CHAPTER TWO by George R. Hawtin

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SONSHIP THE HOPE OF ALL CREATION

The languages of earth do not contain words descriptive and meaningful enough to adequately describe the immensity and all-embracing scope of the work of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. Human vocabularies were designed to fit human needs and are capable of nothing more. Once the heart of man reaches out to a realm beyond the natural, it finds itself lost for proper descriptions and hopelessly bound up in the phrases of human speech. For unnumbered centuries men have sought to extol and magnify the work of Jesus Christ, but their efforts and eloquence have been no more than the shining of a penny candle in the darkness of a world blinded by sin, full of human ways of looking at things, and with no power of perception beyond the darkness of the natural mind. In trying to honor Him, we have often brought Him dishonor and, in trying to magnify His work, we have dragged it in the dust and desolation of human reason and finite understanding.

If only men would open their hearts that they might behold the power and glory of the all-embracing purpose of the Father in that hour when He proclaimed the edict, “Let us make man in our image and after our likeness.” If we could even begin to grasp the depths of meaning of those mighty words, “Let us give him dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and everything that moveth upon the earth.” (Gen. 1:26) Oh, that men might see that at that moment wisdom was rejoicing in the habitable part of God’s mountain, so that the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God filled the vastness of heaven with their shouts of joy and anticipation as they beheld what the end of the plan would be! There is always the possibility of our being wrong, for lacking in understanding we always are, but there is a chord deep in my heart that still echoes to that shout of joy. There is a faith to believe that in the long-forgotten past we were there with Him in spirit beholding with joy the unfolding of His marvelous plan. But as Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten his former glory when his brilliant mind was taken away and he was given the mind of a beast, so we, too, have forgotten the glorious things of the past ages, because for a purpose we were born into this world in sin and shapen in iniquity. This assurance I have that, if the “spirit returns to God who gave it”, then certainly it must have come from God in the first place. There is little possibility of our denying that.

For many centuries all creation has groaned and sighed under the thralldom of sin and decay, but our heavenly Father had a. purpose eternal and omniscient when in hope He subjected the whole creation to the desolation of the fall. “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope.” (Rom. 8:20) Ever since that day the earnest expectation of the creature has waited for the manifestation of the sons of God. (Verse 19)

Every man needs the spirit of revelation from God. I do not refer to that silly spirit so often found among zealous Christians that is always clamoring to come up with some new idea that they can call a revelation. It is not a flurry of fantastic fancies that we need, but a great spirit of wisdom and understanding given by God that will unfold to us the immutable almighty omniscience of God’s eternal purpose. That spirit of wisdom and understanding from God gives the heart of man the ability to receive and understand the purpose of His divine mind that has been planned from time immemorial.

There is certainly no lack of fantastic notions among Christians which they imagine are revelations. Should I try to imbibe or believe even half the weird doctrines people propose to me, I would now be floundering in a sea of utter confusion and my frail bark would soon be wrecked upon the rocky reefs that encompass the island of oblivion. Paul once wailed out his complaint against the useless doctrines of the Galatian Christians in these words: “After ye have known God, or rather are known of Him, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed labor upon you in vain”. (Gal. 4:10, 11) Then to the legalistic Colossians he insisted, “Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moons, or of the sabbath days; which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.” (Col. 2:16, 17) All such doctrines are only noisemakers that are sent to attract our attention away from making Christ our supreme Lord and head. See (Col. 2:18, 19) Let us seek to abandon all such side issues and seek to concentrate on Christ. Those who will possess the mind of Christ will find in Him the end of all doctrine, the antitype of all types, the source of all rivers, the fullness of all love, and the culmination of all purpose. He is the head of us all, “and it is from the head alone that the body is nourished and built up and grows according to God’s laws of growth.” (Col. 1:19) (Phillips). Let us abandon then the doctrines that concern themselves with eating and drinking, touching, tasting, and handling, or of days, weeks, and years, and seek to become one with Christ, for all who have come unto unity with Him need instruction in none of these things. The complete will of God flows forth from their hearts as naturally as pure water gushes from a pure fountain.

Christ is the head of all principality and power; therefore, concern not yourself with principality and power, but with Him. “By Him all things consist”; therefore, concern not yourself with things, but with Him and all things will consist by Him. He is the end of all things; therefore, concern yourself with Him who is the end and all things will have their end in Him. He is the head of the body; therefore, seek to be joined to Him and your place in the body is assured. Christ is our wisdom and our righteousness; therefore, seek neither wisdom nor righteousness, but seek Him and both wisdom and righteousness shall be yours because He is yours. Christ is our life and our light; therefore, seek neither life nor light, but enthrone Him upon the candlestick within you and the bright shining of the candle shall give you the light of God. Oh what time and effort we waste in seeking things, things, things instead of knowing Him. In His presence is fullness of joy; therefore, seek not joy but His presence. “At His right hand are pleasures forevermore,” therefore, seek not pleasure but to stand at His right hand. The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear. The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall be afraid?

CHRIST ON DAVID’S THRONE. Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.

He leadeth me beside still waters.

He restoreth my soul.

He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil for

Thou art with me.

Thy rod and

Thy staff they comfort me.

Thou prepares! a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.

Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life

And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

We may have read that beautiful passage ten thousand times. Most of us know it by heart, but today it holds new meaning. I think I see today what David saw when inspiration gripped his soul and he sang those meaningful words. See how he makes the Lord the hub and center of everything – the shepherd, the leader, the feeder, the restorer, the anointer, the comforter, and the eternal abiding place.

We hear a great deal today about many wonderful things. As we draw nearer the end of this dispensation and the kingdom morning sends its first rays upon our waiting souls, there will be an ever increasing flood of light and revelation. This we must certainly expect and accept, for new days bring new things, and new dispensations are sent to flood the world with greater light and greater experience in God.

No truth has come with more soul-gripping force and power to the elect of the Lord than the hope of sonship. Well indeed may we lay hold upon that glorious eternal hope, for divine wisdom has ordained that that sonship should be the hope of all creation. It is for sonship that the whole creation groans in a sort of universal travail while it waits to see the glorious sight of the sons of God coming into their own. Rom. 8:22, 23.

Every man and woman who has even in the least partaken of revelation must learn that to love sonship is not a  presumptuous infringement on the plan of God. To love and covet sonship is to love and covet the very purpose of God from timeless ages. When the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy, was it not because they were then beholding the final fulfillment of God’s plan for His sons and for the whole creation through them? Let us give ear to the inspired words of Paul as he shouts, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world (before the ages were formed) that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love; having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.” (Eph. 1:3-5) I am afraid that we have all failed to grasp the true meaning of that scripture because of the rather weak expression “unto the adoption of children.” The true meaning is that He has predestined us to sonship or, as Moffat says, “designed us in His love to be His sons.”

It is hard to understand how the true purpose of sonship has been overlooked and missed for so many centuries. For many ages Christians have thought of sonship as a sort of sentimental thing that amounted to little more than a kind expression on God’s part that we should be patted on the head and called sons of God. To most people sonship means little more than material for another Sunday morning sermon or at best some title we will possess in the ages to come.

The truth is that our sonship is now and always was the hope of the entire creation of God. Sonship is dearer to God’s heart than any other thing. God the Father has carefully planned our sonship from timeless ages. Every detail of the process by which we were to attain the perfection of sonship was laid down in heaven’s blueprint before there was a world, an age, or a dispensation. In the hope of sonship He has subjected the entire creation to the thralldom and decay of ages and dispensations. He has caused men like Abraham to become wanderers and pilgrims on the earth throughout their lives in the hope of bringing them to the perfection of sonship He demands. He has sold men like Joseph into slavery and imprisonment to bring them to sonship. He sends His predestined sons to pass the night in lions’ dens and burning fiery furnaces and drops His Jeremiahs into muddy wells all in the hope of sonship. He sends His only begotten Son into the world to learn obedience by the things He suffered, to be despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He afflicts His apostle, Paul, with a grievous thorn and causes him to cry with joy from the blackness of his grief, “These light afflictions which are but for a moment are working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” And for our sakes who are often as sorely tried he names in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews a great cloud of witnesses that died in faith after a life of suffering to wait for that glorious resurrection when both they and us would in the mercy of God be made perfect together.

The sonship which God has planned cannot be attained lightly and with ease. All who bear this eternal hope within their breasts may as well resolve here and now that the only path that leads to sonship is the path of suffering. Along that path is lonesomeness, temptation, despair, trials, tribulations, misunderstanding, rejection, pain – a great variety of sufferings that come in one way to you, another way to me, and in still another way to our brother or sister traveler. It is unavoidable. It cannot be dodged. At the beginning of the road that leads to sonship stands the first Son of God, Jesus Christ the Lord, saying, “If any man would follow Me, let him deny himself (self) and take up his cross and follow Me.” It is still the way of the cross that leads us home, and be warned of this: Your associates will become fewer and fewer as you approach the agonies of Gethsemane, and when you reach your cross you will find yourself alone – alone except for Christ who has now formed within you.

It disgusts me to hear these breezy preachers proclaiming abundance for all and freedom from all sickness and pain and poverty. It has a wonderful appeal to the flesh and to the carnal mind, but it is a way that seemeth right unto a man and the end thereof are the ways of death. It is a gross untruth to tell a suffering man that his suffering is caused by some inconsistency or sin in his life. How often I have heard it proclaimed that the tribulations and distresses through which God’s people pass are caused through some sin in their lives and that if they were right with God they would have no trouble at all. It is a lie, I tell you. It is a lie. The opposite is the truth. I know that sin and profligacy have caused many forms of sickness and distress among wicked men, but that is another question altogether and certainly gives no license to condemn a righteous man who is living in good conscience before the Lord. Was Job sick because he was sinful? No! A thousand times No! He was sick because God wanted to bring him to sonship and to sonship He brought him. I often think of the nosey way the disciples asked Jesus about the blind man when they said, “Who did sin, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” Jesus replied, “Neither this man nor his parents, but that the glory of God should be manifested.” (John 9:2, 3) I do not ask you to glory in your sickness, your loss of business, or whatever other tribulation may come upon you, but glory in the fact that as you allow these things to work in you the lesson God intended the end will be sonship. Perhaps, if we enquired of God as Paul did, we might hear Him say to us, “My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness,” and then we could rejoice and say with him, “Most gladly therefore will I take pleasure in afflictions, in distresses, in persecutions, that the power of Christ may rest upon me, for when I am weak then am I strong.”

I thoroughly believe in divine healing and could write a book on the healings I have seen in my own ministry, but I greatly fear that healing has been taken over by unscrupulous men who, in spite of all their protestations to the contrary, make themselves rich by playing upon the sufferings of the people. The eyes of the people have been turned away from Christ while they run endless journeys to place their confidence in a human being – in a highly advertised man.

What hypocrites we have become as we blithely sing, “The way of the cross leads home,” yet senselessly smite the man who has a cross to bear! What inconsistent humbug is it that allows a man to read the words of the Lord, “We shall through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of heaven,” while with tongue in cheek we condemn those who are sweating blood as they wrestle in their Gethsemanes or struggle beneath their heavy cross on the way to their Golgotha! Such men and women, void of spiritual understanding, do not know that they themselves are adding their weight to our cross and are casting stumbling stones before our bleeding feet. Have you ever considered the scripture which says, “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God.” (1 Pet. 4:1, 2) “He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin!” There is something about suffering of any kind that brings the world and the flesh into its proper perspective. Suffering makes us understand things as they really are. By suffering we see the worthlessness of all the passing vanities of earth and by it we are weaned away from the vain deceits that concern a purely physical world. Suffering of any kind causes us to be done with the transient affairs of this present age and inspires us to anchor all our hopes within the veil whither the forerunner is for us entered.

Since heaven’s greatest desire for the sons of men is that they shall be sons of God, let us learn that God scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. For what son is there that receiveth not chastisement? Chastisement is sent that we might learn the will of the Father and come to cherish that will above all the glittering prizes of the world now present or the world which is to come. We are not asked to accept suffering for suffering’s sake, but we are asked to accept and endure suffering for sonship’s sake. This is the royal road that leads us to sonship. This is the burning cleansing fire that is to try us. It will not singe one hair of our head nor leave the smell of fire upon us, but it will bum off our bondages and shackles and leave us free to walk unharmed in the fire with One like the son of God.

I do not know how or why Christians came to the conclusion that sonship was to be declared and made manifest by mighty works. It pains my heart to hear of men who imagine they are manifested sons of God, because of their prominence in some field of ministry. I know of no man or woman on earth today who even remotely resembles a manifested son of God. We are at the very door of the great manifestation of the sons of God, but God hath reserved it for a time known only to Himself. Then the wonderful perfection of the sons of God will be manifested. There will be a resurrection of those sons who sleep to join those who still walk the earth. “They without us should not be made perfect”. Neither shall we without them be made perfect. There shall be a resurrection unto life that shall disclose the wonder of the ages. It was for this very reason that the Lord said to Daniel, “Go thy way, Daniel, for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.” (Dan. 12:13) It is near, very near; even at the doors.

 

There is something about sonship that has a deep root in the hearts of all people. The families of earth anxiously await the arrival of a son. In ancient times it was thought a tragedy that any family should be without a son who would carry on the work and name of the father. This longing in the heart of all mankind had its origin in the heart of the eternal Father who, upon bringing His only begotten Son into the world, proclaimed, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” It must have been a wonderful night for the shepherds of Israel who heard the heavenly choir of angels proclaiming the coming of the Son of God. It was a grand moment in John’s life when he saw the heavens proclaiming, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” God was delighted with His Son, His ‘only son. So delighted was He in that Son’s perfection that even before the worlds began He purposed to prepare a whole family of sons in His exact image and likeness and form of them one great body of sons which should rule the entire universe according to His divine will.

The languages of earth simply do not contain words that are able to express the vast importance of this family of God’s sons. There is not a doubt but that every one of us has failed to comprehend the universal purpose of God in bringing many sons to glory. Words utterly fail to explain the truth which revelation inspires, leaving us helplessly groping for expression. If the Spirit of God will come to my aid, I will try to state as best I can the wonderful purpose of God in sonship. Well do I know that my best efforts will fall far short of His glorious understanding, but, if His Spirit will stir the deep chord of revelation, then understand will come. Ear hath not heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things God hath prepared for them that love Him, but He hath revealed then to us by His Spirit.

“… The works that I do shall ye do also and greater works than these shall ye do, because I go to the Father.” (John 14:12) This passage of scripture has been the subject of discussion for centuries. The discussion always involves the mighty works of Jesus and the practical impossibility of anyone’s doing any work greater than His work. We recount His mighty acts in healing every manner of sickness and disease. We tell with awe of His raising the dead back to life again. We repeat with wonder the story of the stilling of the sudden storm on the lake of Galilee and of His walking the stormy waves. We love to read the accounts of the devils that were cast out by His word and of the endless hosts of sad and afflicted who went away filled with joy and we tell of His words of wisdom and the teachings which none could gainsay nor resist. We speak of His undying love and mercy to all who needed Him. We glory in His death and resurrection and His ascension into heaven. So many marvels crowned His wonderful life that words fail us to tell or imagine how glorious He really was. Perhaps the beloved John most appropriately described it all by saying, “I suppose, if all the books were written that should be written, even the world itself would not contain the books that should be written.” (John 21:25)

What then are these mighty works of which He spoke when He who could not lie declared, “The works that I do shall ye do also, and greater works than these shall ye do because I go to My Father?” If we are going to understand what He said, we shall have to open our hearts to a completely new understanding of God’s eternal purposes. We will have to see that sonship is God’s masterpiece, and that in the manifestation of the sons of God the eternal purposes of God find their complete fulfillment.

The great soul-gripping truth is this. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, is the only begotten Son of God. Moreover He is the first begotten Son of God, but not the last begotten. He is the firstborn of a vast family of sons who through the wisdom and grace of God are to be born of God, not of water, not of blood, not of flesh, but born of God. Jno. 1:13. Thus it is that Paul by the wisdom of God given unto him did write, “Whom He did foreknow He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Rom. 8:29) I love the translation of Weymouth which reads, “That He might be the eldest in a vast family of brothers.” Just how vast that family is I am not sure, but I am sure there will be 144,000 who have the name of God in their foreheads. These are sons of God. (Rev. 14) It is a small company in relation to the billions of earth, but for the sake of sonship and one body in the exact image of Jesus Christ it is indeed a vast family. This is the man–child company spoken of in Rev. 12. These are they who are to be caught up to God and to His throne and who will have the privilege of perfecting the woman in the wilderness and of bringing her forth purified, leaning on the arm of her beloved.

Before we speak further of greater works, let us open our hearts that God may speak to us and show us what a son of God really is, for the greater works of which Jesus spoke are not to be performed by ordinary believers, but by that vast family of sons who are now nearing the hour of manifestation. They are that chosen company, selected from many ages, who through fires and furnaces of affliction have been brought into that same glorious image of Jesus Christ. These sons of God are like Him. They are exactly like Him. They are in His image. (Rom. 8:29) They are in His image and after His likeness. They are so completely sons of God, so completely like Him, so completely born of Him, so completely of His mind and will and purpose that their one difference is that He (the blessed Jesus) is the eldest in that vast family of sons, Rom. 8:29. He is the head of the body of sons and they with Him are the bridegroom, the last Adam in all His completeness.

With the pen of inspiration Paul wrote, “It behooved Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain (Jesus Christ) of our salvation perfect through suffering.” (Heb. 2:10) In like manner John, his soul aflame with inspiration, wrote, “Beloved, now are we the children 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, and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as He is pure.” (1 John 3:2) When He shall appear, we shall be like Him. Wonderfully like Him! Exactly like Him! In His Image! In His likeness! The omniscience of His wisdom, the purity of His truth, the omnipotence of His power, the immutability of His love, the faithfulness of His purpose! Full of His grace, His purpose. His kindness, and His unending mercy! The sons shall be like Him for He shall dwell in them all.

Oh, what glory divine it would have been to have stood with John that day on lonely Patmos to behold with him that complete Christ! The Christ of Nazareth complete with all His sons in the end of the age! The glorious head with eyes as lamps of fire all complete with the other sons of His body standing with His beautiful feet burning as though in a furnace of fire! And when the voice of that One like the Son of man rang out, it was not the voice of the lonely Galilean, but the voice as the sound of many waters. Many waters means many peoples, and the peoples here are the sons of God. The vision is recorded for our knowledge and inspiration thus: “On the Lord’s day I was inspired by the Spirit and I heard behind me a loud voice like the blast of a trumpet… I turned to see who it was who was speaking to me; and then I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the center of the lampstands One resembling the Son of man, clothed in a robe which reached to His feet and a girdle of gold across His breast. His head and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like silver bronze when it is white hot in a furnace; and His voice was as the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and a sharp two-edged sword was seen coming from His mouth, and His face was like the sun shining in its full power. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.” (Rev. 1:11-16) (Weymouth)

Before the glory of that vision John fell to the earth as dead. Never in all his long, eventful life, filled with the wonders of spiritual experience, had he ever once imagined the breath-taking glory of the Lord’s Christ. He had seen the Galilean subjugate to His control any force or power He desired. He had beheld the awe-inspiring view from the mount of the transfiguration. He had walked with Christ after the resurrection and had seen His glorified body. He had watched Him ascend to heaven and had experienced the glory divine of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. If any man on earth understood the purpose of God, it must have been John, but though he had seen the glory of Christ as He was at first, he was not prepared to see Him as He is at last. Before the effulgent glory of that vision he fell as dead. Years before he had heard the Savior say, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” Now as his eyes beheld the harvest, Christ in fullness and completeness, he understood the meaning of those words. Many sons brought to glory! Every one in His image and likeness! Everyone with His nature, His mind, and His voice so that His speaking was as the voice of a multitude. Here for the first time we get a picture of what the body of Christ really is – not a hodge-podge of religious denominations, sects and organizations, but one like the Son of man with one vision, one voice and one likeness.

If by the grace of God the truth of this holy vision can burst upon you, all other loves will fade away from your heart. The activities of a visible Babylonish church system have tarnished and dimmed our vision so that we see nothing of the truth. In our desire to promote we have promoted things instead of Christ. We have loved programs and meetings instead of loving Him until we find ourselves in the end of the age with a sort of Christless Christianity. Oh, how we have lauded our systems, our education, our degrees, and our theology! But the more of worldly wisdom we know, the less we know of the wisdom of God, and the deeper we go into such systems, the farther away from God we get. How proud we have become of our titles and degrees that are supposed to commend us to the world as men of understanding in spiritual things when in reality we know nothing yet as we ought to know! Men love to be called Reverend and Doctor, Most Reverend and Very Reverend, Reverend Doctor, Father, and many other such titles. But this I know; any man who even glimpses the glory of God will be ashamed of his knowledge and repent that he ever thought himself to be someone of importance. Let us drop all these titles that commend us to men, but not to God, and humble ourselves in His sight that we may begin to partake of the wisdom that is from above, for we cannot partake of His wisdom which is from above until we abandon our wisdom which is of this world.

Let us return now to the thought of the greater works.  When the beloved Luke wrote the book we call the Acts of the Apostles, he commenced his work with the enlightening statement, “The former treatise have I made, 0 Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day in which He was taken up…” (Acts 1:1, 2) The part of the verse of interest here is the statement “began to do and teach”, for this tells us as nothing else can that Jesus did not complete His work when He was on earth, but He only “began” His work.

In making the above statement, I am fully aware that such a thought runs contrary to long-established views of theology, but we are not concerned with the views of theology, for theology is not really the views of God but the ideas of men. I am concerned only with the purpose of God as it is revealed in His word in the light of inspiration and revelation.

When the Son of God came into the world, He came to do only one complete work and that was the work of redemption. The Son of man came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45. Thus it was that, when He died, He uttered the three significant words, “It is finished.” Thus also He declared before the Father, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” (John 17:4) What people of all ages have failed to see is that Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, did the work which God gave Him to do and no more than that. All the other wonderful things He did were only a beginning of a work that was to be carried out by the other sons who were to come into His glorious image as the ages passed. To them it is given to do greater works than He did and to bring to God’s universal creation the endless blessing of the redemption He purchased with His eternal blood, which He gave for the life of the world.

It seems to me that the wild creatures of creation together with the grass of the fields and the trees of the woods have more understanding of God’s plan for them than do the theologians of the church, for Paul by the word of inspiration wrote these words: “The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, and not they only, but ourselves also which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption (sonship), to wit, the redemption of the body.” (Rom. 8:19-23) Perhaps there is no other single passage of scripture which throws so much light on the great works which have been left for the sons of God to do. The whole of God’s creation is breathlessly waiting for the time of the manifestation of the sons of God. The whole creation has been subjected to a sort of universal travail. It has endured for centuries the terrible bondage of corruption, but God has placed a hope in all creation that it will eventually be delivered from its thralldom and decay by the ministry of the sons of God, who are now being formed in the very image of Christ and will be manifested in the glory of His resurrection at the end of this age and throughout the entire kingdom to come.

The mighty works which Jesus, the first Son, began will be completed by the other sons who are coming into His image. This is not presumption on the part of man. This is the plan and purpose of God. Failure to see this truth has caused men to create many hare-brained schemes to try to convert the world or to bring in some Utopia of their own choosing long before God’s time.

When Jesus said, “Greater works than these shall ye do,” He meant exactly that. As the Head Son of the body He demonstrated the mighty power and glory of manifested sonship and showed that all things, absolutely all things, come under the power and authority of the sons of God. While He was here, He with wonderful grace and power opened the eyes of blind men and caused some who were dumb to speak. But a greater day is at hand when under the rule of the sons of God all blindness and dumbness will flee from the earth, for “the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.” In His beginning of miracles He healed many that were sick of divers diseases, but the day is at hand when “the inhabitants shall not say, I am sick.” (Isa. 33:24) Jesus by His power of eternal life raised men from the dead, but the day is coming under the government of the sons of God when men shall not die at all, but live out the fullness of their days in reverence and godly fear. (Isa. 65:20)

It would be simple to go on and on with these comparisons. There are, however, other mighty works which Jesus during all His life never once began to do. I am absolutely certain that there was no sickness or disease known to mankind that He did not cure. There was no demon that did not flee at His order. Even death dropped the keys and fled at His command. Wind and water obeyed His will, and those who came to take Him went backward and fell to the ground when He spoke. But did this King of kings and Lord of lords ever attempt to set up a kingdom and govern the world? Did He ever call all the nations before Him and set up a judgment seat? Did He ever attempt to wipe inequity and inequality from the earth? Did He command men to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks? Did He ever command the demon of war to flee from the hearts of men and trouble the earth no more? Did He cause the desert to blossom as the rose or Jerusalem to be safely inhabited? No, He did not – not because He could not, but because God has reserved these greater works of universal magnitude and glory for those sons of God who are to share His image and who appear at the end of the age.

The work and scope of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth was amply described by Himself when He entered into the synagogue and read from the book of Isaiah. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He hath anointed Me to preach (proclaim) the gospel to the poor. He hath sent Me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18, 19) His whole life consisted of a proclamation and a demonstration of those all-embracing wonders that are to come during that coming kingdom age, which He here calls the acceptable year of the Lord.

There is yet another work that transcends by far anything that has ever been known. It has been so carefully hidden from our understanding that for the most part we do not even know of its existence. There is a realm beyond the natural realm where men with spiritual senses see, hear, taste, touch, and smell all spiritual realities. The transcending glory of that realm has been lost to man ever since the fall. Which do you think is greater? To restore a man’s natural hearing that he may hear the sounds of earth such as music and the voices of people or to restore that spiritual ear that listened to God’s voice in lovely Eden and heard the voice of Alpha and Omega on the Isle of Patmos? Which would you say was greater – to restore a man’s physical sense of taste that he might taste loaves and fishes or restore his spiritual taste that he might taste and see that the Lord is good? Again which do you think is the greater – to restore man’s physical sense of feeling that he might feel the hard substances of earth or to restore his spiritual sense of feeling that he might feel the moving of the breath of God? The physical sense of smell is a wonderful sense, indeed, but the fragrance of heaven’s perfume is greater far and will once again be enjoyed as it was in God’s Eden long ago. There is an unseen world all about us that the natural man does not comprehend. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man. Yet it is there. We lost our spiritual sight in Eden. We lost our spiritual hearing. We lost our ability to smell and taste and feel all spiritual things. The Bible gives abundant examples of the existence and nearness of that glorious realm of spiritual reality and it is clear for anyone to see that all who have experienced the blessedness of even a momentary entrance into that realm have found that it alone is real, while we who are in this bondage of corruption live in a world of illusion and unreality.

There is coming a day when all the glories of the spiritual world will be opened to men and this glorious freedom, this greater work, is reserved for the sons of God to do. We are nearing the hour of the manifestation of the sons of God. The long, long awaited liberation from bondage, thralldom, and decay is near at hand. The greater works which Jesus, our elder brother, told us of are soon to begin on the earth. The hour is at hand when the government shall be upon His shoulder to order the whole world in justice and judgment, peace and equity for the glorious kingdom age. At this very moment the governments of earth are falling apart at the seams and collapsing, but God is preparing an enduring kingdom that shall never be destroyed. The sons shall reign with Him.

I have found even among good men that there is a tendency to imagine that the Son of God (Jesus Christ) and the sons of God who are to be manifested at the end of the age are two separate entities. This is not true. Such an idea comes from a lack of understanding as to what a son of God really is, and how such a son comes into being at all.

It is impossible to explain to the natural mind how two entirely separate things can, though separate, still be one. Men seem to be able to understand how a foot, a hand, and a head can, though separate and different, all be members of one and the same body. We are able to understand this because these members are joined together by flesh and sinew and blood, but when we are asked to believe that the Son of God at the right hand of the Father is one with the sons of God on earth, we flounder in the bogs of unbelief and trip over the stones of doubt and misunderstanding. If, however, we would ask God to reveal this mystery, we would easily see that, if physical members joined only by the weakness of flesh and blood can be one, how much more one are things joined by the Spirit of the living God! An arm that is severed from the body no longer belongs to the body because the bonds of flesh are broken, but time or place or space has nothing whatever to do with the unity of the Spirit, for the Spirit is omnipresent even as God is omnipresent. Therefore, whether a man’s abode is on earth or in heaven makes absolutely no difference to spiritual unity, for to spirit there is neither time nor place. Time, place, distance, and all such things belong to the bondage and corruption of the flesh. The Spirit is confined by none of these things. Some day we will realize what a world of truth lay in the words of Jesus when He said, “No man hath ascended up to heaven but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” John 3:13. He who lived as a Son of God and had His being in the Father and in the Spirit, even while standing upon the earth, was able to declare that He was in heaven, and so truly He was.

This should help us to see how we are one with Christ and how Christ is one with the Father. This should help us to understand the fathomless depths of meaning in the words of Jesus, “I in them and Thou in Me that they may be made perfect in one,” (John 17:23), and again in verse 21, “That they may be one as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us.” It is this unity with Him and this alone that makes a son of God.

With all emphasis we must declare that sons of God only exist because of their vital relationship to Jesus Christ. By this I mean that Jesus Christ dwells in you as God Almighty dwelt in Him. If He does not dwell in you, you are not a son. It is Christ in you that is the hope of glory. Not Christ in heaven! Not Christ in the Father! Not Christ in your brother! It is Christ in you!

Good works, giving of alms, preaching, signs, miracles, healings, and all the rest have nothing whatever to do with sonship. We can have all these things and yet never live a day as a son of God. There are far too many people in the world who have the mistaken idea that their mighty works are proof of their sonship. Actually these works are proof of nothing. The works may be good; they may be commendable; they may be beneficient; they may be worthy of reward, but they are not proof of sonship, and never will be. Surely Jesus made this fact abundantly plain when He said, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name, and in Thy Name cast out devils and in Thy Name done many wonderful works? Then will I profess unto them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity.’ “ (Mark 7:22, 23)  I can truthfully say that I believe in prophecy, but prophecy is no proof of sonship. I thoroughly believe in the casting out of devils, but it is not proof of sonship. Certainly I believe in wonderful works. But though you fill the earth with them, they will not commend you to God nor prove your sonship.

Let us consider again for a moment Paul’s statement in (Col. 1:26, 27) “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but is now manifest to His saints… which is Christ in you the hope of glory.” The glory spoken of here is not heaven as has been generally supposed, but sonship. That is the highest and most glorious glory that God has ever given or ever will give. “The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them,” said Jesus. (John 17:22) “Whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate them He also called, and whom He called He also justified, and whom He justified He glorified.” (Rom. 8:29-30) This is glory; this is glorification; this is sonship. The only hope of sonship, the only hope of glory, is for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to dwell in you and control and order every step of your life. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Christ in you is the hope of glory. Christ in me is the hope of glory. Sonship is not what I am, but what He is. Sonship is not what Christ is apart from me, but what He is in me.

Jesus Christ Himself was the Son of God because in Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Even He did not hesitate to declare, “I can do nothing of Myself; as I hear I judge, and My judgment is just, because I seek not My own will but the will of the Father which sent Me.” (John 5:30) And again He said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the Father do, for whatsoever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” (John 5:19) (If you would behold the glory and power of sonship, you should read John 5:18-32.) Both the words and the works of Jesus were the words and the works of the Father who dwelt in Him. “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me He doeth the works.” (John 14:10) It is the indwelling Christ that fills us with the very spirit of sonship. It is Christ within that causes the spirit to cry Abba Father. We can never be sons of God until that only begotten Son dwells in us. His indwelling presence will transform our lives until we are in His image and we can say with John, “As He is, so are we in this world.”

We should earnestly consider the following question with prayer for guidance and understanding. Why was it that Jesus boldly and truthfully declared, “If ye had known Me ye should have known My Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him and have seen Him!” (John 14:7) Why was it He said to Philip, “Have I been so long time with you and yet thou hast not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father!‘” (John 14:9) This passage would be without any hope of understanding were it not for the verse following which says, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me?” Because the Father dwelt in fullness in Christ, therefore whoever had seen Christ had seen the Father. It is equally true that, when Christ lives in fullness in any human being, controlling and ordering his life, then whosoever has seen that man has also seen Christ. Paul the apostle saw that great truth by revelation when he declared, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me.” The I that was crucified was himself, but the I which lived was Christ.

During the last few days these tremendous truths have flooded in upon my soul. If you would be holy, do not try to be holy. Christ is holy so let Him live in you. If you long for righteousness, do not try to be righteous. Christ is righteous, therefore let Him live in you. If you long for purity, do not seek to be pure. Seek to let Him live in you for He is pure. Do you long for sonship? Do not waste time seeking sonship. Let Him live in you. He is God’s Son. Your relationship to sects, denominations, people, or things means nothing at all. It is your relationship to Him that counts, for that means everything.

Did He not say, “He that hath the Son hath life, but he that hath not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on Him?” Why is it that he who hath the Son hath life? Is it not because in Him is life? Is it not equally true then that He that hath the Son hath wisdom, for in Him dwelleth all the treasures of wisdom? Is it not true also that He who hath the Son hath the mind of Christ, and he that hath the Son hath purity, holiness, truth, longsuffering, love, gentleness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance, judgment, and government? Does not the word declare that God has made Him wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption? Oh! world of truth, in Him are all things! Christ is all and in all, and Christ in you is the hope of glory. Here and here alone is the glory of sonship.

A. B. Simpson must surely have grasped the truth when he wrote these immortal words:

Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord;

Once it was the feeling, now it is His Word;

Once the gift I wanted, now the Giver own;

Once I sought for healing, now Himself alone.

All in all forever, Jesus, will I sing;

Everything in Jesus, and Jesus everythin