“Adoption”
Pastor David Moore
Old Testament reading: Isaiah 64:1-12 (NIV)
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins.
Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people. Your sacred cities have become a wasteland; even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins. After all this, Lord, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?
New Testament reading: Ephesians 1:4-8 (NIV)
For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will—to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
The theme in Ephesians we are talking about today is adoption.
I will say that everyone has a creator in God, but not everyone has a father. Other religions say you can become the servant of the Creator, or a student, but only Christianity says the Creator can become your Father. The word adoption, when applied to us, means that we are naturally children of God the Father. Something has to take place to make us His child, something legal. ~D. Moore
We are children of God! John 1:12-13 To all who received Him, to those who believe in His name, He gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
God wants to be our Father, to adopt us, take care of us, make good all of our debts. ~D. Moore
Who then pays the price? Jesus did. ~D. Moore
What does this mean for us? This makes us His sons. ~D. Moore
The Greek word that Paul uses is huiothesia which means: thesia – to make something and huio – to make you His son.
Adoption then is not a change in nature, but a change in status. And that is true for you as well. When we are adopted into God’s family, because of what Jesus did, your natural instinct changed. Instead, it is a legal change. Being a follower of Jesus, you become part of the family of God. ~D. Moore
Galatians 4:7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are His child, God has made you also an heir.
Being a member of God’s family, you are given spiritual gifts, promises to never be forsaken or given more than you can handle. ~D. Moore
Jeremiah 31:3 The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
Being adopted into God’s family, there are no imperfections. That means that God loves us as much as He loves Jesus the Son. ~D. Moore
Jesus says in John 17, “Father, you have loved them even as you love me.”
Even though we are adopted into the family, we aren’t like the other members. They are God, we are not and never will be. ~D. Moore
There are some religions and philosophies that have humanity heading in the direction of being God, but we never will become that, no matter how hard we try or how much we want it to be true. ~D. Moore
The amazing thing; we are loved in the same way that Jesus is loved by God. ~D. Moore
Galatians 3:26-29 For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.
Romans 8:22-23 We know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.
What gives? In Ephesians we are adopted and in Romans we are waiting to be adopted. This is a place where there is a tension of already, but not yet? There will come a day when we will fully be in glory as His children, when our inheritance arrives, we will lose our flaws and bad habits and become people who fully look like God in integrity, nobility, wisdom, power, love, and majesty. ~D. Moore
My hope is that the anticipation of that moment will give us encouragement and life while we deal with the daily ups and downs in our lives. I think we are given a glimpse of these in Scripture. In Romans 8 and Galatians 4 it says we are not given a spirit of fear but a spirit of sonship as we cry Abba Father. Part of what the Spirit’s role in our life is to remind us we are God’s child. ~D. Moore
This week: think about the difference of a servant and a son. You have become a child of God, through God adopting you into His family and have been given the same love to you as Jesus has received from the Father.
Have a great week. God bless.