John 1:9-13: The Grace of Adoption Pt. 1: Beloved Sons

Intro

What is the greatest blessing of the gospel and God’s grace?

Now I don’t ask that question as if to put one of God’s blessings in competition with or greater than another.

All the blessings of God’s grace are infinitely priceless.

I ask that as what is the culmination, the apex, or the ultimate result of the gospel?

What does the gospel ultimately do?

Now you might say, forgiveness of sins.

And what a glorious grace that is.

All of our sin washed away in Jesus Christ to be remembered no more?

That is grace we could have hardly dreamed of.

But the forgiveness of sins does not end there. It leads to an even greater blessing of God’s grace.

One that would not be possible if our sins were not forgiven in the first place, but one that makes the grace of justification all the more glorious.

It is the grace of our adoption as beloved sons and daughters of our heavenly Father.

In justification God shows us mercy, and in Adoption He showers us with love.

The grace of Adoption is one of those doctrines that all Chritians believe.

That we all know is true, but it doesn’t go much deeper than that.

I am adopted as a son or daughter of the Most High God in Jesus Christ.

Its a doctrine that for many Christians is little more than cold hard fact.

2+2 is 4.

Water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

Calvinism is the only biblical way to interpret the Bible. That last one is for free.

But because of that, we miss the glory of it all, and most of all the glory of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.

Here’s the Big Idea from John 1:9-13...

God gives the grace of adoption to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ and makes them his own beloved children.

The Doctrine of Adoption, and all that it entails, is a fundamental doctrine of the Christian life.

Theologian John Murray says it is “the apex of grace and privilege.”

J.I. Packer says that its the highest privilege the gospel has to offer.

John MacArthur calls Adoption “the superabundance of God’s grace.” (MacArthur, Biblical Doctrine, 626).

And Sinclair Ferguson says “it is central to the Christian gospel.” (All others from Duncan, Ligon, “Adoption,” Theology for Ministry, 237).

So, what is the Doctrine of Adoption, and what does the Grace of Adoption tell us about God and His great love for us in Jesus Christ?

Let’s start with John 1:9-11, point number 1...

I. Unbelievers Reject Christ and His Salvation

John 1:9-11 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

John calls Jesus the true light.

For John, true doesn’t just mean true as in what is not false.

He means true as in “real” or “genuine.” The ultimate.

For example, the manna that fell in the wilderness was bread from heaven but in John 6:32 Jesus says he is the true bread from heaven.

So when John calls Jesus the True Light, remember what darkness is.

Sin. Death. Curse. Ignorance of God and His salvation.

So as the True Light, Jesus is God’s true and ultimate revelation of God Himself who genuinely saves sinners from the darkness of their sin.

He is the Savior of the World.

That’s why John says Jesus is the True Light which gives light to everyone.

Now this doesn’t mean that Jesus saves everyone. That’s universalism. That’s not true.

Jesus saves only those who believe in Him.

This basically means either...

Jesus gives light to everyone who believes in him.

Or He shines on all men, Jew and Gentile without distinction.

That all sinners, no matter who they are, are saved by faith in Him.

Either way, they both get you to the same place.

Christ alone has the power to save and Christ saves everyone who believes in Him.

I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me...

And all that come to me I will never cast out...

Then John says the True Light…was coming into the world.

This is a reference to the Incarnation.

Coming into the world was a Jewish idiom for being born.

And keep in mind that John said in verse 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

So now John is saying that the Eternal Word of God came into the world as a man to save His people from their sins.

The incarnation was a declaration of God’s love and grace.

Of how far God was willing to go to save wretched miserable sinners.

He sent His Son, His only Son into the world to live the perfect and sinless life we failed to live, and die the death we all deserved for our sin so that Jesus might our their substitute and reconcile us to a Holy and Righteous God.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son (John 3:16).

And Jesus left the glories of Heaven where he was worshiped by the angels and took on human flesh and humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil.2:6-8).

The Great Puritan Thomas Watson says, He stripped himself of the robes of his glory, and covered himself with the rags of our humanity (Watson, A Body of Divinity, 197).

And Christ incarnate is nothing but love covered with flesh (Watson, 194).

Well how did the world respond? Verse 10...

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and yet the world did not know Him.

This is more than just intellectual knowledge.

This means that the world did not love Jesus or receive and welcome Him intimately as a friend.

They should have seen Him. They should have recognized Him.

The world was made through Him. His fingerprints were all over creation.

And even though they languished and wasted away in darkness, groaning for salvation from the weight and curse of sin...

They loved the darkness rather than the light, and rejected Christ and suppressed the truth even when He was in the world staring them right in the face.

Outright rejection.

Verse 11...

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

Here John talks about the Jews.

Christ came to His own. That can be translated as His Home. Or His Domain.

The place where Christ should have been received and welcomed the most.

The Jews had it all. The covenants. The Law. The worship of God. The promises. All the prophesies about the Christ (Romans 9:4-5).

They had the Scriptures which Jesus said in John 5:39 that they bear witness about me.

And yet, they rejected Him.

They rejected Him as they had rejected God so many times before.

Isaiah 65:2-3 All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations—a people who continually provoke me to my very face.

Jeremiah 7:25-26 From the time your fathers left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their fathers.

And they committed the ultimate evil and the ultimate rejection of God when they rejected Christ and colluded with the world, the Roman Empire, to crucify the Messiah and murder Him on a cross.

Summary

The rejection Christ faced, from the world and His own, shows us just how wicked our sin really is and just how great God’s love is in His grace.

God sent His Son, His only Son, the Son of His love into the world.

Christ came to save us from our sins.

He reached out to us in our sin with His hand offering us salvation…and we rejected Him.

We despised Him. And we murdered Him on a cross.

Isaiah 53:3, 5 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not...

But behold the grace of God...

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Christ was rejected and despised, but none of that stopped him from saving us to the end.

He endured the shame of being whipped, tortured, spat upon and hung naked on a cross...

The reviling and mockery of men who said He saved others; can he not save himself? (Matthew 27:42).

And even the wrath of God who made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21).

What a Savior we have in Jesus. Who endured unspeakable pain and loss all to save us from our sins.

All that reject Him will die in their sin. No hope. No salvation, only eternal conscious torment in the fires of Hell.

But all who do receive Him, Christ promises to save and give eternal life.

And that takes us to point number 2...

II. God Saves Sinners by His Sovereign Grace

John 1:12-13 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John here gives us a picture of saving faith.

Unbelievers, we saw, reject Christ, they do not believe in Him.

And whoever rejects Christ, remains dead in their trespasses and sin and, Jesus said, the wrath of God remains on them (John 3:36).

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

How is someone saved? They receive Jesus Christ, and receiving Jesus Christ means believing in His Name.

The word receive means to grasp or take hold of.

So the idea here is making Christ one’s own.

And doing that, John says, means believing in Jesus’ Name.

That means believing and trusting in Jesus and receiving all that He did on our behalf as our own.

It means casting all of our life, all of our trust, and all of our hope on Him, and Him alone.

In short, to receive Him and believe in His name is to trust in Christ and receive Him as your own personal Lord and Savior.

Well what does that mean? What exactly are you believing in and receiving as your own when you believe in Jesus Christ?

Prophet Priest King

In the Old Testament, there were three anointed offices, three mediators who stood between God and the people.

They were Prophets, Priests, and Kings.

And all three of those offices come together in the One True Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ.

The title Christ or Messiah simply means Anointed One.

Someone chosen by God and empowered or anointed with the Spirit of God to accomplish all of God’s will and purposes.

So believing in Jesus’ Name means believing that Jesus is the Christ, the True and Ultimate Prophet, Priest, and King, and One True Mediator between God and Man.

And receiving Christ means receiving His work as our Prophet, Priest, and King as our own and putting all of our faith in Him.

Prophet

We believe that Jesus is True Prophet of God who reveals God and His will once and for all and speaks on God’s behalf when He promises the good news of salvation.

Receiving Him then, means believing everything that Jesus said and holding fast to Him.

Following Him and living all of our lives according to His Word because he alone has the words of eternal life (John 60:68).

Priest

We believe Jesus is our great High Priest who alone atones for all our sins.

He is both the Priest and the Sacrifice.

Instead of offering the blood of bulls and goats like the priests of the Old Covenant, he offered himself as a once for all sacrifice for sin.

The spotless Lamb of God who alone takes away the sin of the world.

So Receiving Jesus as our Great High Priest means confessing our sins and trusting in His substitutionary death and bodily resurrection for our forgiveness.

King

And finally, Jesus is the King of kings.

He rules over all things and to Him belongs all the glory.

Receiving Him as King means submitting to Him in all of our life.

Taking Him as King of your life and bowing down to His rule and authority, obeying Him in all things.

Every command and every area of life.

Summary: Prophet, Priest, King

So what does it mean to believe in Jesus?

What does saving faith look like?

Receiving Christ as your Prophet, Priest, and King.

Taking Him as your own and putting all of your faith in Him.

As Peter said, You are the Christ! The Son of the Living God! (Matthew 16:16).

Receiving Jesus and believing in His name means coming to Him in faith saying “Jesus, You are my God. My Savior. My Christ—My Prophet. My Priest, and My King.”

You alone have the words of eternal life and reveal God as the Son of God.

You alone are the One True Sacrifice that can atone for all my sins and make me clean.

And you alone are the King of my life. All that I am, all that I have, and all that I do is yours.

That is saving faith. And that is the only way for you to have eternal life.

To everyone who received Him, who believed in His name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Now we are going to get to what it means that he gave the right to become children of God in the next point, but for now go to verse 13.

Sovereign Grace

Lest we forget, this faith, receiving Christ, is not something we do ourselves, it is all a work of God’s grace.

Who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Here’s the idea. We are all dead in our trespasses and sins.

There is no life in us. No hope for salvation.

And God, in His sovereign grace, saves us, fills us with the Holy Spirit, makes us alive together with Christ, and gives us the gift of faith.

Ephesians 2:4-5, 8-9 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…

Then down in verse 8...

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

This going from death to life is what the Bible calls being born again.

And just like in our physical birth, there is nothing we do that makes it happen.

It is all a “labor,” if you'll let me use that term, of God’s sovereign grace.

Go back to John 1:13 where John makes its specifically clear that we contribute nothing to our own salvation, but that all of our salvation, even the very faith that saves us, is a gift of God’s grace.

Who were born not of blood nor of the will of flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Three Negatives, 1 Positive.

Blood

Blood is literally “bloods” as in the mixing of the blood of a Father and Mother to produce an offspring.

What this means is that no one is born into the Kingdom of God through natural birth.

It doesn’t matter that you grow up in a Christian home or have Christian parents.

All that matters is faith in Christ.

So you children here, our hope and our prayer is that our faith would become your own.

Mom and dad being a Christian, being members of this church, doesn’t matter.

That will not save you. The only thing that will save you is faith in Jesus Christ.

Receiving Him, like we said earlier, as your Prophet, Priest, and King.

And parents, this is why we must urge our children and grandchildren to put their faith in Christ.

Growing up in a Christian home is not enough. We must urge them to repent and believe the gospel.

Flesh

Nor of the will of the flesh.

Now the word flesh for John, doesn’t necessarily refer to our sinful flesh, the inward corruption we all have, as it typically does for Paul, as in our sinful flesh.

For John flesh simply means our physical body with all of its powers, weaknesses, and limitations.

For example, in the immediate context of the very next verse John says the Word became flesh.

What John is saying is that Jesus took on a human body. Not sinful flesh.

He had no sin. He was a Lamb without spot or blemish.

Therefore, the will of the flesh is any want or desire of the physical body.

Meaning we are not born again through any human effort or obedience of our own.

We cannot put our hand to the plow and make it happen.

We cannot save ourselves by our good works.

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.

No amount of good works, not even a thousand lifetimes of good works can wash away even one sin.

Isaiah 64:6 All our righteous deeds are as filthy rags.

So human effort, being a “good person,” and obedience to the Law can do absolutely nothing to save us from our sins.

Man

Nor of the will of man.

Again this is any want or desire of man himself.

This means first, that we do not will ourselves to salvation and being born again.

The natural man left to himself is spiritually dead and enslaved to their sin.

Job 15:16 the natural man drinks sin like water and Genesis 6:15 every intent and though of his heart is only evil continually.

Their heart is enslaved to sin. Their mind is enslaved to sin. All their strength and all their works are enslaved to sin.

And yes…even their will is enslaved to sin.

Luther called it the Bondage of the Will and basically the idea is that left to ourselves, if salvation was held out and it was up to us to choose God, none of us would ever be saved.

We would always choose our sin.

Our only hope is for the grace of God to overcome our sin and make us alive again.

Salvation is 100% a work of God.

God does not save us in response to our faith, He gives us the very faith it is necessary for us to be saved because left to ourselves with all of our sin and corruption we would never have it or be able to muster it up in ourselves.

So sinful man is not saved and born again by blood,…that is, natural descent, your family tree.

We are not born again by the will of the flesh…by any human effort or obedience.

Nor of the will of man.

Our wills are enslaved to sin and it is impossible for us to will ourselves to faith in Christ.

The only way to be born again is by the Sovereign grace of God.

But of God

With those three little words all human initiative, merit, or possibility is completely ruled out.

Being born again is being born from above…a miracle of God’s sovereign grace where He takes a dead and lifeless sinner and makes them alive together with Christ.

Just as when God breathed life into Adam and he became a living being, God breathes life into dead, ruined sinners and makes them alive again.

He takes out our dead, stony hearts and gives us a new hearts that Love God and Love God’s Law.

And from that heart, faith explodes, and we are united with Christ and saved by grace through faith

Grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone.

God does what was impossible for us.

He overcomes all of our sin, all of our darkness, and all of our hatred of Him, and saves us in Christ by His Sovereign, Powerful, Infinitely Glorious grace.

And when God saves us, it doesn’t just stop there.

He doesn’t just forgive and free us from all our sins.

His grace goes further. He adopts us as His own beloved sons and daughters.

And that’s point number 3...

III. God Adopts Believers as His Own Beloved Children

John 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Gave the “Right”

I want to key in on when John says Jesus gave us the right to become children of God.

That one little word right is where we start to see the glorious grace of adoption and what it means for our life.

The word right is a word that means power or authority.

So the idea is one of legal standing.

Jesus gives us, that is all who believe, the legal right to become children of God.

In other words, Jesus gives us our adoption papers, and in Him we legally and officially are adopted as beloved children of God.

Well how’s that? How is it that Jesus gives us that right?

There are two great gifts of God’s grace that are given to us through the work of Christ.

Two gifts that encapsulate, really, all that God has given us in the gospel.

And those two gifts are the grace of Justification, and the grace of Adoption.

The Grace of Justification

Justification answers the problem of our sin, and its, rightly, what we normally think of when we think of the gospel.

Justification is being declared righteous. Not guilty before a holy God.

In justification, God legally declares that we are not, nor never will be guilty of our sin and liable to suffer the death and condemnation our sin deserves.

And how does God do that? In Jesus Christ.

Through faith, we are united to Christ. His life becomes our life and His death our death.

Under the Law, we are all condemned.

Mankind owed God a life of perfect, sinless righteousness. Perfect obedience.

We were created for God and His glory.

But All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).

Every one of us has failed to live a perfect and sinless life and deserve the wages of our sin which is death and the wrath of God.

But Christ, took on Human flesh.

He lived a perfect and sinless life we failed to live as a man.

Where Adam, and every single one of us failed, He offered to God a life of perfect obedience.

And then He died on a cross.

Now when Christ died, He had no sin of His own to die for, so He died for ours instead.

He tasted death on our behalf. All of our sin was laid on Him and He suffered death and the wrath of God as a man on our behalf.

In this way, Christ is our righteousness.

In His active obedience, in His perfect and sinless life, Christ lived the life we failed to live.

And in his passive obedience, in His death on the cross, he suffered our death for our sin.

And through faith in Him, God unites us to Christ.

He puts us in Him so that we are declared, righteous, not guilty, forgiven, not in ourselves, but in Christ.

And so we are forgiven of all our sin and reconciled to God because the blood of Christ cleanses us of all unrighteousness.

In this way, our justification in Christ is the foundation of our salvation.

Its the primary blessing. The one that makes everything else in our salvation possible in the first place.

Our fundamental and primary need is the forgiveness of sins and to be reconciled to a holy righteous God so that we may be saved from the wrath our sin deserves.

But that’s not where our salvation stops.

If it was, if grace of Justification was where our salvation ended, it could conceivably be a cold and unfeeling thing.

Now, don’t get me wrong. It would be more than enough. More than we would ever hope for or deserve.

And it would show God’s incredible mercy to passover our sins and lay them on Christ.

But conceivable, it could leave salvation being a cold and unfeeling thing.

Like a judge who declares someone not guilty, God could forgive our sin and make us right with Him, but that would not guarantee any love or favorable disposition to the person pardoned.

The pardoned goes free, righteous before the law and all that’s left is the finishing up of all the necessary paperwork.

But God’s grace goes further.

God doesn’t just forgive our sin, He adopts us into His own family.

We leave the courthouse and the judge brings us home.

There is a richer and greater bond in the Grace of Adoption which is why I said it is the apex or culmination of salvation.

Justification is the foundation of all our Salvation.

The Grace of Adoption is the goal.

God did not merely send Christ to forgive sinners.

He sent Christ to forgive sinners and adopt them into His beloved family.

The Grace of Adoption

Adoption is the Free Grace of God whereby he takes justified believers to be His own beloved Children.

And I intentionally say it is an act of the Free Grace of God because the first thing I want you to see about adoption is that just like justification it is not rooted in you, it is rooted in Christ.

1689 London Baptist Confession 12.1 God has granted that all those who are justified would receive the grace of adoption, in and for the sake of His only Son Jesus Christ. By this they are counted among the children of God and enjoy the freedom and privileges of that relationship.

I want you to notice that God has granted that all those who are justified receive the grace of Adoption.

This is not a special status for unique Christians.

This is true of everyone that believes in Jesus Christ.

Everyone God saves, is adopted as His beloved son or daughter and brought into infinite love.

This doctrine answers many doubts and fears that Christians have of whether not God actually loves them.

We know theologically He does, but does He really.

We feel so small. So insignificant. So weak and disobedient.

Yes God loves me but only in the He has to sort of way.

But look what it says. We receive the grace of adoption in and for the sake of His only Son Jesus Christ.

In points to our union with Christ.

And for the sake of points to Christ’s work.

Adoption is a gift that God gives us in Christ on the basis of what Christ did on our behalf.

So here’s what I want you to see.

Your adoption, and therefore God’s love for you as your Heavenly Father in adoption, is not based on you.

It is rooted in something that is totally outside of yourself.

It is rooted in Christ and Christ alone.

Look at it this way.

Is there anything in you or in your works that contributes to your justification?

No! All of your forgiveness and righteousness is based solely 100% on Christ.

The same is true for your adoption.

God does not love you because of how well you obey Him or how good of a Christian you are.

You are God’s son or daughter because of Christ.

And that means that God’s love for you in Christ is not based on you, but on Christ Himself.

Jesus said that the Father loves us even as The Father has loved Him (John 17:23).

How does the Father Love the Son?

Well Jesus says it was before the foundation of the world (John 17:24).

so the Father loves the Son Eternally. Abundantly. Fully with fiery zeal.

We see a picture of this at Jesus’ Baptism.

This is my beloved Son with whom, I am well pleased.

And now, because of your adoption in Christ, thats what God says about every one of you.

No wonder the Bible says God loves us as High as the heavens are above the earth (Psalm 103:11).

Its rooted in the same eternal love He has for the Son!

And if God’s love for us is objective, that is based on something outside ourselves because it is rooted in Christ, can it ever wane? Be lost? Or taken away?

Never.

As long and as much as the Father loves the Son, that love overflows to all of God’s spiritual children.

Like Paul says, there is nothing able to separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39).

Why? Because you are in Christ and there is nothing that will every be able to separate you from Him.

John 10:28-29 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

In Christ, God becomes our Father.

He loves us. Cares for us. Provides for us. Protects us.

He guards us forever sealing us with the Holy Spirit for eternal life.

How great is God’s grace to adopt us and invite us to call Him Father?

J. I. Packer says: If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child and having God as His Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all (Packer, Knowing God, 201).

He even Goes so far to say as Father is the Christian name for God (Ibid.)

We do not fully understand the glory of the gospel until we understand the glory of our adoption in Jesus Christ.

God sent Jesus so that we would know Him as Father.

That’s inherent in the fact that Jesus is the Son of God.

A Son by necessity implies a Father so when Jesus came to reveal God to us as the Son of God, He came to reveal God as our Heavenly Father.

O Lord teach us to pray. Pray then like this Our Father who art in heaven.

This is grace that we can barely dream of.

It would have been enough for God to forgive us. It would have been enough for God to pardon all our sin.

But He does so much more!

When the Prodigal Son had hit rock bottom, when he was in the absolute gutter, poor, homeless, eating the slop the pigs ate, he said I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:18-19).

That’s everyone of us in justification.

God please forgive me and just let me be a servant in your house. That’s all I want.

But What does the Father do?

The Prodigal Son comes back home and says Father...I am no longer to be called your son...

But before he could get the rest of the words out.

The father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate (Luke 15:22-24).

God takes us out of the gutter and doesn’t just forgive us and keeps us at arms length as servant.

He brings us back to the Family Table and calls us His beloved son and daughter.

Conclusion

God gives the grace of adoption to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ and makes them his own beloved children.

Salvation is so much more than just being forgiven of your sin.

God doesn’t just forgive you He loves you.

In the grace of Adoption He gives you himself as your Heavenly Father.

If you ever question the Love of God, remember that God did not have to adopt you.

He chose too. That’s the nature of adoption and that’s why adoption is an act of God’s free grace.

And if you ever question the love of God, see the price He paid to adopt you.

He sent His only begotten Son, meaning His eternally beloved Son, to die for you.

A guilty, defiant, perverse and unclean sinner, unworthy to bear His name.

And yet, He washed you. He cleansed you.

He forgave you in the blood of Christ, gave you the ring of Justification and clothed you in the robe of Christ’s righteousness to adopt you to bring you back to the family table and eternal love and fellowship with Him.

The same love He has for the eternal Son of God.

What can adopted children do but love this God in return and worship Him in a whole new way as their Heavenly Father.

1 John 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

Ephesians 1:3-7 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 to himself 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.