Father's Day 2020 - The Privilege of Spiritual Adoption

I invite your attention to Romans 8:12-19 this morning.

Romans 8:12-19

I want to talk to you about the Privilege of Spiritual Adoption

Read: Romans 8:12-19

Adoption is a fascinating word found in the Bible.

The Greek Noun translated “adoption” is found five times and each time it is referring to the status of believers as children, sons adopted by God in and through Christ. (Rom. 8:15, 23; 9:4; Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5).

Paul is drawing a distinction between slaves, servants, and Foster Children, and SONS!!!

When one was adopted in Greek and Jewish times even as today - the kinship relationship between the two individuals is recognized as equivalent to a biological descent.

I love the fairly modern term - “Forever Home”.

When a child is adopted they will often call it that - “They have found their forever home”

What a lovely sounding thought - A forever home - God has a forever home - If you haven’t become a part of it this morning - I wouldn’t leave here without doing it.

There was a ripple of excitement all through the orphanage, for a great lady had come to take little Jane home with her. The girl herself was bewildered with the thought. "Do you want to go with me and be my child?" the lady asked in gentle tones. "I don't know," said Jane timidly. "But I'm going to give you beautiful clothes and a lot of things, a room of your own with beautiful bed and table and chairs." After a moment's silence, the little one said anxiously: "But what am I to do for all this?" The lady burst into tears. "Only to love me, and be my child," she said as she folded the little girl in her arms.

God adopts us, protects us, and give us an inheritance in glory. All He asks in return is that we should love Him, and be His children -- Children's Record - HDM Illustrations

This brings us the first privilege of Spiritual Adoption…

Spiritual Adoption Removes the Obligation Romans 8:12-13

Spiritual Adoption removes the obligation to live after the flesh -

Living after the flesh brings death (to all spiritual life and eventually eternal death - The wages of sin is death)

Living after the Spirit brings death (death to the flesh)

I once was an outcast, stranger on earth,

A sinner by choice, and an alien by birth;

But I’ve been adopted, my name’s written down,

An heir to a mansion, a robe and a crown.

I’m a child of the King, a child of the King;

With Jesus my Saviour, I’m a child of the King.

Harriet E. Buell

Spiritual Adoption takes Removes the Obligation - but also....

Spiritual Adoption Includes Spiritual Leadership Romans 8:14

In order to understand what it is to be “led by the Spirit” I think we need to understand the classic passage about it. Galatians 5:16-18

“16.This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17.For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18.But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” (Galatians 5:16–18, KJV 1900)

An expanded translation helps give its full import. “But I say, be walking in the Spirit and you will never fulfill the desire of the flesh.” Paul uses a double negative construction to make his negation as emphatic as possible. His point is that a Christian can and will resist fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, if he constantly submits to the Spirit’s control in his life. A life free from willful sin is every Christian’s privilege!

Everything that verse 16 promises seems to be snatched away with verse 17. “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

Verse 17 starts with "for" indicating that verse 17 is a logical extension of verse 16. It is not contrast; it is continuation.

Ben Witherington points out, there are three possible ways to take v. 17c:

You cannot do the good things you (by the Spirit) want to do,

You cannot do the bad things you (by the flesh) want to do, or

You cannot do either the good or the bad. The third option is nonsense, so that leaves (1) and (2).

Since v. 17 is a logical extension of v. 16, it doesn't make sense to say, "Walk in the spirit and you won't fulfill the lusts of the flesh, for you cannot do the good things you want to do." That leaves only option (2).

The phrase "whatever things you may be desiring," then, refers to the desires of the flesh. We can paraphrase this last part of verse 17 this way: "so that you by walking in the Spirit may not be doing whatever things your flesh may be desiring."

To recap: verse 16 identifies the solution to the problem of the flesh: walk in the Spirit. Verse 17 explains why this solution is necessary: the flesh and the Spirit are opposed to one another, and the only way to avoid fulfilling the flesh's lusts is by walking in the Spirit.

Verse 18 reinforces this conclusion from a different angle. If you are being led by the Spirit, which is another way of talking about walking in the Spirit, then you are not "under law."

The Galatians were being told by Judaizers that they must be under the Mosaic covenant, through circumcision, to be saved. Paul refutes this idea by pointing out that what is begun by the Spirit cannot be completed by something done to the flesh.

Being led by the Spirit is the antithesis of living according to the flesh, which places a person under the law.

You that are adopted as Son’s have Spiritual Leadership and are therefore not under the curse or death of the LAW!!!!

It’s like the man I heard about recently - they had a broadcast of his story on NPR News last year.

Mr. Jay Speights (Spates) of America recently discovered that he is royal. He took a DNA test and the results popped up as being of royal descent. The funny thing is that Speights grew up in New Jersey. He lives in an apartment. He does not even own a car. But now he’s a prince.

NPR reports that he visited his long-lost country and was welcomed home as royalty. Another paper reported, “When he first arrived, he saw what looked like a festival, hundreds of people dancing and playing instruments and singing. It took him several minutes to realize it was a welcome party—for him.” Here’s an excerpt from his interview on NPR:

Steve Inskeep (host): Royal DNA? Mr. Speights is a prince in the small West African country of Benin. His family had been trying to learn the African side of their lineage for decades, and at last, he had an answer. So naturally, he got on a plane.

Speights: Next thing you know, I'm in Benin, being crowned as a prince. It was that easy.

Inskeep: The royal family prepared a festival for his homecoming. They hung up banners. They held a parade. And because the prince had no experience with prince-ing, the royal family sent him to a so-called prince school.

Speights: What may have added to the intensity of emotion was that it was my father's birthday. And to land there on my father's birthday was just unbelievable. And I tell you, my father's presence was with me. I could see him and feel him.

You and I this morning if we have been adopted we have that Spiritual Leadership and we also find ourselves Kings and Priests today - HALLELUJAH

As another songwriter put it - “Oh Yes Oh Yes I’m a Child of the King, His royal blood now flows through my veins… Through Jesus my Savior, I’m a child of the King”

Spiritual Adoption not only removes obligation and brings Spiritual Leadership we also find that....

Spiritual Adoption Relieves From Bondage and Fear Romans 8:15-19

Paul in this section shows compares Bondage and fear with Spiritual Adoption. He paints quite a picture -

He begins by telling us that the Sons of God have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear:

I like how the NIV puts it; “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again;”

Paul is saying there was a point we lived a slaves in fear - but all that is changed - and we don’t ever have to live like that again - because…

As Paul goes on to tell us - “WE HAVE RECEIVED THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION”

You have been brought into the Family -

Yes He is Still God - but to You He Is Now Father!!!

I love how Tim Keller a Presbyterian Minister put it:

“The only person who dares wake up a king at 2:00 am for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.”

''There is an old Roman story which tells how a Roman Emperor was being honored after a victory at war. He had the privilege, which Rome gave to her great victors, of marching his troops through the streets of Rome, with all his captured trophies and his prisoners in his train. So the Emperor was on the march with his troops. The streets were lined with cheering people. The tall legionaries lined the streets' edges to keep the people in their places. At one point on the triumphal route there was a little platform where the Empress and her family were sitting to watch the Emperor go by in all the pride of his triumph. On the platform with his mother there was the Emperor's youngest son, a little boy. As the Emperor came near the little boy jumped off the platform, burrowed through the crowd, tried to dodge between the legs of a legionary, and to run out on to the road to meet his father's chariot. The legionary stooped down and stopped him. He swung him up in his arms: ''You can't do that, boy,'' he said. ''Don't you know who that is in the chariot? That's the Emperor. You can't run out to his chariot.'' And the little lad laughed down. ''He may be your Emperor,'' he said, ''but he's my father.'' That is exactly the way the Christian feels towards God. The might, and the majesty, and the power are of one whom Jesus taught us to call Our Father.''

This morning do you know what it is to be adopted by the King of Kings? To be able to call Him Father.

I love how verse 15 finishes - “Whereby we cry, Abba, Father”

It is through this Spirit of Adoption or no doubt the Holy Spirit we can cry “Abba Father”

That is a term of endearment. In the Laura Ingall’s Wilder series her Father was affectionately known as PA. It was a term of respect and endearment.

This morning He is our “Abba Father” And you can cry that out -

We don’t come in fear - we come in faith.

Do you know Him as “Abba, Father” this morning?

Do you know that you are walking by the Spirit and free from obligation?

Do you know that you have that Spiritual Leadership?

Do you know that you are free from bondage and fear?

Privileges of the Spiritual Adoption.