7 April 2020
As many of you know, Elizabeth and I recently adopted and brought home our two precious boys. It all started with a phone call back in July. We were on our normal bus route into church on Sunday when we answered a call from our friend in Shanghai. This simple question she asked changed our lives forever — there are some boys who
need to be adopted now, will you consider? Well, several months later, after much prayer, excitement, and tears, after sifting through 24 adoption agencies, social workers, and lawyers, our boys are finally in their home. Praise be to God!
From time to time through this process, Elizabeth and I had some serious struggles. We experienced much anxiety, fear about what this would mean for our lives, and even doubt that this was what God wanted us to do. There was one thing, though, above all that kept me going: I had already experienced a bigger, greater, deeper, and eternal adoption — an adoption decreed by the Creator Himself.
Let’s be clear — Elizabeth and I aren’t somehow great or holy for adopting; we are merely sinners adopting other sinners, all trying to point to Christ for forgiveness and grace. God, on the other hand, is perfect and holy, and sought out to adopt, not his friends, but his undeserving enemies. How in the world did He do this?
Galatians 4:4-7 says,
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 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.
Going from what we were(slaves) to what we are in Christ(sons and heirs) is reason to praise God from the depths of our souls. Through Christ, we went all the way from wayward sinners to cherished children, now delighting in all the benefits, joys and
personal care that come from being part of His own inner family. This is the very
heartbeat of the gospel.
As I’ve been reflecting on Adoption the past few months since our boys have been
home, I’ve seen that the reality of our status as sons and daughters of the living God
means we can depend two things:
1. We Will be Personally Loved and Cared for Now
God’s adoption of us entails a personal bond of love. “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” God’s adoption of you means that he takes responsibility for you, and that his love is a deeply personal one — a love that chose you and cares for you specifically as a parent.
At a time when the future is so uncertain, when plans change everyday, we can be sure that we don’t have an impersonal God who let’s things spin out of control, but a Father we can cry out to who is intimately invested in us and has our good and our maturity always in mind, every hour of every day.
2. We Will Inherit the Riches of Christ as Heirs Later
Just as our kids will “inherit” our things, so we, as God’s children can know as his heirs that an inheritance unlike any other will be ours. In fact, God promises his children eternity with Him in a new heaven and new earth, and promises a share in all things God has made (“…all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” ( 1
Corinthians 3:21 )). No matter our sorrows and pains now, we can cling to our Father and his promise to give us all that is His as His children.
How can we be sure of these things? God’s adoption of us came at a great cost — that’s how. Adoption can be extremely costly, both financially and emotionally. But those costs are nothing compared to the unfathomable cost that God paid for us. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us… ( Galatians 3:13 ). It cost God the price of his Son’s life. What great love!
In his classic book Knowing God, J. I. Packer writes:
If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. . . . “Father” is the Christian name for God.
Do you see God as loving Father? Can you relate to him as his son/daughter?
Friends, as we continue to weather the storm of COVID-19, there’s certainly many things we should be praying for. But one thing we should include in our prayers for Ambassador is that God gives each of us a deeper sense of our own adoption as sons and daughter of the Creator; that we may meditate on it, and that it may cause us to cry
out to Him in faith “Abba! Father!” — for in every circumstance He is there to love and care for us now, and stir our hope for our glorious inheritance waiting for us in Christ later.
Miles Bennett
