Adoption

The world is not our home.

Sometimes when weve watched movies in our childhoods and we see main characters like Superman, Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker or even Peter Pan we would notice that all these characters were all orphans.

When we watch these characters and how they are the main characters and they end up doing crazy things in the movie it makes us, the audience see that there could be is a special plan for us also even when we may not feel like it.

Something that we will learn about Adoption and what the bible says about it , is that adoption is a very comforting doctrine. Its comforting to know that you are part of something and you belong to someone.

But its also comforting to know that this world is not our home. We may have a home we stay in and a job we are settled at or have a hobby we love doing but something we have to understand is that this world is not our home.

Theres a quote by C.S Lewis and he says “if i find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that i was made for another world”

He is saying if theres desires that we have that we know the world has can never fulfil us then we know that were not from here.

This why its comforting is because to be adopted is for us to realise were not made for this world were made for another world and for another person. We were made for God.

Doctrine that comforts

So with the topic of Adoption we have to understand this is only unique to Christianity. Us as Christians can actually call our God , Father. This doesnt exist in Islam.

To be a Father or if you were called a Father , that means that you have a Son.

If our Father in heaven is a eternal Father then that means he must have a Eternal Son. The Father and Son, forever united and forever in fellowship.

When we are adopted it means that through the Spirit we can now take part in this fellowship also being part of the family.

When we read that we are adopted by God , that means that at one point in our life we were not part of Gods family.

This is what God says about the Gentiles aswell before they get saved.

Ephesians 2:12 NIV

12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

When someone goes to adopt a child there is a court involved with a judge and the judge will say some words sometimes even along the lines of saying that this girl you are adopting to the parents should be treated as if she had been born to you. That she possesses all the rights and privilages of a biological child.

Then when the judge smacks his hammer then it begins.

The little girl or boy that wouldve been adopted was once far off but now has been brought near and she or he now has a home.

Gods Big Plan

Adoption is quite simple , it shouldnt be something tricky to understand. But when we realise that we have been adopted by God it means that we are now part of his plan that hes always had for us from the beginning.

Ephesians 1:3–5 NIV

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—

This passage shows us 5 things about us and our adoption to God.

Because you are adopted we have a reason to praise Him.

God is an adopting God, when he adopted you as a son or a daughter it showed how merciful he is and it means also that hes worthy of worship.

What kind of person would allow sinners and rebels to sit at his table ? only God.

2. Your adoption means you lack nothing.

Notice how it says we have been blessed with “with every spiritual blessing”. We have so much because we are part of Gods family now, we have mothers , fathers, even brothers and sisters and Heavenly Father in the Kingdom. There is no longer anything you need that you dont have in Jesus.

3. Your adoption was delibertae.

God didnt just accidentally or casually adopt you you. When you watch movies and see kids getting adopted its always the least good ones or ones that had issues that get left behind at the adoption clinic and they get picked up because they are the last ones. God didnt pick you because all the good ones were gone.

From the beginning God always had his eyes on you and now that your hear sitting at fellowship this wasnt your own plan this was Gods plan all along.

4. Your adoption is through Christ.

Through Christs work on the Cross opening the door for reconciliation of humanity to the Father we are now made his brother. Your adoption was secured with the hammer from the judge your adoption was secured by the Cross and now through the cross we now share the same Father as Jesus Christ.

5. Your adoption is evidence of Gods love.

Love is the only reason that rebels like us have been adopted. Its not because of our good deeds or anything like that , we are all rebels but its because of Gods love we have now been adopted.

We dont need to be afraid of sin any more or feel like we are lonely or even feel unsure that you are saved , why? Because weve been adopted and nothing can change that.

Galatians 4:4–7 NIV

4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

So to be adopted means that we are part of Gods big plan, a place that he had before the universe was created and we get to see more of this plan when we enjoy God.

Now that we know that we are adopted to God because of his love that he has always had for us, its for us to now apply that same love God had for us to everyone else and into everything that we do.

For example: You dont need to be a Christian to feed the poor or help people or to do the right thing. But the only service that we do which is worthy of being called Good works unto God or Christian service is servive that is soaked in Love.

1 Corinthians 13:3 NIV

3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Just because you do the right thing doesnt mean that its from God, but its when you do things through the Love of God thats when we can say yup that was because of God.

So for adoption its for us to see how the Father loves the Son Jesus and the Son Jesus loves the Father and how the Father loves you also so much that he even sent his Son to give his life for you.

Think about that , we dont deserve it but he loved you that much he was willing to let Jesus give his life so that you could now be with him.

If you think about it , before you came to Christ , the challenges you faced and the darkness you faced werent really challenges and wasnt really darkness to you because your flesh normalised it. It was only when you came to Christ and you now knew and you understand now what he saved you from that you now know how far you were away from him.

So now when your old life tries to tempt you day by day and you get challenged but you resist it and you get conviction and you push through that is a sign you are adopted to God because when you are part of his family , you are in the world but you are no longer of the world as Jesus says in the book of John.

Amen.