Audio Transcript:
So how can we understand what it means to be adopted by God? I think that one of the best ways to understand this is by thinking about what does it mean to be an orphan? Because if we need to be adopted by God, then that means that before our adoption, that we were an orphan….a spiritual orphan.
If you think in terms of when someone is a is an earthly orphan, what are the kinds of things that that person will go through? Well, very commonly orphans struggle significantly with anxiety and depression depending on their situation. Some orphans are in that situation because their parents passed away. Other orphans are in that situation because for whatever reason, the parents aren’t able to care for the child. And in either case, what ultimately happens is that the orphan will typically struggle with having a sense of purpose…a sense of even feeling wanted or loved. They tend to wander and be moved home to home and family to family. And as a result of that situation, they often struggle to understand what it’s even like to feel loved, because they don’t have any parents that actually commit to them. And in the same way, before we come to Christ, we are also spiritual orphans in a sense.
The Bible speaks about this in a way in 1 Peter 2:9-10 when it says, “but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for “is possession. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.” So in other words, before we come to faith in Christ…before we know Christ, we are kind of wandering and lost in this kind of spiritual void. And we are not really part of a people. Instead, we are possessed by our desires and the things that we think will fill the void that’s in our hearts. But when we come to faith in Christ, we become part of the people of God. We actually have an identity in Christ that brings us into a sense of purpose and belonging.
Now, this is this is really important to understand because I think that when the gospel message is shared, we tend to focus on the fact that God forgives us of our sins and that He grants us eternal life. Now that’s not to say that these aren’t amazing and wonderful things, because they are. That is that is the heart of the gospel, right? But there is so much more that God actually does on behalf of those that that trust in him. And one of those things is that He actually adopts us through the spirit of His Son and welcomes us into His spiritual family. And the way that He does this is by giving us the Spirit of Christ in our hearts, by which we cry, “Abba, Father.”
And so, again, looking back to the example of earthly parents, (or I should say earthly adoptive parents), to understand the difference between allowing a child to simply live with you and to provide for that child…to allow them to reside with you and to live with you, that is good. But when you allow that child to come into your home and you commit your entire life to that child as if they were your own flesh and blood, and you make that lifetime commitment, that is the difference between being adopted and merely being cared for. And that is also true for the way that God adopts those that come to faith in him. Because, you see, He doesn’t merely forgive us of our sins and give us eternal life, but He does far more than that because He makes a lifelong commitment, and He takes ownership of us and He takes a responsibility for us to see us through until the end, until we reach the final goal, which is when we meet Christ face to face. The importance of that is because if we don’t, if God does not adopt us, then what that means is that, if we come to faith in Christ, what happens? Well, the Bible tells us what happens. It says in 2 Timothy 3:12, it says, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” So what happens when we come to know the Lord is that we start to dislike the things of the world, right? We no longer have the same appetite for the things that we try to fill our lives with. They become less and less of the purpose and the desire of our hearts.
But what also happens is that those who don’t know Christ…there is also a separation that happens there as well. And even in some cases, as the text says here, there is persecution. The world actually is opposed to Christianity. It is it is opposed to true faith. And so if God did not adopt us, the reality would actually be is that God would be leaving us to ourselves. It would be abandonment of us. And so by adopting us as His spiritual sons and daughters, the reality is that He is providing us a protection by Him taking ownership and giving us the Spirit of His Son in our hearts, to draw us to Himself and to cause us to cry out to him. There is actually a protection and a security in Him that we would not otherwise have if He did not adopt us as His sons and daughters.
Now, something else that’s very important to understand about His adoption of us that is unlike earthly adoption. There is a selection criteria in earthly adoption. Sometimes, orphans are chosen based on certain characteristics about their background…maybe something about their history… something about their behavior even or their age…their gender, their hair color even. But with God and the adoption of spiritual adoption through him, there is no criteria. There is nothing that prevents anyone from being adopted into the family of God. All that come to God and faith are eligible, so to speak, to come to God. He is no respecter of persons. There is nothing that we need to be or to do in order in order to experience the adoption of God, because His grace and His love is sufficient for all of our weaknesses and faults and imperfections. His grace and His mercy and His love are absolutely infinite and unlimited.
The other thing that’s important to understand is that God’s adoption of us is something that is 100% permanent. And this is because when God adopts us, it is part of a complete work that starts with the work of Christ. You have to understand the magnitude of what God has actually done by sending His Son on the cross. You have to understand the extent of the sacrifice that He has made for God the Father to give up His own son on the behalf of us is the greatest sacrifice that God could possibly make. It is the biggest investment that God could possibly make. And you have to understand that when God sacrificed His own Son, that He intends to fully and wholly complete that work…and that the work of Christ will not be in vain. And that is why, when God adopts us as His children and sends us the Spirit of Christ into our hearts, it’s not something that is based on a contingency. It’s not something, conditional that we have to maintain because it is something that is based not on our efforts and our ability, but it is based on the work of Christ that He is not going to leave unfinished.
Now, there is a sense in which the work of Christ is finished, but there’s also a sense in which it is not yet complete because Scripture talks about how we wait inwardly and that our spirit is groaning inwardly as we await for the full adoption as sons. So in one sense, we when we come to faith in Christ, we are adopted. But in another sense, we are being adopted until the full completion of that adoption when we see Christ face to face, and that is when everything will be restored, right? We are all ultimately waiting for that final reconciliation when we get to be with Christ face to face, free from our sin, free from our mortal physical bodies which are corrupted by sin.
Now, how do we how do we know for certain that this is unconditional? How do we know that this is something that God is going to complete? And one verse that helps give us a clue to this is in Romans 8:32…a verse that most of us have heard. It says, “He [ God, meaning God the Father] He did not even spare His own son, but gave him up for us all. How will He not also give us all things?” So the significance…what this is saying is that if God has given up His most valuable, most expensive, the greatest possible thing that He could possibly give up, how will He not complete the work that He starts in those that come to Him in faith? If He’s already given up His Son, then being able to complete that work and finish our faith, complete our adoption is not difficult for God to do. It’s not difficult for God to secure us in Him and hold us.
And that is exactly where the role of the Spirit comes when we are adopted. And God sends the Spirit of His Son into our heart. That is the sign and the seal that we are His, that we are owned by Him. It is the way that God marks us as His own through the blood of Christ. And that is something that is extremely important to understand for every believer, for you to have assurance that God will complete the work that He started in you, that you don’t ever have to doubt that. Because when God begins a work in you, when He begins that adoptive work, that loving work that He started by the work of Christ, it is not something that He will ever give up on in you. And it is not hard for him. He has already done the hardest part on your behalf, which is to give up His son, and He’s going to finish that work until it is fully complete and you will see Christ one day.
I want to leave you with just a couple of verses to think on. 1 John 3:1 says, “see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God.” So again, this is hitting on the fact that because we are God’s children, it magnifies and illustrates the kind of love that God has for us. Because if we’re not His children, then what kind of love has He given us? He has to adopt us and take ownership and responsibility for us in order to really express and complete the work that He started in us, just like with an earthly with earthly adoptive parents, in order for them to really bring that child into a place where they have that sense of belonging, where they really feel loved and really kind of bring them out of all of the issues that they’re wrestling with, those parents have to take ownership of that child. They have to love that child as if that child is their own flesh and blood. Because if they don’t have that that mindset and treat that child like that, then that child is not going to know what that feels like to be loved in that way. And that is exactly what God is, is trying to express to us and show us how much He loves us by the fact that He adopts us through the love of Christ.
And one last verse. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “and we all with who with unveiled faces, contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” So I want to leave you with the understanding that when we when we first come to the Lord, everything does not instantly become a perfect with us. We still have things that we have to work through right there. We’re still going to struggle with old habits, old sins, and old ways. So you shouldn’t be discouraged if you are seeking to follow Christ. And if there are things that you are really trying to give up and really seeking the Lord to try to help you, don’t be discouraged because you are battling with some of your old ways, because if you have the Spirit, then what is happening is over time….God is literally transforming you from one degree of glory to the next.
And this is a process I can’t tell you exactly why God has chosen that way to bring us to Him. But that is the way He has chosen….as a process over time to make us more like him. And I can guarantee you that I can testify from my own experience that I have seen that if I look back on myself….you know 20, 30 years ago, I was a totally different person. There’s no way I could be standing up here sharing this with you. And it is it is really astounding to look back on my life and to see where I was, you know, 20 or 30 years ago. But in the moment when you’re in that moment and you’re in that struggle, I know it can seem like it takes so long, it can seem like an eternity for the things that we’re battling with and we’re wrestling with. Sometimes it seems like we’re not making any progress. But I assure you, if you just keep going and you and you keep seeking the Lord, He will continue His work in you. And He will be faithful to complete the work that He started.
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