Thesis 01: Cosmic Sonship: Rediscovering Divine Acceptance, Wholeness, and Union."
The overarching theme of my life can be captured by these words: Sonship, Adoption, Wholeness, Acceptance, Holiness, and Righteousness.
Do you know what they all have in common? Yahweh declared them over you and me before the foundation of the world was established.
We live in a society where people are consumed by others' opinions of them, when in reality, we should be living by Abba's view of us—whole, righteous, sons and daughters, accepted, holy, and more. But we've settled for less. I believe that once we start embracing Abba's perspective of who we are, we are freed from the need for human approval. It's that simple—His opinion is the only one that truly matters.
I want to reveal the Father’s declaration over all of humanity and uncover the depths of His heart for you.
Let’s begin with what I deem as the one of the most important scriptures in the Bible:
“Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate him with all our hearts! And in love he chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe!e Because of his great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with an unstained innocence. For it was always in his perfect plan to adopt us as his delightful children, through our union with Jesus, the Anointed One, so that his tremendous love that cascades over us would glorify his grace— for the “same love he has for the Beloved, Jesus, he has for us. And this unfolding plan brings him great pleasure!” Ephesians 1:3-6 The Passion Translation
Paul writes in Ephesians 1:3 that we are accepted in the Beloved. In other words, God loves us with the same love He has for His Son, Jesus. This acceptance wasn’t something we earned—it was established in His heart before we even existed, before we made a single mistake. How incredible is that for the gospel?
Acceptance is the experience we have when we see that we are in union with God.
The Apostle Paul opens his powerful letter to the Ephesians with a declaration: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” We have been richly blessed with the fullness of heavenly life in God! Every treasure of Heaven is now ours, and we are invited to partake in it. This was His plan before creation itself—this is the very purpose of all creation.
Paul moves on to say this: “And in love he chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe! Because of his great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with an unstained innocence” Ephesians 1:4 The Passion Translation
Francois du Toit in Mirror Bible communicates this verse beautifully when he says, “He associated us in Christ before the fall of the world. Jesus is God’s mind made up about us. He always knew that he would present us again face-to-face before him in blameless innocence.”
Paul uses the Greek word, kataballo, meaning to “fall away, or to put in a lower place.” The entire fall was actually a falling away in our minds from our original design as sons of Abba. We are and always have been image bearers of the Trinity, but when we believe a lie about ourselves as Adam did, we are deceived to believe differently.
Now, Paul speaks of our holiness and innocence before God. This holiness isn’t a consequence of our efforts, or “getting into” Christ. No! Our holiness is a result of being in union with him. Earlier in Ephesians 1:2, Paul opens up the letter by saying, “I am writing this letter to the devoted believers who have been made holy by being one with Jesus, the Anointed One.”
The problem with holiness is that we believe we have to earn it. But Paul went back to the beginning before the foundation of the world and captured the gaze of a God who had this decided before we had a choice. Our only choice is that we get to decide if we want to accept it or not. But that does not make it any less true. If we make getting into God our own works, then holiness comes by way of behavior, then every part of my life with God becomes a work also. You and I are presented in blameless innocence before Abba which is the word, katenopion, which suggests the closest proximity, or face-to-face with the Father.
Much like holiness, we believe that our sonship is based on our own efforts. Paul writes to the Galatians, “And so that we would know that we are his true children (because you are sons), God released the Spirit of Sonship into our hearts—moving us to cry out intimately, “My Father! My true Father!” Gal 4:6 TPT
Being a son is a gift bestowed, not a reward to be earned. Grace is opposed to earning. Sonship is lavished and smeared into our life through this divine union we have with Christ. It is a predetermined reality. Religion says that sonship must be produced or chosen on our end. This is heretical! Sonship does not just happen. It cannot happen without it already being established from the foundation of the world.
In the verse above, we must understand that Paul clears up the issue of sonship when he says, “because you are sons.” Everything happening in our lives comes as a secondary consequence of us already being sons through our union with Abba. Perhaps the reason why we still attempt to earn our status as beloved sons is because we still view God as one who is distant or that He is dictating every move we make?
I want to propose a question: What if growing in sonship began to replace our orientation toward performance? What if it’s just living fully aware of how you’ve already been deemed a son before the foundation of the world and through the finished work of Jesus?
This message of cosmic sonship must get out. I believe the most powerful thing on the earth right now is husbands, fathers, wives, mothers, children who walk in their full assurance of their sonship!
With divine sonship, comes the message of righteousness. This righteousness I am speaking of isn’t a righteousness some most of us grew up being taught in the Church. There are two kinds of righteousness I am speaking and only one is valid according to the gospel. There is no other word in the Bible or even in theology that is less understood than our righteousness in Christ. Over the years I have come to appreciate and even revere the word righteousness simply because of its implications. Before I move on, I want to define righteousness and what it means. Righteousness is the ability to walk with God without any sense of guilt or shame because of what Christ has done for all of humanity.
What I love the most about being the righteousness of God is that it restores us back to the fellowship (union) that we chose to walk away from. This single truth alone allowed me to let go/yield all of the preconceived notions I had about Abba and all the things I struggled with as it pertains to my personal life and past.
Francois du’ Toit illustrates our entrance into righteousness this way:
The conclusion is clear: our blameless innocence has absolutely nothing to do with something we did to qualify ourselves; it is what happened to us, solely because of our Lord Jesus Christ’s doing. Faith, and not reward, is the only valid basis for righteousness. Let us now engage this seamless union in our face-to-face friendship with God. Romans 5:1 MIR
So, how did we receive righteousness? Was it because we somehow persuaded God to make us righteous? Was it because we spent hours proving our worth by living sin-free? Absolutely not! Our access to righteousness has nothing to do with anything we’ve done. If it were up to us, we’d never achieve it by our own efforts.
If we reflect on that verse again, we’ll realize that Jesus is the one who qualifies us for righteousness, not our own efforts. The foundation of our righteousness before God is rooted in Jesus’ faith. Our faith isn’t something we generate to gain access; rather, we live by the faith of the Son of God, who gave Himself for us and poured His life into us (Gal. 2:20).
1 Timothy 3:16 in the Passion Translation says, “For the mystery of righteousness is beyond all question. He was revealed as a human being, and as our great High Priest in the Spirit.”
The mystery of righteousness lies in Jesus living within us. He is the tangible embodiment of our righteousness. His righteousness becomes our own, and we don’t have to earn it. All we need to do is believe and receive.
You and I were recreated, born from above and regenerated through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and the implication of that is that we are fully righteous! In this place of knowing we are the righteousness of God, we are able to rest in union and most importantly experience a deeper dimension of wholeness that Christ has longed for us to experience.
I’d like to wrap up with the topic of wholeness, which has been one of the most important truths in my journey with God over the years. It has enabled me to live more freely as a son, husband, and father. This understanding has enriched my relationships with peers and even impacted my well-being on a physiological level. David knew something about wholeness that maybe most of us haven’t known of.
What if the source of our wholeness was directly related to the Father’s acceptance of us? What if what we thought about the nature concerning Abba was the very thing that kept us from walking in the wholeness we were intended for?
These questions have led me to this scripture:
“David confirms this principle when he speaks of the blessedness of the one who discovers God’s approval without any reference to something specific that they had done to qualify themselves.” Romans 4:6 MSB
The word approval there jumped out at me as I began to read through this verse. I never noticed it before, but in the moment, it all clicked! I realized something so profound and revolutionary: To be whole is to discover Abba’s approval without any reference to something that I had done to qualify myself for His acceptance.
Wholeness was never meant for us to achieve. Jesus Achieved that for all of humanity on calvary. It’s simply, yet amazingly something we inherited through his finished work. We’ve got to come into agreement with what is true of us. And our true self is bound up in the life of Jesus. Recently I've caught myself coming into agreement with lies about my identity, lies about who Abba is towards me, etc. . .
But to come out of the agreement that my past has had any relevance is to come into the agreement that Abba’s acceptance of even before I accepted that acceptance. This takes courage because to accept his approval of me is to walk in complete wholeness.
If we want to know what wholeness looks like, we must look at Jesus. He is the express image of the Father (Hebrews 1:3) and to see Jesus is to see the Father (John 14:9).
He mirrors our wholeness as he is the only one who lives holy, whole, and perfect. The good news is that he lived that as us. There is nothing else required of us except to believe and participate in it.
Paul said, “We are complete in him. Jesus mirrors our wholeness and endorses our true identity. He is I am in us.” Colossians 2:10 MSB
What does Jesus mirror? Our complete wholeness What does he endorse? Our very identity as whole sons. This is not just a mere support of it, but an approval, a confirmation of what he has made of us. Wow! What good news!
Could it be that Abba’s endorsement of our identity is what causes us to finally see that we are indeed whole?For me, I’ve found more freedom, wholeness and abundant living just in the revelation of sonship. The sonship that I am speaking of the sonship we’ve inherited through the finished works of Jesus. It is the very sonship that Paul speaks of in Galatians:
“Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” Galatians 4:6 NIV
Adoption doesn't make us sons; we are already sons because the Spirit of the Beloved Son has been poured into our hearts. When this truth resonates within you, your view of His Father will transform, as our understanding of Him continually deepens and evolves. He becomes Abba—the one who is easy to please and completely incapable of being angered.
In the revelation of our sonship, our true, original life is made clear. Knowing we are sons of Yahweh, it would be foolish to continue living as slaves, bound by old ways. As His children, we are free to share in the richness of His inheritance. Any mindset focused on performance is in conflict with the reality of being His sons.
I’ll conclude with this:
Sonship is not for sale.
-Francois du Toit
