Because you are sons

It’s not rare these days to hear people in Christian circles say the phrase, “Welcome to the family!” It’s as if they were somehow out of the family circle to begin with …

To me, that phrase suggests that at one point in time, they were separated from God or they were previously outside of the family. I will tell you that this is not true.

We have never been separated from God except in our minds (See Col. 1:21-22). So, in reality we are waking up to the truth that we have been already been included in Abba’s family. No prayer can make this any more true.

In Paul’s letter to Ephesus, he is beside himself at the revelation of our predetermined adoption and sonship:

For it was always in his perfect plan to adopt us as his delightful children, through our union with Jesus, the Anointed One… (Ephesians 1:5)

This adoption we are reading about here is not some legal transaction. This adoption is the truth of our existence. Without it, well, we have no reason for living. He, Himself is our inheritance.

This adoption hinges entirely upon our union with the Father. Before you and I were born, before creation, before we did anything wrong in our lives, Abba determined that we would be brought into union with Him and made a sharer in His fullness, completely filled with Him.

This truth alone takes any self-effort out the window!

We’ve been treating sonship and adoption as something that we had to jump into so that we could be invited into His family. But, when you read and hear the words, “chosen in Him”, “predestined through Jesus Christ”, it will change the entire trajectory of your life!

Paul said, “Because you are sons, God released the Spirit of Sonship into our hearts— moving us to cry out intimately, ‘My Father! My true Father!’” (Galatians 4:6 The Passion Translation)

Because we are His sons confirms that our status as sons has been a settled matter since the foundation of the universe. Contrary to what some religious teachings might suggest, sonship cannot be produced — it's a divine decree, a settled matter established by Yahweh Himself.

Claiming that sonship is something to be produced is heretical!! Sonship has always been our identity and inheritance. This is the gospel!

He releases the Spirit of His Son not to change our identity but to affirm what has always been true — we are Abba's sons, created in His image and likeness.

Paul goes further to say that because we are his, we can access everything our Father has—for we are heirs because of what God has done! (Gal. 4:7)

While sonship is about accessibility, it’s not about what we can do for that access. If we don’t know who we are in Christ, we believe we have to subject ourselves to some form formula to gain access to all our Abba has.

Sonship is all about reconfirming what was fashioned before the foundation of the world. We’ve always had access to Papa, but a distorted identity has caused us to try and earn it back.

It’s not possible to earn something that was gifted to you through the finished works of Jesus.