Adoption: God’s Family Matter

John 1:12-13
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, October 06, 2019
Copyright © 2019, P. G. Mathew
Language [Japanese]

Introduction

When Adam fell, all his descendants became members of the family of their father the devil. They became children of the devil, whom Adam obeyed. He did not obey God.

I. Divine Adoption

Jesus said to the Pharisees, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God” (John 8:42). Then he said to them, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). When your child lies, he or she receives inspiration from the devil. Everyone in the world obeys either God or the devil.

The elect of God are taken out of the devil’s family and are made children of God in and through the redemption of Jesus Christ (Col. 1:13). Children of wrath and children of disobedience have been made children of mercy and children of obedience. The proof that you are regenerated, justified, and adopted is obedience to the will of God—obedience to parents, obedience to pastors, obedience to God.

In regeneration, dead people are raised to spiritual and moral life. In justification, God as the world’s Judge, gives us legal standing in the sight of God in and through Jesus Christ. So we read:

• Romans 4:25: “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
• 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be [sin offering] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
• 1 Peter 3:18: “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit.” This is substitutionary atonement.

In adoption, God makes us members of his family. Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby God the Father, once for all, makes us members of his family who believe in Jesus Christ.

• John 1:12: “Yet to all who received [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, [God] gave the right to become children of God.”
• Galatians 3:26: “You are all sons [and daughters] of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

All those who are regenerated and justified are adopted to be children of God. They are sons and daughters of God and therefore our brothers and sisters. There is no discrimination in God’s family.

• Colossians 3:11: “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”
• 2 Corinthians 6:18: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

The adopted one enjoys permanent intimacy with God as one’s heavenly Father. Adoption is the apex, the acme, the crowning blessing by which we belong to God’s family. Therefore, God loves us as he loves his only begotten Son. The adopted sons and daughters enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God.

Justification clears the way for this crowning blessing of adoption. The prodigal son came back to the father repenting. He said, “I have sinned against heaven and against you. Therefore, please make me a slave so I can eat.” Heaven rejoices when a sinner repents. So the prodigal’s father was rejoicing, and he refused to make him a slave.

Instead, his father treated him as a son. He gave him a bath and put a new robe on him. He also gave him a new ring and new shoes. He held a great feast and celebration for his returned prodigal son. All these were indications that the prodigal was received by his father as a son, not as a slave. The dead one lives; the lost one is found, and there was glorious rejoicing!

This is true of all who believe in Jesus. We are regenerated, justified, and adopted as sons and daughters in God’s family. And because of this, we can rejoice! Peter writes, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Pet. 1:8).

Adopted people of God can rejoice always, even in sufferings (Rom. 5:3). There is great joy in heaven and there is great joy on earth. It is the will of God that the adopted children of God rejoice greatly. That is what we do in this church. When we worship, there is joy with reverence.

Adoption, like justification, is the Father’s once-for-all judicial act. Through adoption, God gives us the status of sons and daughters of God. We did not have any status before. We were dead. We were nothing. We were powerless, ungodly sinners. We were enemies of God. We were foolish, lowly, weak, despised zeroes.

Adopted children enjoy eternal intimacy with God as our heavenly Father. St. Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until they find rest in God.” Adopted children find their eternal rest in God. God is our home.

There is a also future aspect to our adoption: we shall be glorified. So we read:

• 1 John 3:2: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
• Romans 8:23: “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
• Philippians 3:21: “[Jesus Christ], who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” Adopted children are glorified like Christ.

Adoption makes us members of God’s family. There is no discrimination in the family of God:

• Colossians 3:11: “There is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”
• 1 Timothy 5:1–2: “[Timothy], do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.” I was brought up in revival, a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Every revival is a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and this church is based on that revival. In the caste system of India, there were two sisters who belonged to the lowest caste. But when the revival came, we looked upon Martha and Mary as our mothers. We rejoiced when they came to our house. This is the way we should act towards God’s adopted people in the church.

The elect are predestinated by the heavenly Father to adoption. Paul writes, “He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” (Eph. 1:5).

As God’s adopted sons and daughters in Christ, we have a position that is higher than where Adam was before he fell.

• John 10:28–30: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” If God regenerated you, if God justified you, if God adopted you, you have eternal security. He is God Almighty. You will persevere to the end. And when you die, you will go to heaven until you are glorified. I believe in eternal security of all people who persevere by divine mercy to the end. He preserves us so we persevere.
• Romans 8:30: “And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”

Adoption has to do with loving relationship with God and all God’s people. God’s people are our brothers and sisters throughout the whole world. So God’s church is God’s family, where love rules. So we:

• Submit to one another: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph. 5:21).
• Love others as Jesus loved us: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” (1 John 3:16–17). The church Christ builds is trans-denominational. John says we “ought” to lay down our lives; there is no choice. We must do it. So true believers, as adopted children, must love all others who are true believers throughout the whole world. We are to love sacrificially not just some people in our denomination or in our local church; rather, we are to show love to and pray for all true people of God throughout the world.
• Consider others better than ourselves: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves” (Phil. 2:3).

The Holy Spirit creates within us confidence and filial affection for God so that we know for sure that we are God’s adopted children.

• Romans 8:15: “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” Abba is an Aramaic word meaning “Daddy.”

Jews did not call God “Abba,” though Jesus did.

• Mark 14:36: “‘Abba, Father,’ he said, ‘everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.’”

Jesus called his Father “Abba” because he came from the Father who loved him.

• Mark 1:11: “And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

The Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 34, says, “Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God.” God gives us all rights, all privileges, through adoption. Let us, then look at some of the blessings of adoption and the duties of being members of God’s family.

II. The Blessings and Duties of Adoption

1. We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. Our God is rich, so we are rich.

• • 2 Corinthians 8:9: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” Every true Christian is rich in God. And if God is for us, who can be against us?
  • Romans 8:17: “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.”
  • 2 Corinthians 12:14: “Now I am ready to visit you for the third time, and I will not be a burden to you, because what I want is not your possessions but you. After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.”

2. God’s name is put on us.

• • Jeremiah 14:9: “You are among us, O Lord, and we bear your name; do not forsake us!” God helps his children who bear his name.
  • 2 Corinthians 6:18: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
  • Revelation 3:12: “Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name.” A name is very important. In our culture, you never bring shame to your family because you hold that name in very high esteem.

3. We are given the Spirit of adoption.
   • Romans 8:15: “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’”
4. We have access to the Father at any time in any place.
   • Ephesians 3:12: “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” We can approach God without fear, and God will hear our prayers and answer us.
   • Romans 5:2: “Through [the Lord Jesus Christ] we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.”
5. We cry, “Abba, Father.”
   • Galatians 4:6: “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” And our Daddy is always listening to your needs and he provides.
6. God pities us.
   • Psalm 103:13: “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.”
7. God protects us.
   • Proverbs 14:26: “He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.”
   • Zechariah 2:5: “God is a wall of fire around us and glory within us.”
8. God provides for us. He has provided for me and my family all these years.
   • Matthew 6:30, 32: “If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? . . . For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.”
   • Genesis 22:8: “Abraham answered [Isaac], ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’” He is Jehovah Jireh for his children. And this is what happened. John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus Christ came and took away our sin. Double transaction. When Christ died on the cross, he took all our guilt, all our sins, all our punishment, all our death, all our hell, and he gave us his perfect righteousness. We glory in substitutionary atonement. Christ died for me and you. When God looks upon us, he sees us all righteous, clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ.
9. God disciplines us. The word “discipline” has two meanings. One is teaching the will of God as it is revealed in the Scripture. The other is, when we wander away from that straight and narrow way, he punishes us and brings us back into the right way.
   • Hebrews 12:6: “The Lord [disciplines] those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” Love disciplines.
   • Proverbs 13:24: “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.” It is good to read Proverbs. The “rod” appears several times. There is no blessing in hearing only and not doing it. The blessing of God comes to us when we hear and do God’s word.
10. God loves us as a father; that is why he disciplines us.
    • Hebrews 12:6: “The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”
11. God never casts us off; he never abandons us.
    • Lamentations 3:31: “For men are not cast off by the Lord” There is security. They will go to heaven if they are his regenerate, justified, adopted children.
12. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of redemption. God guarantees it.
    • Ephesians 4:30: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” God guarantees that we will be saved. We are saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved.
13. We are able to persevere as God preserves us. In Reformed theology, TULIP means total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. God himself will help us to persevere to the end.
    • Hebrews 6:12: “We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”
14. We have security of our salvation. What God promises, he will do. The Philippian jailer asked the question, “What must I do to be saved?” And Paul answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:30–31). God is truth; he cannot lie. And all his promises are true.
    • 1 Peter 1:3–4: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you.” “Kept” is a divine passive, meaning that it is God who keeps it in heaven for us.
    • Hebrews 1:14: “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”
15. The Father adopts us. The Father also justifies us.
    • 1 John 3:1: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” In eternity past, God loved and predestinated us. In time, we were effectually called; we have been justified and adopted, and will be glorified when Jesus returns (Phil. 3:20–21).

16. This adoption is in and through Jesus. We cannot be adopted if we do not believe in Jesus Christ’s redemption.
    • Ephesians 1:5: “[God] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with [God’s] pleasure and will.” I didn’t deserve anything. But, thank God, he foreloved us, predestined us, effectually called us, and justified us to be glorified.
17. We welcome new children in God’s family. In a family, we await the arrival of new children with love and affection. In the same way, we are to welcome new children, new believers in Jesus Christ, to the family of God. (PGM) Therefore, we must share our faith without fear. Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). We have what the world needs. People do not need more money; they need faith in Jesus Christ and to be saved.
18. The Father gives us the Holy Spirit, based on prayer.
    • Luke 11:13: “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Pray, and God will baptize you in the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote, “Be being filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). There is one baptism in the Holy Spirit and several fillings.
19. Angels will minister to us as God’s adopted children. Angels have intervened in my life several times, especially preventing almost-accidents. God kept me.
    • Hebrews 1:14: “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent [by God the Father] to serve those who will inherit salvation?”
20. God has made us royalty.
    • Revelation 2:26–27: “To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—‘He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father.”
    • Revelation 3:21: “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” We were foolish, we were weak, lowly, despised, powerless, ungodly sinners, enemies of God. Oh, what love God lavished on us!
21. We are led by the Spirit to obey the Holy Spirit.
    • Romans 8:14: “Those who are being led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” Because we are God’s adopted children, the Holy Spirit will guide us continuously. And as we obey him, we will be blessed.
22. We will experience sufferings first, but then glory!
    • Luke 24:26: “Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” We are going to enter into his glory.
    • Romans 8:17: “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” Paul says that we rejoice in sufferings also, knowing suffering produces endurance; endurance, character; character, hope (Rom. 5:3–4). As God’s children, we are called to suffer.
23. Once we were slaves; now we are sons and daughters of God. What a blessing!
    • Galatians 4:7: “So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” We used to be slaves—slaves to sin, children of the devil.
24. Jesus himself is our older brother.
    • Romans 8:29: “For those God foreknew [i.e., foreloved in eternity] he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Jesus is our older brother and our example, our model.
    • Hebrews 2:11: “Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.”
25. We have a duty to obey God the Father, as Jesus did.
    • John 8:29: “The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” Jesus always obeyed God and his delegated authorities, and we must do so also. Who are delegated authorities? In the family, they are the parents; in the church, they are the pastors and elders; in the state, they are the police and other governmental officers.
    • Ephesians 6:1–3: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’—which is the first commandment with a promise—’that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.’” This speaks not only of long life on the earth, but also of eternal life in heaven.
26. Through adoption, we become members of God’s household. God has a big family; his children are spread all over the earth. That is why he tells us to go into all the world to share the gospel.
    • Ephesians 2:19: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.” God’s family consists of his adopted children.
    • Galatians 6:10: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
    • 1 Timothy 3:14–15: “Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” The true church is God’s family where love reigns supreme. God does not look at the outside; he looks at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). He sees us as his sons and daughters and lavishes his love on us. I hope we will fall in love with that word “lavish.”
27. We have the privilege of praying to our heavenly Father.
    • Matthew 6:9–12: “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. . . . Give us this day our daily bread.” I can testify that God has been giving me daily bread all these years.
    • Romans 8:15–16: “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, [Daddy].’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says this is the highest form of assurance—the Holy Spirit testifying to our spirits that we are children of God.
28. The Father loves us.
    • 1 John 3:1: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” We are children of God. God loves us more than he loves anything else, and his ears are attuned to our prayers.
    • 1 John 4:16: “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”
    • 1 John 4:19: “We love because he first loved us.” When we were wicked and disobedient children of the devil, he loved us. And, thank God, he changed us.
29. As God’s adopted children, we must show concern for others in the family (Acts 2, 4, 6), as we also do in a body. If one suffers, all suffer.

• • 1 Corinthians 12:25–26: “There should be no division in the body, but . . . its parts should have equal concern for each other.” In times of revival, I have seen such equal concern for others. Paul continues, “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” This is true in the physical body. When you hit your big toe against a rock, your whole body stops, and you massage that toe. That is the type of connection we must have with other believers in the church of Christ.

30. We must love all our brothers and sisters sacrificially.
    • Romans 5:5: “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” God sends us the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit in turn sheds abroad in our hearts a great abundance of love by which we love one another and love God.
    • Acts 4:32–37: “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.” There was no rule in the early church whereby people should sell their lands and give. But they did it because the love of God compelled them to do so.
    • Acts 2:44–45: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.”
31. As God’s children, we are to imitate our heavenly Father.
    • Ephesians 5:1: “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.”
    • Matthew 5:44–45: “But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
    • Matthew 5:48: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
    • 1 Peter 1:14–16: “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” Are you an imitable mother and father?
32. We can enjoy the highest assurance possible that we are children of God.
    • Romans 8:16: “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
    • 2 Peter 1:10: “Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall.”

What about you? Have you been regenerated? Have you been justified through faith in Jesus Christ, the only Savior and Redeemer? If this is true of you, then you are adopted sons and daughters of our heavenly Father and blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.

Do you know what is going to happen to us as God’s children? We are going to live with the triune God and his holy angels in the new heaven and new earth, wherein dwells righteousness (2 Pet. 3:13), and where there will be no more death, no more tears, and no more sorrow. Consider the following:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Rev. 21:1–4)

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. (Rev. 22:17)

The new order is coming, and we are looking forward to the new heaven and new earth, where the elect angels will dwell with God and his blood-bought people. As God’s adopted children, we have a bright future!

Heavenly Father, we do not understand the love you have lavished upon us as your adopted children. We were wicked sinners, enemies of God. Yet you loved us in eternity past and predestinated us to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. In time you effectually called us and justified us, that we may be glorified. Now we are rich. We are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.

Lord, now we belong to your family. This is all we need to be happy in Jesus. Help us to love one another and you. Above all, help us to evangelize, so that new children will be born in this church. Enable us to be filled with the Spirit, as you promised: “Ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8). And may we all experience your irresistible grace. Lord, we want you to win continually in and through our lives. Fill us with your Holy Spirit. Help us to hear and do your will for your glory and for our eternal happiness. In Jesus’ name. Amen.