Who I am in Christ… (6)

I am adopted as God’s child…

When we look at the word adoption, it can bring different connotations because of our own experiences. Maybe you are adopted, have thought of adopting, or really don’t know too much about adoption.

After Donna & I had Josh, we actually had a conversation about adoption. We never dug into it because Donna became pregnant, but we had considered it realizing that it was a possibility that we might only have one child and would like to ensure that Josh wouldn’t grow up an only child. Waiting lists can be long and discouragement can take place because the whole process can fall through. Some families have gone overseas to adopt from orphanages because they knew that it would be virtually impossible for them to adopt in Canada.

Let’s read Ephesians 1:3-8, but we’ll focus on verses 5-6 today, as well as the last two words from verse 4.

Ephesians 1:3–8 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— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding,

The two words,

In love…

are caught between a rock and a hard place. Some translators have taken it to mean that it’s God’s love and we are the objects of that love, while others, use in love to mean that because we love God, we can be holy and blameless in His sight.

Ephesians 1:4 NKJV

4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,

The NIV and NLT tie it to the next verse. I’m sure that we truly are objects of God’s love and because of the love that God has displayed to us, we love God.

For sake of our memory verses, we will tie it to verse 5.

Ephesians 1:4–5 NIV

4 …In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—

It says,

In love He predestined us…

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 1:5

Predestined is from proorisas,

Once again, I don’t want to get too far into the weeds, but this is probably one doctrine that we need to give some attention.

What do we believe about God?

We believe that He is

Omnipotent = All powerful

He is

Omnipresent = to be present everywhere at the same time.

He is

Omniscient = knows all things

We also believe that

God is good, just, and merciful. He doesn’t change. He has no beginning and He will have no end. God is holy, which means set apart. He cannot sin. There is no one like Him. He is majestic, gracious, and abounding in love.

As we go back and look at God’s omniscience, does God know who will ultimately be saved and those who will ultimately be condemned. The answer is obviously, YES.

This week I took a little bit of time to study

Predestination…

There are two camps that many of us would know and many times we think that we are at odds with each other.

Calvinism and Arminianism…

John Calvin and Jacobus Arminius were both reformers. They both looked at predestination and agreed that God marks people out beforehand. They both believed that salvation is fully and only provided by God. If we can claim that we are a part of providing our salvation, we have something to boast in.

Ephesians 2:8–9 NIV

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

According to Scripture, no one can come unless the Father draws them. Before the world was created, God chose us in Him to be holy and blameless in His sight.

Arminius believed,

“Predestination, therefore, as it regards the thing itself, is the decree of the good pleasure of God in Christ, by which he resolved within himself from all eternity,

to justify, adopt and endow with everlasting life, to the praise of his own glorious grace, believers on whom he had decreed to bestow faith (Eph 1; Rom 9).” (Arminius Speaks, 7)

I think one of the differences between Calvin and Arminius is the question of resisting the Holy Spirit.

Both Calvin and Arminius believed that believers can resist the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives, but Arminius held that a believer can ultimately reject the gospel. (Jesse Orloff 2019 Arminius)

Arminius would have used verses like 1 Timothy 4:1, and Colossians 1:21-23 to defend this.

1 Timothy 4:1 NIV

1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

Colossians 1:21–23 NIV

21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

To what have we been predestinated?

In love…

Ephesians 1:5 NIV

5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—

God marked out beforehand, adoption to sonship.

Paul is writing to people in the 1st century. The Roman Empire ruled most of the known world.

Adoption…

to them had a specific meaning.

Ephesians 1. The Work of God the Father (3–6)

In Roman law, “When the adoption was complete it was complete indeed. The person who had been adopted had all the rights of a legitimate son in his new family and completely lost all rights in his old family. In the eyes of the law he was a new person. So new was he that even all debts and obligations connected with his previous family were abolished as if they had never existed.” (Barclay)

2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT

17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

I’m not saying that you can go to the bank tomorrow and tell them that all of your debts need to be cancelled, but spiritually speaking you have been justified. You have been made right in God’s eyes as if you had never sinned.

Psalm 103:10–12 NIV

10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

We have been taken out of the family of darkness. We have lost all of the rights of the sinful nature, and we have been adopted with full rights as sons.

Colossians 2:13–15 NIV

13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Why did Paul use the term,

Sons…

It’s positional. Sons had the right to inheritance. There is an example in the Old Testament where daughters of Zelophehad were given their father’s inheritance but were only allowed to marry within the trible of Manasseh, otherwise, they couldn’t keep Zelophehad’s share of the inheritance.

Usually, we refer to the fact that we are children of God: sons and daughters of the living God.

In love…

Ephesians 1:5 NIV

5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—

Every spiritual blessing comes from Jesus Christ. Our adoption with full rights as God’s children

This pleases God and it lines up perfectly with His will.

Romans 8:28–30 NIV

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

You are God’s masterpiece. You are His workmanship, and God doesn’t make junk. He is still working on us. He is still shaping us and molding us into the image of His Son, but you no longer have the right to indulge the old sinful desires because you are a new creation in Christ.

Romans 8:12–17 NIV

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. 14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

In Ephesians 1:6, Paul brings us back to praise.

Ephesians 1:6 NIV

6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

The NLT puts it this way,

Ephesians 1:6 NLT

6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.

We have so much to praise God for. We can’t take credit for what He has done or continues to do in us.

Philippians 2:12–13 NIV

12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

He has saved us. He has justified us. He is sanctifying us, making us holy, conforming us into the image of His Son, Jesus. He has given us authority in the name o f Jesus to go and make disciples. We are being changed from glory to glory and the half of what is to happen has never yet been told.

But we know that we will be like Jesus because we will see Him as He is.

There is one word that really stands out in Ephesians 1:6.

Ephesians 1:6 NLT

6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who BELONG to his dear Son.

Many people in our world today still have a sense of abandonment. They know that their parents love them, but there can be a loneliness of being abandoned by their biological parents. Many want to know where they came from.

As Christians, we know where we have came from, and our postal code has changed. IN fact our citizenship has changed. God the Father chose you before the creation of the world. Now you belong, you have been accepted in Christ.

Philippians 3:13–14 NIV

13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Let’s live in the victory of the cross. Let’s not turn back. If you ever question, if you are loved, God has had you on His mind for all of eternity.

1 Corinthians 2:9 NKJV

9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Let’s pray!