Spiritual Gifts part 59: To suffer is to learn.
Pastor-Teacher Spiritual Gifts Part 59: For God’s sons, to suffer is to learn.Biblical adoption is that grand design of God by which He confers or bestows upon us the status or the standing of adult sons and daughters. Biblical adoption shows up in connection with the moment of salvation, yet it also shows up in God’s thoughts in eternity past, and then again at the Rapture. Your relationship as a child of God (tekna) results from the new birth. This is true for believers of all dispensations. Your relationship as an adult son of God (huios) is positionally established by adoption, and is for Church Age believers only. Your relationship as an adult son of God becomes fulfilled experientially when by the power of the word of God and the filling of the Spirit you grow up spiritually to maturity. Adoption frees us from slavery to the bondages of this life. The dread of God as judge has been removed, and replaced with the peace and security we have before God our heavenly Father. We now possess all the rights and privileges that accrue to the natural child! Having complete confidence in your relationship with the Lord is an important part of having happiness in life. If you desire to glorify your Father as an adopted son, you must follow the lead of your older Brother Christ and learn how to handle suffering for the cause of Christ. Before he receives the inheritance, he must pass through periods of suffering. This points to the anxieties, tensions, and persecutions that result from being followers of the One who was rejected by the world. The abundance of our entrance into Christ’s kingdom is to a great extent determined by our endurance in following Christ in spite of the problems, difficulties and persecutions, 2Pe 1:11. As Christ suffered and entered into His glory (1Pet 1:11), so fellow heirs with Christ suffer during this present time (1Pe 2:21, Phi 1:29) in order to join Christ in glory. Consider the sufferings that Christ endured as He went about on a daily basis submitting to His Father’s will for His life.
The word here for Son is huios : |