For Whom Is the Message of Sonship?
By John R. Gavazzoni

One of the things that struck me with great impact concerning all the characteristics ascribed to the sons of God as laid out particularly in Paul's epistles, but also by complement, in those of Peter, James, John, and Jude, and whoever wrote Hebrews, is that the writers explain the entirety of those characteristics as belonging to all the believers in the churches and/or general community to which they gave their instruction.

Absent is any suggestion that some of their instruction belonged only to a certain elect, for instance, who are "called to sonship." In fact, simply, Paul declares to the whole believing community, that they've been crucified with Christ, raised to newness of life by His resurrection, and made together to sit with Him at the right hand of the majesty on high. Therein lies every believer's reality, and the collective reality of the whole ecclesia. As that seminally-accomplished reality in Christ is fleshed-out experientially by the Spirit of Christ sent into our hearts, our sonship is progressively revealed from glory to glory.

That which is true particularly of the believer in Christ is inclusively true of all humanity, "for if one died for all, therefore all died." That principle is clear in the verse that says, "He is the propitiation for our sins, but not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world." There is a particularity of application of the passion of Christ presently to the believer, to those presently believing, but that application becomes extended to all humanity when, as promised by our Lord, He will draw all men unto Him = all will come to faith in Him. In short, that which God is to the believer, in and by His Son, He is to all men who "in due" time will be brought to the faith of Christ.

To lay special claim in regard to the revealing of the sons of God by a few apart from the whole community, for instance, as in the case of that which comprises normal spiritual maturation, i.e., pressing toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (in Philippians) is misleading. That high calling of and from God is for every believer. Now, of course, there is the factor of experiencing that in the measure of our particular spiritual maturity and understanding at any given time in our walk with the Lord.

What is ours in Jesus Christ, is made experiential by Christ in us. That's Paul's major theological reference. We in Christ/Christ in us. As mankind's seminal Man, the singular Seed of all mankind, all that He is, with all His human experience, belongs to/accrues to us in, with, and by, Him. When, as Paul wrote in Romans, that God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, what is true of us in Christ, begins to unfold in us by Him in us.

The attitude of a son of God ought to be about affirming the sonship of all men, not about being some kind of elite company of manifested sons. As we discussed before, sons of God, according to Jesus, are ALL those who receive Him, thereby being given the right/authority to become the sons of God. Receiving Christ provides every man so receiving with the authority (meaning: out of being, or according to the nature of) to become in this life that which we always have been before the foundation of the world: begotten of God in union with His only/uniquely-begotten Son. Being born again/born from above, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, restores us to our primal begotten being.

All sons of God manifest their sonship, with the difference being only in degree relative to maturity and understanding. To be sure, there were those of varying degrees of spiritual maturity among those to whom Paul wrote, "know ye not that your old man was crucified with Christ..." That applied even to babes in Christ in the church Paul was writing to. We sonship/kingdom message folk ought to certainly give thanks humbly for being delivered from the nonsense of "a hell to be shunned, and a heaven to be gained," and being made to see the centrality of the revealing/uncovering/unveiling/disclosure of the sons of God in God's purpose, i.e., as a peak point in the message of the Epistle to the Romans.

As we mature in Christ, the sonship within our childhood normally manifests, and that, not necessarily by spectacular outward display. Imagine, from the dimension of the natural, a mother and father standing over the crib of their infant son as he's discovering the marvel of his hands and feet: that he can move them about, albeit at that stage, with little, if any, coordination; and to their delight, seeing him intuitively smiling in response to their smiling faces. He hears sounds of love and delight to which he responds. That son is manifesting at that stage of his maturity.

I have often referred to G. Campbell Morgan's gem of understanding: "God doesn't choose pets, He chooses patterns." Morgan was expounding on the truth of election when he wrote that. It so very much applies to us who have been given some understanding of what sonship is all about. If we've been given to see anything at all about what is the breadth, length, height and depth of our co-heirship with Christ, especially in regard to His Sonship, we need to understand that it is for the purpose of our being patterns, not pets.

It is a syndrome that exists in all the divisions among believers: Calvinists believe in an elite minority within all mankind who are, alone, predestined to salvation, and they expect to be among that elite company. [As an aside, Calvinists tend to be very productive in the natural domain, compelled to prove to themselves that they are among the elect] Arminians hope that, in contrast to the great mass of humanity, they alone, by the demanded right-exercise of their free will, will end up God's special saved elite.

Classical Pentecostals claim special distinction by manifesting "the physical evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit," by speaking in tongues. There was a time among holiness brethren when "holiness unto the Lord" meant that true sanctification involved having sin yanked out of you, root and all. They, so to speak, out-Wesleyed Wesley. Among those believers that I was associated with in the Lord's Recovery/Local Church movement, it was believed that we, especially, had seen, and were being obedient to, "the heavenly vision." On and on, ad nauseum, ad infinitum.

I have been in and about the above scene for nigh onto 70 years now. I've just about seen it all. I've seen how all the factions fail to understand that it is only together that we can comprehend and enjoy what is ours in Christ: "That we might comprehend WITH ALL the saints, what is the breadth, length, height and depth [even] the love of Christ." For Paul, all those in the churches to which he wrote were God's saints (set apart into "the faith that is in Christ Jesus"). And for John, overcoming the world (which certainly is equivalent to manifesting as a son of God) simply amounted to: "who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."

And I've noticed that elitism finally wears out. Examples: you can hardly find any holiness preachers today demanding strict adherence to plainness of dress and hairstyle, no make-up, no wearing of jewelry on the part women, or any preaching on entire sanctification with the root of sin being extracted. Nor will you find much if any sermon-warnings about the danger of losing one's salvation. You won't find the typical end of a testimony that was, particularly so of the young people, universal among holiness folks, "pray for me that I'll endure to the end." It wore out.

A brother in the Lord with whom I served as his associate minister, who grew up in a classical Pentecostal home, and pastored one or more Assembly of God churches, told me a few years ago, that three quarters of the preachers in the A of G no longer claim to have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It wore out.

There was a day when the Calvinist version of predestination was openly taught in denominations such as the Dutch Reformed Church, and others like it. Not so, any more. I think most Calvinist pastors would be embarrassed to grant the doctrine any great emphasis in their Sunday morning sermons. I mean, to openly declare that God has chosen some for salvation and the rest for damnation. That doesn't sell very well anymore.

Look out for divisive distinctions within the professing church. In Paul's day, the division in Corinth was about being of Paul, or of Cephas, or of Apollos, or even of Christ. Seems those who identified as being of Christ did so without affirming that all in the church were really of Christ, even if they violated that reality by the distinctions they settled into among themselves. To confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, by that confession, in a most fundamental and intrinsic way, is your disclosure/unveiling as a son of God.