Romans 8:10-11 English Standard Version

10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

2 Timothy 2:13 if we are faithless, he(Jesus) remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

If Christ is in you, He cannot deny Himself, that is eternal.

Romans 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Hebrews 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Those who are adopted cannot attain the throne. The Son will not nullify the adoption because we are the reason He sacrificed Himself. We are His betrothed.

Consider our life in this earthly realm with Jesus on the throne giving orders and we as sons and daughters of adoption trying to prove we love Jesus by obedience. We have nothing to prove to the One sitting on the throne. He is in the finished work and knows all things in truth.

Our only way to prove to ourselves that we love Jesus is to obey. But we are in the world and like those “other sons” we sometimes say yes and don’t or say no and do what we are told.

How are we to know which one we are and how our application of love is acceptable?

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

The Father sent the Holy Spirit. Think about that for a moment and I will get back to you tomorrow.

Matthew 21:28-32 English Standard Version

The Parable of the Two Sons

28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. 30 And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.” 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

Allow me to clarify one important issue here before we continue. Jesus said a man had two sons. He did not say “the Kingdom of heaven is like” in this parable. This implies that the earthly realm has earthly consequences but not eternal consequences. One has nothing to do with the other as far as obedience is concerned. He explains in verse 32 that John the Baptist preached repentance not obedience and since he was preparing the way for the Messiah those that believed his words were looking for the Messiah. John’s words had good consequences, leading the repentant to Jesus Christ.

Since Jesus left us with these words there are earthly lessons to be learned. If we can learn from them, perhaps we can hear some eternal lessons. There is a third son in the story, one that had an earthy Abba, Joseph married to Mary, a carpenter from Nazareth. Jesus was the son that always said yes and always then did as He was told.

In the parable what earthly lessons can we expect to learn about the behavior of men in respect to obeying fathers? We can only draw from our own experience and from the life of others we are close enough to observe. Real world application.

What happens to a son that consistently says he will do his father’s bidding but has lied and does not obey? Does the father correct the behavior? Some do, some don’t. Inconsistency in fathering is found in mankind. Does the father cast him out of his home? Again, inconsistent.

Does the father stop asking that son and only rely on the son who said no? Answer for yourself and no one else.

We are running out of space here. Read the Parable of the Prodigal Son for enlightenment.

Luke 15:11-32