Making Us His Own: The Sonship Experience

So far in our Advent series, we have examined some of what the Scripture teaches about our adoption into God’s family through sonship in the Son. While we have touched on some experiential elements, like being conformed to Christ’s likeness, it has largely been focused on the theology of God’s gracious work to make us His own. This Sunday we’re going to examine the Scripture’s teaching on the sonship experience. What does sonship mean for us experientially?

Our primary text hints at a change in our experience when Paul says, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” Notice the change in our relationship and particularly the emotion being communicated. First, we don’t cry out, “Maker,” as though he is a distant, unfeeling Creator. We don’t cry out, “Judge,” as though he is constantly evaluating our performance. We don’t cry out, “Santa,” as though he is a gift giver we hope to sway. His is our Creator, a righteous judge, and a benevolent giver, but none of those capture our relationship with him through Jesus. No, our relationship is now joined to the Son of God who gave us His Sonship. While on earth, Jesus related to him as “Father” and now, so do we. How we think about God is crucial to our experience of God.

Secondly, recognize the emotion being communicated. Paul says the Spirit within cries out! This word is a common Greek word that is used in moments of desperation. For example, in Matthew 9:37 two blind men “cry out” as Jesus passes by, asking to be healed, “Have mercy on us Son of David.” In James 5:4, the cries of the harvesters who are being cheated out of pay rise to the Lord and “cry out.” Finally, Jesus “cries out” while dying on a tree, Matthew 27:50. The word carries all the emotion we’re experiencing as we speak to our heavenly Father. The Spirit of the Son knows God as Father and enables us to “cry out” to him with filial emotion.

Through sonship in the Son, our relationship with God has changed. Join us Sunday as we explore some uniquenesses of the sonship experience.