What does it mean to be a son of God (includes both men and women)? Throughout the Christian world, there are practically as many versions of believers in Christ as there are denominations. And that’s okay to a certain extent; after all (using an analogy), there are practically as many versions of cars as there are drivers. However, underneath the surface, all cars share the same basic underlying structures–they have  frames, engines, transmissions, braking systems, etc. Likewise, no matter who a believer is or where he or she comes from, all sons of God share the same basic underlying structure. Understanding this framework and understanding the process of becoming a son of God will go a long way in enabling us to work as our Father’s adult business partners (another analogy). So, over my next several posts, we are going to discuss becoming sons of God. However, before we begin that discussion, I want to talk a little bit about the Bible and more specifically, about the New Testament.
    As Christ’s death on the cross changed the world, a whole new understanding of God and His absolute love began to infiltrate the human race. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Bible where we see a definitive change of tone between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Let me use a couple of conspicuous examples to illustrate. One of the wisest  men ever to rule the Hebrew nation was Solomon, David and Bathsheba’s second son. This man served God with all of his heart, yet as he looked at life in general, his words were “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2, NASB). In other words, after everything he had gained and after all the wisdom he had acquired, he ran into the dividing wall. Listen to what else he wrote in the first chapter of Ecclesiastes, “That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun” (verse 9, NASB). There was nothing new–everything was the same-old same-old! And, the rest of Ecclesiastes was written in the same depressed tone with Solomon ending with this, “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person” (Ecclesiastes 12:13, NASB). After all the blessings he had received, the only understanding of God that he had was that people needed to fear God–Solomon had no concept of the absolute love of God, none whatsoever.
    Now, let’s take a look at a couple of New Testament writers. Paul, in II Corinthians 5:17 (NASB), goes way beyond what Solomon understood with these words, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” Contrary to what Solomon believed, there is something new under the sun. And, then John changed the very conclusion that Solomon reached–fear God and keep His commandments–to this, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear…We love because He first loved us…And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also” (I John 4:18, 19, 21, NASB). Yes, indeed, Christ obliterated the dividing wall!
    While the New Testament writers found new knowledge and new understandings from God, they and their fellow believers were facing new and more insidious threats from Satan and his cohorts. Intense persecution arose as Satan tried to destroy every visage of Christ’s victory over him. With the gospel producing new believers by the thousands and with threats and violence surrounding them, the New Testament authors tried to bring stability in the midst of chaos by writing letters to the people they had ministered to. As they wrote, they focused not only on explaining the new knowledge and understandings of God’s absolute love, but also on the specific circumstances their converts were facing at the time.Â
    As we read through the New Testament, we need to keep a couple of things in mind. First, the writers were writing letters, not books of the Bible. They had no idea that what they were writing would be read 2000 years later. Along the same line of thought, each of these writers did not have access to what the other New Testament writers were writing. In other words, Paul didn’t have John’s letters who didn’t have Peter’s. Also, despite the notion that every word of the Bible is absolutely “true,” the New Testament writers did not get everything right. For example, Paul, Peter, and John all believed that Christ was going to return in their lifetime (Hebrews 1:2, I Peter 4:7, I John 2:18). When we look at the limited world they lived in, we can understand why they felt that way. The New Testament writers had no idea that the world was as big as it is–the scope of their world was bounded by the Mediterranean Sea. They had no way of knowing that when Christ said “God so loved the world..,” he also meant the people who lived thousands of miles away from Israel. Even more important, the tremendous pressure of the persecution they were under certainly made these writers feel like Christ was going to return quickly. But, he did not.
    So, as we delve into the process of becoming a son of God, we’re going to look at what the New Testament authors wrote through the lens of the entire Bible (which we are blessed to have) and of what we have discovered about our world (overwhelming information) in the intervening years since the New Testament days. In a sense, we are going to transpose the knowledge and understanding of these writers into the new key of today’s world. By drawing on all of these resources, we will discover the power of becoming a son of God, and the power to overcome the kingdom of evil as His sons.
    As always, feel free to comment–just keep it respectful!
    ©2009-2010 by Patricia Zell. All rights reserved.
