The most significant thing that is said about Jesus Christ in the Gospels is that He is the Son of the living God. His identity is proclaimed in His Sonship. Central to our understanding of Jesus is His relationship with His Father. So close is His relationship with the Father that He can say, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), and again, “He that has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
His relationship with the Father is the wellspring of all that He says and does. When the Pharisees question His identity Jesus replies, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. . . I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him” (John 8:25-26, 28b-29).
In the first public act at the beginning of His ministry the Gospels testify that Jesus is the Son of God. That is His identity. God the Father Himself speaks from heaven and says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17b). He who is the Son of God is the Lord for Whom John the Baptist came to prepare the way. This Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us in the flesh. This Jesus, Who is the Son of the Living God, is the Lord of lords, He is the King of kings.
As a Son, Jesus lives in response to the will of the Father. When challenged by John the Baptist regarding who should be baptizing whom, Jesus says, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Jesus has come to do His Father’s will and so He allows Himself to be baptized. In doing so He who is sinless descends into the waters of baptism and death to self, bearing our sins upon His own shoulders. He rises from the waters bringing us with Him. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life”(Romans 6:4).
This is not merely an academic and theological proposition. This is a personal and immediate reality. When He was baptized He bore your sins and mine on His shoulders and stepped down into the waters of baptism. That baptism is a baptism of repentance and the implications are clear. If we acknowledge that He was baptized for us, that He bore our sins on His shoulders and completed that identification with us by offering Himself as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, then the message is that we should turn from our sins and go and sin no more.
Jesus’ life and ministry is defined by what happens next. As He comes up out of the waters of baptism He sees the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descending on Him “in bodily form like a dove” (Luke 3:22). This outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace marks forever the character of His ministry. The event, however, is incomplete without the words of the Father, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” It is the repeated proclamation and reality of His Sonship by God the Father that establishes the identity and ministry of Jesus.
But where are we to find our own identity? Can we find our identity as men and women in our relationships as sons and daughters with our own earthly fathers? Isaiah the prophet says, “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug” (Isaiah 51:1). If, in a shallow human fashion, we look to the quarry from which we were dug and assume that what is meant is our personal family backgrounds we will not find all that we need. Instead Jesus invites us into relationship with His own Father. “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name” (Luke 11:2). That prayer invites us to share with Him in His relationship with the Father, but even a we pray we say “our Father,” which is a tacit admission that we are all brothers and sisters of one another.
Our adoption is necessary because the starting place for our identity is quite different than the starting place of Jesus. Paul says “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:1-3). Having Adam as a father is a mixed blessing, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). The result is that none of us have received perfect fathering, neither do we give it.
We are offered adoption as sons and as daughters of God the Father. John the beloved disciple says, “To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). The acceptance of Jesus as both Savior and Lord is central to our relationship with God the Father. Jesus cries out, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me, sees him who sent me.” Again in his first epistle John says, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God” (1 John 4:15). The call to accept Jesus as Savior is inseparable from the call to accept Him as Lord. You can’t have one without the other!
The gift of the Spirit that comes with baptismal faith bears the privilege of a special relationship with the Father. “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14). That promise is the promise of our own sonship, “because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6, see also Romans 8:15). Immersion in the Holy Spirit opens for us the door of sonship. God is our father, and by adoption and the sealing of the Spirit, we are His sons and daughters.
Paul makes the same point when he says “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:14-15).
There is another important promise regarding the establishment of our relationship with the Father, in the teaching of Jesus at the Last Supper, “ Jesus promises us, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23). In, and through, Christ Jesus we have intimate access to the presence of the Father. How much time do you think you ever needed from a father? Your Father in heaven has all the time for you that you think that you need. Here comes an important question. How much of His time are you willing to enter into? Note also the special condition that Jesus gives, the promise is for those who will keep His word.
From a biblical perspective our adoption and renewed relationship with the Father is the fruit of the experience of the Spirit of His Son in our hearts. Be careful not to banalize it. “Abba”, on the lips of Jesus, and on our lips, is not the childish cry “Daddy”, but rather the intimate response of the adult child to a Father who is sovereign in power and awesome in majesty. It is with that in mind that Jesus teaches us to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10). Intimacy is mingled with awe, and like Jesus, we immediately begin to learn to pray, “Your will be done.” True sonship brings with it surrender to the will of God our Father. That is one of the abiding characteristics of the ministry of Jesus who says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing” (John 5:19-20a).
Many sons have never heard their fathers say, “You are my beloved son.” We may need to be re-parented, but no re-parenting from earthly father figures can bring the healing that can come to us through the anointing of the Spirit and the loving adoption of our heavenly Father. “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” Our new identity is to be anchored in the identity of Jesus the Son, and in our relationship with Him. In this adoption, re-parented adult sons and daughters of God can find re-formation in the parenting of their own children. You can’t give what you don’t have, but on the other hand you can give what you are receiving.
His relationship with the Father is the wellspring of all that He says and does. When the Pharisees question His identity Jesus replies, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. . . I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him” (John 8:25-26, 28b-29).
In the first public act at the beginning of His ministry the Gospels testify that Jesus is the Son of God. That is His identity. God the Father Himself speaks from heaven and says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17b). He who is the Son of God is the Lord for Whom John the Baptist came to prepare the way. This Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us in the flesh. This Jesus, Who is the Son of the Living God, is the Lord of lords, He is the King of kings.
As a Son, Jesus lives in response to the will of the Father. When challenged by John the Baptist regarding who should be baptizing whom, Jesus says, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Jesus has come to do His Father’s will and so He allows Himself to be baptized. In doing so He who is sinless descends into the waters of baptism and death to self, bearing our sins upon His own shoulders. He rises from the waters bringing us with Him. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life”(Romans 6:4).
This is not merely an academic and theological proposition. This is a personal and immediate reality. When He was baptized He bore your sins and mine on His shoulders and stepped down into the waters of baptism. That baptism is a baptism of repentance and the implications are clear. If we acknowledge that He was baptized for us, that He bore our sins on His shoulders and completed that identification with us by offering Himself as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, then the message is that we should turn from our sins and go and sin no more.
Jesus’ life and ministry is defined by what happens next. As He comes up out of the waters of baptism He sees the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descending on Him “in bodily form like a dove” (Luke 3:22). This outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace marks forever the character of His ministry. The event, however, is incomplete without the words of the Father, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” It is the repeated proclamation and reality of His Sonship by God the Father that establishes the identity and ministry of Jesus.
But where are we to find our own identity? Can we find our identity as men and women in our relationships as sons and daughters with our own earthly fathers? Isaiah the prophet says, “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug” (Isaiah 51:1). If, in a shallow human fashion, we look to the quarry from which we were dug and assume that what is meant is our personal family backgrounds we will not find all that we need. Instead Jesus invites us into relationship with His own Father. “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name” (Luke 11:2). That prayer invites us to share with Him in His relationship with the Father, but even a we pray we say “our Father,” which is a tacit admission that we are all brothers and sisters of one another.
Our adoption is necessary because the starting place for our identity is quite different than the starting place of Jesus. Paul says “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:1-3). Having Adam as a father is a mixed blessing, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). The result is that none of us have received perfect fathering, neither do we give it.
We are offered adoption as sons and as daughters of God the Father. John the beloved disciple says, “To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). The acceptance of Jesus as both Savior and Lord is central to our relationship with God the Father. Jesus cries out, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me, sees him who sent me.” Again in his first epistle John says, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God” (1 John 4:15). The call to accept Jesus as Savior is inseparable from the call to accept Him as Lord. You can’t have one without the other!
The gift of the Spirit that comes with baptismal faith bears the privilege of a special relationship with the Father. “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14). That promise is the promise of our own sonship, “because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6, see also Romans 8:15). Immersion in the Holy Spirit opens for us the door of sonship. God is our father, and by adoption and the sealing of the Spirit, we are His sons and daughters.
Paul makes the same point when he says “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:14-15).
There is another important promise regarding the establishment of our relationship with the Father, in the teaching of Jesus at the Last Supper, “ Jesus promises us, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23). In, and through, Christ Jesus we have intimate access to the presence of the Father. How much time do you think you ever needed from a father? Your Father in heaven has all the time for you that you think that you need. Here comes an important question. How much of His time are you willing to enter into? Note also the special condition that Jesus gives, the promise is for those who will keep His word.
From a biblical perspective our adoption and renewed relationship with the Father is the fruit of the experience of the Spirit of His Son in our hearts. Be careful not to banalize it. “Abba”, on the lips of Jesus, and on our lips, is not the childish cry “Daddy”, but rather the intimate response of the adult child to a Father who is sovereign in power and awesome in majesty. It is with that in mind that Jesus teaches us to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10). Intimacy is mingled with awe, and like Jesus, we immediately begin to learn to pray, “Your will be done.” True sonship brings with it surrender to the will of God our Father. That is one of the abiding characteristics of the ministry of Jesus who says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing” (John 5:19-20a).
Many sons have never heard their fathers say, “You are my beloved son.” We may need to be re-parented, but no re-parenting from earthly father figures can bring the healing that can come to us through the anointing of the Spirit and the loving adoption of our heavenly Father. “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” Our new identity is to be anchored in the identity of Jesus the Son, and in our relationship with Him. In this adoption, re-parented adult sons and daughters of God can find re-formation in the parenting of their own children. You can’t give what you don’t have, but on the other hand you can give what you are receiving.
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