Something happens when a son relates to a father. When Christ the Son related to His Father, the Father loved Him and placed all things in His hands (John 3:35). Sonship is a relationship, and we also need to engage in this relationship of being sons to our Father (John 20:17; Romans 8:14). As we do that, things will begin to happen. We must see the Father without any misconceptions of who He is and what He is all about. That is the change I am looking for.

Yeshua (Jesus) said, “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Luke 10:22).[1] Christ came to express the Father. That is why He became frustrated when Philip said, “Show us the Father” (John 14:8). Yeshua responded, “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father.” People had a lot of false concepts about the Son of Man because He could only be understood by a revelation from the Father (Matthew 16:13–17). Christ came in the flesh to be our great High Priest, to sacrifice and bring redemption and salvation. But first and foremost, Yeshua was and is the Son of God.

Another example of a Father-son relationship is evident in the intercession of Moses (Exodus 32:11–14, 33:12–17). Moses contended with the Father. And God responded, “Let Me alone that My anger may burn against this people. I will destroy them because of their disobedience” (see Exodus 32:9–10). If you were to take Moses out of that picture, then people would only see the Father as a wrathful God. As humans we can only assume that God is what we see. But Moses was representative of the son relationship in Christ. Moses implored, “Now wait a minute, God. You said this and You said that. I don’t see how You can go against Your Word.” And God changed His mind. Likewise, without sons of God on the scene today, there is nothing to change God’s mind.

What happened when Yeshua came before the Father and contended with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:42)? You got saved. Christ’s sacrifice changed everything for you by His relationship with the Father. Without that dynamic of a Father-Son relationship, God would still be on a course of destroying us in His anger. But Yeshua’s relationship with the Father at Gethsemane changed everything: the past, the present, and eternity. Yeshua was not heard because He was special but because He stood before the Father as a Son. As a result, our picture of the Father has changed. We no longer see God as being a terrible ogre who is going to destroy us because of our sin. Instead, we see that our loving Father has provided everything to get us out of our sin. Now that is a different picture!

The Father predestined you “to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29).  Christ was the fullness of Deity in bodily form; He was the pattern Son. Now God is looking for a dynamic Father-son relationship with each of us. When that happens in any generation, then a revelation of the Father is released into the earth. So we let God transform us until we are absolutely able to stand as sons in a relationship with our Father.

[1] All Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995).