The gospel of God is focused on the Son of God and on God’s desire to have many sons – it is the gospel of sonship.
Everything that God does is for this purpose – to have many sons who express Him corporately. Paul served God in the gospel of His Son (Rom. 1:9), and the gospel of God is concerning His Son in His humanity and divinity (Rom. 1:1-4).
Sonship includes everything: designation to be sons, resurrection, justification, sanctification, transformation, conformation, glorification, and manifestation! This is Paul’s gospel, a gospel of sonship (Rom. 8:14, 29; Gal. 3:26; 4:7)!
The focus of the gospel is sonship
It is so easy to have a natural understanding of the Word of God and think that the book of Romans, the gospel of God, speaks about God’s condemnation, man being justified, our sanctification, and even our glorification – since these matters are thoroughly dealt with and expounded.
But the focus of the gospel is the matter of sonship, for which we need transformation, conformation, and which is expressed in the Body life. Paul’s gospel is a gospel of sonship – it focuses on human beings becoming sons of God!
God’s intention is to bring many sons into glory, so that His many sons would express God in a corporate way to the whole universe.
A son expresses the father, and Christ as the Only Begotten of the Father fully expresses God the Father. But God wants an expression in humanity – a Body for Christ, a corporate expression in many sons.
Christ declared the Father (John 1:18), and God’s intention is to have an expression in many sons! This is the gospel of God – God desires to have many sons and He made Christ as the Prototype, the Model, to whose image we are conformed!
Preaching the high gospel in Romans
Saints, it is enough! We should no longer preach the poor gospel telling people that “God doesn’t want them to go to hell but to go to heaven if they believe in Jesus”! We need to preach the gospel by speaking the truth revealed in the gospel of God in Romans!
Tell people that once they believe in the Lord, their sins will be forgiven and they will be redeemed and justified by God, reconciled to God, and accepted by God! Let us speak the high and complete gospel!
Don’t settle for the low gospel – let’s speak about God’s desire to regenerate man in his spirit so that man may have the divine life and have God’s holy nature!
Tell people about God’s desire to dwell in man so that He may renew us, transform us, and even conform us to the image of Christ, the Firstborn Son of God! The gospel of God also speaks about man being glorified to be the matured sons of God, the members of Christ who constitute the Body of Christ expressed in many local churches as God’s corporate expression!
[sharing inspired from the life-study of Romans (msg. 52-53) and, Truth, Life, the Church, and the Gospel—the Four Great Pillars in the Lord’s Recovery, ch. 10, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Four Great Pillars in the Lord’s Recovery. ]
Thank You Lord for such a high gospel as revealed in Romans. You desire to have many sons who are conformed to the image of Your Firstborn Son, Jesus Christ. O, Lord, praise You for bringing many sons into glory through the process of renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification! Lord, uplift our view of the gospel of God and uplift our speaking of this gospel!
"Lord, uplift our view of the gospel of God and uplift our speaking of this gospel!"
Yes! Not such gospels like going to heaven, prosperity, moral society, self-help, etc., but the gospel of theosis.