John 1:12-13: The Grace of Adoption Pt. 2: Blessed Sons

Speaking about adoption, the 1689 London Baptist Confession says By this they are counted among the children of God and enjoy the freedom and privileges of that relationship.

And here’s the question. What are those privileges, those blessings, of being called a child of God?

Last week, we talked about how adoption makes us beloved sons and daughters of the Father in and for the sake of Christ.

So the primary blessing is obviously love.

In this sermon we are asking, “What does that love look like?”

What does being a child of God mean in my everyday life?

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

What is Adoption?

This passage speaks of our adoption into the family of God, where God Himself becomes our Heavenly Father and makes us His own beloved children.

Outside of Christ, the Bible says we are all sons of disobedience (Eph. 2:2), children of wrath (Eph. 2:3), and of our father the Devil (John 8:42-44).

We are outcasts. Far off. Enemies of God and destitute in our sin.

But to all who receive Him, who believe in His name, Jesus gives the right to become children of God.

Saving Faith

This is a picture of saving faith.

Believing in Christ’s Name, putting your faith in Him means receiving Him as your personal Lord and Savior.

As the Christ, Jesus is One True Prophet, Priest, and King who can save us from our sins.

He is the True and Ultimate Prophet who alone reveals God the Father and proclaims the good news of eternal life.

He is our Great High Priest who offered His life as a sacrifice on the cross and rose again three days later to once and for all forgive all of our sins.

And He is the King of kings and Lord of lords who rules all things and to whom alone belongs all the glory.

Believing in Christ’s Name receiving Christ and saying “Jesus, You are my God. My Savior. My Christ—My Prophet, Priest, and King.”

You alone have the words of eternal life.

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.

Right

And to all who trust in Christ and put their faith in Him, Jesus gives the right to become children of God.

The word right means privilege or legal authority.

So Jesus gives us our adoption papers, or the legal standing to be called children of God.

You’ll notice this right is given to all Christians who believe. All those who have been justified and forgiven of their sins.

There are no second class Christians.

No black sheep in God’s family. All are adopted and beloved by God.

In this way, Adoption is an act of free grace.

Its objective. Its not based or rooted in us in anyway.

Our adoption and God’s love for us, all rests entirely on Christ.

In the same way that our justification, our righteousness and being forgiven of all our sin rests only on Christ’s own righteousness, God’s love for us as sons and daughters rests on Christ’s own beloved sonship.

Who contributes to their righteousness in anyway?

The same with God’s love.

When God forgives us, He forgives us in Christ.

Through faith we are united with Christ. God puts us in Him.

So When God sees us He sees us in Christ. His righteousness becomes our righteousness.

He lived a perfect and sinless life on our behalf and He paid our penalty for sin that we deserved. That’s why we are forgiven.

Well, when God loves us, He loves us in Christ, as well.

God loves us with the love He has for His own Son.

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

Why? Because we are in Him.

In Justification, God’s mercy forgives us, and in Adoption, His love embraces us.

And both of those glorious graces are rooted in not ourselves, but in Christ.

Which means they can never waver or be lost.

God loves you because of Christ. To all who did receive Him, He gave the right to become children of God.

There are no lesser children in God’s house.

All are beloved. Why? Because God’s love for you is objective. Its not rooted in you, its rooted in Christ and His own Sonship before the Father.

Its not based on you or anything you do.

What a rest for weary souls.

How do you know that God loves you, even when the devil and your own flesh try to convince you otherwise?

Because God loves you in Christ.

By grace through faith, you are united with Him and God loves you in Him.

Summary of Adoption - God actually loves you.

If I had to summarize the doctrine of adoption and what it means for you life it would be this.

God actually loves you.

And God actually loves you because God’s love for you is objective.

It’s not dependent on you. It’s rooted in Christ.

Here’s what that means. Dear Christian, You are beloved.

And the whole reason you are beloved is because through faith you are in Christ.

And now, when God loves you, he loves you in Christ, His own beloved Son.

That means your belovedness, God’s love for you, is rooted in Christ’s own belovedness as the Perfect Son of of the Heavenly Father who says This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

The doctrine of adoption means that for all those in Christ, God actually loves you and that is a glorious and wonderful truth.

Now with all that I want to do in the rest of this sermon is lay out all the blessings that come with that Adoption.

John Owen calls the Doctrine of Adoption our “fountain of privilege” and since that fountain is rooted in God Himself it is an infinite fountain of love and blessing that never runs dry (Packer, Knowing God, 214).

God loves us in Christ, but what does that mean and what does that look like in our everyday life?

What are all the blessings God pours out on those who, in Christ, are beloved sons and daughters of God?

Look at the 1689 London Baptist Confession’s theology of Adoption from chapter 12 paragraph 1...

1689

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.

This is everything we were just talking about.

All those who are justified through faith in Christ are adopted into God’s own family.

They are counted as God’s own beloved children and enjoy the freedom and privileges of that relationship.

The freedom refers to our freedom from sin.

Freedom from the penalty of our sin.

Because of Christ, all of our sin is forgiven.

And freedom from the power of our sin.

We are no longer slaves, bought and sold under the passions of our own sinful flesh.

We are free in Christ.

Freed to love God and live for Him, instead of being bound to drink our sin like water (Job 15:16).

If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36).

The confession goes on, we are not only free from our sin...

We are also given all the privileges and blessings of being sons and daughters of the living God.

They inherit His name, receive the Spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace with boldness, and are enabled to cry “Abba, Father!” They are given compassion, protected, provided for and chastened by Him as Father. Yet they are never cast off but are sealed for the day of redemption and inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation.

The blessings our Reformed Baptist forefathers summarized from Scripture can be broken down into 6 different categories.

And here’s how its going to work.

We are going to look at each one and find where they are in Scripture so we can see all of God’s love for us in adopting us in Jesus Christ.

What are the blessings of adoption?

What love and privilege does God pour out on us in and for the sake of Jesus Christ as His own beloved sons and daughters?

Number 1...

1. God’s Children Inherit God’s Name

Consider what inheriting God’s Name means.

Only bonafide sons bear the name of their Father.

Its the sign and seal that they are the Father’s own. Legitimate sons.

And most importantly, beloved sons.

This is the primary blessing of our adoption as sons.

God takes us and loves us as His own.

Jesus said John 16:27 The Father himself loves you.

Look at the Name we inherit.

Exodus 34:5-7 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord...“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.”

The name we inherit is the gospel of God’s grace and forgiveness.

God will by no means clear the guilty.

He will punish sin.

But God’s grace looks at Jesus on the cross and says our debt has been paid.

And now, through Christ, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger.

Abounding in steadfast, forever, and unbreakable love and faithfulness.

Forgiving all of our iniquity - our inner corruption and obstinance towards God.

Our Transgression - all of our breaking of God’s Law.

And sin - all of our falling short of living for God and His glory.

Inheriting God’s Name means that’s who God is for us.

We are children marked by this name, covered in His love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness.

I used this last week, but its such a perfect picture.

When the prodigal son comes back after squandering his inheritance, surviving on the slop of pigs, while he was still far off the Father dropped everything, and ran out to meet Him.

He grabbed him and kissed him, and before the son could even get out the words to apologize, the Father called out to His servants and said 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 [now] is found (Luke 15:22-24).

When we deserved to be cast out, God covers us in the robe of Christ, sets the ring of His love on our finger, and gives us His Name.

Bonafide sons and daughters, beloved as of the only Son of the Father because our adoption is entirely rooted in Him.

Holiness

And this is where we need to talk about the responsibility that comes with being adopted as God’s sons and daughters and what it means to bear His Name.

1 Peter 1:14-16 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

As sons and daughters of God, there must be a “Gospel Holiness” that marks and characterizes every single aspect of our life.

And Gospel Holiness is in a holiness that flows out of a love and gratitude for God who saved us through the gospel.

Not just a religious holiness that merely goes through the motions of religion what the Bible calls the appearance of godliness (Packer, Knowing God, 221).

The fact is, children look like their parents, and as God’s children, we are called to look like Him. Be holy as I am holy.

But Gospel holiness is a joyful and willing obedience rooted in and empowered by a love for God in return for loving us first in Jesus Christ.

In Adoption, God gives us His Name. He loves us. He brings us out of the cold and misery of our sin and make us a part of His family.

How could we not love a God like that in return, and bend all of our lives as best we can to pleasing Him and living out His will?

In this way, Holiness is just the natural overflow of love.

Of God’s love for us, and our love for him in return.

That’s why Adoption is so key to living the Christian life.

It needs to be your identity. Who you, at a fundamental level, understand yourself to be, because then love and obedience when naturally flow as a result.

Gospel holiness of beloved children who want nothing more than to love God and please their Heavenly Father in return.

Number 2...

2. God’s Children Receive the Spirit of Adoption

Galatians 4:4-6 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!”

In Romans 8:15 Paul says you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons.

In salvation, the Holy Spirit takes all the benefits of Christ’s work and applies them to the elect.

He is the one who gives us the new birth and unites us to Christ by faith thereby taking all the blessings of Christ and the gospel and making them our own.

But that's not where His work stops.

He doesn’t just save us and then leave us as orphans.

He comes to live in us as the Spirit of adoption to work out that salvation in every area of our life.

And I think understanding the Holy Spirit as the “Spirit of adoption” goes a long way in in helping us to understand the Holy Spirit’s work and ministry in the life of the believer.

Who is the Holy Spirit and what does He do?

Faux Spirituality (Adapted from Packer, Knowing God, 219).

Most Christians today have an unbiblical view of the work of the Holy Spirit.

They here about the joy of the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, they see all the amazing things the Spirit does in the life of Christ and Apostles and they compare it to the experience of their own daily life and think something must be missing.

They struggle, they are still embattled in their sin.

It doesn’t seem like the joy or the fullness of life is there as the Scripture talks about, at least as they understand it...

So they go off searching for some secret life or experience of the Holy Spirit.

Some moment, usually an emotional experience, where everything clicks into place, and then, then they will know Joy and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Then they will have the fullness of life Christ promised.

Some people call “this the baptism of the Holy Spirit.” “Full surrender.”

That the true work of the Holy Spirit is found in the gift of tongues, prophecies, or supernatural healings.

But even in non-charismatic circles this kind of thinking still sinks in.

There’s some secret to spiritual life that I just don’t know.

And if I say the right prayer, do the right Bible study, listen to the right sermon, have the right cathartic experience in worship, then that will fix my Christian life, and I will finally be able to follow Jesus with power I don’t currently have.

But what happens?

Even if you get an experience like that, it always fades away.

And you’re right back where you were looking for something new, that next fix that will finally fix your Christian life and make you love God more than you ever did before.

And what’s sad is what we just described is closer to supernatural mysticism than anything about the work of the Holy Spirit.

And its a deadly treadmill because it leaves Christians wondering, “What am I doing wrong?”

What’s wrong with me? Why doesn’t God love me?

Why isn’t God working in me?

I just must be destined to live enslaved to this sin!

And that kind of thinking robs you of the joy of the fullness of life.

Because how can you have that if you feel like there’s always something missing?

True

But what is the Spirit’s ministry?

He is the Spirit of adoption.

The Spirit’s work is to make us know, with ever growing clarity, our fellowship with God the Father through the Son and His love for, us in Christ, as His beloved Sons and daughters.

That is why God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Abba Father is an intimate name for God.

Not just a Father as in a forefather or a patriarch, but your own personal Father who loves and cares for you.

The work of the Spirit in the life of the believer is not emotional fanaticism, it is making us know that God has adopted us and loves us as His own beloved children, and then working in us to respond to that love with love for God in return and a life of holiness to the glory of His name..

In other words, sanctification.

We live out our identity, by the power of the Holy Spirit, as God’s beloved sons and daughters.

Everything we just talked about with holiness in the previous point. That’s the work of the Spirit. That’s the abundant spiritual life.

Through the Spirit of Adoption, we have communion with God.

He testifies and proclaims God’s love for us in the Son...all the grace, mercy, and forgiveness He’s given us in Him.

And He works in our heart in such a way to love God as a Father in return, and live out our adoption by being conformed to the image of His Son - walking in holiness, loving one another, and seeking the Father’s glory (Packer, Knowing God, 220).

So this gives a whole new light to the ministry of the Holy Spirit and what it means to walk in the Spirit.

His ministry is drawing us into and making us know the reality of our fellowship with God. Of knowing and experiencing God’s love for us in Jesus Christ.

The joy of the Holy Spirit, then, is not some cathartic experience. Its not the next spiritual thing right around the corner.

It is reveling in the joy of our adoption as the highest privilege of the Gospel. Its the joy we now have through our salvation in Jesus Christ.

And Walking in the Spirit, is not drifting along following every intuition of what you think God wants you to do.

Its walking in the Spirit of adoption...walking as sons and daughters of God loving Him and seeking to please Him in everything we do.

God’s children receive the Spirit of Adoption.

Number 3...

3. God’s Children Have Access to the Throne of Grace

The confession says They have access to the throne of grace with boldness, and are enabled to cry “Abba, Father!”

Hebrews 4:15-16 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

In our weakness and our sin...in any difficulty or temptation we face...we are not abandoned as orphans left to fend for ourselves.

God invites us to draw near to the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help us in our time of need.

Christ helps us in our weakness. He was tempted in every way as we are yet with sin.

And how does God invite us to come? With boldness. Hebrews says with confidence. With every expectation and assurance that God will help us no matter what trial or temptation we face.

And what gives us that boldness, our adoption as sons.

They have access to the throne of grace with boldness, and are enabled to cry “Abba, Father!”

This give us boldness in two ways.

One, when we come to God in prayer through Christ, we do not come to some Ruler of the universe who is unconcerned or too busy for our problems.

Lowly peasants can’t invite themselves into the throne room of the king.

He’s too busy, too regal for any of their concerns.

But the prince can come and the king will listen? Why because he is His Father.

This also gives us boldness because when we draw near, we do not come to an angry Father.

One who is tapping his foot and crossing His arms at our weakness and sin asking us why can’t you just do better.

We draw near to Abba Father. Our loving Father.

A Father who is so intimately concerned with us and our welfare He will withhold nothing from us out of His hand.

Matthew 7:11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Listen to what one theologian says about drawing near to the throne of grace for help in our time of need.

Whatever their straits and difficulties are, God holds forth his golden scepter, invites them to come to him, asks, “What is thy petition?” and gives them ground to hope that it shall be granted so far as it may redound to his glory and their good” (Ridgeley, Body of Divinity, 2:135, From Duncan, “Adoption,” Theology for Ministry 249).

This also speaks to unanswered, or yet to be answered, prayer.

God does not just give us everything we ask.

As a good Father, God only gives us good things. Things that promote His glory and our good - that is our holiness and salvation in Christ.

Anything that doesn’t fall under those too categories, God is too kind to gives us whatever our passions desire because those passions will lead us away from Christ.

So when God doesn’t answer prayer, He’s not ignoring you, or forgetting about you. He’s loving you.

And who’s to say, perhaps He is wanting to draw you nearer by withholding even a good thing from you for a time so that when He gives it, it abounds to even more glory and thankfulness in you.

When you are weak, lost, struggling with sin, do not fear to come to God.

Draw near boldly. Plead for His help.

And will your Heavenly Father who loves you in Christ who himself said The Father always hears me (John 11:42), not hear your cries and come to your defense and aid?

What father wouldn’t for the son and daughter that he loves?

And that leads to the fourth blessing of our adoption...

4. God’s Children are Watched Over by the Heavenly Father

Again the confession They are given compassion, protected, provided for and chastened by Him as Father.

These all have to deal with God’s Fatherly love and provision.

Compassion

God has compassion for believers.

He pities us in our sin and out of compassion he moves to help us.

Psalm 103:13-14 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

He does not abandon us or crush us in our weakness. Instead, He sets His kindness on us.

Verse 14: For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

Protected

Believers are protected.

There are enemies of the gospel and spiritual enemies we cannot see.

There are dangers and trouble at every turn.

And yet your Heavenly Father who never sleeps or grows weary watches over you to guard you from them all.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows (Matthew 10:29-31).

Provided For

God in His providence cares for the needs of believers and provides for them.

Matthew 6:31-33 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Discipline

But…none of those promises guarantee life will be easy.

The Christian life is not health, wealth and a bed of roses.

God allows hardship into our life.

Sometimes the church is persecuted by their enemies.

Sometimes we lose our jobs and struggle to make ends meet.

Sometimes we suffer great hardship like cancer or death of a loved one.

But none of that means God has withdrawn His Fatherly love.

Sometimes God allows hardship and suffering in our life to discipline us like any good Father would.

God uses suffering and hardship, what we might call the bitter providence of God, to drive out a love for sin, draw us near to Him and conform us into the image of Christ.

When things get hard, where can we turn but to our heavenly Father.

Hebrews 12:6-7, 11 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

Now we don’t normally think of discipline as a grace, but it is.

Verse 11: For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Earthly fathers discipline according to what seems best to them.

Our Heavenly Father disciplines with perfect wisdom.

He disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness (Hebrews 12:10).

Whatever suffering or hardship God allows in your life is not wasted. It is precisely what is necessary to discipline you and yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Not one ounce more, not one ounce less of the pain necessary to accomplish precisely what God has purposed.

The grace of Adoption is what makes Romans 8:28 true.

And we know that all things work together for good for those that love him.

None of our suffering is wasted.

God, has ordained, and uses every bit of it in his perfect wisdom to bring glory to Christ, deepen our faith, drive out our sin and love for the world and conform us to the image of His beloved Son.

So God watches over His children with Fatherly care.

Number 5...

5. God’s Children are Sealed with the Spirit and Preserved Forever

The 1689 says Yet they are never cast off but are sealed for the day of redemption.

The Holy Spirit is that seal (Eph 1:13).

Ephesians 1:13-14 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

He is the guarantee. The down payment that all who believe in Christ will ultimately be saved on the Last Day.

This is what we call the perseverance of the saints.

That all those who believe in Christ and are truly born again are sealed for salvation.

They can never be lost, but are kept by God’s power and God has promised that He will never cast them out.

John Calvin said “The salvation of all the elect is as certain as God’s power is invincible” (Daniel, The History and Theology of Calvinism, 584).

This blessing of adoption essentially guarantees that we are Forever sons and daughters of God and we can rest knowing that our salvation doesn’t rest in us but in God’s power to save.

What a comfort this is!

Can you imagine the turmoil and anxiety we would have if our perseverance was up to us?

Every day we would wake up and wonder, “Will today be the day I lose my salvation? Will today be the day I finally sinned enough to lose God’s grace?”

And every night we would lie sleepless wondering if we had done enough to keep ourselves bound for heaven.

It would turn the gospel of grace into a never ending treadmill of works trying to secure our salvation.

But the perseverance of the saints, one of the most precious promises we have in the gospel, gives us the grace of assurance.

We may fall into sin, but we will never fall from God’s hand.

Like a little boy on a walk with His dad, he might stumble and fall, but his father’s sure grip keeps him from hitting the dirt (Daniel, The History and Theology of Calvinism, 587).

Spurgeon said though a man fall again and again on a ship, he will never fall overboard (ibid. 591).

AsJesus promised in 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.

The Father and the Son both hold us and the Holy Spirit seals us.

In adoption, all three persons of the Triune God say to each an every Christian “I love you too much to ever let you go.” (Ibid. 587).

Finally number 6...

6. God’s Children Inherit Everlasting Salvation

1 Peter 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In Romans 8:23 Pauls says we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

For Paul, there is still a sense that our adoption is still future.

That we will not have the fullness of adoption until the resurrection from the dead.

The inheritance is eternal life and the fullness of all God’s promises of salvation in Jesus Christ.

The inheritance is heaven itself.

The day where every trace and stain of sin is washed away and this curse-torn world will be made new.

Where Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away (Revelation 21:3-4).

That is our hope. That is what we look forward to.

The fullness of the Gospel and all of its blessings forever, and ever, and ever, and ever.

As J.I. Packer says: What will make heaven…heaven is the presence of Jesus, and of a reconciled divine Father who loves us for Jesus’ sake no less than He loves Jesus himself. To see, and know, and love, and be loved by, the Father and the Son...with the rest of God’s vast family, is the whole essence of the Christian hope (Packer, Knowing God, 218).

The very one that is kept in heaven for us imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.

Conclusion

Our Father has given us great and glorious blessing in the Doctrine of Adoption.

He frees us from our sin.

Gives us His Name and sets His love on us as His own beloved Children.

He fills us with the Holy Spirit, to make us know His great love for us and empower us to love Him in return.

He invites us to the throne of grace to help us in our time of need no matter what trial or temptation we face.

He cares for us, provides for us, protects us, and disciplines us as any father should.

He preserves us as forever sons and seals us with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee that all who are truly born again will be saved.

And He has promised us the inheritance of eternal life.

And these are all blessings God gives to every believer.

All those who are justified...are counted children of God and enjoy the freedom and privileges of that relationship.

In other words, these are God’s promises for you.

Adoption is the secret to a Christian, God-honoring life.

All the Christian life is is living out our identity as beloved sons and daughters of God.

Do we love God as our Father in heaven?

Honor Him? Obey Him? Seek Him? Do all that we can to please Him?

Have we learned to hate what our Father hates?

Are we sensitive to sin? Putting it to death and doing all that we can to avoid it lest we grieve our heavenly Father who loves us so much? (Packer, Knowing God, 228-229).

And lest we forget the greatest gift God has given us in adoption in and for the sake of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit...

He has given us Himself as our Heavenly Father.

Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God! And so we are (1 John 3:1).

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

Romans 8:12-17 “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”