Divine Adoption

All to often the biblical teaching of our adoption is overlooked and perhaps even neglected. I'm guilty- of emphasizing redemption over adoption. Yet, in the one of the four passages that speak of adoption, the text says that we were redeemed so that we could be adopted: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!' So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God" (Ga 4:4–7). Our redemption and our adoption go hand in hand. God doesn't just save people from His righteous wrath. No, He makes rebellious sinners His children! Those that are in Christ now have a place at His table as a part of His family. We are not just forgiven sinners that are tolerated by God. No sir, we can now call the Father- Father. We are His children and He loves us so. He sent His very own Son-our Lord Jesus- to provide the grounds for our adoption. That's how much He loves His children. Divine adoption is a beautiful thing isn't it? While we were not only not looking for Him, we were His enemies and, He lovingly sought us out and brought us into His family.

We must never think that our adoption stems from some misplaced idea that we were orphans. We were not orphans we were rebel sinners and enemies of God. Orphans are usually children that have been rejected by their parents and deserve to be taken in by some family that will love them. And as you observe, when human adoption is accomplished the adopting family typically chooses the kids that are not as "bad" as the unruly others that tend to bring all sorts of problems with them. That is not a complaint by any means. It is the natural humans desire (or at least was) to protect the family and not divide it. Anytime some family takes a child that is not there's by genealogy, it is a noble thing. But divine adoption is vastly different. For the thrice holy God takes enemies and doesn't just make them His friends but His sons and daughters! And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind" (Eph 2:1–3). God takes those that hate, reject and blaspheme Him and are by nature His enemies under His wrath and makes them His. He loves them and has set His love and affection upon them before they were born, before they were even aware of their own existence. We did not and do not deserve to be a part of His family but since God is love He has marked out a family for Himself that are heirs of His promises found in Christ and secured and accomplished by Him. Contrary to human thought not everybody is God's child. Only those that are repentant and have believed in Christ can cry "Abba Father!"

Our adoption was not just some afterthought of God. When God created the world, it was not as if He made us a back up plan after man chose to rebel against Him. No, in love God predestined us to be His children and to receive His blessings. He willfully, purposefully, deliberately chose to set His affection on us and make us members of His family before He even spoke the world into existence: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight  making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ  as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth" (Eph 1:3–10). God, in love, decided to adopt us before He even created the world. He made the choice to make us His. That is why a rejection of the biblical teaching about election is very tragic. When one teaches that God chose us because He looked down the tunnel of time to see who would accept Him and these He chose, it is not only a rejection of God's sovereignty but a minimizing of His love and our divine adoption. It is just another way of saying that everybody deserves to be adopted and is dependent on our own actions but if every one deserves to be adopted then God has an obligation to man which takes makes grace something owed to sinners. Yet, that is the exact opposite of what the adopted apostle Paul is stating in Eph. And even on a human level it is nonsensical since human adoption is not determined by the one being adopted but by the adopting parents!

Our adoption, as sons of the Living God, means that we are brought into a corporate family. God does not have children that do not fellowship with their brothers and sisters. The individualism that can be found in much of the Western Church flies in the face of adoption. We are a family and we worship, fellowship and socialize as such. We have an eternal family. Any genetic relationship is bound by time while the one that is bound by the blood of Christ will remain in eternity. Our family is huge and with it it has many, many blessings that are found in Christ our Savior. That is why a rejection of gathering to worship our God collectively and to fellowship with one another is a slap in the face of God because it is to call yourself a bastard (illegitimate). The Father did not send His Son to crush Him on the cross so that you can reject the rest of His family; because we are a family of believers we are told: "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near"  (Heb 10:19–25). Notice the plural pronouns? We are children of God and therefore brothers and sisters in Christ and we function as such to the glory of the Father.

Divine adoption is truly something wonderful. I praise the Lord for my brothers and sisters in Christ. We love love Him because He first loved us: "We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother" (1 Jn 4:19–21). Soli Deo Gloria!

For His Glory,
Fernando