Chapter 12 Of Adoption

Table of Contents

The Text

Romans 8:14–17 (CSB) For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

The Chapter

All those that are justified, God vouchsafed, in and for the sake of his only Son Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption, by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God, have his name put upon them, receive the spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace with boldness, are enabled to cry Abba, Father, are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by him as by a Father, yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation.

The Confession

All those that are justified, God conferred, in and for the sake of his only Son Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption,

Ephesians 1:5 (CSB) He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

Galatians 4:4–5 (CSB) When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

We live in Evangelical times with Evangelical preaching. In that, we think we must call the warning out to those who have, in the possibility, deceived themselves and they are under their own lies. Most preachers and evangelists and teachers have taken it upon themselves and preach to the goats and to the unbeliever and the unsaved that they are not saved and that they need to wake up and turn to Christ.

Yet, what, as preachers are suppose to do? ' >1 Corinthians 1:22-23 (CSB) For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.

We are not put on grand displays of power for the people to be ooh and awed and still not believe the risen Christ.

We are not to stand on soapboxes and give our freshly hot baked opinions on everything under the sun with a dozen different ways to live your best right now.

Preacher, when was the last time you literally preached Christ and him crucified? Have you consider the gospel of the risen Christ?

What would it look like to take a blessed text, the Scriptures whom Christ called, "the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4) and you put on display what God has done for the his people alone. What would that look like?

That Christ lived the perfect lift, died the death we suppose to die, rose again from death to conquer sin, Satan, and hell, and to ascend to the right hand of the Father where he makes intercession not for the wicked, depraved, and lost but for his people.

Matthew 1:21 (CSB) She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Christ has saved his people.

That is a one and done deal. There is nothing to add to that. No qualifications. No checking your affections. Not your best nor worst day do you qualify that Christ, the Son of God, who is God has saved his people from death and hell because he alone is the King of all kings and Lord of all lords and he alone rules and reigns over heaven, earth, and hell.

Preach this! Preach this! Not one word coming out of your feeble lips will come back empty because his word goes out with power not to return void.

You preach it. You will be terrible at it. You will not be perfect at it. You will struggle with it. You will trip over your words.

But watch as the Triune Almighty God takes his word and takes dead men and make them alive.

This is the gospel. This is the good news. This is the what the people of God need to hear. Stop entertaining goats. Stop speaking to unbelievers when the people so desperately need the manna of life.

Yes, we know we have sinned. And the wages of sin is death. We need that food that gives life. We are dry, parched souls that need that wellspring of water of life. We are dying. Gives us Christ!

by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God,

John 1:12 (CSB) But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name,

Romans 8:17 (CSB) and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

We are the sons of God! We need God like Christ needed his Father. We are the children of God that in God because God for God because God loved us, therefore, we get God!

Give us God! We get God! He is ours and we are his people forever!

And our privileges, our right, our inheritance is God.

Do not deny us God because we have him. And we long for him to talk to us and hear his voice.

Oh, my heart goes to my Charismatic brothers and sister who are so desperate to hear God's voice, and for those who have that inner voice inside their head have been taught that might be God. The children of God are so desperate to hear God because God is our blessed Father and yet, more often than not, we don't hear his voice. Not because we lack a inner voice (which is just ourselves) but rather, we don't hear about what God has done.

All we hear is political opinions. Sports analogies. Ten ways we suck. Being told we might be saved because we messed up this hour, this day, this week, this month or in our lives.

Yet, we believe the good news. We need more of the good news. We need to know that Christ is a friend of sinners who whom him came to save. We need to know that, in the midst of the backbreaking weight of our sin and the soul pulverization of man's law and culture and the heart crushing punishment, we need to know that God will take all of our struggle and doubt and hurt and pain and he will give us the most wonderful, beautiful, breathtaking, forever, eternal gift that we could never lose and this gift alone will not only give us life but is the fullness of joy, pleasures evermore, and perfect satisfaction.

have his name put on them,

2 Corinthians 6:18 (CSB) And I will be a Father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.

Revelation 3:12 (CSB) “The one who conquers I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never go out again. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God—the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God—and my new name.

And that gift is Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord, Blessed Redeemer, the only Savior, the Son of God and Son of Man, and the only God who have rescued us!

We get to have him forever and forever. We can't lose him because he will never let us go. He will never stop loving us for a micro second because he never started loving us.

We are in his bosom, in his heart, on his mind, in his almighty grip and he has made his home in us. Forever.

receive the spirit of adoption,

Romans 8:15–17 (CSB) For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

And because Christ has done everything perfectly, he is our Eldest Brother because God is our great Father, we get God and we get Christ and we get the Spirit. Everything that Christ gets, we get. He is the Elder Brother. He gets the double portion and we get a portion.

Hebrews 1:1–2 (CSB) Long ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him.

My beloved, we get the universe because Christ alone gets full dominion over the galaxies.

We cannot fathom this type of inheritance because we have long settled for last place trash and yesterday's refuse because of sin. As C.S. Lewis says in The Weight of Glory, we are so content with making mud pies in the slums when we have a forever holiday at the beach.

Even in our desires, we want little. God knows that. That is why he sent his Son to give to us what we don't have the intelligence, the heart, the will, the experience, the wherewithal to ask for such things.

We want so little. But God gives us everything because he gave his only begotten Son!

In Christ, you have given me so much that heaven and earth can give me no more.

The Valley of Vision.

have access to the throne of grace with boldness, are enabled to cry Abba, Father,

Galatians 4:6 (CSB) And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”

Ephesians 2:18 (CSB) For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Are you kidding me? That God was not content on just giving us everything including himself, his Son and his Spirit. Why stop there? Why the God of mercy is the God who does not stop at just himself and everything! Absolutely not!

Luke 11:5-13 (CSB) He also said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I don’t have anything to offer him.’ Then he will answer from inside and say, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I have gone to bed. I can’t get up to give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he won’t get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his friend’s shameless boldness, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? ”

Do you see that! Read that until the Spirit helps us understand!

If we turn back to God, go to God, and ask God for God we get God.

We have the audacity, the boldness to run to God whenever we want. On a whim. In our struggles. When we mess up. We we have jacked up our lives over and over again. When we sin the same sins over and over again. We are prey to our own addictions. When we are crushed.

The throne room's doors have been uninstalled from the hinges. They are never closed because they have been removed. The path between you and God is cleared because of Christ because he is the path of life. Oh, you lack the strength to bridge the seeming infinity gap between you and God? Oh, that is more than okay. That is why he sent his Son for you and me because we are so desperately weak but he is almighty strong.

God has sent his Son and his Spirit to come get you and bring you all the way to him. That is the gospel. That is the blessed good news.

are pitied,

Psalm 103:13 (CSB) As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.

Who is this King of glory? Who, not like the malevolent prince of the air who only seeks to steal, kill, and destroy his children, but instead sees our estate, see that we are find wanting, hears our cries of salvation, and the Almighty Triune God of the Universe takes pity on our souls.

He looked upon us and knows that we needed grace.

John 1:16–18 (CSB) Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.

So what the only good Father do? He decided to give us grace upon grace so we will never can run out.

protected,

Proverbs 14:26 (CSB) In the fear of the LORD one has strong confidence and his children have a refuge.

1 Peter 5:7 (CSB) casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.

Who is this God Almighty, Creator of heaven and hell? When the conquered foe, Satan, demons, and death, spare no expense to send their hordes of temptations and unleash their endless follies of arrows so that we not be spared in wickedness will torturously die, who will protect us?

Psalms 61:2-4 (CSB) I call to you from the ends of the earth
when my heart is without strength.
Lead me to a rock that is high above me,
for you have been a refuge for me,
a strong tower in the face of the enemy.
I will dwell in your tent forever
and take refuge under the shelter of your wings. Selah

Who would be our armor and shield to absorb every single bit of condemnation heading our way?

Ephesians 6:10–17 (CSB) Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God.

Wretched and wicked man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death and disease and sin and hell?

Christ Jesus is his blessed name!

provided for,

Matthew 6:32-34 (CSB) For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

But how can I seek these things when I can't even see these things?

John 3:3 (CSB) Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

My joy, you and I have been born again! We have the kingdom of God. We have the righteousness of God because we have the Christ!

2 Corinthians 5:21 (CSB) He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God has made God who never knows sin to be the sin for us so that in God we have the righteousness of God.

and chastened by him as by a Father,

Hebrews 12:6 (CSB) for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and punishes every son he receives.

Isaiah 54:8–9 (CSB) In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but I will have compassion on you with everlasting love,” says the LORD your Redeemer. “For this is like the days of Noah to me: when I swore that the water of Noah would never flood the earth again, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you.

"How can the adopted child of God still sin? Have I lost the Christ?"

Psalm 103:13–14 (CSB) As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him. For he knows what we are made of, remembering that we are dust.

God knew that we are made of dust. How do we, the people of dust and the feeble children of Adam, have the power to lose something that we so desperately need?

We need Christ. How can we lose the Christ when he has came to save us once and for all.

Make that make sense to me, friend. You can't because we cannot lose God because he is not ours to lose.

Revelation 21:3-7 (CSB) Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.

Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life. The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

We have the Christ!

yet never cast off,

Lamentations 3:31 (CSB) For the Lord will not reject us forever.

God did all the work. God was going to work and not receive due for what he has done perfectly? No, the Lamb will receive all for his suffering and he will not lose one.

We are the ones who work and not get paid. We are the ones under toil of the curse of our sin and not receive due. We invest and lose. But not our God--whom there is no risk, no gamble, no possibility, nor uncertainty, no chance that he will lose any one of us. He is God!

but sealed to the day of redemption,

John 10:25-30 (CSB) “I did tell you and you don’t believe,” Jesus answered them. “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify about me. But you don’t believe because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

And to lest you think in your feeble mind and will that you somehow could squirm or squeeze or sin your way out of the double-almight and all-power snatch grip of the Father and the Son, I have good news for you:

Ephesians 4:30 (CSB) And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption.

The Spirit, who was there at the beginning, is sent by the Father to perform supernatural open heart surgery of his kids so that they would be his forever and bring them back to him so he can possess them forever, is Almighty and all-power and the Spirit seals the double snatch grip of the Father and the Son.

Done sealed. Done deal. Done saved.

and inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation.

Hebrews 1:14 (CSB) Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve those who are going to inherit salvation?

Hebrews 6:12 (CSB) so that you won’t become lazy but will be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance.

Salvation is not a get out of hell for free card. Salvation is a resurrection from death to life. It is the valley of dry bones be given life. It is dead and drowned in the sea of our sins and trespasses only by the Life-giving God reaches down with his infinite long reaching arms and pulls you to the surface--there he gives you not only his breath but it is now, you are finally alive.

We are made alive with him who has given us eternal life. Christ was risen so that all men will be pulled to him.

John 3:14–17 (CSB) “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

2 Corinthians 6:2 (CSB) For he says: At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!

It is today, you and I get to look upon the crucified Lord and we are alive. We call upon his blessed name and we are saved forever. We have cried for the Holy One of God--for where else can we go? He alone has the words to eternal life.

Blessed be his glorious name. Amen.