I was “a sinner” long before I ever was “a son”. And even when I was saved in my spirit by the grace of the LORD, there came a time when I again fell away by the lusts of my flesh because although I was saved “in life”, I wasn’t yet a son “in my walking”. And although nothing could separate me from the love of God, for it was the love of God that ultimately caught me as I fell, and hooked me, like a fisher of men, and patiently and relentlessly reeled me back from drowning, as any father would, into the safety and clasp of His paternal hands, it took a long time before I moved from being a sinner yet saved (in spirit) into being a son (in truth).

     Because we are “saved” doesn’t mean we are automatically “a son”. Becoming a son is the pilgrimage that begins AFTER salvation. We are saved from sin by faith IN Christ, but we become a son only through faithfulness TO Christ. God says He searches the earth all over to be strong for the one who is faithful TO Him. That speaks to a quality of heart and relationship. That speaks to when Jesus is not only Saviour, but also LORD. That speaks to when God is not only Father but also King. For many are called “unto salvation”, but few are chosen “to be sons”. For being a son is when you are no longer led by your flesh, but by the Spirit. When we not only “live” in salvation, but “walk” in salvation (Galatians 5:25). And when God chooses His sons and daughters, it’s when we decide and determine, in our own hearts, just like Isaiah, to say “here I am, send me”, which is choosing to put the will of God the Father before our own will, to deny the sovereignty of our own will and soul, and to follow Him. We make Him not just the “author” through salvation, but the “finisher” through sonship. We make Him not just the alpha through salvation, but the omega through sonship.

     For God says in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that we are to present our spirit, soul and body blameless at the coming of the LORD. That’s from beginning to end. It begins with the spirit and then continues thereafter to the soul and the body. Philippians speaks of working out your salvation with fear and trembling. We are saved at a moment in time in our spirit through faith IN Christ. But we are saved in our soul and body as a process OVER time by being faithful TO Him. I had to bash my head repeatedly against the grossness of every selfish sin and wickedness before I would break, and become clay in His hands. It didn’t have to be that way, but the root of pride goes deep. It is a persistent and powerful stubbornness that seeks to exalt your own life and your own understanding of right and wrong and good and evil above the knowledge of God. The river of living water that is God’s love for you will find a way around, a way under or a way over any rock of pride that keeps your heart from His love. I was saved for a long time. It took me many years from salvation to begin to walk in that salvation and move from a sinner to a son. I have been walking as a son for the last three years. And I am growing in Him by Him and through Him, only because of the legitimacy of His love, and the authority of His position as Father unto a son. And by God’s grace, before the seedtime that is this life comes to an end, I pray that God’s hands will shape me and frame me and mould me into not just a son, but a son who is also a man in God, for God, by God.

     And as a son, this is my prayer for all the hearts of all His own. May we all blossom into the fullness of the glory that it is to be not just no longer orphans, but also the legitimate sons and daughters of the Most High Elyon. Amen and amen.