The Son of God and the Son of Man
Greetings and good morning brothers and sisters This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series
where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years,
the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them
with you. This morning we seek to understand our status as sons of God and sons of man.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message
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The Son of God and the Son of Man
"Then Saith he unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God
the things that are God's." Matthew, Chapter 22, Verse 21.
Brothers and sisters, we know that we are sons and daughters of God, but we are also sons and
daughters of man. Being sons and daughters of the Father, we are privileged and honored to reveal
him to each other through Jesus' spirit, the Spirit of Truth. Now in order to fully allow the Father to
function through us, and more fully cooperate with this glorious task, it is helpful to understand how
all of this works. And this we shall do by pointing out the difference between our function as the son
of man and our function as the son of God, and then having done this analysis show the integrated
function of this union.
The son of man comes into the world as a material creature. Life is a material mechanism and
therefore subject to the laws of the material world. The son of man has material functions. It is
personal, has mind and personality. It is self conscious and selfish. It is derived from the animals,
and has a strong animal nature, but unlike the lower animals, it has free will, and must use its mind
to negotiate material reality. It must use its mind in order to survive. The son of man has
reproductive functions. This allows him to perpetuate the race. This assures that the human
mechanism will continue to serve as the generator of not only other human beings, but also other
sons of God.
The life of the son of man, especially during the earlier times of existence and during the material
ages, is very difficult. On our world, the life of the son of man is even more difficult because of the
rebellion that distorted and retarded everything. Thus we are lacking in an orderly and well-managed
society. The society is not ethical. This creates all kinds of problems for the son of man. It is even
difficult to provide for a living under the present organization of society, and it is very difficult to
adjust and adapt to the disharmony of strife and discord that is so much a part of his existence. It is
even more difficult for him to recognize his relationship with the heavenly Father. So distorted are
his concepts of the heavenly Father, he has made the Father a part of his materialistic striving,
seeking the Father's intervention in the material world, not realizing that concerning the material
world, The Father's material laws reign supreme.
It is very difficult for him not to seek material favors from the heavenly Father, for he is so often
stressed materially. In his relationships with each other, there is strife and unresolved conflict,
undoubtedly unresolved because of the failure to enact the role of the son of the heavenly Father.
Without assuming the role of the son of the heavenly Father functioning in his life, only material
values are generated, but from a practical aspect this never happens with the exceptions of those
humans who lack moral natures, those who do not have the capacity to know the heavenly Father.
In summary the son of man is a materialistic creation and must operate within the material
environment subject to the laws of the material environment. This is the rendering to Caesar the
things that are Caesar.
But shortly after the son of man makes his appearance, the son of the heavenly Father begins to exert
his nature. This son is created within the material mind of the son of man. It is the soul. This occurs
when we make our first moral decision. This is the first decision to do the Father's will and results
in the creation of a soul--the son of the heavenly Father. Thus we see that the son of the heavenly
Father is a spiritual phenomenon existing alongside the material functions of the son of man. Both
of these functions are united under the auspices of the personality.
Now this soul is unlike the material nature of man. It has abilities and capabilities that transcend the
material mind. From the human point of view, the most interesting and important fact is that it can
survive mortal death. But from the spiritual point of view, this soul allows the heavenly Father
through His Son Jesus to manifest himself to the soul and through the soul to the other sons and
daughters of the Father. This allowing the Father to manifest himself through the human soul is the
doing of the Father's will. When we allow the Father to manifest himself through the soul, it is
submitting to the Father's will. When the soul makes a decision to allow the Father to function
through and in him continuously, then has the soul dedicated and consecrated itself to doing the
Father's will and has agreed by this decision to accept eternal life, to eternally abide by the Father's
will. He has accepted salvation offered by Jesus.
In times gone by, before the advent of the divine Son, Jesus, who perfectly demonstrated the Son of
God and the son of man in human existence, the human being was still a son of God and a son of
man, but the son of God phases were potential. The soul was still being conceived but its growth was
prohibited in that it had not developed sufficiently to recognize the Father's will and to respond to
it accurately. No mechanism existed whereby it could be as it were born again while still residing
within the human mind and perceive spiritual realities. When the divine Son Jesus incarnated in
human form and demonstrated how the Son of God functions in the flesh, this event made it possible
for all of his human brothers to do the same thing. So that with the coming of Jesus, the son of man
and the son of God are able to function as one in human experience.
Jesus' Spirit of Truth liberates the sleeping spiritual potential of man's soul even while he is in the
flesh. To a soul that is dedicated and consecrated to doing the Father's will, the Father's divines
values and meanings will flow continuously, and this continuous flow of the Father's divine values
and meanings is the realization of divine sonship while living in the flesh. This process of becoming
an actual channel for the free flow of the Father's love and mercy requires some time for the growth
of the soul, but as the soul continues to pray, it learns how to do the Father's will, learns how to
manifest the divine character. The Spirit of Truth allows souls to manifest the same fruit of the spirit
that Jesus manifested in his life when he lived the life of the flesh, and this manifestation of the fruit
of the spirit is the manifestation of the Father's character. So Jesus is the branch, and we are the vine.
"When there exists this living connection between divinity and humanity, if humanity should
thoughtlessly and ignorantly pray for selfish ease and vainglorious accomplishments, there could be
only one divine answer: more and increased bearing of the fruits of the spirit on the stems of the
living branches. When the branch of the vine is alive, there can be only one answer to all its
petitions: increased grape bearing. In fact, the branch exists only for, and can do nothing except, fruit
bearing, yielding grapes.”” So does the true believer exist only for the purpose of bearing the fruits
of the spirit: to love man as he himself has been loved by God--that we should love one another, even
as Jesus has loved us. So we see the only function of the son of the Father living in the flesh is to
produce spiritual fruit.
In summary, the son of the Father and the son of man exist together in one human being. The
material aspects of existence are applied to the material life, while the spiritual aspects of existence
are applied to the spiritual aspects. When these two functions are united, we have a situation where
quantity the material aspects of the self are thoroughly infiltrated by quality, the spiritual aspects of
itself. In short, the material aspects of the self are what we do; the spiritual aspects of the self are
how we do what we do, and this is always the way of love, patience, mercy and forgiveness-divine
goodness.
This concludes today's message on understanding our status as sons of God and the sons of man. We
hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done!
The Son of God and the Son of Man
