sonship – It Is Finished

God’s great mercy………

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them. ~ Genesis 1:27

made in his image

That has become one of my favorite verses lately. It’s our blueprint… our original design. No matter what mankind may look like on the outside, no matter what sins we may commit, this is truly who we were created to be and how God sees us – because He always sees us according to our potential in Him not as we are at the moment.

The very first man walked in that design, and all mankind afterward were supposed to walk in the same pattern. But although Adam was created in that design and walked in it for at least a few days, he sinned and introduced sin and consequently death into ALL the world.

SIN DIDN’T MAKE US SINNERS

All men born after him forgot they were born in God’s likeness and image. Adam gave birth to Seth and in the verse the order is reversed… instead of image and likeness it says likeness and image. I believe that reveals man’s distorted view of who they were. Genesis 5:3 “When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.” Sin had been introduced into the world through Adam’s disobedience.

Sin in the Greek is hamartia and means to miss the mark. To sin is to behave out of tune with God’s original harmony. It is to believe a lie about ourselves. It is to miss out on sonship. Sonship is our blueprint… our true, original, chosen design. Ephesians 1:5 “He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will…”

God’s timing was absolutely perfect.

He always had a plan to redeem us. He had found us in Christ before He lost us in Adam! Ephesians 1:4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” He always loved us too much to leave us in such a wretched state…. God never abandoned His creation! Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s great mercy is FAR reaching and ALL encompassing. Just as it took Adam’s one act of sin to condemn ALL of mankind, it only took Jesus’ one act of righteousness to completely declare ALL mankind innocent. Romans 5:18 “So here is the result: as one man’s sin brought about condemnation and punishment for all people, so one man’s act of faithfulness makes all of us right with God and brings us to new life.” Freely acquitted in the sight of God.

Through Adam, we were ALL were condemned and death reigned in BUT through Jesus, we are ALL declared righteous and life reigns in us.

Jesus’ death and resurrection reconciled us back to God (2 Cor 5:19) and to our original design of sonship. The sin nature has been completely removed and we received a new heart.. a new spirit… His Spirit. Ezekiel 36:26-27 “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.”

Jesus defeated sin and death ONCE and for ALL.

God did not love us more once we were reconciled. Reconciliation simply made us free to realize how much He has always loved us and free to enjoy our redeemed original identity — made in His image and in His likeness. To see ourselves as He sees us — IN CHRIST. Free to enjoy sonship and all of it’s joys and privileges. And not just to see ourselves in this new light, but our old ways of seeing others is over as well (2 Cor 5:16). We are now to see everyone through the eyes of our Redeemer.

He has made us ambassadors or ministers of His reconciliation with the world. Our lives are now to exhibit the urgency of God to persuade everyone to be reconciled to God — because Jesus took their life to the Cross in exchange for His resurrected life in them. He did a finished, completed work on the Cross for ALL mankind.

The language of the Old Covenant… of the old written code was “Do in order to become”. The language of the New Covenant is “Be, because of what has been done.” It’s simply a matter of saying yes to God through faith in the shed blood and resurrection of Jesus. It’s simply a matter of the lost awakening to their righteousness… of seeing themselves as God already sees them…. IN CHRIST. So that then they will be able to say “I once was blind, but now I see.”

God’s great mercy for mankind is seen in the riches of His goodness toward us and His absolute passionate refusal to let us go. His Covenant love for us is because He continues to hear the echo of His image and His likeness in us.

I love the Mirror Translation of Romans 3:23-26:

Humanity is in the same boat; their distorted behavior is proof of a lost blueprint. (24) Jesus Christ is proof of God’s grace gift; He redeemed the glory of God in human life; mankind condemned is now mankind justified! (25) Jesus exhibits God’s mercy. In His blood conciliation, God’s faith persuades mankind of His righteousness and the fact that He has brought closure to the historic record of their sins (not by demanding a sacrifice but providing the sacrifice of Himself). Jesus is the unveiling of the Father’s heart toward us. (26) All along God refused to let go of mankind. At this very moment, God’s act of righteousness is pointing them to the evidence of their innocence, with Jesus as the source of their faith.

It is the revelation of God’s goodness that leads men to repentance, not our repentance that leads to God’s goodness.

~ Robin

Distorted view of the Father

For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. ~ Luke 15:24

What a beautiful description Luke 15:24 is of the Father’s love for us. Truly His heartbeat is restoration and His response to our being restored to Him is to celebrate over us!!

Zephaniah 3:17 in God’s Word Translation says “The LORD your God is with you. He is a Hero who saves you. He happily rejoices over you, renews you with his love, and celebrates over you with shouts of joy.” I love that.

Psalm 91:15 He says He will rescue us and then throw us a party.

The more I meditate on His goodness, the more I see Him in this light…. rejoicing over me, renewing me with His love, celebrating over me and throwing me a party!! I begin to see Him as Love… extravagant, lavish, outpouring, overflowing Love towards me! This is the picture of the Father that Jesus is showing us in this parable… a picture of a Good, Good, Daddy.. full of chesed (Covenant Love) toward us (for more on chesed see my post Goodness and Grace).. a love that just won’t let us go!!

BOTH SONS HAD A DISTORTED VIEW OF THEIR FATHER

Both sons had a distorted view of their father and therefore a distorted view of themselves…. this identity problem made them unable to walk in the fullness of their positions as “sons” and enjoy the benefits of their inheritance. They couldn’t see themselves the way their father saw them… accepted, loved and favored.

The Greek word for son is ‘huios’ and means son… a son having the nature of the father; a son representing the father — this is a word of position. As opposed to the Greek word ‘teknos’ which means child… meaning one not fully grown or mature, still needing to be under tutors and governors (Galatians 4:2).

God has called us as sons…. Ephesians 1:5 Having predestinated (in Greek: proorizo…determined our destiny) us unto the adoption (in Greek: huiosthasia… declaration of sonship) of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will”. How awesome and powerful is that truth!! Before the foundations of the world, He determined and established our destiny as His sons… being conformed to the image of the Firstborn Son.

And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. ~Luke 15:9

He had 2 sons… both were huios. We are first introduced to the elder son as a huios (Luke 15:25)… again meaning having the nature of the father; one representing the father — it’s a word of position. But his distorted identity was based on works… on what he did for the father instead of who he was. Verse 29 gives us a glimpse of how this son saw himself. “But he answered his father, ‘Look, all these years I have served you and never disobeyed a commandment of yours. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.” The word served is douleuo which means “to serve as a slave” — slave is “doulos”. This was the distorted the view the son had of himself.

He was a son, not a slave but he saw himself serving as a slave…. not as a son! And the rest of the verse gives his distorted view of the father… not as an extravagant, generous father but someone withholding from him — even something as small as a goat to celebrate.

The younger son is introduced in verse 12 also as a huios…. again meaning having the nature of the father; one representing the father — this is a word of position. His distorted view of his identity was based on his inheritance.. what he would possess at his father’s death — his priority was on his inheritance instead of relationship. Although even after he leaves with the inheritance, he is still called a “son” (huios). His position hadn’t changed even though he walked away from it.

Later in the story, he comes to his senses and realizes he has sinned against heaven and against his father and decides to tell his father he is no longer worthy to be called “a son” but instead a hired hand (with no inheritance). But the father’s response is one of love and although the son no longer sees himself as a son but a servant, the father sees him the way he always has… as a son… his son.

HE ALWAYS MAKES GRACE AVAILABLE FOR US

Redemptive grace was offered to both sons to see themselves as they truly were and to see the father as he truly was. While we know the younger brother repented (changed his mind to align with the father’s) and began to see clearly who he was, sadly we never know if the elder brother repented, if his heart was healed and if he embraced his sonship. But we do get a glimpse of the condition of his heart in looking further into how the father referred to him. In verse 31 the father calls him son but the Greek word used is teknos instead of huios; Teknos means child — a member born into the family but immature; not yet transformed into mature sons who are able to represent the father and administer the father’s house and his belongings.

We are sons of God. And our Father is a good Daddy to us. Ask Abba Father today to reveal this truth to you…. begin to see yourself in Christ… as joint heirs with Him, carriers of His glory, made in His image and as a representative on earth of all that He is and all that He is… and then begin releasing that to those who have lost their way!

~Robin

Tammuz

Every month in Biblical times had a different meaning and purpose… it was a new prophetic season.

keep eyes on prize Jews in Biblical times had a special celebration at the beginning of every month, it was a time to put God first and seek direction for the new month. It was called Rosh Chodesh (Head of the Month). They came together to praise God, to give their first fruit offerings and to hear what God was saying for the month….to gain direction for the month ahead. They were only able to hear Him by listening to the prophets…..we, however, hear Him face to face. He abides in us and speaks directly to us.

Tammuz is the 4th month of the Hebrew Biblical calendar and the 10th month of the Jewish civil calendar. By looking at these Hebrew months in the Bible, we learn to think like God thinks. Romans 15:4 says For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us. Tammuz is a month that teaches us to worship and stay faithful. Each month was associated with a tribe and Tammuz was associated with the tribe of Reuben. By looking at Reuben we learn this month to wait on God and to choose to trust Him.

Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob and Leah, and as such he was born into a position of great privilege.

In Genesis 49:3,4 Jacob prophesies over Reuben that “he is my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power.” This was Reuben’s position… firstborn son of Jacob. He was destined to inherit the double portion. He was to be the leader of the tribe as well as the priest of the family. But like his Uncle Esau, Reuben lightly esteemed his birthright…. he acted so disgracefully that he forfeited his birthright – Gen 35:22.

This incident changed the course of his life. The double portion was taken away and given to Joseph. His leadership as a tribe was taken away and given to Judah. His priesthood as a tribe was taken away and given to the tribe of Levi. When Jacob blessed the other sons he pronounced a curse on Reuben – telling him he would not excel.

Why did Reuben do this? As we look at Reuben’s family life, we see that their family had been through a traumatic period…..

They had fled from Laban who had chased them down and would have killed Jacob if God had not intervened.
Escaping Laban then they faced a confrontation with Esau who also tried to kill Jacob
Entering Canaan their sister Dinah was raped at Shechem and two of her brothers massacred all the men of the city in retaliation. Canaanites were outraged.
Fleeing Shechem, Rebekah’s nurse Deborah died and was buried at “The Oak of Weeping” Then Rachel went into labor and died giving birth to Benjamin.
Still, they journeyed on until they came to the tower of Eder where they finally stopped.

So the whole family had gone through a time of tremendous upheaval, violence, and loss. They had to just keep moving through all of it. Not until they stopped at the tower of Eder could they even begin to process what they had just gone through!

That’s when Reuben went in and found solace with Bilhah. He wasn’t even thinking about the Blessing that lay ahead in his future…. he wasn’t thinking about all he could lose because of this choice. He simply wanted comfort and he wanted it NOW!

He was desperate for comfort and security and sought them outside of God.

The biblical tower of Eder was built near Hebron as a watchtower that shepherds watched their flocks from. Eder became a symbol of God’s watchfulness over His people. It was a place of refuge. That’s where Reuben went to Bilhah. It was here that he should’ve sought refuge in God. Allowing Abba Father to refresh his soul… a soul that had been through a series of traumatic events. Doing that would have restored his vision and helped him walk out his prophetic destiny.

But instead, he sought out Bilhah. Bilhah means terror or trouble. It also means worn out…. something so worn out that it serves no purpose. Another possible definition means foolish. These definitions sum up for us what Reuben was experiencing when he slept with Bilhah. His action was foolish…Ps 14:1 – a fool says there is no God… a better translation is a fool says in his heart “no God!”. Reuben by yielding to sin was saying no to God… no to His promises, no to His destiny for Reuben, no to trusting God to see him through this terrible time in his life. He was so worn out in life that he ended up losing sight of his purpose in God.

Reuben’s name means “behold a son”. Behold means to see…. see a son! It’s important in this season that we begin to see ourselves as “sons”. Sonship is our destiny that was marked out for us in love by God (Eph 1:5). Having correct vision… seeing ourselves as God sees us, in a position of sonship… will keep us from forfeiting our spiritual inheritance.

God wants to awaken us to the revelation of “Sonship” in our lives in this season.

Psalms 2:7-8 tells us that we are to declare/decree our position as sons. Gal 4:1-7 tells us that it is time to claim our inheritance as sons because we are no longer slaves. And Romans 8:14-17 tells us that as sons & daughters we are endowed with authority in His kingdom. This is a time to displace, to cast off an “orphan spirit” and embrace the spirit of sonship that is ours, with all of the rights, privileges, and responsibilities (John 5:19).

Because of Reuben’s lack of vision, his birthright was forfeit. The wonderful inheritance… the prophetic destiny… God intended for him was lost. Reuben took his eyes off the prize (Phil 3:14). When you lose sight of the goal you are always in danger of not fulfilling your destiny. Wrong vision will cost you your inheritance. The sad thing is his descendants followed in his footsteps… the tribe of Reuben also lost their inheritance.

Next time we’ll look at how Reuben’s descendants followed in his footsteps……

~ Robin