The Process of Sonship

Although Jesus came as Son to restore us to the Father as sons and daughters, His sonship was important for another reason. Jesus modeled how to live and relate to the Father as a son in this world. While it is true that Jesus had the advantage of being completely sinless, Scripture also make it clear that in becoming a man, He subjected Himself to every temptation that we encounter. 

The manhood of Jesus is something to be celebrated because it was central to heaven’s plan for redemption and restoration. Jesus came to this earth fully God and fully human, but Paul tells us in Philippians that while He existed in the form of God, He emptied Himself to assume the likeness of men—to become like us—and set aside his divine rights to take the form of a servant. By His humility in obedience to the Father, Jesus made Himself into an example that we could follow. This ultimate act of sonship provides a clear picture of how we can move past knowing that we are God’s children in our theology to actually becoming sons and daughters of God at a cellular level. 

There is a process that living out of our identity will lead us into. Often time it is humbling and draws us into some seemingly hidden places. Jesus experienced this at a carpenter’s shop in Nazareth. Yet there is something so powerful about the hidden life of Jesus, something that speaks so strongly to what it takes to live out the culture of the few: He was born a King, the Christ, Messiah, and yet He was relatively silent for thirty years.  

During that time, there were no miracles or public ministry to speak of. No sermons on the mount or clearing out of temples. How could this be? All of eternity was waiting on the arrival of the Christ, but then He arrived and seemed in no hurry at all to save the world. 

It is not as if the birth of Jesus went unnoticed. There were angels, shepherds and traveling wise men. King Herod was so terrified by the birth of the King of the Jews that he ordered the execution of thousands of baby boys. While it is true that the identity of the Messiah was not revealed to the masses at the nativity, the events surrounding the birth of Jesus shook the world.  

I can imagine that the shepherds who were present on the hillside around Bethlehem that night must have wondered what happened to that baby in a manger. For years they had told the story of the how the host of angels had appeared to them, lighting up the dark night sky. They had waited to see what would become of the Savior whose birth had been announced to them. I wonder how many years it took for them to begin to question if anything would become of the little Christ child.

Jesus just did not seem to be in a hurry to enter into His public ministry. All we really know was that He knew He was His Father’s son at twelve and that He had worked as a carpenter from Nazareth. Thirty years. His Father’s son. A simple carpenter.

I do not want to read between the lines too much and try to draw something out of a story that is not there. Scripture remains largely silent on the matter. I do, however, want to point out something about Jesus’ public ministry that I believe He picked up long before He turned water into wine. Central to the message that Jesus preached as He traveled from town to town, and imperative to the miracles that He performed to demonstrate that message, was that He knew how to wait on the Father.

In becoming one of us, Jesus took on the limitations of our humanity. While remaining fully God, He lovingly humbled Himself to be restrained and confined to being fashioned as a man. This is such a powerful part of the ministry of Jesus. He did not rely on His understanding of the doctrine of healing to bring wholeness to those around Him. He operated out of knowing what the Father was doing and understanding that His role was to bring the will of the Father to earth. This is what allowed Jesus to live His life tucked away in the carpenter’s shop for thirty years.  

It is not that His heart was not moved with compassion when He saw the blind and the lame during those first thirty years, but that He was willing to wait until His Father said it was time for Him to move out from the carpenter’s shop. When Jesus intervened on behalf of the woman caught in adultery, was that the first time He had witnessed a mob seeking to take judgment into its own hands? What must it have been like for Him to remain silent, waiting for the release from the Father to announce to the world that He had come to fulfill the law that no one else could keep?

Jesus practiced a restraint over the course of His public ministry that should cause us to reevaluate our view of ministry. For instance, everyone that came to Jesus with a physical need was healed, but there are stories recorded in Scripture where Jesus did not heal everyone present. John chapter five records the story of Jesus healing the man at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus walks into a room full of needs and sees a certain man that had been sick for thirty-eight years. John does not record Jesus speaking to anyone except him. Out of the estimated hundreds of sick people present, Jesus recognized that the Father was highlighting one certain man.  

I believe that a part of the process of sonship Jesus modeled for us was His willingness to be restrained by love. By submitting Himself to do only what He saw the Father doing, Jesus passed up many good ministry opportunities. He did not claim the royal rights at age eight like King Josiah, but instead waited patiently and faithfully for His Father to say that He was ready.

By doing this, Jesus trusted that the love of the Father for Him was more than enough to satisfy every one of His needs. He also trusted that the Father’s love for the world was sufficient to lead Him as He walked this earth, and that God would release Him at the time He would have the most significant impact. Because He embraced sonship, Jesus knew that whether He was feeding the five thousand or cutting logs into boards, that as long as He did what He saw the Father doing, He was bringing the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.