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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:2, 4-6, 9-11, 13-16, 23, 26, 29; Gal. 3:2-3, 5, 11-14, 26; 4:4-6, 29; 5:16-18
In the New Testament the books of Romans and Galatians stand together in a special category. These two books reveal not only God’s redemption, but also the economy of God’s redemption. Redemption is one thing, and the economy of redemption is another. When many Christians read the books of Romans and Galatians, they can easily see the matter of redemption. However, very few see God’s economy of redemption, because this matter is somewhat hidden in these two books. Although the word economy cannot be found either in Romans or in Galatians, the fact of the economy of redemption can nonetheless be found in these books. Our burden in this message is to consider God’s economy in His redemption.
Although redemption is covered both in Romans and in Galatians, redemption is not God’s goal. Rather, it is a process, or step, toward the goal. In God’s economy redemption is used to bring forth a certain issue or result. What is God’s goal in redemption? Also, what is the issue produced by God’s redemption? The answer to both questions is sonship. Sonship is both God’s goal in redemption and the issue of the process of redemption. However, many Christians only see that Romans covers justification by faith. They do not see the divine sonship in the book of Romans. If we read Romans carefully, we shall see that justification by faith is covered for the most part in the first four chapters. Beginning with chapter five, Paul moves on toward the goal of sonship. According to the revelation found in the book of Romans, God is transforming sinners into sons. Hence, the book of Romans shows us how God is in the process of producing sons out of sinners. Here we see God’s economy. God’s economy is not simply to redeem lost sinners. His economy is to redeem sinners with a view to making them His sons. In God’s economy the two main matters are redemption and sonship.
In the Bible the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, is not for doctrine, theology, or teaching. The Trinity is for God’s economy. In His economy, God the Father is the One who plans, who forms an eternal purpose. Because He has a purpose, a plan, He has a great many arrangements to correspond to His purpose. In the Trinity, God the Father is the source, the One who plans to accomplish His economy. For the carrying out of the divine economy, two crucial matters must be worked out — redemption and sonship. In Galatians 4 we see that the Father sent forth His Son to accomplish redemption (vv. 4-5). Then He sent forth the Spirit of His Son to bring forth the sonship. Thus, for the accomplishment of His economy, the Father sent forth first the Son and then the Spirit.
Galatians 4:4 and 5 say, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, come of a woman, come under law, that He might redeem those under law, that we might receive the sonship.” For the accomplishment of redemption, it was necessary for the Son of God to become a human being born of a woman and born under the law. In order to put on humanity, a human nature, He had to “come of a woman.” It is a heresy to say that Mary was the mother of God. Although Jesus was God incarnated as a man, Mary was not the mother of God. She was the mother of the man Jesus. By coming of a woman, Jesus, the Son of God, was a man with blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14). If He had not had blood and flesh, there would have been no way for the Son of God to accomplish redemption. Redemption required the shedding of blood.
After the Son of God accomplished redemption for us, the Spirit was sent to carry out the sonship and to make it real to us in our experience. The Spirit was sent to make all the redeemed ones sons of God. Thus, Christ came for redemption, and the Spirit came for sonship. Christ redeemed us, and the Spirit imparts the divine life into us to make us sons of God.
Again and again, the books of Romans and Galatians speak of the Spirit. This is especially true of Romans 8. Verse 2 speaks of the Spirit of life and verse 15, of the spirit of sonship. Because we have a spirit of sonship, we have the life of the Son of God. Spontaneously we cry, “Abba, Father.” In verse 9 Paul speaks of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ and in verses 11 and 13, of the Spirit. The expression “the Spirit” is also found in verse 16: “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God.”
The term “the Spirit” is very significant. John 7:39 says, “But this He said concerning the Spirit, Whom those who believed in Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Why does this verse say that “the Spirit was not yet”? Although the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah, and the Holy Spirit were in existence before the glorification of Christ, “the Spirit” was not. In Genesis 1:2 we see that the Spirit of God was brooding upon the water. The Old Testament also speaks frequently of the Spirit of Jehovah. When the Lord Jesus was about to be conceived in the womb of Mary, there is mention of the Holy Spirit, because something common, human nature, was to be made holy by the Spirit of God (Matt. 1:18, 20). But when Jesus cried out, saying, “If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37), He spoke concerning the Spirit. However, “the Spirit was not yet” because Jesus was not yet glorified. He had not been crucified and resurrected. But after His crucifixion and resurrection, the Spirit came. Today the very Spirit who witnesses with our spirit is the Spirit. Second Corinthians 3:17 even says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit.” Notice that this verse does not say, “The Lord is a Spirit,” but, “The Lord is the Spirit.”
Romans 8:14 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” This verse indicates that Romans 8 is concerned not with the birth of the sons of God, but with the walk of God’s sons. Those who are led by the Spirit truly are sons of God. The word walk is used strongly in verse 4: “That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh, but according to spirit.”
Under the influence of the natural concept, Christians often think that after we are saved, we should have a walk which glorifies God. We pay attention to Paul’s word about walking in a way that is worthy of our calling, but we understand this exhortation according to our natural concept. Immediately after people are saved, they automatically try to behave in a way that glorifies God. Such a thought comes spontaneously. It is not wrong to say that we need behavior that glorifies God. However, regarding this we may be under the influence of a natural concept. According to the natural concept, to walk worthy of our calling is to be honest, faithful, humble, gentle, kind, and loving. We may think that we shall glorify God if we have such virtues, and that others will appreciate us. However, the book of Romans, a basic book in God’s revelation, does not charge us to walk in this way. On the contrary, it teaches us to walk as sons of God.
There is a great difference between walking as sons of God and walking as redeemed sinners who express such virtues as honesty, kindness, and love. The goal of God’s economy is not merely to have a group of people who are faithful, kind, and loving. God’s goal in His economy is to produce sons. A person may be honest, faithful, and loving, but he may not be a son of God. God wants sons. He does not want honest, faithful, loving sinners. His purpose is not to make sinful husbands into those who love their wives, or sinful wives into those who submit to their husbands. We repeat, God’s goal in His economy is to bring forth many divine sons.
In order to be sons of God, we must first be born of Him. The Gospel of John emphasizes this. John 1:12 and 13 say, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Then in John 3:6 we are told that that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Sonship is altogether a matter of life and nature, which depend on birth. We have been born of God to become sons of God. Therefore, we can declare with assurance that we are not God’s sons-in-law, nor merely His adopted sons; we are God’s sons in life, sons born of Him.
According to the divine revelation in the Scriptures, we emphasize the fact that, through regeneration, an organic union has taken place between us and God. We have an organic relation with God, a relationship in life. First, because we are sinful, God sent His Son to redeem us. But God has also sent His Spirit to impart the divine life and nature into our being. Now that the divine life has entered into us, we have an organic union with God. This crucial matter, however, has been neglected by those Christians who emphasize traditional teachings and concepts.
Since you have been born of God to become a son of God, do you have the boldness to declare that you are divine? As sons of God born of Him, we are in a very real sense divine. When we teach this, some accuse us of teaching the deification of man. We definitely do not believe or teach that as sons of God we shall become God Himself. Nevertheless, it is a fact that we have the divine life and nature. Otherwise, it would not be possible for us to be sons of God. Does not a child born of a German father have a typical German life and nature? Likewise, because we have been born of God to be sons of God with the divine life and nature, we are divine. Some twist our word and claim that we teach that sinners can become part of the very Godhead. Yes, we teach that as children of God we are members of God’s family. But we certainly do not teach that we shall ever become God Himself. However, the fact remains that since our Father is divine, all the members of His family are also divine. As a human being has the life and nature of his father, so we, God’s sons, have the life and nature of our Father. In this sense, we are divine.
Having become sons of God, we now need to walk as sons of God. God does not want a group of people who are simply kind, honest, and loving. He wants a family. In Galatians 6:10 this family is called “the household of the faith.” To walk as God’s sons we need to be divine. It is not adequate merely to be ethical or religious. It is not necessary to be a son of God in order to be humble or kind. A person may be humble or kind in a natural, ethical way. However, to live as sons of God we certainly must be divine. We must have the life of God and also the Spirit of God.
Toward the very end of the Bible, we read of the Spirit and the Bride (Rev. 22:17). The Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God, and the Bride is the ultimate issue of redeemed mankind. The fact that the Spirit and the Bride are one is proved by their speaking as one. Together, the Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!”
The Bible reveals the organic union between the believers and the Triune God, but religion emphasizes virtues and good behavior. According to the religious concept, as believers we must be honest, faithful, loving, and submissive. But God’s economy requires not merely that we have these virtues, but that we walk according to the Spirit. One person may be humble in a natural way, whereas another may be humble because he is living by the life and nature of God. Apparently, both kinds of humility are the same. Actually, they are very different. The one may be compared to polished copper; the other, to gold. If we walk according to the Spirit, we shall not be like polished copper; we shall have the appearance of gold, of the very nature of God.
It is not God’s intention simply to have a group of good people; He wants many sons who are one with Him organically and who possess His very life and nature. Only these sons can be members of the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is an organism, not an organization. Good people may be organized into a society, but they cannot become the organism known as the Body of Christ. Because the Body is organic, all the members of the Body must have an organic element in them. We receive this element by the new birth, by regeneration.
After we are born of God to be sons of God, we then must walk as sons according to the Spirit. In Romans 8 Paul does not speak of things such as humility, faithfulness, or honesty. Here he is not concerned with human virtues. Rather, he charges us to walk according to spirit. All those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God. To walk as a son of God is not a matter of possessing certain virtues; it is altogether a matter of walking according to spirit. Of course, if we walk according to spirit, there will be a certain issue brought forth in our living. However, the emphasis in Romans 8 is not on the issue; it is on the nature of God’s sons. As those who have been born of God, we should not endeavor to cultivate certain virtues. Instead, we should endeavor to walk by the Spirit.
I am concerned that walking by the Spirit as sons of God may be little more than doctrine to us. We may have the knowledge that we simply need to walk by the Spirit, but in our daily living we may live in a natural, ethical way. Should someone bother us, we may either become angry or try to control ourselves. But in neither case do we turn to the spirit, exercise the spirit, and walk by the spirit.
Often after we see something of the Lord, Satan comes to test us. Suppose the Lord makes you clear that as a son of God what you need to do is simply walk according to the Spirit. A short while later, your husband or wife may offend you. At such a time, you may forget about walking by the Spirit. Instead of walking by the Spirit, you may either become irritated or try to suppress your anger. You may even pray that the Lord will help you. But not even praying in this way is walking by the Spirit.
Religion teaches people to behave; it does not teach them to walk according to the Spirit. According to the Bible, instead of trying to improve our behavior, we should walk by the Spirit. We have been born of the Spirit. Now we need to receive grace to walk by the Spirit. Should your husband or wife offend you, simply walk by the Spirit. Do not try to suppress your temper or force yourself to be patient. That is mere outward behavior. What you need to do at such a time is to exercise the spirit to walk according to the Spirit. Do not say to yourself, “I must walk in a way that is worthy of the church life. If I lose my temper, it will be a shame to me. I must hold back my temper and behave in the proper way.” This is not God’s economy — it is religion and ethics. God’s economy is to make us His sons in an actual and practical way. For this, we must walk according to the Spirit.
Many Christians read Romans 8 without paying attention to the matter of sonship covered in this chapter. Verse 14 says that as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God, and verse 15 speaks of a spirit of sonship. Furthermore, verse 29 says that God has predestinated us to be “conformed to the image of His Son, that He should be the firstborn among many brothers.” The many brothers of Christ are the many sons of God (Heb. 2:10). Moreover, the sonship in Romans 8 is not in the aspect of birth, but in the aspect of walk. We need to walk as sons of God so that we may be conformed to the image of His Son. Birth takes place once for all, but being conformed to the image of God’s Son is a lifelong matter. Day by day we are being conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God. This conformity takes place as we walk by the Spirit. In the Lord’s recovery the main thing the Lord wants us to practice is to walk by the Spirit and according to the Spirit.
If we walk by the Spirit, God will be able to have mature sons. These sons will also be heirs to inherit God’s riches. If we would be heirs, we must be full-grown. We wish to emphasize the fact that we are being conformed to the image of the Son of God, not to certain practices which may be found among the saints in the church life. I am somewhat concerned that the saints may be conformed to the church life instead of to the image of the Son of God. Some saints may undergo a good deal of change, but this change may not be the real transformation, a metabolic change in life. It may merely be an outward change of conforming to certain ways of living common among the saints in the church life. God does not want this kind of change. He wants to see a real transformation take place inwardly in our being so that we may be conformed to the living image of the Son of God. In order for this kind of change to take place, we need to walk in the Spirit, by the Spirit, and according to the Spirit.
We have seen that in Romans redemption is for sonship. The same is true in Galatians. Galatians 3:13 and 14 say that Christ redeemed us out of the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Thus, Christ accomplished redemption so that we might receive the Spirit. Galatians 4:5 says that Christ redeemed us so that we might receive the sonship. After Christ accomplished redemption for us, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” Both Romans and Galatians mention the cry of “Abba, Father.” This is a further proof that in these books redemption is for sonship.
Both Romans and Galatians speak of walking by the Spirit. These books do not charge us to walk according to certain doctrines, teachings, or exhortations, but to walk according to the Spirit. No matter how well we may behave, we do not walk as sons of God unless we walk according to the Spirit. Suppose someone asks you why you do not engage in a certain form of worldly entertainment. The proper answer is that the Spirit does not lead you to do such a thing. Likewise, if you are asked why you do certain things in your family life or refrain from doing certain other things, your answer should simply be that you live that way because you are walking according to the Spirit.
To some degree at least, we are still under the influence of religious concepts. For this reason, when we read the Bible, it is easy for us to pay attention to such admonitions as wives submitting to their husbands, and husbands loving their wives. We can also understand commandments that speak of humility, kindness, and patience. However, such commandments are not basic factors in God’s economy. The basic factor is that we have been born of God and are now divine sons of God with His life and nature. Because we are His sons, God wants us to walk according to the Spirit as His sons. The result, the issue, of walking by the Spirit as sons of God is the Spirit’s responsibility, not ours. Our responsibility is simply to walk according to the Spirit.
The climax of the New Testament is the Spirit. Our living, behavior, walk, conduct must all be according to the Spirit. When we walk according to the Spirit, we are sons of God in actuality, and we are being conformed daily to the image of His Son. This is what God is seeking today.
