You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba! Father! (Romans 8:15 ESV)
The fact of His sonship gave to the Lord
Jesus perfect assurance as to the ultimate issue and accomplishment of
His life. It carried Him far, although He knew that the Cross was immediately
ahead, and He was going to be killed. He ministered here for three and a half
years, and then all His earthly life came to an end. How did He face it? He
regarded it as something to come and to pass, but it made no difference to Him
and His relationship to the Father. His sufferings were just a tunnel to go
through, and then to come out into the light to go on for all eternity, because
He was the Son of God. Death was a mere incident for Him, for His sonship was
indestructible, eternal. He knew that His work did not finish on the Cross, but
was going on, on the ground of resurrection for all eternity. He was not just
living for this little space of time. Thus He derived His strength from the fact
of sonship.
Are we saying this is the end of all? Do
we take the trials of this earthly life as something incidental which are
passing, and which make no difference to us and our inward state? We should be
aware that if we go through the grave (if the Lord tarries), it is but a passing
through into enlargement. We shall have a service and a glorious future in the
ages to come. His servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face.
This knowledge of sonship carried the Lord Jesus through the darkness of the
Cross in triumph. His last word was Father. It would have been otherwise if
the Cross had been the end of all. His disciples thought that all had come to an
end. But later they understood that it meant something more than that. It was
the beginning of a new thing sonship was in view. In the case of the Lord
Jesus that position of sonship brought a mighty assurance to Him as to the issue
of things. Behind it was the strength of a death-conquering eternal life. That assurance holds good for us too. If we
look at our Lord Jesus in the glory our questions will be solved. What God is
after is the consummation of sonship. Sonship is the basis upon which the Father
gives all His fullness, which makes all things possible for us. For the
Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things, that He does Himself. The
Lord Jesus knew that the Father had given all things into His hands, and
that He came forth from God.