W E’VE DEVOTED A LOT OF SPACE TO DESCRIBING GOD’S PLAN TO RECLAIM the disinherited nations and restore his rule. Let’s review: Yahweh’s original intention was that all humankind would be his earthly family, ruling in cooperation with him and his heavenly family. The Old Testament describes the ruin of Yahweh’s desire through a series of primeval rebellions. But the original objective was not defeated, only delayed. After the rebellion at Babel, Yahweh set aside the nations and called Abraham to begin anew.
Even as Yahweh started his kingdom plan with this one man and his wife, there were hints that the nations were not forgotten—in fact, God said that through Abraham all nations would be blessed (Gen 12:3). The focal point of that blessing was to be the ultimate son of Abraham, the messiah. After his resurrection, the Spirit promised by Jesus—and by the prophets of old—came at Pentecost and began the great reversal. The gospel was carried to all the nations of the known world, transforming men and women held hostage to other gods into sons and daughters of Yahweh. 1
IF YOU ARE CHRIST’S, YOU ARE ABRAHAM’S SEED
We saw in the last chapter that Paul understood God’s plan of infiltration in the wake of Pentecost and, once confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus, his own role in that plan. In his letters he referred to it as a mystery—how God could make the Gentile, a member of the disinherited nations, a full member in the family that he’d begun with Abraham. Instead of being disinherited by Yahweh, Gentiles were now joint heirs of the true God. Paul’s letter to the predominantly Gentile church at Ephesus is one example:
1 On account of this I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles 2 —if indeed you have heard about the stewardship of God’s grace given to me for you. 3 According to revelation the mystery was made known to me, just as I wrote beforehand in brief, 4 so that you may be able when you read to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ 5 (which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit): 6 that the Gentiles are fellow heirs , and fellow members of the body, and fellow sharers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel (Eph 3:1–6).
Paul’s message to the church at Galatia was just as dramatic:
6 Just as Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness, 7 then understand that the ones who have faith, these are sons of Abraham. 8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the good news in advance to Abraham: “In you all the nations will be blessed.” 9 So then, the ones who have faith are blessed together with Abraham who believed.… 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are descendants of Abraham, heirs according to the promise (Gal 3:6–9, 26–29).
In Christ, believers are “the sons of God.” The language of inheritance is crystal clear. It derives from and advances the Old Testament idea that humans were meant to be in the family of God all along. It’s no coincidence that the New Testament writers repeatedly describe salvation into Yahweh’s family with words like “adoption,” “heir,” and “inheritance” to describe what the Church really is—the reconstituted divine-human family of God. The believer’s destiny is to become what Adam and Eve originally were: immortal, glorified imagers of God, living in God’s presence as his children. 2 The theological messaging is unmistakable in the context of the epic story we’ve tracked through the Old Testament:
11 He came to his own things, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But as many as received him—to those who believe in his name—he gave to them authority to become children of God, 13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a husband, but of God (John 1:11–13).
1 See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called children of God, and we are! Because of this the world does not know us: because it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever he is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is (1 John 3:1–2).
4 But when the fullness of time came, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 in order that he might redeem those under the law, in order that we might receive the adoption. 6 And because you are sons, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! (Father!),” 7 so that you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, also an heir through God (Gal 4:4–7).
15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself confirms to our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer together with him so that we may also be glorified together with him (Rom 8:15–17).
4 Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption through Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will (Eph 1:4–5).
We are accustomed, of course, to thinking of the Church as the “body of Christ.” It is certainly that as well. But this term points us to the family metaphor. The idea of the Church being “the body of Christ” reflects the truth that it is through Christ’s physical incarnation, physical death, and physical resurrection that believers—Jew or Gentile—become members of God’s family. Quoting Paul once again: “The Gentiles are fellow heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow sharers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph 3:6).
It is Christ who fuses the chosen sons of God from Abraham’s line to the sons of God called from the nations. His work on the cross is where the exiled and the disinherited meet, forming one new entity. But that’s only one aspect of who we are.
INHERITED AUTHORITY: A Stake in the Family Business
Believers are more than God’s family. Being “the sons of God” also means being members of God’s governing rule—his council. Believers have a divinely appointed purpose. Adam and Eve were supposed to make all the world Eden—to spread the kingdom rule of God so that we could enjoy the love of God, our Father. That hasn’t changed.
Recall that, in ancient Israelite thinking, God’s home was not only where his family lived, but also where the council met. The place was one and the same, and the members were one and the same. So it is in the New Testament. While New Testament writers employ family terms to describe the Church, it is also no coincidence that they use Old Testament terminology we would associate with the divine council. Ephesians 1:5, 11–19 is a good starting point:
5 having predestined us to adoption through Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will … 11 in whom also we were chosen, having been predestined according to the purpose of the One who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 that we who hoped beforehand in Christ should be for the praise of his glory, 13 in whom also you, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also when you believed you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the down payment of our inheritance , until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.
15 Because of this I also, hearing of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him 18 (the eyes of your hearts having been enlightened), so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance among the saints , 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe.
The English translation obscures an important Old Testament connection back to the divine council. The word for “saints” in verse 18 (and elsewhere in the New Testament) is hagioi , which means “holy ones.” Paul tells the Ephesians that believers have a glorious inheritance among the holy ones.
We’ve discussed the term “holy ones” in the Old Testament before. 3 It is used of divine beings in Yahweh’s divine council (e.g., Job 5:1; 15:15; Psa 89:5–7; Zech 14:5). The Hebrew term is qedoshim . The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament used by New Testament writers, translates that term with hagioi , the same word as in Ephesians 1:18. We also saw earlier that the Old Testament uses qedoshim of people—specifically of believing Israelites—those not guilty of worshipping other gods and bringing the disaster of exile to pass (Psa 16:3; 34:8; cp. Lev 26:14–33).
We saw earlier, in chapter 30 , that both uses come together in a crucial chapter—Daniel 7 . That chapter had the second Yahweh figure in human form, the son of man, receiving an everlasting kingdom from the enthroned Ancient of Days. The kingdom was also given to the holy ones—both divine and human (Dan 7:22, 27). The passage conveyed the idea of joint rulership in God’s kingdom.
Paul echoes that thought in his letter to the Ephesians when he says that we have an inheritance among the holy ones. We are not only heirs and children in God’s divine family, but we inherit the right to rule and reign with Jesus. Paul described our kingdom inheritance in Col 1:11–13. He prays that his readers will be
11 enabled with all power, according to his glorious might, for all steadfastness and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you for a share of the inheritance of the saints [holy ones] in light, 13 who has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves.
Once the nations are restored to Yahweh through the gospel, believers will displace the divine beings who presently dominate the nations and rule in their place as Yahweh’s children and corulers. As Paul wrote elsewhere, believers will “judge angels” (1 Cor 6:3). 4 The apostle John is just as direct in Revelation 2 :
[Jesus says]: 25 Nevertheless, hold fast to what you have until I come. 26 And the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, I will give him authority over the nations , 27 and “he will shepherd them with an iron rod; he will break them in pieces like jars made of clay,” 28 as I also have received from my Father, and I will give him the morning star (Rev 2:25–28).
The power of this passage is found in John’s citation (in v. 27) of Psalm 2 , which describes the messiah’s reign. Before telling his messianic king, “You will break them with an iron rod,” Yahweh says to him, “You are my son; today I have begotten you. Ask from me and I will make the nations your heritage, and your possession the end of the earth” (Psa 2:7–8). Jesus, the messiah, inherits the everlasting kingdom—and then shares it with his children, “those who overcome” until his return. John tells us directly in his next chapter (Rev 3:21) that those who overcome rule and reign with Jesus:
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, indeed I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me. 21 The one who conquers, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne , as I also have conquered and have sat down with my Father on his throne (Rev 3:20–21).
The destiny of the believer is not only a place in God’s home, but dominion with Jesus “among the holy ones” (Eph 1:18).
Revelation 2:28, quoted just above, had an unusual phrase in it. To the one who overcomes, Jesus says, “I will give him the morning star.” The odd wording reinforces the idea of our joint rule with Jesus over the nations.
The “morning star” phrase takes us back once more to the Old Testament, which at times uses astral terminology to describe divine beings. Job 38:7 is the best example (“the morning stars were singing together and all the sons of God shouted for joy”). 5 Stars were bright and, in the worldview of the ancients, living divine beings since they moved in the sky and were beyond the human realm.
The morning star language in Revelation 2:28 is messianic—it refers to a divine being who would come from Judah. We know this by considering two other passages in tandem.
In Numbers 24:17, we read the prophecy that “a star will go out from Jacob, and a scepter will rise from Israel.” Numbers 24:17 was considered messianic in Judaism, completely apart from the New Testament writers. 6 In other words, literate readers of John’s writing would have known the morning star reference was not about literal brightness. It was about the dawning of the returned kingdom of God under its messiah. Later in the book of Revelation, Jesus himself refers to his messianic standing with the morning star language: “I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star” (Rev 22:16).
The wording of Revelation 2 is especially powerful when read against this backdrop. Not only does Jesus say that he is the messianic morning star in Revelation 22:16, but when he says “I will give him [who overcomes] the morning star” (Rev 2:28), he grants us the authority to rule with him.
As dramatic as these thoughts are, we’ll see one that trumps them all in the next chapter. We aren’t just God’s children and corulers with his Son. We’re Jesus’ siblings —and each of us will meet the council with him at our side.