"Christ Healing the Blind Man" by Eustache Le Sueur.
This is my third post in my study of Sinclair Ferguson's text "Children of the Living God".
In the first part of this chapter Ferguson wants us to understand that our identity, or self-image, as a son of God, is, to the understanding believer, life-transforming. He further points out that this relationship is central in all of the New Testament.
Ferguson then, in the middle section of the chapter, takes us on a journey through the Hebrew Canon pointing out, once again, that God created us to be sons. However, he points out, the Fall of Man put a large detour in the complete fulfillment of that blessed relationship.
In this next post, we will conclude the first chapter of "Children of the Living God' where Dr. Sinclair Ferguson shows us that God continues to unfold his love for us in the process of restoration. God's full and complete plan is to restore us to full and complete sonship!
Please join me...
Restoration
Ferguson starts off this section with this realization:
"God is intent on restoring the image that he created of himself and his glory in the life of man. Restoration of man to the image of God is an element in the gospel message that is frequently ignored in favor of other, equally biblical pictures of salvation like reconciliation, justification, and redemption They are, however, its [sonship's] handmaidens."
This statement bears considerable thought. Ferguson is telling us that the whole of God's pursuit with mankind, since the Fall, is the restoration of his relationship to us as sons. Everything else is a product of that pursuit.
I have never been exposed to such an idea. It occurs to me that if we understand, and fully realize this, then our self-image, our behavior, and our whole interaction with God simply must, and will, change perspective.
Right? How could it not?
Scriptures pointing towards God's restoration process:
"...in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself..."
"making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth."
"For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross."
Ferguson suggests that perhaps the restoration/reconciliation of God, to his elect, is taken with guarded enthusiasm because some have mistakenly interpreted these verses to speak of Universalism (all humans being saved by God). Universalism, however, it clearly not possible because it conflicts with the whole of the New Testament and specifically with Christ.
Ferguson:
"The key to such restoration lies in the recovery of man to his original honour, dignity, privilege and responsibility. Reconciling all things to God, therefore, means fundamentally restoring to man the image that he reflected perfectly at creation but later marred by his sin...God's final purpose is nothing less than a new race of men and women [our glorified bodies], restored to what they were intended to be, through their relationship to the divine image-bearer and Son, Jesus Christ."
"Sonship", says Ferguson, "therefore, is everything!"
I like how Sinclair Ferguson ends his first chapter:
"The Christian church is plagued today, perhaps even more than in other times, with slick and immediate answers to [such] spiritual difficulties. But what is really needed is a biblical answer, precisely because these are theological as well as emotional or psychological problems. For their root lies in our idea of God, and how we think of our relationship to him. No short-cut that tries to bypass the patient unfolding of the true character of God, and how we think of our relationship to him as his children, can ever succeed in providing long-term spiritual therapy. But the knowledge that the Father has bestowed his love on us, so that we are called children of God - and in fact are his children (1 Jn. 3:1-2), will, over time, prove to be the solvent in which our fears, mistrust, and suspicion of God - as well as our sense of distance from him - will eventually dissolve. Then we will enter into a richer experience of confidence and assurance as the children of our Father in heaven."
It is becoming clear to me. Sonship is, indeed, everything. I am looking forward to the unfolding of the rest of this book.
Do you, reader of this blog, understand what Sinclair Ferguson is telling us? Doesn't it, when we re-frame everything through this filter, make our relationship, with God, far more intimate and precious?
Share your thoughts on this subject. Hit the comment button below.
