SONSHIP


      In our men's group at church we have been studying a book about the work of grace in our lives. When we began in the first or second meeting one of the me in the discussion group I was in had a prayer request 'that we would get this', that is get what the author was trying to teach us of how grace changes our lives. At the time I thought I had a pretty good hold on it but that is no longer my belief. As we began to study the book I found out there was more to grace than I had believed. I had been struggling with something amiss in my relationship with God for a few years and I didn't know what it was, maybe grace was it.
     Chapter 4 had spoken a lot about Abraham. One morning later in the week after our study of chapter 4 as I left on my commute to work (of more than an hour) I began asking the Lord what it was that Abraham had that gave him that special connection or fellowship with God. I was not thinking of anything we had studied in chapter 4, it was just that Abraham had been on my mind and I wanted to get closer to God. I continued to ask as a prayer and also as a pondering on my part. I asked what it was that gave that special relationship to Abraham or Elijah or David. I continued on down the road thinking and praying about many other things. My mind circled around to this thought again and as I pondered it, most likely being lead by the Holy Spirit, I began to think of my relationship with God. I thought of the relationship of a son and his father but this didn't work for me because the relationship between my father and myself was not a good one. Our relationship was not a bad one but it was not a good one ether. Therefore not having that relationship growing up I couldn't use it to consider my relationship with God. But I concluded that I did know about being a father having sons so I thought that looking at it from this angle might show me what I was trying to see and understand.
     My search of this understanding was because of the author's statement he is trying to get across in his book that God's blessings come to us by way of His grace and nothing else. So in trying to understand this I was thinking of the relationship between a son and a father and what the bible teaches us about it. In looking at my relationship between my sons and myself, I thought, "I love them, I chasten them, I teach them, I correct them. When it comes Christmas or their birthday why do I want to give them gifts. Their behavior or misbehavior has nothing to do with my giving, their learning or not learning has nothing to do with my giving, whether I have to correct them or not has nothing to do with my giving. So what is it that causes me to want to give to them? It is my love for them but why do I love them? It is because they are my sons and nothing else." As this came to mind it also got into my heart and I began to weep as I was driving down the road on my way to work.
     I believe this is the answer to my question about Abraham, Elijah, and David. The answer is 'sonship'. The only thing that qualifies us to receive the blessing of God is 'sonship', nothing more, nothing less. We are received by the Father through Jesus Christ and by that become sons (and daughters). We can claim 'sonship' because this right has been giving to us by our Heavenly Father. I remember a teaching one time given about the story of the prodigal son. But the teaching was not about the son that went away and then came back, it was about the son that staid at home and helped his father. He believed he was in right standing with his father because he worked at home for his father and did what his father wanted. He believed he had earned his father's favor, his love, and his blessing. He was shattered when his wayward brother came home and his father showered his favor, his love, and his blessing on him. The son that had staid home mistakenly thought he had to earn what he received from his father and could not believe his father would give these things to his brother. When he ask his father why any of those things were not given to him he was told, "everything I have is yours." Everything our Heavenly Father has is ours, not because we work for it, not because we behave and never sin, not because we bring many people into the kingdom. It is only because we have the rights of 'sonship'. There is a song, 'Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the sons of God', 1 Jn.3:1. What manner of love is it, what kind of love could do this for us, what love that is beyond our understand that would receive us and give us 'sonship' with all the rights that go with it even though there was no way we could ever have earned it. Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us!



Robert L. Doudna1997