There are three main items concerning the church in the economy of God. The first is that the church might have the sonship and that God might be expressed through this sonship. Ephesians 1:5 says that God predestinated us unto sonship. What does this word sonship mean, and what does it include? Briefly, it means the birth, plus the growth, plus the birthright. First of all, we must be born of God. By this divine birth we become the sons of God because we have the life of God. This is the very beginning of God’s mingling with us. But it is only through the growth of this life that we can enjoy the birthright. Birth is one thing, but the birthright is quite another. Esau and Jacob both had the same birth, but only one obtained the birthright. Esau had the life of the son, but he did not have the sonship for the sonship includes both the birth and the birthright. We may have the birth but not the birthright. In Romans 8:14-17, there is a real difference made between the children and the heirs. The children are the ones who have only the birth, but the heirs have not only the birth but also the birthright. First of all, we must become the children of God; then through growth we will become the heirs. We may be a child without the birthright and therefore not have the full sonship.
In both the physical and spiritual birth we can only receive life. When we were born of our fathers, we received life from our fathers, but by the birthright everything our fathers have is ours. We have not only the life but all that our fathers are and have. By spiritual birth we have received the life of God, but by the birthright we will inherit all that God is and all that He has planned and accomplished. All of this put together is the inheritance. Many Christians know that there is the word inheritance in the New Testament, but they do not know what this inheritance is. The real inheritance is to inherit God Himself and all that He has planned and accomplished. This is the full meaning of the word sonship , including the birth and the birthright.
God’s eternal purpose is to work Himself into us that He may be thoroughly mingled with us and expressed through us. When God is born into us, He begins this mingling process. However, this is only the start. There must be the growth. If we have the birth but not the growth, we could never enjoy the birthright. God is born into our spirit, which is the very center of our being. Then His desire is to spread from our spirit to transform all the parts of the soul and eventually to transfigure our physical body. By this process our whole being will be saturated and permeated with the essence of God Himself. This is the real holiness and the real sanctification—to be completely mingled with God.
Ephesians 1:4 says that God has chosen us that we should be holy. To be holy means more than to be separated unto God; it means to be overlaid with God and thoroughly mingled with the very nature of God. In the Old Testament the wooden boards and all of the wooden pieces of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle were overlaid with gold. And in the temple, everything was overlaid with gold—even the floor! Wood signifies the human nature, and gold signifies the divine nature. We know that the nature of God is holiness. To be holy is not only to be separated, but it is to be separated in order that we might be overlaid with God. The New Jerusalem is called the holy city, and the entire city is of pure gold. It is completely mingled with the nature of God. To be mingled with God means to be in God, just as the wooden boards in the tabernacle were overlaid with gold and were in the gold. We must be overlaid with God so that we will be in God. How many times the little word in is used in the New Testament. Over and over we find the phrases in God,in Christ,in the Holy Spirit, in Him, and in Himself.
When we become holy, thoroughly sanctified, we will also have the glorification, which means our whole being will be brought into the essence of God. The glorification is the full maturity that results in the manifestation of the sons of God, as seen in Romans 8. With this manifestation there will be the complete and full sonship. This sonship starts from the new birth and consummates in the manifestation of the sons of God, which is the glorification. The complete meaning of God’s sanctification is to regenerate our spirits, then transform our souls, and then transfigure our bodies. Then our whole being from the center to the circumference will be wholly sanctified. This complete sanctification is the very glorification that brings in the manifestation of the sons of God. Today we are the sons of God, but we do not have the manifestation because we are not glorified. We are not glorified because we have not been sanctified. We have the birth of God within us, but our souls have not been transformed and our bodies have not been transfigured.
So we see that from the new birth to the manifestation of the sons of God, we are under a process. We have the birth, and before us is the goal of the full sonship, the goal of glorification, which is the manifestation of the sons of God. Eventually, there will be the time of full maturity. So the sonship reaches from the new birth unto the maturity, from regeneration unto glorification. God predestinated us unto this sonship through Jesus Christ unto Himself.
After receiving the birth of God’s life and the growth of this life, the Lord will grant us the enjoyment of the birthright. Hebrews 12:15-17 warns us to be careful because there is the possibility of losing the birthright. We may have it, but we may also lose it. Having been born of God, there is the possibility of enjoying the birthright if we are matured, but there is also the possibility of losing the birthright. There will be many Christians who will lose the birthright because they do not have the proper growth. They have the birth of life, so they are the children of God, but they still need the growth of life, the maturity in life, for them to be the heirs of God.
Whether we will enjoy the birthright or not depends upon our growth in life. It depends upon the transformation. If we live in the soul, which means to live in the self, we may lose the birthright. But if we forget about ourselves, deny the soul, and live in the spirit, then the Lord will have the opportunity to transform us. From within our spirit He will spread outward to saturate our soul. Through the transforming of our soul, we will have the real growth to enjoy the birthright, the full enjoyment of all that God is and all that He has planned and accomplished.
The sonship, then, is just a matter of life. God predestinated us unto sonship that we may be His sons, having Christ as our life, that we may grow in this life, and that we may have and enjoy the full birthright with this life. By this sonship, by begetting us as sons sharing His life and as sons matured in His life to enjoy all that He is, God makes us His corporate expression and expresses Himself through us. This is the first item of God’s purpose for the church—to express Himself through many matured sons.