“And they all said, “Are You the Son of God, then?” And He said to them, “Yes, I am.” (Luke 22:70)
What would you say if the assembly asked, “So are you a son of God?” Would you have to pause and take inventory before you answer? Or would you say, without hesitation, “Yes, I am a son of God.” It is mostly to those who paused that I want to share this morning. The uncertainty that necessitated your pause might seem humble because of the grandiose nature of the claim – a son of God. You might have reacted, “Really! That’s just a few thousand notches above my pay grade. I wouldn’t dare make such a confident assertion about myself!” This particular line of thinking betrays something that truly needs to be addressed. It is your identity – the foundation of the Christian life.
You might have also had these kind of thoughts (as I once did): “I’m a pretty good person. I have not hurt others. (which in my case was not in the least true). I should be fine with God.” Or, “I attend church regularly. I give when the plate is passed.” Or possibly, “I am an elder or I lead worship (or insert whatever the appropriate title might be) with the sense that through your service and/or achievements you have attained good standing with God. I assure you this foundation is faulty and nothing built upon it will stand. I truly hope you are still in pause-mode because I would like to share some really good news with you while your heart has come to attention.
However before that, I have to first share some news that may strike you as bad. It is this. You can’t play the piano well or regularly enough to please God. Neither can you give enough to please Him. Your title, no matter how hard you worked for it has no merit with God. His standards are so infinitely high, even the most noble and pure human thoughts and deeds are defiled in comparison. An ancient prophet said it like this…
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.
No, it’s not good news to learn that, in believing the lie of our adequacy, we have been standing on shifting sand. Its even worse to discover that, as a New Testament apostle put it….
All have sinned and fall short of the glory (standard if you will) of God.
It would be a glorious day indeed if you are moving just now, in your heart’s posture, from pause to prostrate, that place of authentic God-gifted humility where the Holy Spirit takes men that God is claiming as His own, where they have grasped the nature of their personal bankruptcy before God and find themselves positioned to finally receive good news…. That even though….
….we all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us having turned to our own way; the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
This is singularly the greatest news that has ever been stated in the realm of man or angel. All our sin (all stemming from our alien natures), ranging from deficient works to heinous behavior was all laid upon the Son of God so that we could become the sons of God. If the absurdity that the quality of your life might qualify you before God has dawned upon you, you are being granted the first stage of a gift that will address this foundational identity issue. That is the gift of repentance.
Repentance is a work of grace in the human heart. It is essentially our heart’s agreeing with God and saying, “I was utterly wrong. I was 180 degrees out of sync with you God – thinking I might have been good enough to win your approve and get to heaven.”
If it were not for the conspiracy between the world, the flesh and the devil, it would be so very, very simple. But….
The god of this age (Satan) has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
It’s simple because the new foundation of identity is a gift and gifts cannot be earned. Even an iota of attempted payment undoes the gift – undermines the foundation. Again our N.T. apostle….
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For those who believe this in their hearts and are willing to confess it with their mouths, the old foundation is demolished and a new foundational identity is established. An intimate friend of Jesus’ put it like this….
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.And by him we cry, “Abba,Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. (Romans 8:15-16)
Going from having the identity of one alienated and condemned to becoming a son of God is not just merely good. It is stunningly revolutionary news! Those of you who stayed in pause-mode may accuse us of fanaticism – going so far as to say with confidence, “Yes, I am a son of God.” Atheists and agnostics will scoff, saying that we deluded fools have simply played a convenient psychological trick on ourselves – inventing a God to cope with the existential angst that naturally comes from being an evolved piece of cosmic nothingness.
All I can say is that neither we nor God are rattled by your position. We have all been there. Those of us who have had our identity-replacement in Christ can only say, “You might not believe us when we say, “We are sons and daughters of God but, my oh my, would you ever be entertained be the details and extent of our delusion!”
The gift is free to us but it was not cheap to God. He had to come to earth and take upon himself the wrath that was due you and I. The Cross is fashionable today but in the time of Christ it was the unmistaken symbol of death, well marketed by the Romans. If one did not submit to the Roman’s authority, to a cross you would go. It was the inhumanity and brutality of the Cross absorbed by God in Christ alone that facilitates our good news. It was supremely costly.
The extravengance of this gift betrays the value the Giver of the gift places on those He would bestow it upon. It exposes his motive as well as his plan. This is why John made this comment….
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
In the collective pause of one assembly in the first century who heard this same message…..
….they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Father, I pray that your good news might be preached with the same punch that it had originally when Peter first heard it escaping his lips. May all those you are calling pause to reconcile these eternal mattes in their hearts. May the simplicity and the clarity of your good news pierce the darkness that has been cast on this earth and in our hearts. Prevail Holy Spirit among those working to please you and convey the futility of their labors as well as the glory of the gift. May the Bride of Christ soon face off with your enemies with their confident declarations, “Yes, absolutely, we are the sons of God.” Amen.
