John 20:17-18: Grace and Adoption

Scripture Reading

Galatians 4:4–7 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!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Intro

What are the great blessings and benefits we have through the death and resurrection of Christ?

If someone asked you to summarize the blessings and promises of the Gospel… what the Gospel means for you?!… what would you say?

How would you answer?

What makes the Gospel such good news?

There’s so many things you could say.

Mercy.

Forgiveness.

Freedom.

Deliverance.

Spiritual Life.

Deliverance.

Redemption.

Or one of John’s favorite themes… Living Water.

There’s so many things we could say… but what could capture them all?

Christ Himself gives us the answer in John 20:17-18.

With Christ’s His proclamation… His first teaching… after His resurrection, Jesus summarizes the blessings of the Gospel… the ultimate result of His death on the cross for all who believe in Him with two words…

Grace and Adoption.

In these two words are all the blessings of the Gospel.

The blessings Christ has purchased for us in the shedding of His own blood.

Throughout the Passion Narrative of the Gospel of John we have looked at how small details included by John point to the Theology behind the History.

The Spiritual Realities surrounding the Historical events of Christ’s crucifixion and death.

He’s shown us how in His Death Jesus is:

The Fulfillment of the Law.

Our True Passover Lamb.

Our True Mercy Seat and the True Sacrifice and Atonement for Sin.

The Fountain of Eternal Life.

Cleansing Blood.

Our Perfect and Sinless Substitute who died in our place for our sins.

And with His resurrection… the Beginning of a New Creation and way back to Eden.

Redemption from the Curse and salvation from the Fall.

And with His first conversation with anyone after the cross… the first words we have after Jesus’ resurrection… Jesus tells us what all that means for us.

What He died to give us.

The blessings and promises we have through His death and resurrection from the cross.

We are going to have two points today looking at these blessings… the two things that summarize all the blessings we have in the Gospel… and what they ultimately mean for us.

Number 1… In Christ We Are Made Partakers of Grace in the New Covenant.

And Number 2… In Christ We Are Adopted as Beloved Children of God.

Let’s start with Point Number 1…

I. In Christ We Are Made Partakers of Grace in the New Covenant

John 20:17–18 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.

If you remember… Mary Magdalene had come back to the tomb to mourn.

Its resurrection Sunday and Jesus has Risen again.

The Disciples… Peter and John… had already left and gone home and now Mary was standing all alone outside the Tomb weeping. (John 20:9, 11).

Her whole world was gone.

Jesus had saved her and had cast out 7 demons (Luke 8:2).

He had given her a whole new life!

And now she didn’t even know where Jesus was to mourn… but that wouldn’t last long.

Stooping inside the Tomb she saw two angels and one of them said “Woman, why are you weeping?” (John 20:13).

And she said because she didn’t know where Jesus was.

And then… the next moment… she turned and saw Jesus, but she didn’t know it was Him.

Whether she was kept spiritually blinded from Him or His resurrected body was so gloriously transformed that you wouldn’t recognize Him at first glance even though it had some semblance of His pre-Resurrection body still bearing the holes in His hands… (Luke 24:16, 31; Isaiah 53:2, Psalm 45:2).

She thought Jesus was just the Gardener.

And it wasn’t until after Jesus said, “Mary” that Mary recognized Him.

She heard the voice of the Shepherd who loves the sheep and calls each sheep by name (John 10:3-4).

And and at that moment she was so overwhelmed with joy that you can picture her rushing to grab Him and cling to His feet (cf. Matthew 28:9).

She had Jesus back and she was never going to let Him go.

Ascension

That’s why Jesus said, “Do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the Father.”

Probably the idea is you do not need to hold on to me… I still have work to do.

I still need to ascend to my Father where the Father will give me power, glory and dominion (Daniel 7:13-14).

Where He will bestow on Me the Name that is above every other name (Philippians 2:8-11).

And I will sit down at the right hand of the Father in Triumph over all my enemies with the Father’s promise that all My enemies will be put under my feet and He will give me the ends of the earth as My possession (Psalm 110:1; Psalm 2:7-8, Acts 13:33).

We don’t usually talk about the glory of Christ in His Ascension… we usually focus on the Cross the Resurrection… which is right.

But the Ascension is like Christ’s victory lap.

Its the Coronation of the King coming in Victory to His Kingdom.

The Cross pays for our sin.

The Resurrection gives us New Eternal Life.

And The Ascension secures for us all the Hope… Blessings… and Promises of Christ’s Kingdom.

Because of the Ascension, Christ reigns from the Throne as King of kings and Lord of lords reigning and ruling over all things for His glory and our good conquering all our enemies like David and Goliath and bestowing on us the blessings of His Kingdom.

Grace and Adoption

And then after Jesus said Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; He said but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

Its these words that give us the summary of all the blessings of the Gospel.

My Father and your Father… my God and your God.

There is a new relationship we have with God through Jesus’ death on the cross.

In Christ… God is our Father and our God.

Grace and Adoption.

For this sermon we are actually going to work backwards.

We are going to start with My God and Your God to look at the Grace we have in Christ under the New Covenant.

And then go from there to talk about what that Grace leads to… our Adoption as beloved sons and daughters of God.

These are the two great blessings of the Gospel that encapsulate all the other blessings God has given us in Christ through Jesus’ death and Resurrection.

Grace in the New Covenant.

And Adoption as sons.

My God, Your God

My God and your God is distinctly covenantal language.

When you read the Bible what is the great hope… the great promise… revealed in all the Covenants?

I shall be their God and they shall be my people.

That is the goal… the aim of all of Christ’s work in His death on the cross.

God saving a people for Himself.

Calvin said “that life and the whole of blessedness… so in other words all the blessings of salvation… are embraced in these words” (Beeke, RTS: Man and Christ, Vol. 2, 659).

So when Christ says My God and your God He is saying that He is the fulfillment of this promise and the fulfillment of the Covenant of Grace.

Go to Hebrews 8.

The New Covenant was promised by both Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the Author of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah to say Jesus is the Mediator of a New and Better Covenant and that all the promises of that Covenant are ultimately realized and fulfilled in Him (Jeremiah 31:33-34, Jeremiah 32:38-40; Ezekiel 36:25-29).

New Covenant

Hebrews 8:6–7 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

The first covenant he is talking about is the Covenant of the Law… the Old Covenant… the one given by God through Moses.

He says For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

Its not that the Old Covenant was faulty.

God Himself made it.

The Fault was in us… that’s why verse 8 says For he finds fault with them (Hebrews 8:8).

We could not keep it.

God’s Law written on Tablets of Stone outside of us could do nothing to change the heart.

That’s why Hebrews 7:18–19 said that the Law was set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect).

The Law had no power to save… only the power to condemn.

That’s why Paul calls it a Ministry of Death carved in letters on stone and a Ministry of Condemnation (2 Corinthians 3:7-9).

The Law could do nothing but confirm our sin and condemnation in Adam (Romans 5:18-19).

It was never given to give us Eternal Life… that was already gone and forfeited by Adam in the Garden.

As Paul said If a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law (Galatians 3:21).

So why was the Law given?

Paul asks that same question in Galatians 3:19 “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions.

In other words it was added to reveal our sin and our need for a Savior (Romans 3:20).

The Law said, “Do this and Live”, but all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy 27:26; Romans 6:23)

Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it (James 2:10).

The Law condemns us in our sin and shows us just how far short we have fallen of God’s standard and glory that we might flee to Christ and find our life in Him (Galatians 3:23-24).

Because Christ is the fulfillment of the Law.

Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

He kept the Law on our behalf living the life of perfect and sinless obedience that we failed to live.

And He died the death our sin deserves.

He fulfilled both the righteous requirement of the Law and the penalty of the Law on our behalf and we are declared righteous in Him.

That’s the Doctrine of Justification.

And where the Law said, Do and Do, Christ said, “It is finished” and fulfilled the Old Covenant of Works of the Law to give us the New Covenant of Grace (John 19:30).

Hebrews 8:8–9 For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.

That’s what we just talked about the Law had no power and no hope to give Eternal Life because the Law had no way to change a person’s heart or take away sin in the animal sacrifices that all pointed forward to Christ.

Hebrews 8:10–12 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord:

Now here are the blessings we are talking about that are ours in Christ.

I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

There it is.

My God and Your God.

And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

This personal intimate relationship with the Lord.

The Soul was made to know and glorify God and to find our life in loving Him and Living for Him.

True Life… True Joy is found in loving and knowing God.

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you (Psalm 42:1).

For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

Grace and forgiveness.

In Christ, God is merciful toward our iniquities and remembers our sins no more.

He removes our sin as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).

He casts our sins behind His back and throws them into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19; Isaiah 38:17).

This is the Grace of the Covenant… and when Christ says My God and your God… all that Grace is ours in Him.

Application

Now here’s what all that means for you today.

Number 1… there is grace in Christ.

Believe in Him.

Put your faith in Him.

He is the only way to be saved from your sins.

The New Covenant answers our two great problems of sin.

First, it forgives us our sin… it washes away our guilt and condemnation.

And second, it frees us from our sin to live for the glory of God.

The Law that was written on tablets of stone is now written on our hearts and God puts His Holy Spirit in us to cause us to walk in His ways and cause us to obey His commandments.

Where we were once slaves to a life of sin and death we are freed to walk in the newness of life and the joy of holiness and communion with God.

And the other thing the New Covenant means for you today is God is your God and you are His people.

Remember… that was the Hope of all the covenants.

What does that mean?

That God is with you and that God is for you.

That God is on your side and that God will never leave you or forsake you.

He has bound you to Himself.

Jeremiah 32:38–40 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.

I will not turn away from doing good to them.

Only Christians have this promise of the love and kindness of God.

That no matter what comes we do not have to fear… because God is always with us.

He will never leave us or forsake us.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me (Psalm 23:4).

God’s rod defends us and His staff leads us.

This is such a comfort for the life of the Christian because we really can take to heart Jeremiah 29:11.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

This is one of those coffee mug verses that people think means your life should be great.

But that’s not what it is.

God is saying this to His people in the context of sending them for 70 years into exile in Babylon.

But what it means is that no matter what comes… God is in control… and His will and His plan is to bless us.

Not to crush us… but give us a future and a hope.

When broken… beaten down… at the point of despair we can remember the grace of the New Covenant… that God is our God and we are His people and God has promised He will not turn away from doing us good.

We belong to Him.

Transition

That is the first blessing we have from Christ and His death and Resurrection.

Grace under the New Covenant.

And that leads to the second blessing we have because this Covenant Relationship where God as our God and we as His people

Because its not just a relationship of God and Man but of a Father and His Children.

And that’s point number 2…

II. In Christ We Are Adopted as Beloved Sons and Daughters of God

John 20:17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 

My Father and Your Father speaks to the grace we have in Christ in our Adoption.

Adoption is one of the most precious and treasured doctrines we have for our faith.

God doesn’t just forgive our sins and say, “Ok… you’re absolved…. we’re even… go and sin no more… don’t mess up to bad…”

No… He adopts us and brings us into His own family.

He sets His love on us in Christ and invites us to call Him Father!

This has been a prominent theme in the Gospel of John.

All the way back in John chapter 1…

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,…

That is the Legal Authority.

In other words you are adopted in Christ. He is our Adoption papers.

It is a free gift of God’s grace that can never be lost or taken away!

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 Big Idea… if you are in Christ, God loves you as one of His own beloved children beloved in the only beloved son of God.

God loves you in Christ.

In other words… God’s love for you is objective.

Jesus said, You have loved them even as you loved me (John 17:23).

For many Christians… its so hard to believe this.

That God actually loves them!

We struggle so often with hard thoughts about God.

That He’s always upset… always disappointed.

That yea… He loves us… but He’s fed up with us at the same time.

That’s not true.

God loves us in Christ… we are adopted in Him.

If you believe that God has forgiven you in Christ… however much you believe God has forgiven you God has loved you as well.

That’s the truth… In Christ God is your Heavenly Father.

So here’s what I want you to see with the time we have remaining here… the great blessing and grace that we have in the grace of adoption.

And that is that God Loves you By Name.

God Loves You By Name

We don’t question God’s love for people but we do question God’s love for me.

We know our sins. We know our failures.

These are where those hard thoughts come from.

We feel like such screw ups how could God not be fed up with us?

Because of Christ!

Here’s what I want you do see.

Ephesians 1:4–6 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.

So look what it says.

In love God predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ and verse 4 tells us that God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.

So this adoption is God’s love for you rooted in Christ and God’s eternal plan and purpose.

Now why do I say God loves you by name.

How can I say that?

Look at John 10:11, 3-4 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

God sent Christ into the world to die for His sheep… those predestined before the foundation of the world.

The Pharisees did not believe because they were not among His sheep so Christ did not die or lay down HIs life for them (John 10:26).

Christ did not die for everyone or to give everyone the chance or possibility of salvation… Christ died only for the elect.

He actually saves those He laid down His life for because by laying down His life He actually purchased them and ransomed them from their slavery to sin and death.

Well here’s the thing… Jesus said Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

And Jesus laid down His life… so He loved… the sheep.

Sheep He Himself says He calls out by Name.

So if God loved us before the foundation of the world and sent Christ to die for us and Christ says He died for those He calls out by Name…

Then God chose you in Christ… and adopted you in Christ… and loved you in Christ by Name.

He chose you… not just generic Christians in general.

Who else did Christ die for?

Not a nameless faceless mass… but for sheep…. and sheep by Name.

I’ll tell you… its one of the most difficult things for Christians to believe that God loves them… I mean actually loves them.

Them!… not just Christians in general.

Why because we know all our failures and our shortcomings.

For many of us God is a hard Father for whom its never good enough.

He always needs more.

How?

But the testimony of the Father’s love for us in in the cross.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son… (John 3:16)

And God showed His love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 8:32).

God gave His Son for you… Christ died for your sins on the tree.

That’s the proof of the Father’s love… He gave His Son to save you!

In addition to that Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).

Faith takes God at His Word that when God says He loves us in Christ… He loves us in Christ.

So when we question God’s love or struggle to believe in God’s love look to the cross and trust God’s Word.

The very word that gives us a picture of that love in the parable of the Prodigal Son.

Prodigal Son

Any time we are tempted with hard thoughts or question God’s love, we need to remember the story of the prodigal son.

He left everything.

He basically spit in his dad’s face and said I wish you were dead.

I want nothing from you… just give me my inheritance.

But then 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).

For many of us that’s our picture of God.

We’re in, but just barely.

But what did the Father do?

Luke 15:20 While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

The Father was looking for his son.

Waiting on him.

Looking down that long dirt road longing for the day he would see his son come over that hill.

And while he was still a long way off…

He didn’t just stand there.

He wasn’t just waiting crossing his arms and tapping his foot thinking, “Oh this will be good.”

No!… While he was still a long way off he ran after him.

He grabbed… He hugged him… He kissed him.

And the son started His speech, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

But he couldn’t even get the rest of the words out.

Before he knew it the Father was calling out to the 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).

The robe… the ring… and the shoes… all these show the Father receiving his son back as his son.

Not as a servant… not as a hired hand… not as someone at arm’s length saying prove to me you’re worthy of me.

There’s a joy and delight of the Father in the salvation of his son… just as it is with us in Christ.

God doesn’t just take us out of the gutter and the slop that the pigs ate and just forgive us.

To be fair that would be more than we could ever hope.

We deserve far worse for our sin.

But God doesn’t just do that… He doesn’t bring us back as a servant pay it all back…

Work everything off you owe.

God… from a long way off runs out to us… embraces us…

clothes us in the righteousness of Christ… the Best Robe!

And gives us the ring of sonship on our hand…

Kills the fattened calf and brings us back to the Family Table calling us one of His own beloved sons or daughters.

That’s the Grace of Adoption.

My God and Your God… My Father and your Father.

And now… all the blessings and graces of sonship are ours.

Why will God never leave us or forsake us?

Why are all the paths of the Lord steadfast love and faithfulness and God has sworn with an oath not to turn away from doing good to us? (Psalm 25:10; Jeremiah 32:38-40).

Because God is our God and we are His people.

And God is our God as our loving Heavenly Father.

Conclusion

Grace and Adoption.

The two principle blessings that we have through the death and resurrection of Christ.

Christ comes out of the grave preaching this as the good news.

Go and tell my brothers, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

Through the death and resurrection of Christ we are brought into the Grace of the New Covenant.

Galatians 3:10–13 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”

Its a Covenant of Works.

But the good news of the Gospel is…

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.

Christ is the end and fulfillment of the Law.

All the righteous requirements of the Law and the penalty of the Law our sin deserved are fulfilled and satisfied in Him.

So that now we are justified by grace through faith.

And as the 1689 London Baptist Confession says 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 (1689 12:1).

God is our God and we are His people and in Christ God is our God as our loving Heavenly Father and we are His beloved sons and daughters beloved in the only beloved Son of God.

You have loved them even as you have loved me (John 17:23).

By the Death and Resurrection of Christ, we have recieved the Grace of forgiveness from all our sin under the New Covenant and all the blessings and privileges of Adoption in Christ.

Grace and Adoption.

The Good News of the Good News of the Gospel.

Let’s Pray