After this Paul goes on in the same chapter to show us that in our reaction to the spirit of sonship, there must be a kind of eager expectation. We must be eagerly expecting son-ship. This means that while you are walking according to Spirit and you are taking His leading to be led by Him, you realize that in your being you do not live like a son of God. So, deep within you there is a kind of eager expectation, eagerly expecting the sonship. Within you there is a longing that you could live a life absolutely like the Son of God. According to the context of this verse it is mainly due to this kind of eagerness that God comes in to arrange your circumstances. He uses all things working together for you to transform you and to change you from a son of Adam to a son of God. He would change you from a son of man to a son of God. This is not only a work of transformation; in fact, this chapter does not use the word transformation, but there is the word conformed. Verses 28 and 29 read: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to the purpose. Because whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He should be the Firstborn among many brothers.” This is not only transformation, but also conformation to make you exactly in the same image of His Son. This is to make you a son in full.
By this you can see that on the surface chapter eight is on the Spirit. But under the surface, in the depth, it is a chapter on sonship which is being carried out by the Spirit of life. Eventually this Spirit is the spirit of sonship. We have to see that sonship is vital and basic to the Body of Christ, I would say that the matter of the organic union is just the initiation. The organic union is the start, while the sonship is something that is built upon the organic union. We cannot be members of Christ if we are not sons of God. Our membership in the Body of Christ depends upon our sonship. In the house of God sonship is crucial and vital to our membership. I’m sorry to say this word membership has been altogether dirtied, defiled, spoiled, and corrupted, not only by the secular use, but also by its use in Christianity. Some simply get enrolled and sprinkled with a few drops of water, and they become members. That is too cheap! We all are members of the Body of Christ; this membership depends upon the sonship.
In Matthew 16 the Lord asked Peter who He was, and Peter answered that the Lord was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Christ as the Son of the living God is for the building up of Christ. The Son of God builds up Christ, and everyone that is built into Christ must be a son of God. The Head of Christ is the firstborn Son of God, and all the members of the Body of Christ are the many sons of God. Christ, individually and corporately, is just a collection, a composition, of sons of God. The Head of this corporate Christ is the firstborn Son of God, and the Body of this corporate Christ is the composition of so many sons of God. The sons of God are a matter of life, and the members of Christ are a matter of function. Many Christians today do not pay much attention to the Body of Christ. Even those who talk about the Body of Christ do not see that the Body of Christ comes out of the sonship.
Several years ago in Elden Hall I stressed in some messages that Romans twelve is a direct continuation of Romans eight. We may consider chapters nine through eleven as parenthetical. This means if you have not passed through chapter eight, you can never be in chapter twelve. Nearly all the Christians have stopped in chapter four. They have not stepped into chapter five yet. A small number are in chapter seven struggling. Very few are in Romans eight. Fewer still have passed from chapter eight into chapter twelve. For their entire life they may linger in chapter eight. Very few have entered into chapter twelve.