Grace and The Sonship of God
"Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created; and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth" (Ps. ciii. 30). The sanctification of men is really a new creation, and a renewal of the face of the earth by covering it with a new order of life and action. The work of sanctification by the effusion of grace resembles more the generation of the Eternal Son than the creation of the material world. God sendsforth an efflux of His intellect which knows all things, of His will which determines all things, of His love and His sanctity, and produces in man, when properly disposed by the consent of his will, a reflection of His own divine image. This resemblance is not merely superficial as are the vestiges of God in the material creation, but in some wonderful way the souls of men are "made partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. i. 4). The advantages which are communicated in sanctifying grace resemble the qualities which belong to sonship. We are placed on the same supernatural level of existence as God, we receive an infused life from God, we are most closely united with Him, and share in some manner in His divine nature. "Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called and should be the sons of God" (1 John iii. 1). It is however a sonship not of nature but of adoption. Therefore you should cry Abba, Father. God is no stranger to you, no remote Creator or terrible judge; but He has revealed Himself as your Father, to exalt you and to show what love and service He expects from you.
