the increase of the experience of resurrection life. Again, strange as it may seem to some, the purpose of death is life, and that more abundantly. Until we discern the difference (yet the inseparability) between ourselves as those born of God, and those created by God, much scripture will remain veiled to us.

Have you considered that, "he that is led by the Spirit," is you, born of God. It needs to be admitted that when we read that, "they that are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God," without knowing which (for want of a better word) version of ourselves is Paul talking about, we are prone to unprofitable introspection, wondering if we qualify as sons of God. A son of God is always, consistently, and unfailingly led of the Spirit...that's the very nature of being a son. But, as we go on, led of the Spirit in this life, we, as it were, drag along our resistance-prone stumbling creaturehood, until our sonship is fully manifested to that creaturehood, and "we shall know as we are known." Have you considered that this explains Paul asserting, "we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of Christ dwells in us." Doesn't this explain why Paul could write such a thing while also urging us to walk in the Spirit. Doesn't this give us some insight into his writing, "if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

Just like Jesus will never desert one soul, so our sonship will never desert our creaturehood. My dear brother, Sam Eubanks, with whom I have shared ministry down through the years, often has referred to God bringing him onward in, and toward, the glory of the liberty of the children of God, as being true in spite of "black heel marks all the way." Oh, how we, as creatures, dig in our heels, as we, as sons, steadily move on on glory's path. I dare say, sonship drags creaturehood along the Way. Jesus said, "no man comes to me except the Father drag him." Yes, that's the better rendering of the Greek; not "draw," but "drag." Oh, I tell you, I've watched that process unfold in my own life: the inner man drags the outer man along, even as the outer man kicks and screams in protest.