If the Biblical perspective is trusted, the answer to mankind’s nagging question is clearly answered. “What is life really about?” It is about a Father and Son relationship. Trying to make sense of it without this dynamic is futile. Just knowing theoretically about the Father and Son does not satisfy the universal longing of mankind’s soul. Man was created to live in conscious fellowship with the Father. When that relationship is neglected life begins to deteriorate quickly.
ADAM, THE FIRST SON OF GOD
The Genesis account relates how God created Adam as the first son of God. Before the rib surgery, Eve was part of Adam and thus a son of God as well, and she continued in that relationship even after the division. Adam and Eve were so conscious of the Father that they were unconcerned about their flesh. They related to the Father of spirits, focusing on the intimacy of fellowship and the meaningfulness of partnership. They didn’t worry about provision since the garden trees were laden with fruit for every taste. They didn’t fret about protection because they were under the care of the Father and all his mighty angels. They did not strive for position because they were aware that they were the crown of the Father’s creation and responsible for its care.
But they sinned. When they chose to accept the accusation of the Accuser, life changed. The serpent told them that God was holding something back from them and that they could do something to exalt their status even higher. Believing that they could subdue the earth without being subdued by the Father, they ate from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Instead of relying on their spiritual connection with the Father they chose to get their information otherwise. Suddenly they were afraid and hid behind a bush from the very Father who had created and cared for them. They were now more focused on their flesh than on the Father. They were self conscious rather than being Father conscious. They introduced the “flesh perspective” to humanity, defining life more in terms of the physical, natural, survival, and self-serving mentality than the satisfying intimacy that characterized the spiritual communion. This flesh focus became the default mode of perceiving life for all races of people.
Another way of describing this condition is fatherlessness. When Adam and Eve hid, they expressed their alienation from the Father. They saw themselves, for the first time, isolated from the relationship of the Father. So we can say that at this point fatherlessness entered the race. It spread through all the children and has revealed itself in every culture on the earth. All the religions of the world reflect the desperate desire to solve the problem of the orphan spirit. Whether it is appeasing the gods of polytheism, denying fatherhood in pantheism and naturalism, or debating the nature of God in monotheism, religion is obsessed with orphans seeking a way to get back into the garden of fellowship and partnership with Father God.
ISRAEL, THE SECOND SON OF GOD
The Genesis account goes on to tell how God the Father’s strategy for restoring a relationship with orphans began with calling another son to his side. He made a covenant with Abraham that would result in a people God would call his son. The descendants of Abraham would dwell in slavery (a picture of fatherlessness) for four hundred years. God tabbed a man named Moses to lead them into a land reminiscent of Eden. He treated them like sons. By miraculous means he delivered them from Egypt. He provided food from heaven’s kitchen. He fought their enemies allowing them to partner with him. He gave them his laws for guaranteeing success and significance in the world. They were obviously favored among the nations. They were the “son” of God (Exodus 4:22-23).
But they were children of Adam first. Still harboring the fatherless mentality they inherited from Adam, they could not embrace the privileges and responsibilities of being the son of God the Father. Israel exposed its orphan heart. Worried about provision, they ignored the laws of rest and celebration. Fearful of stronger nations, they compromised their loyalty and made treaties with the Father’s enemies. Needing to find significance in their isolation, they turned laws into walls that would separate and define them as superior. Like all orphans, the fleshly perspective controlled them. Self-focused and survival-oriented, they developed a religion that was a far cry from the one the Father had given them.
In the account of Abraham and his two sons, we can see a picture of the difference in sons of the flesh and sons of the Father. God had promised to Abraham and Sarah a son who would be the Seed who would bring about the restoration of fallen creation. There was a long delay. They began to worry that it wasn’t going to happen. They concocted a scheme whereby they could have an heir who could fulfill the promise. Abraham, with Sarah’s permission, had a son, Ishmael, by Sarah’s servant, Hagar. He was the fruit of Abraham and Sarah’s worry, doubt, and scheming to accomplish, in their own strength, what God had promised to do for them. This is flesh in action.
God did not accept this son as the one he promised. When Abraham and Sarah had no strength to produce a child, Isaac was born miraculously, fulfilling the promise of God the Father. He was a symbol of the Son of the Spirit. Isaac grew up in the household of Abraham. He was fathered by Abraham. He knew he was a son with significance. Ishmael on the other hand, was cast out of the household. He was isolated and wandered in the land. He was called a “wild donkey” of a man. He is the picture of the orphan spirit. He lives independently. He is jealous of the son. He persecutes the son.
The nation of Israel came through Isaac. It was his children and grandchildren that became the heroes of the nation called the people of God. There was natural conflict between the sons of Isaac and the sons of Ishmael. One represented the son. The other represented the orphan.
By the time Jesus was born, the nation of Israel had become more like Ishmael than Isaac. In fact, when the Apostle Paul explained the persecution the Jews were raising against the Christians, he revealed the true identities intended in the Old Testament types of Isaac and Ishmael (Galatians 4:21-31). Israel had become Ishmael, and the disciples of Jesus were Isaac. The issue of sonship is definitely spiritual and not natural.
JESUS, THE THIRD SON OF GOD
Since Adam, there had not been a complete model of a son. All the types and shadows of the Old Testament kept the concept alive, but they were incomplete. Finally, there was a Son. He demonstrated what life looked like when the Father and Son relate properly. He was more conscious of the Father than his own flesh. He had no worry because he knew implicitly that the whole estate belonged to him. He had no permanent house to call home. Even the foxes had more physical security than he. The birds had nests; he had no place to lay his head. But he could not worry. He was the Son, and he knew it. The Jews controlled by the orphan spirit tried to kill him, but they couldn’t. He was under the protection of the Father. Their spies could not find him and their swords would not cut him until the Father said so. When he had need of some physical entity he simply requested it. When it was suggested that he owed a temple tax, he told Peter to get it from the mouth of a nearby fish. When he needed lunch to feed a multitude, he used one from a small boy. When he needed a donkey to ride into Jerusalem, he conscripted one from across town. When he needed a tomb as a place to wait for his resurrection, he borrowed one.
He was not interested in starting a new religion or building new temples. He was intent on displaying the nature of the Father/Son relationship. Everything he did was to demonstrate what eternal life looked like and then to procure it for those who would believe him.
CHRISTIANS, THE SONS OF GOD ON EARTH
The greatest invitation ever offered is from the Father to the orphaned sons of Adam. Through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus the Son, we can be restored to the original design. We can have the same relationship with the Father that Jesus had. We can have the same consciousness with the Father that Jesus demonstrated. He demonstrated it during his life. He procured it through his death and resurrection. While on the cross he cried the anguished cry of the orphan. “My God…why have you forsaken me?” He became the orphan so we could become the sons of God. Now we no longer have to strive to get back to the Father. There is no price to pay. There are no regulations to keep that will qualify us. We are declared “sons of God” by none other than the Father himself.
But that is not all. Not only are we declared sons of God, He has sent the Spirit of adoption into our hearts so that our relationship is experiential, as well as legal. We know that we are sons of God at a level deeper than emotion and higher than the intellect. His Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are sons of God.
Now the challenge is to believe this great news. It means we must abandon our fatherless thinking and embrace the mercy given to us by the Father. It will take some time to complete our repentance, but it is time we got started. There is a world to subdue in partnership with Father.
SYNERGY - Better Together: October 01, 2010 click for more > Five Pillars of New Testament Discipleship: : October 15, 2010 click for more > Family Reunion Retreat: December 03, 2010 click for more >
