Spiritual adoption

This week we look at adoption, and we explore the different forms of adoption in the Bible.  What can we learn about adoption - and what is spiritual adoption?

This message is based on Galatians 4:4-7
 
  
When Sandy and I were married, we took a few years before we wanted to start a family.  We were both working pretty draining jobs, and we had discovered sailing.  When we weren’t working, we were either hanging out with friends, or we were out on the sailboat.  It was probably eight years or so before we even began to think about starting a family.  But it didn’t come easy, it actually took a couple years to make it happen. 
 
We had actually consulted a doctor who gave us some advice, and that eventually worked.  A lot of people in that situation begin to think about adoption as an alternative.  I don’t think we were that far yet, but for a lot of people, adoption is a great alternative.  I was adopted myself as an infant, so was my sister.  My parents couldn’t have children, so they turned to adoption.
 
What is adoption?  Simple speaking, adoption is the legal transfer from one family or situation into another family or situation.  You adopt a child and become their parents.  Adoption is final, you can’t break it off if it doesn’t work.  You are responsible for the children you adopt – you are the parents.  They are part of your family.
 
In the New Testament, adoption always refers to a believer’s relationship to God. Adoption is the giving by God of the status and privileges of being his children.  God adopts all those who believe in Him, and grants them the benefits of salvation, but more than just salvation.  We are heirs. 
 
This morning we’ll look at several aspects of adoption from the bible…
 
1.  A Family adopts a child.  One of the first times we see a picture of adoption in scripture is in Genesis 16, and it involves Abram.  Remember God’s promise to Abram?  God promised to make Abram a great nation, his offspring as numerous as the stars in the heavens.  But when it didn’t happen, Abram was getting concerned.
 
Not this isn’t a great picture, but in Gen 16, Sarai gives her servant Hagar to Abram, with the idea that Sarai and Abram would raise the child as their own.  It didn’t quite work out that way, and eventually, Hagar and the child are sent away.  Then God fulfills his promise with a child born to Sarai.
 
A better picture of adoption is the story of Moses, I think we’re all familiar with that one as well.  We see that in Exodus 2.  The Israelites are in Egypt, where they went to escape a famine in the days of Joseph.  Hundreds of years have passed, and the nation of Israel was still in Egypt, and had been enslaved by Pharaoh.  But Israel continues to get more and more plentiful, and an edict is proclaimed by Pharaoh that all the Egyptian baby boys would be killed.  The idea being that this would make it harder for the Israelites to rebel against Pharaoh. 
 
Moses is born at this time, we remember that Moses’ mother put Moses in a basket and sent him adrift in the Nile River.  He was discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter, and she adopted the baby, and Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s household.  This is a better example, because Moses is actually raised as an Egyptian, a grandson of Pharaoh. 
 
Another example can be seen in Esther, she was adopted as a young child by her uncle Mordecai when her parents had died.  Mordecai raised Esther as his own daughter.  So the idea of a family adopting a child can be found in Scripture. 
 
2.  God adopts the nation of Israel.  When God adopts, we don’t usually see him adopting an individual.  God goes bigger than that.  When God adopts, it’s a nation or a people group.  We see an example of this in Deuteronomy 14:2, when He tells the Israelites, “For you are a people of God.  Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession.” 
 
We know that the Jewish people are the chosen people of God.  It doesn’t use the term adoption, but we know that’s certainly the idea behind it.  Another passage that tells us this, and this one actually uses the language of adoption, is Romans 9:4, still speaking of the Israelites, “Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises.”
 
If we go back to reading, in Ephesians 4:4, we see, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.”  Paul is still speaking to the Jewish people here.  Those under law refer to the Jews.  Adoption into God’s family was originally a uniquely Jewish blessing.
 
In fact, even in the early church, Christ was the fulfillment of the law for the Jewish believers.  In the book of Acts, in the first 9 chapters, the disciples are taking the message of Christ, the Good News, only to the Jewish people.  It’s not until Peter converts the household of Cornelius, that they begin to see the Holy Spirit working in those who are not Jews.  It’s Acts 10 where it first becomes known that God is working in Gentiles as well as Jews.  And from here on, Peter and Paul at least, adopt a pattern of going to the Jews first, but then to the Gentiles in every town they go to. Which brings us to the next point.
 
3.  God adopts believers as his children.  It was because of what God did for Cornelius and his household, that Peter began to realize that God has opened up the Good News of Christ to those who are not Jews.  In Acts 10:32, he said, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.”  So Paul leads the entire household to faith in God through Jesus Christ, and before they are even baptized, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they were speaking in tongues and praising God.  And so it’s clear that God has called non-Jews as well as Jews to be part of the family of God.
 
This fulfills verses like John 1:12-13, which says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of a human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” 
 
God has become our Father, and we are His children, by faith.  As it says in 2 Corinthians 6:18, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”  In this passage, He’s talking to believers, not to Jews, but to Christians.  So those who believe in Jesus are adopted and become part of the family of God.
 
There are three things that make this adoption possible.  Or maybe not so much made it possible, but our adoption happens as an outcome of these three tings. 
 
1.  Predestination.  Believers are adopted as an outcome of predestination.  Calvinists make a big thing about predestination, Baptists typically don’t really make a big thing about it, but essentially it just means that believers have been chosen by God.  Ephesians 1:5 says that “He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”  In other words, He chose us. 
 
And there’s an important note here.  Jesus wasn’t plan B.  From the very beginning, God predestined and elected the faithful to be His sons.  Before the world was created, God formed His plan, and it involved the law, and when the time was right, the birth, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus, and the inclusion of all who believed in Jesus by faith.  We are not included as sons and daughters because of how things played out.  It wasn’t because God got mad at the Jewish people.  Not at all.  This was the plan from the beginning, before any of it came to be.  And it’s because of God’s love for those He created.  Another thing that makes our adoptions possible is…
 
2.  Redemption.  Believers are adopted as an outcome of redemption.  Redemption is one of those hundred dollar words that a lot of Christians really don’t understand, but it’s a neat concept.  The example I like to use to explain redemption is the bottle deposit laws.  PA doesn’t have a bottle deposit, but NY does, and the way it works is that you pay a nickel for each bottle you purchase.  When you’re done with it, you can return it to the store, and they redeem it, they give you your nickel back. 
 
We were created by God, but because of sin, we went our own way.  But God redeemed us, he paid the nickel to get us back, only in our case it was a lot more than a nickel.  Because the penalty for sin is death, he paid that, in the body of His Son Jesus Christ – He died for us, because death was the cost of our redemption.  And we saw that in our reading this morning, in verses 4-5, “When the time had fully come, God sent his son… to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” 
 
3.  Justification.  Believers are adopted as an outcome of justification.  And justification is another one of those hundred dollar words.  Justification means that we are justified, we are made just, made right, before God.  Our sins are no longer counted against us.  We are justified.  Galatians 3:24 says, “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.”   
 
We aren’t justified by following the law, justification isn’t found in a list of do’s and don’ts, it made possible through faith in Jesus Christ.  Through Jesus, we are justified, we are made right with God, by faith. 
 
We’ve really covered a lot today.  But we’ve probably missed the most important part.  And that’s Why?  Why were adopted as sons?  And what difference does it make?  Why should I care? 
 
The truth is, God loves you.  You don’t love slaves or servants or employees the way you love a son.  And God loves you so much that He wanted you as a part of His family.
 
I remember thinking when our grandson was born.  I was so filled with love for this little baby.  And there in the hospital room just hours after his birth, I looked over at my son, and I could see that he obviously felt the same way, just overcome with love – as close as we can ever come to unconditional love.  And I remember saying to my son, “Now you can understand God’s love for you.”  And with a tear in his eyes, he said yes.
 
We were adopted, predestined, redeemed, and justified because of God’s great love for us.  So what can I say?  Go and make Him proud – serve Him, represent Him in the world, and share the great love He has for His people.