The Satisfaction of Sonship
by Frank Owens
Two scenes. Two sons.
Scene #1: One of the coldest winters in thirty years had sequestered the two of us in a Louisville apartment. Jesse was taking his first class in a new degree at Southern Seminary. We were also trying to turn student housing into a home for he and Tiffany. Every brush stroke and turn of the roller was a labor of love. I was a father satisfied with a son.
Scene #2: We raised our voices with hundreds of students and guests at the Forum 14/Bible Conference at Welch College. The songs that the worship leader, Josh, had chosen were theologically rich, joyously led, and heartily sung. My heart was turned to praise the Father Who had given His Son to rescue me and mine. I felt a bit of what that Greater Father had expressed, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mt. 3:17).
How should Christians understand fatherhood and sonship? How can we be better sons and better fathers? For this, we must look to a biblical understanding of family. Only then can we best understand and honor those relationships in our own lives.
Awesome Adoption: The Satisfaction of Sonship to God
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God” (Jn. 1:12).
To understand earthly fatherhood and sonship, we must first look to the family of God. We enter this family through adoption, and it alone brings the greatest possible satisfaction. In his foreword to Russell Moore’s Adopted For Life, C.J. Mahaney reveals:
I was adopted when I was eighteen years old. I wasn’t an orphan, the way most people think of that term. I wasn’t an abandoned child. But I was in a condition far more serious: I was a stranger to the family of God, a slave to sin, and an object of the justified wrath of God. And I didn’t even realize it until my friend Bob began to share with me the good news that Christ died for my sins. As I listened, God opened my heart to understand and believe the gospel. I turned from my sin and trusted in Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death for my sins. In that moment, I was adopted into a new family. God the righteous Judge became my merciful Father. It would have been extraordinary enough for God simply to redeem us, forgive us, to declare us righteous. But he does not stop here—He makes us His children[1].
Adoption is “an act of God whereby He makes us members of His family.” By regeneration we are made spiritually alive. By justification we have right legal standing before God. But by adoption we have a personal relationship with God and His people [2]. With this spiritual adoption come several privileges.
First, adoption means we have a personal relationship with God. We relate to God as a good and loving Father. He makes it possible and permissible to say, “Our Father in heaven” (Mt. 6:9). We are no longer slaves, but sons and daughters (Gal. 4:7). He places within us His Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:14), Who makes it possible to live according to God’s will and produce righteousness. To accomplish this, God also disciplines us, as a loving Father (Heb. 12:5-7,10). He gives us full provision in this life and a great inheritance in heaven (Gal. 4:7; 1 Pet. 1:4).
Second, adoption means we have a personal relationship with other believers. We relate to and minister among one another as a family. Paul instructs Timothy to minister as to “fathers,” “mothers,” “brothers,” and “sisters” (1 Tim. 5:1-2). In addition, we uphold a standard of family behavior. As Paul explains, we should “be imitators of God as dear children” (Eph 5:1).
Therefore, we are spiritual “sons” and “daughters” satisfied, not simply by being forgiven, but by being made a “family.”
Beneficial Bloodline: The Satisfaction of Sonship to a Godly Man
“The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him” (Prov. 20:7).
Our adoption into God’s family has great implications for fathers today. Godly fathers lead the way for their children. My own father Guy Owens was a rather notorious sinner as a 1950’s teenager in Pitt County, NC. For some time, he felt no conviction and feared having committed the unpardonable sin. He was fast adopting the ways of a worldly man.
However, he found himself at a revival meeting in a rented Hookerton, NC theater three Sunday nights after graduation. He returned the next night to hear “Weighed and Found Wanting.” Conviction long since absent returned, and on June 14, 1954, he laid hold to Jesus’ promise, “The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (Jn. 6:37).
Immediately he knew “there was a new boy in these britches.” His conversion was too much for his neighbors to believe. Even his own mother queried the lady across the street, “Do you reckon it’s really so?” Yes, it really was so. As best he knew how he “had gone out of the sin business.”
Dad soon sensed the burden to share this transforming gospel. “I’ll serve You or die trying,” he committed to Christ. Within two months, he preached his first sermon. By January 1955, after meeting the college quartet and Bobby Jackson, he moved to Nashville, TN to enroll in Free Will Baptist Bible College (now Welch College).
In ’57, Guy married Marie, and for two years they would student pastor a church in Dover, TN. In the following 60 years, he would pastor in North Carolina, Michigan, South Carolina, and West Virginia. He developed a reputation for evangelistic, expositional preaching. He championed Christian schools (even starting two); helped pioneer radio ministry; and served as NC Promotional Director, college professor, and evangelist [3].
Why is this significant? The salvation of a single teenager, Guy Owens, has altered the next three generations. By being adopted into God’s family, he has led the way for his family. His children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are the beneficiaries of his continuing spiritual legacy.
My father’s feet are of clay, but his heart is tender toward his children. The affection of my father might surprise many. On November 30, 1984, he gave me this note:
On this occasion—the birth of your first child—I want to tell you again how grateful I am for you . . . I am sure we will love your son—but we really love you . . . I sincerely trust you’ll do an even better job of rearing your son than we did…I covet for you the joy . . . God has given us.
Fathers, remember your role as a godly leader. How blessed is the bloodline that has the example and encouragement of a godly man!
Grand Gifts: The Satisfaction of Having Godly Sons
“My son, if your heart is wise, my heart will rejoice—indeed, I myself; Yes, my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak right things” (Prov. 23:15-16).
My bias is to boys. That’s the only gender of children that God brought into our home. They married wonderful wives, Bethany and Tiffany, to round out our family experience. So far, the Lord has given us two grandchildren. Again, both are boys.
We know something of the satisfaction of which Solomon speaks. On any given Sunday LaDonna and I sing in worship led by Josh, while knowing that Jesse is preaching to his congregation 180 miles north of us.
Jesse wrote this message in his 2006 Father’s Day card: “I made a lot of decisions this week at The Wilds . . . I want to be a man that God can use. I learned that from watching you . . . This week I accepted the call to preach.” Praise the Lord! Josh wrote a similar note on Father’s Day last year, again illustrating the importance of training up sons: “Dad, I now know the joys of being a father . . . it is one of the greatest experiences of my life . . . Thanks for showing us . . . how to love our wives. I hope that I am as good of a dad to Landon (and now Benjamin) as you have been.” Some of God’s grandest gifts on this side of eternity are godly children (and grandchildren) who satisfy their parents by pleasing God.
All Christians can revel in their adoption by a heavenly Father into a glorious family. If you’ve been born into a godly bloodline, rejoice for this rich blessing; and if not, pave the way for your children. Life’s great joys are the satisfaction of sonship to God, the satisfaction of sonship to godly fathers, and the satisfaction of godly sons. On this Father’s Day weekend my heart says, “Sonship satisfies me,” and with Jacob, I can say, “It is enough” (Gen. 45:28).
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[1] C. J. Mahaney, “Foreword” to Adopted For Life by Russell Moore (Wheaton: Crossway, 2009), 13.
[2] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 736-745.
[3] Guy Owens, phone conversation, Saturday, May 30, 2014.
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About the Author: Frank Owens is the pastor of Sylvan Park FWB Church in Nashville, TN. He is a 1979 graduate of Welch College. He is married to a BAMA Girl, LaDonna. They have two sons, Joshua (Bethany) and Jesse (Tiffany). He is “Papa” to Landon and Benjamin. In his spare time Frank enjoys reading, running, and lawn care.
June 12, 2014
Frank, I have never read a more impressively well written sermon or article before. I smiled, laughed, and cried! I learn a lot. You and your family are very special and a blessing. I love you,
Nancy
June 12, 2014
Nancy, you have a front row seat to my reasons for such appreciation and affection for my family.
June 12, 2014
I enjoyed reading this very much. I will pass this along to my son. Thanks, Joanna Harris