The Wonder of Spiritual Adoption: Past, Present, Future!
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Dear Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
One of the saddest things in the world is to see a child crushed by rejection, see it on the playground, kids can be mean - effect self-esteem and confidence for a long time. But even worse in the home. Of course there are no perfect parents, but if a child grows up with nothing but constant criticism, never good enough, or worse contempt and disdain. Hard to overcome. Even when children adopted into good home,those teen years can be so had deal with trauma of separation, someone didn’t want me -
Well congregation, John is concerned about these church goers in Ephesus - remember some wanted to give up, others full confusion. John has just uncovered that - what stands in the way of fellwoship and joy with Jesus Christ, what stands in the way of assurance and confidence in Christian living - lust of the eyes, desire of the eyes, the pride of life, -how love of the world . He’s just described that those who deny Christ are manifestations of the antichrists. But remember how he said all of that is no match for rus, that victory is assured? Why? In this spiritual battlefield there are antichrists but who are we? If wer aere the opposite of antichrist - what is the other side of the spiritual battle this world is in - 1 John 2:20
But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.
V.27 He describes how that anointing on those who confess Christ as the Son of God, they have the Father and the Son. They will abide and remain and live out that partnership even to the end. Well, while hit the main argument of the book to not love the world, or the things in it - but to have the love of the Father in you - so you are a person in this world living for what abdies forever! We still have not hit the emotional climax of this book. And that what we come to now -really the emotional climax of the whole Bible - the whole purpose of creation was that we as children of God -would reflect God’s image and live in that great joy of God’s family. Sin broke that, and the point the forgiveness, atonement, cleansing, the recreation, new birth that issues from Jesus Cross and resurrection - is to get us back into the wonder of that relationship of fully reflecting the image of God, fully partnering with Him, as His true sons and daughters! The NT says, this is what the whole creation longs for: Romans 8:19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. And that’s what John now gives to us, powerful picture, promise, and calling of the crowning gem of our salvation - spiritual adoption!
Key Truth: Those embracing the promise of spiritual adoption by God, live confidently towards Christ’s Second Coming.
That’s the truth underneath this text, but John’s call is really simply to stand and awe and marvel greatly at this wonder of spiritual adoption! He uses a word that often comes up in the narrative story sections of the Bible. You know that word more from the older more literal translations. Behold. It is a command, look, and really more - see inwardly and perceive, understand something new - Kind of thing that you would yell out Eureka - I discover/find it! IF ind it. So common in action parts of the Bible, NIV leaves it untranslate. But this is the only place John uses the word in the letter, and what is it that makes us shout this?
1 John 3:1a See/ what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
It’s not just the love of God. But it is the kind/the manner of love. That funny word John uses is what little kids in Greek port town would call out in the morning as new ship in the distance, different kind of ship, where is it from, how great is it, what flag is it flying? What country is it from? It is actually kind of scientific word - what magnificently curiosity is this? Never seen before, from another planet? Or what incredible depth or quality is this thing. The reaction is kind of like when the world greatest zoologist George Shaw went to Autralia - sent back biological samples and sketches of strangest curiosity of a mammal or was it a bird. the thing had face of a bird with beak and it actually laid eggs, but body of a fat little bear, with hair and it gave milk like a mammal. What category is this? Shaw said - one can’t but have doubts - break all the taxonomical categories. Many though an Asian hoax, sowed a bird to a little mammal’s body. Well, this morning in both the picture of baptism and the picture that baptism points to spiritual adoption by God - we with equal wander and awe - are to BEHOLD this kind, this category of love - from God the Father to us! And John says do that by looking at the the three times of spiritual adoption.
A. Spiritual Adoption in the Past: The Father’s Electing & Calling Love
Notice in v.1 that these are actions the Father has already done. He had given that love, and he called us! There is no question about God’s love here it is a finished and we could say eternal act. This is not a love or a calling that you have to earn in the present of your life is it? God didn’t chose you because looked down corridor of time and saw hey this one is better this one act or believe better, they earn my love. No, with an everlasting love He chose us. What’s more He chose not in our selves, but in Christ the Chosen one. Listen to
Eph 1:4-5 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
So John says, don’t look to the present of your behaviour or circumstances to know God’s adopting love. Look back to Christ chosen for you, look at His righteousness!
1 John 2:29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him
If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
All the good that anyone does as a Christian, doesn’t earn God’s love or make him deserving of God’s calling. No practicing righteousness isn’t just doing a lot of good deeds. What does v.29 mean. It means when you Christ as the righteousness one, when you know that in Him you have a different kind of righteousness than merely following a bit of the law and feeling self-righteousness - When you know Christ and His righteousness, when that has been imputed to you legally, given new status with God, - Wen Christ afterward infuses with a new nature, His life by the Spirit is in you, then you’re good deeds prove you are in Christ, born of him. See that love of the Father was given before any change in you! Isn’t that the wonder of God’s love: he loved us while were enemies - not for anything good in us, but because eternally he had chosen to love us and change us by His love.
Look how John put it in
1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
He loved us says Ephesians 2:4-5 while we were still children of wrath, under the dominion of sin and the devil , and this system of rebellion against God. We and this whole world deserve the punishment of our sins, the curse of living a God-forsaken life separated from true and divine love. But God chose to love us!
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
And look at this manner of love, He didn’t just say Hey, you’re alright kind of like this and that about you, like adopting dog at the pound. No, with nothing in us , He said, out my pure love for you - I am giving My Son - utter self-giving, self-sacrificing - he will take away the punishment from you, the wrath your sinful nature and sins deserve. Grace is free, but it is not cheap. God himself giving His Son, the Son in pure love stepping forward to offer His life for yours - says They are worth it! This is why the word order is with the Father at the end. This Holy Father who can’t be near sin - it is He who loves us so!
But here is the greatest wonder of it, look at the result.
1 John 3:1b See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God;
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
This calling of God that we are children of God. The one whom God calls, not just with outward call of hearing the gospel, not just with water baptism, but this inward call - here is Christ for you, here you can have a new life and a new identity and a new power, new future, a new identity in Him. The one God calls inwardly like that he calls effectually!
Jesus Himself declared this - all the Father has given to me will come to me. All who come to me have been drawn by the Father. We can know that about all and any at all who come to Christ! The Spirit is working irresistibly within them. But the Father calls them children of God. The word there is not just son or daughter, but the emphasis is on their birth! Jesus said, all who sin are children of the devil, they are enslaved under his Dominion, they bear his nature of rebellion against God. In John’s language they are children of the world system. But when God’s call a person - he extends this promise: I will spiritually adopt you. You will become my true son or daughter. That’s what v.29 of chapter 2 meant - you will be born of him.
As we move to God’s action in the past in adopting us, now in our present as whether adult convert or a covenant child, we have to see how the picture of who we are tobe in Christ, gets worked out by faith alone in our lives! It is hard for us to understand the change implied by being adopted by the Father, because we think of adoption, like Marylou fostering those twins Oden and _______, and we pray that as infants or young toddlers they’ll get a new forever home. But adoption in John’s day wasn’t like that. Some older couple without an heir, no one to pass their wealth and position and their home to. Think of Ben Hur - official ceremony - named adopted son: they would take an older teenage boy or young man who had no real home, no real future. And that adopted son would get the full inheritance. He would get a name, and a position, and a family and home - he would be heir. Adoption to first born son position of heir - for women and women boys and girls 0- that’s the picture
Galatians 4:6-7 … So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
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.
Do you get that? God is true and eternal Father to His one and only Son - that special relationship - eternal sonship essential sonship nothing else like it. But in the Son coming to be like us, earn our salvation, in Him atoning for us, in Him rising - in Him sending His Spirit that we might be born in Him, participate in Him. Remember John 17 love you have for me Father, might be in them. Well everything Christ earned and has - he says now in your adoption - God the Father is giving that to you!
Josh and Ginny - I don’t doubt that you’ll teach Eden and Wesley all about wood working, all about cows and cucumbers - but teach them about they are called to be children of God heirs of God - like Christ. QA 33
Well congregation, this is all based on God’s adopting work that follows from the Father’s electing work and Christ's saving work done in the past, and we are to marvel at this adopting God and the love he extended to us in Christ. And you may be tempted to say, we believe that in the past Christ dd that for us. And I believe that in the future, I can go to heaven because of that. But there is nothing for the present in my adoption.
B. Spiritual Adoption in the Present: Make sure your calling, and live into your adoption.
That’s the very last part of 3:1 And so we are. It is what is stressed in
1 John 3:2a Beloved, we are God’s children now
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
It is the basis for the instruction on how to live NOW at the end of our text:
1 John 3:3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
When the foundation for God adopting you has been established and completed in Christ’s finished work, then in time, in the present - the adoption has to go through. It has to get worked out in our lives. I remember a couple in a church were a part of with social worker. Everything in place for adoption but paper work didn’t go through and at the last minute all taken away. But God here says, the present reality of adoption has to be worked out in you. There is no automatic here.
Merely knowing the teaching, or seeing the picture, or even having the picture of what God’s saving grace extended and applied physically in the water of baptism can save you. Adoption only worked out in your life when you do the hoping - when the Spirit of God using these words and these word pictures - causes you to see and exercise faith. God adopts sinners, and I am a sinner who absolutely needs the One whom you’ve given. I see he is the righteous One, I see I need the cleansing -that’s what baptism is God’s picture of isn’t it? Washing of regeneration. It is the regeneration itself, but sign and seal of grace - righteousness that is by faith. God gives us the picture of it, so when adult convert enters the community of grace, the church - says, - I am identified with Christ, His Cross His rising, I realize I need this forgiveness, and I need this continual cleansing, I am not and will not be perfect until heaven, but I will live in union with Christ. We are to see who Christ is, where He is now, what He has now, how He is with God - and then say that is my life my future. Josh and Ginny speak and pray often with your kids, when they are down, when they mess up - and as this discussion happens, as they turn to Christ - receive HIm as Saviour and as Lord!
And John says that will result in a life of self-purification. Not something you can do without Christ, It based on Christ being pure, but offered to You , take hold of Him, and by the Spirit of which you are now born, this becomes a key component of the NT life of the believer. You begin to walk as he walked, you obey his commands, you exhibit His character, never perfectly. It not a question of perfection, but direction.
In a church, I served, another family adopted 3 siblings, after raising 3 of there own. Baptized , but so interesting that the insecurities of growing up outside of a loving home structured home, will I have enough to eat, going to hoard and steal it now. Can’t let them known my mistakes because reject me - lying. Even though part of the family true sons and daughters, they had to in time live into their new identity. They had to unlearn old self habits. Well when a covenant child or new convert, when they have come to faith same thing, and baptism is given as a picture not so much as a testimony of their faith and new life, but of Christ’s promises and His ongoing work in their lives. Our baptism when we have true and persevering faith - travels with us - we use it as means by which we understand our new identiy and Christ, and the new life and power we’re called to! We embrace that new way of living in Christ, testifying to it, profess it!
Little Lord Fauntleroy … poor boy off streets of US city, finds out heir to great estate, has to learn manners, but more how to live as a compassionate, strong leader for all surrounding people. That’s you and me - now in the present - learning to live as heirs of Christ, in His power, with His wisdom, fulfilling calling of Christ with people around us!
But that brings us to the last aspect of wonder in our spiritual adoption and that is its future aspect and how that should fire us up to hope-filled living!
C. Full Adoption in the Future: The Hope that Purifies
Look at the future aspect of God’s adoption of His children: That’s a guiding star in our lives now
1 John 3:2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
This is what I meant by spiritual adoption and this kind of Fatherhood of God as the climax of the Bible. When he appears we shall be like him. John began this letter with the wonder of the first appearing, manifestation of Life from Above, the first coming of the Son of God - and re-read chapter 1. John can hardly put into words what it was like to walk with and touch, and have fellowship with the One who Is Eternal Life. And John’s big beef with false teachers with anti-christs, with the system of the world that denies God - is that it may have spirituality, and a type of esoteric knowledge and cool religious practices and even strict code; but it doesn't know Jesus and if you don’t know Jesus, can’ t know and have fellowship and partnership kononia with the Father. Remember how I put it cut a body in half, brain, heart on left - no longer have human being. Cut Christ out, no longer have the Father - the Triune God and partnership fellowship and communion with Him. But we have Christ, I know in your home that partnership with Jesus and that love of the Father, that participation in the kingdom is there. Now we must show these kids Him - must disciple those who come to know Him, who are new in our fellowship - but John says that spiritual adoption of the present is just the tip of the ice berg. In the same way that the Son appeared and was manifest - Jesus is going to come again dramatically and physically - and then what will our adoption be? - not just spiritually - but physically share His glorified body, whole creation groaning longing for that kind of redemption. Spiritually, emotionally, physically made completely whole in Christ. But there is more, morally - we shall see him, beatific vision - become pure completely as He is pure.
Remember why it is hard for an adopted child to live with security, all this brokenness from the past can hardly believe - loved no matter, what, that new parents unconditionally and absolutely provide for you. Especially those teen age years, but then often accept it, earthly perspective completely home. Well that’s the deep assurance John wants you to live with cosmically - Yes, this world full of antichrists, world scary place, but we have our identity in Christ who conquered this world, our faith shares in that victory with Him, we have our future in body and soul secure - in this crowning future reality of adoption - it fuels our sanctification, and will result in the end in what glorification. And we will see Him and be like Him. Can’t describe in this life completely, but we know its where we are heading.
Romans 8:19
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
This broken world needs to see, God rushes to us in Christ, says, here put this ring on, here sandals, here is a feast, come in come in - you are home - This son or daughter was lost - but now adopted, embraced, employed, enjoying life in my eternal family!
So John says: Get living like that Little Lord Faukleroy, for all the purity and good of a true Lord and king with Christ! Leave the shame and fear behind, don’t shrink back, with confidence embracing this Christ, born of the Spirit, live for His kingdom in this world until He comes again.
Josh and Ginny, young parents, boys and girls this is what the picture of adoption and our baptism is calling us to. Not for us to be perfect and have to earn our salvation. Nor that our salvation is automatic or mechanical. But that it is eureka found. I can know that I am loved with this out of the world, one of a kind eternal love of God, when I personally embrace the promises that come with this picture. When we embrace Christ as the cleanser, purifier, the Spirit bestower, who is Lord of Life and of this kingdom of whose people you are. As we have this hope, this gospel believed and applied, we are to be able to wake up and look in the mirror and say I am a child, I share the nature, the eternal life, the communion, of the living God, I am a child of the King. Amen.