Covenant Presbyterian Church

Balance is elusive. We hear a sermon about a duty of our Christian discipleship - a legitimate aspect of holiness. Failing to relate that duty to Christ’s grace and promise to assist us in our weakness, we soon enter a cycle of guilt-induced attempts at personal reform. Frustration and despair develop; we soon give up. We then hear a sermon about our adoption by God to be his sons and daughters, a sermon that emphasizes the all-sufficiency of Christ’s righteousness for us and of our security in him. We rejoice in the good news of the gospel, but if we fail to think well upon the implications of God’s goodness to us, of how we should respond to his grace with gratitude and obedience, we will inevitably pervert God’s grace into an excuse for our sins. In isolation from each other, the duty sermon can produce Christ-less attempts toward holiness. The sonship sermon can lead to cheap grace - grace without gratitude leading to faithfulness.

There is a grievous error in the church today known as Sonship Theology. It is making dangerous headway in many Evangelical churches and some professedly Reformed congregations. Sonship Theology emphasizes the all-sufficiency of Christ’s saving work in such an exaggerated and isolated fashion that the fruits of his saving work in obedient Christian discipleship are ignored, even ridiculed. I heard of one preacher who said that as sons, we are free to sin. There was no caveat, no warning that we should not sin, and no emphasis that sonship always leads to grateful obedience to our Father. Perhaps the preacher was exaggerating to make a point, but God’s grace needs no exaggeration to see its glory and feel its power. The freeness of our Father’s grace should never be turned, even slightly, into a license to sin. This is the perversion of grace that Paul vehemently condemned (Romans 3:8). God’s grace teaches us to "deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world" (Titus 2:11-12). A man perverts grace if he de-emphasizes, downplays, or disregards the transforming power of grace.

Sonship Theology is an attempt to elevate grace, the assurance of salvation we have in Jesus Christ, and the intention of God to preserve Christ’s sheep so that not one is ever lost. This is commendable. Yet in its desire to highlight the grace of God to us in Christ, it ignores other important and vitally connected fruits of our union with Jesus Christ. For example, one of the purposes of our sonship, our adoption into the family of God, is to give us the confidence of sons. Through Christ, as God’s adopted sons and daughters, we may approach God freely and confidently as our Father, despite our sinfulness, and seek from him the grace and righteousness that we lack in ourselves. Sonship also brings with it certain duties and the grace to fulfill them. In Romans 8:15-23, one of Paul’s central sonship passages, after declaring our adoption he mentions "suffering for Christ’s sake" (vv, 17,18), groaning under the weight of sin as we patiently await the full manifestation of our sonship status (v. 23), and hope in the promise of God (v. 24). From this passage alone, it is evident that a true understanding of sonship does not lead to giddy spirituality, moral license, or cheap views of grace that ignore the very real implications of being a son or daughter in the world. It leads to the fruit of the Spirit and a virtuous life of patience and hope.

Three imbalances in the church will make it far easier for the advocates of cheap grace to create confusion. There is first the continuing law-grace confusion. Some advocates of Sonship Theology unapologetically deny the duty of the believer to obey God’s law. Some have said that if we really knew how much God loves us, we would not worry about duty at all. We would be done once and for all with the law of God. This is nothing but the old Carnal Christian Theory clothed in more respectable theological garb - sonship. We are sons; stop worrying about sin, about your personal weaknesses, about the duties of God’s law. Embrace who you are in Christ, they say. Be a son or daughter. If you are concerned about your sin, obedience, or ongoing repentance, you are not adequately appreciating your sonship. Scripturally, however, sonship never makes us less concerned about sin and holiness. In fact, it intensifies the concern - because of gratitude - deep, transforming, bottom of the soul thankfulness to God for his grace and mercy in Jesus Christ. Moreover, the opposite of grace is not law; it is justice. Hence, every adopted child of God recognizes and deeply appreciates his freedom from the curse that the law would pronounce upon him had not Christ Jesus become his substitute and provided a full atonement for his lawlessness. Raised from death to life, he also embraces his new relationship to the law through Jesus Christ. It is not his harsh taskmaster but his certain guide, a standard he joyfully subscribes and cheerfully obeys. He never thinks that grace means he can live as he wishes. Rather, grace empowers him to live as God wishes (Rom. 6:14-22). He delights in God’s law, longs to obey God more sincerely, and endeavors to demonstrate his gratitude through obedience (Rom. 7:22-25). This is why John writes: "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome" (1 John 5:3). Why are they not burdensome? Because grace leads to gratitude, and gratitude produces cheerful obedience to God. For a son who loves his Father, obedience is not a burden; it is a privilege and joy.

Within the church today, the spirit of "do your own Jesus thing" will also make Sonship Theology attractive. We see this spirit in everything from worship to theology to Christian living. There is an entrenched disdain for the practical authority of Scripture. Just give me some slogan from the Bible that will provide any justification, however silly or trite, for what I want to do, or to make me feel good about what I am doing, or to relieve me from having to "walk circumspectly" (Eph. 5:15) and "soberly" (Rom. 12:3; Tit. 2:12). Give me giddy. Let me pursue my own feelings and find my personal comfort zone. No better theology supports such confusion as Sonship Theology. It is vehemently anti-duty. In fact, it maintains that concerns like obeying God, practicing self-examination in the light of Scripture, or feeling remorse for one’s sins are denials of our adoption. According to Sonship Theology, these things "get in the way" and evidence a lack of faith. Yet, given Scripture’s constant exhortation to us to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4), work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), and lead quiet lives of obedience to God (1 Tim. 2:2), it is actually Sonship Theology that gets in the way of God’s will for our lives. We have been made sons and daughters of God through grace that we may devote ourselves to him in cheerful, careful obedience (Eph. 2:10). In the course of such a mature Christian walk, we will necessarily experience seasons of remorse over sins, confrontation and conviction by the Spirit, and soul-searching anxiety. This is part of our sonship, for God has not been pleased to complete his work in us in a day but brings us to heaven through bearing the cross of our Savior. When the believer goes through these things, he is not denying the all-sufficiency of Christ; he is seeking to make his calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1:10).

By far the greatest weakness and danger of Sonship Theology is its truncated view of the saving work of Jesus Christ. It is grossly imbalanced. While wanting to do justice to the security of the believer by providing an unassailable foundation for assurance, it ironically removes one of the surest foundations of security and assurance. It does this by failing to give necessary emphasis to the breadth of Jesus’ saving work in our lives. For example, one prominent advocate of Sonship Theology encourages his readers to pick a date, any date, and from that date forward to claim assurance of salvation. When doubts arise, we are encouraged to "make an obscene gesture at the devil." This is sinful and childish. We do not have assurance by taunting Satan, an action strongly condemned by Scripture (Jude 9-10), but by "looking unto Jesus" (Heb. 12:1), seeking to gain clearer views of his perfect sacrifice, and walking in communion with him. Assurance never comes from within but from without, from the living Vine, Jesus Christ. In fellowship with him we will bear "much fruit." This fruit is certain evidence of our true interest in Christ - not shouting at the devil, consulting personal experience, or repeating, "Sonship, sonship," as a mantra. Assurance of salvation, like every other blessing from our heavenly Father, comes from appreciating the perfection, all-sufficiency, and finality of Jesus’ sacrifice, continually turning to him for light and life, and seeking from him the grace and fruit that we lack in ourselves. Granted, this method will not necessarily give you assurance in ten minutes, but it is definitely God’s way to enjoy progressively the confidence of sons. Without such fruit or good works, our faith is proven to be false, whatever preachers of Sonship Theology may say (James 2:18-20).

There is a balance between sonship and duty - in Jesus Christ. By his blood, righteousness, and intercession, we are sons, unassailably so, if we maintain the steadfastness of our confidence firmly to the end (Heb. 3:6,14). Sonship in a vacuum leads to license and carelessness. Sonship in Christ leads to gratitude and obedience, Christ-focused and sober living, and patience in waiting for the full manifestation of our sonship. It does not settle for silly theologies of sonship that cut us off from the full benefits of our Savior’s saving work. He gives us assurance by giving us himself. And when the Son of God gives himself to us, we can depend upon the fact that we shall never fail but persevere to the end of our earthly lives in faith and obedience.