India Sermon #1 The Adoption as Sons

INTRODUCTION Ephesians 1:3-5.

Open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1 and we are going to be looking at just a portion of one verse this morning.

In order to keep the proper context in mind we need to begin reading in verse 3 down through verse 5.

Our focus this morning is our “adoption as sons”.

This great Ephesian letter begins with what may be the single greatest sentence in the New Testament concerning our salvation.

That sentence begins in verse 3 and continues on through verse 14.

In this one sentence, we see the whole of God’s blessings upon our life through salvation.

We are blessed with every spiritual blessing In Christ vs 3, and then for the next 11 verses those blessings are outlined.

We were chosen by God for salvation in eternity past.

We were chosen to be holy and blameless.

We were predestined to adoption as sons.

We were redeemed.

We were forgiven.

We received the mystery of His will, the church.

We have an inheritance reserved for us.

We are sealed in the Spirit.

We are blessed people of and by God.

But right now I want to talk to you about your adoption.

Did you know you were adopted?

Many believers either don’t know or don’t understand what that means.

It is my hope that by the power of God’s Spirit teaching us today, that we leave here with a deeper understanding of what it means to be adopted as a son of God.

JEWISH ADOPTION

Adoption in the Jewish culture was not nearly as prevalent and had little meaning to them.

Thus when God wants to communicate His relationship to Jewish believers, He chose the term being born again.

To the Jew being born of God denoted a parent child relationship.

The Bible offers no rules, regulations, or guidelines when it comes to Jewish adoptions.

In fact, when you do a word search for adoption, it comes up empty in the OT.

Not one single time does the word appear in the OT.

Again they did adopt, but it was out of charity and necessity.

Orphaned family members were adopted into a new family.

Couples who had no children often adopted orphans as well.

But that was the extent of adoption.

So again, when YHWH wanted to emphasize a parent child relationship, Jesus chose the words born again or born from above.

To be born of God was to be a child of God.

However, this was not how the Gentile Roman thinking world thought.

Being born into a family did not insure anything.

In the Roman world, the father had absolute authority over his children.

He could sell them into slavery.

He could kill them.

He could do anything he wanted to them.

Therefore they needed another illustration in order to make known the parent child relationship between God and man.

ROMAN ADOPTION

The word adoption appears 5 times in the NT, and every time it is in a letter addressed to Roman thinking gentiles.

Romans has adoption mentioned three times.

Both Galatians and Ephesians mention adoption once.

This word adoption was a power packed word in that culture.

We have to take note, that when Paul uses this word as he writes the NT under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he expected his audience to understand its meaning.

What this means for us, it just this, what it meant to those people then, is what it means for us today.

First Roman adoption was with purpose.

There is a Greek word, prototokos and it is translated first born.

It means the pre-imminent one.

It was used to describe the male whom the father chose to succeed him as the patriarch.

The prototokos was not necessarily the oldest son, or even a natural son.

In the Roman culture, many of those chosen to succeed the father as the patriarch of the family were adopted.

If the existing patriarch did not see a qualified natural born son in the family to lead the family, then the Patriarch would go out and search for a male between 20 and 30 years old to adopt.

The patriarch went out with purpose and chose one to be his son and adopted him.

Second, this adoption was legally binding.

In fact, because we were dealing with the wealthiest families, some of these adoptions needed Senate approval.

7 Caesars were adopted and succeeded their father as Caesar.

But the really neat thing was that once adopted, it could never be undone.

A young man who was adopted into the family, was a permanent addition to the family, no matter what.

In some ways the adopted son was more secure than a natural born son.

Remember the father could sell or even kill the natural born children, but not so concerning the adopted son.

Third, everything that belonged to the father, now belonged to the adopted son.

He was the heir.

All the property, all the resources, all the money, now belonged to the adopted son.

Most of these young men who were adopted were from very poor families.

So it was an incredible move from poverty to wealth.

Fourth, the adopted son took his father’s name.

onow known by the family name of the one who adopted him.

Fifth, the adopted son got a fresh start.

If the newly adopted son had any debt, it was forgiven.

If he was a slave, now he was free.

If he had done something illegal, it was forgotten.

This is what those in Rome, Galatia and Ephesus thought of when they thought of their being adopted by God.

Now let’s look at the text.

OUR ADOPTION

The believer’s adoption was with purpose as well.

Did you realize, that the God who created all things, chose you to be His son, in eternity past?

He chose you before anything was created.

That tells us that He knew you, before your were even born.

YHWH chose you with purpose.

When a child is born, you must get what arrives.

But an adopted son, is chosen.

You were chosen for multiple reasons.

First that you would be holy and blameless before God.

Remember, under Roman adoption all past debts were forgiven.

You and I stand before God holy and blameless in Jesus Christ because He paid the price of our debt.

Jesus has canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and He has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross. Col 2:14.

Therefore, in the eyes of God you are holy and blameless in Christ.

Second, you were chosen so that Jesus would be the firstborn among many brethren.

Romans 8:29 LSB

Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers;

You were adopted as a son of God.

So that Jesus would be the prototokos of many brothers.

Prototokos means the pre-imminent one.

Jesus is the most important one.

But we are part of the many brothers.

Next, as a brother to Christ, you are an heir.

This is so exciting.

The Bible says that we are fellow heirs with Christ.

Romans 8:16–17 LSB

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, also heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

As a child of God, we are joint owners in all the belongs to Jesus Christ.

Typically an inheritance is split up between the heirs.

But in the case of God’s children, the inheritance is not split, it is fully received by all.

That would be an impossibility if we were talking about you average earthly inheritance.

In the case of land, we would all get just a little bit.

In the case of money, just a little bit.

But you see the inheritance we enjoy as adopted sons of God is God Himself.

Down in verses 13-14 we see that we are sealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance.

What that means is that the Holy Spirit is the down payment toward our full inheritance.

The Holy Spirit Himself is the partial inheritance.

There is only one thing that compares to that, and that would be if we received the fullness of God as an inheritance and indeed we do.

People ask, what do I get in salvation?

The answer is you get God.

You get Jesus Christ.

You get an eternity in the presence of the eternal God.

And no matter how many sons there are, our inheritance is never diminished because God is infinite in His Being.

God can give of Himself to you and there is not less of Himself for the rest of us because He is infinite.

This pledge is given in view of our completed salvation.

Not only do we have God, but God has us.

The Spirit was given as a promise that God would complete the work He began in us.

Third, like Roman adoption our adoption is legally binding.

Many of the phrases of salvation have legal implications.

Most importantly, you have been declared righteous.

That is a legal exchange.

The purity of Christ’s righteousness has been inputed to you..

Your debt is gone, nailed to the cross of Christ.

In it’s place, you have received His perfect righteousness.

To be declared righteous is to be declared not guilty.

And nobody can ever take that away from you.

And nobody can ever take that away from you.

God is the one who declared you righteous, and nobody can take it away from you.

This is why Paul would say if God is for you, who can be against you?

The answer is nobody, absolutely nobody.

Under Roman adoption there was always the possibility that a natural son would challenge the legitimacy of the adoption of another son after the father was dead.

This is why it was a legally binding transaction.

Likewise, Satan accuses the brethren day and night.

Revelation 12:10 LSB

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.

When Jesus returns to lay claim to this earth and establish His millennial kingdom, the one devil who accuses us will be defeated, thrown down.

Satan can never undo what God has done on your behalf.

You are a Son of God forever.

As an adopted son, you get a new name.

Remember under Roman adoption the adopted son recieved the name of the family.

Revelation 2:17 LSB

‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’

When we get to heaven, we get a new name written on a white stone.

Nobody knows what that name will be, but in some way it will remind us of our connection to God.

As an adopted Son you have a new Father.

Sadly the lost world belongs to the evil one.

Jesus told the Pharisees that they were children of their father the devil. John 8:44.

But this truth does not just apply to those men then.

This is true of all people every where.

There are only two kinds of people, those who belong to Jesus, and those who belong to Satan.

Now you are a Son of God.

Romans 8:15 LSB

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry out, “Abba! Father!”

Because we are sons of God, we have a unique relationship with God.

Under Roman culture, a poor boy had no relationship with the wealthy of Rome.

But when the boy was adopted, he entered into a special relationship with his new Father.

He had access to his new father that he never had before.

Likewise, we have special access to God our Father.

And as adopted Sons of God we cry out to God, ABBA, Father.

Abba is the equivalent of daddy in English, or papa.

It speaks of a closeness between a young child and his Father.

We have that closeness and we can come boldly before the throne of grace, the very throne of God in our time of need because we are sons of the living God.

Many many years ago a man name John Kennedy was the President of the United States.

He had two young children at the time.

And it was said, that they had access to their dad anytime they wanted it.

Nobody had access to President Kennedy the way they did, because they were his children.

That story illustrates well the reality that you and I have access to Almighty God, He is our Father, He is our daddy.

CONCLUSION

There are many reason why Christ came and died.

But Galatians 4:4-5 sums up one of those reasons and is quite relevant to our discussion.

Galatians 4:4–5 LSB

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Jesus came with the purpose of redeem lost souls, so that they could receive adoption as sons.

It is a high honor and privilege to be adopted by the KING OF kings and LORD of lords.

There is nothing like it, to know that God is our Father, and we are His sons.

Ladies, I don’t want to think that this does not apply to you because it does.

You see Paul uses the term sons for a reason.

First, in that culture, Romans did not adopt daughters, only sons.

Daughters in that culture were looked down upon and lacked the same status that men held.

Still in many places in the world that is true today.

It is true to some extent in the Hindu religion.

Second Paul uses the term sons to elevate us all, not just men, but mean and women alike.

In truth, very few were adopted in that culture.

There were not many wealthy families, and so there was only a few who were ever adopted.

But in Christianity, we are all adopted.

Male and female alike.

And Paul uses the term sons to elevate us all.

Ladies, you have the same status before God as do I or Ramesh.

You are special to Him just as a Son was special in the Roman world

We should all see our adoption as elevating.

We have been lifted up out of the pig pen of this world, and we belong to the King.

Our citizenship is not of this world anymore because we are Sons of the King.

Therefore, life like it.

Live like the son of God you are.

Live with confidence and boldness to be all that God has called you to be, that God has adopted you to be, His Son.

One final thought.

The adopted son in Roman culture was responsible to carry out His father’s business.

The same is true of you and I.

Not only does our adoption come with privilege, but it comes with responsibility.

Primarily we have the responsibility to bear fruit for God.

To tell the world about Jesus, how He came, lived, and died in order to save sinners from the wrath of God.

Ephesians 2:10 speaks of Gods work in us and to what end.

Ephesians 2:10 LSB

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

You are here today like Jesus was 2000 years ago, to do the good work God has set before you.

There are 1.4 billion souls in India.

98% of them are damned to hell if they do not hear the gospel.

Go, tell them about Jesus, represent your heavenly father well.

For you are a child of the King!