A well-known theologian once coined the phrase ‘mindless Christianity.’ Although it is a bitter pill to swallow, we must admit that the body of Christ suffers from this very condition! There are just too many aimless Christians exerting vain religious energy without a sense of divine purpose. Like Sampson of old grinding at the millstone, they go around and around in circles, void of vision and groping in darkness. The writer of Proverbs places his finger on the pulse of this problem when he warns us that, “Where there is no vision, the people perish: (Pro 29:18)” Consequently, we continue to see believers in the Church victimized by the prevailing spirit of this world and perishing as the torch of true Christian witness becomes a smoldering ember.
We stubbornly go on with business as usual in our churches while the contradiction between what should be and what is stares us in the face. Like the proverbial ostrich who buries his head in the sand, many pretend all is well and refuse to admit this problem really exists. Yet the price of our spiritual ignorance is mounting and is becoming far too great to be tolerated any longer.
Thank God, there is a remedy. We can get back on course, but to do so, the Body of Christ must apprehend a clear vision of God's intention for the Church. Unless we get back ‘in the know,’ we will never get back ‘into the flow’ of divine reality. A revelation of God's purpose directly from the Holy Spirit is required.
Isaiah the prophet underscores the magnitude of the challenge we face when he writes, “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him. (Isa 64:4 )” God has predestined a glorious future for mankind, but, according to this verse, a prevailing blindness afflicts him. From the very beginning of time, men have been simply unable to perceive God’s purposes.
The Church of Jesus Christ is not exempt from this condition. We, too, must contend with an inability to hear, see, and perceive the plans and purposes of God in the flesh. But Paul the apostle sounds a clarion call of hope when he declares, “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. (1 Cor 2:10, emphasis added)” In a divine intervention of love, God assists His people and opens their understanding to see into His wonderful purposes and intentions for them.
Nowhere in the bible is that purpose more dramatically pronounced than in the book of Hebrews, where it is written; “For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory... (Heb 2:10)” Our Christianity will invariably take on new meaning and rekindle a new excitement as the Father reveals His purpose in bringing many sons unto the glory of the first begotten Son. God's desire for a vast family of matured sons has always been the hidden mystery of His eternal purpose for mankind.
Nothing can be more exciting than to understand that at the moment of New Birth, we were supernaturally placed and positioned as His sons. At that miracle moment of regeneration, a divinely-imparted ability was implanted in our spirits to become fully matured sons of God. This is plainly set forth in the gospel of John, which declares, “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: (John 1:12)”
Here we discover the central theme of the New Testament and the objective of all God's redemptive action toward mankind: Power to become a son of God! This is a staggering but irrefutable fact out of the sacred pages of the word of God.
But what does it mean? We cannot afford to be obscure on this point. Simply stated, we, as believers, have actually inherited a glorious potential for a new and dynamic personality; a personality that is divine in nature and supernatural in origin.
Consider the fact that on a natural plane, personality is determined by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Environment interacts with heredity and personality is born. Even so, in Christ, we as believers have inherited genetic and environmental conditions through the New Birth. We inherited the genes of our Father God (all things reproduce after their kind, Gen 1:11), and the environment of the Holy Ghost. As new creation men and women, God the Father passes on to us His Spiritual traits and divine identity. By this miracle of new birth, we are literally adopted into God's family and become His sons in the earth.
To clarify this most fundamental aspect of God's purpose to the Church, the Holy Spirit gave us the spiritual term ‘sonship’. Remember, the Holy Spirit's ministry is to reveal truth and show us “…the things that are freely given to us of God. (1 Cor 2:12)” So from time to time, the Holy Spirit will give us inspired terminology to encapsulate the revelation of a present truth He purposes to unfold to his people.
That having been said, we would also be well served by a word of caution here: While it is true that God is calling His people into sonship status, we must be careful not to think that God is offering us His deity. God is not now deifying, nor will He ever deify man. This will never be His Purpose, through all the millennia of time and eternity. He alone is God, and I refute any erroneous theological position that suggests we are “little gods.”
Let us consider this important message of sonship by asking the question the psalmist David asked many years ago, “What is man that thou art mindful of Him? or the son of man that thou visitest him? (Psa 8:4)”
What is man indeed? He is simply the raw material that Father makes sons out of. If you have surrendered your life to Him, then you are a son of God in the making. As the first epistle of John declares, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. (1 John 3:2)” You have a built in potential to be an exact duplicate of God's first and pattern Son, Jesus Christ.
If moving into sonship status is clearly God’s desire for all that call upon the name of the Lord, then reaching full potential as sons of God should be the primary goal of every believer. Paul considered the realization of this potential in his personal life as a prize to strive after and press into. He revealed this in his epistle to the Philippians, where he wrote, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:14, emphasis added)” What was the prize Paul was pressing toward, but sonship?
He knew purpose generates action, and so a godly purpose generates godly action. Realizing God wanted to maximize his potential (while the devil wanted to minimize it), Paul surrendered every carnal pursuit and embraced God's grand purpose for his life.
Let us be followers of Paul, even as he was a follower of Christ (I Cor 11:1). As the Lord opens our eyes to clearly see this glorious destiny He has planned for us, let us quickly renounce every other competing carnal pursuit in our lives and press for the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus!
In the next article, I will be further expounding and exploring this vital truth that the Lord is revealing into His body in these last days. Please be sure to read this upcoming article, which will contain my personal testimony of the revelation of this truth that the Lord gave to me as a new convert.