Love and Adoption

 ADOPTION AND LOVE

I love Romans 8:32 because it asks a very important question and implies a powerful answer. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall he not with Him also freely give us all things?” Do you see that? The Father WILL PROVIDE us with everything we will ever need. What a Father! It serves as the supreme backdrop for Philippians 4:19 which declares that ”my God shall supply ALL YOUR NEED according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The Father has many adopted sons/daughters and He will bring them all to glory but until they get to glory, they can find rest and peace and strength in their Father’s care. How do we know that? Look at that verse again. “He spared not His own Son” = When the Father inflicted His Son with the full judgment and condemnation of our sins on His own Son --- that was a supreme expression of God’s love and care for us.

If the Father had spared His Son, if some of the judgment had been left for the people to bear themselves, then that remnant would be consigned to an eternal Hell forever because you and I have nothing for which we can atone for our sins. We are spiritually empty and dead. The Father loved His adopted sons/daughters so much that He executed the full measure of condemnation upon His own Son. This is the Father’s love.

And we should always stagger in amazement and wonder at the depth and character of God’s amazing love for us! Join me in thanking the Lord today that he has adopted us into His family!

“He Knows Your Name”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bj-rlGcj8M

Can All Men Call God ... Their Father?

 CAN ALL MEN CALL GOD FATHER?

Adoption is concerned with the fatherhood of God in relationship to men. Now let me make a somewhat controversial statement > God is the CREATOR of all men but He is not the FATHER of all men! The Fatherhood of God is unique and it is exclusive. The only people who are able to call God their Father are the ones who call Jesus their Savior and Lord. Only those who know Christ can call God their Father.

It is true, in some sense, that God may be said to be the Father of all men in the sense that He created them and providentially, He sustains them. He does give life and breath to all men. This can be seen in Acts 17:24-28 and Hebrews 12:9 and James 1:18. But when all the passages are examined carefully we must conclude that the term “Father” is reserved for that particular relationship that is so constituted by redemption and adoption. 

Read Romans 8:15. And in Matthew 6:9 Jesus taught us to pray using the term, "Our Father, which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name.” Those verses do not speak of the universal fatherhood of God but of a specific and personal and intimate relationship that the Lord creates in those who believe in Jesus’ name. To substitute the message of the universal fatherhood of God for that which is constituted by redemption and adoption is to annul the Gospel. 

It deprives the Gospel of its meaning and encourages men in their delusion that our creature hood is the guarantee of our adoption into God’s family. Nothing could be further from the truth! I John 3:1-2 and John 14:21, 23.

“I’d Rather Have Jesus/Great is Thy Faithfulness”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO3rCAbdxRI

Grace and Adoption

 ADOPTION AND GRACE

Adoption is an act of the grace of God. It is an act of God, whereby men who were by nature children of wrath, even as others, and were members of the ruined and lost family of Adam, are for no reason in themselves, but entirely of the pure grace of God, translated out of the evil and dark family of Satan and brought actually and literally into the family of God --- so that they now take upon themselves His name, share His privileges as sons and daughters of God, and they are for all intents and purposes the eternal family of God.

No child can adopt himself or herself.

No person has the right in and of themselves to become adopted.

No person can force a family to adopt them.

No child can demand that a family must adopt them.

That family must initiate the action.

That family must make that choice.

That family must pray and plan.

That family must have resources to meet the needs of the adopted child.

That family must be committed to the welfare of that child.

That family never knows how that child may turn out. But God does ... and He is committed to 

our future!

All of that is an act of sovereign grace.

Do you ever think of what a great and high honor it is to be called a child of God?

What a glorious privilege!

What a wonderful blessing!

May we be forever lost in the wonder and amazement of the sheer grace of God toward people like you and me!

“No Other Word for Grace”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCAy5XQPkMw

Causes of Adoption

 CAUSES OF ADOPTION

Revelation 21:7 says “I will be His God and he shall be my son.” 

The cause of adoption is found in God Himself. None can adopt into the family of God but God Himself. None can make children of Satan to be sons and daughters of God but God Himself! None but God can do this. What are the causes of adoption? Let me give you three easy ones:

GOD THE FATHER: I John 3:2 says “behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” The God and Father of Jesus Christ chose and blessed us in our adoption. It was His decree and will and purpose. He planned it and prepared for it. It was His idea!  Look in II Corinthians 6:18 again.

GOD THE SON: There is a union between Jesus Christ and all other believers. From this union with Christ flow all the other blessings to the rest of the family. John 17:21. His God is our God. His Father is our Father. He is a Son and we are sons. He is an heir; we are joint-heirs. He is the husband; we are the bride. Hebrews 2:11; John 1:12

GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT: The author Spirit of God plays a big role in our adoption. It is the Holy Spirit who regenerates. John 3:1-7. It is the Spirit who witnesses to the truth of adoption. See Romans 8:15-16. We are taught by the Holy Spirit. We are led by the Holy Spirit. See Galatians 4:6 and Romans 8:14

There is nothing in sinful man to commend himself to God. There is nothing in the creature to move God. No agreeable disposition in them. No amiableness in their person. Nothing engaging in their conduct and behavior. God alone is forever the cause of adoption. Thank Him today that He has adopted you!

“There is a Redeemer”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldRcFz7rK7w

Christian Doctrine of Adoption

 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF ADOPTION

The Christian doctrine of adoption is one of the greatest truths in all of the Bible. It is described as “an act of God’s free grace, whereby undeserving and unworthy sinners are received into the family of God and can enjoy all the rights, privileges and blessings as a member  of God’s forever family.” It is a truth that is seldom taught and even less rejoiced in as we should.  Adoption is a teaching that should be shouted from the rooftops!

Adoption is a Biblical term and connotes a Biblical idea or truth. Ephesians 1:5 declares that it is one of the predestined purposes of God…”having predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will.”

This is a truth that stands so intimately and fundamentally related to other doctrines such as predestination, the atonement, all aspects of our spiritual life and the very consummation of the entire universe!

Adoption teaches us that the Biblical God is our Father.

God adopts us. He chooses us!

We are His children.

We are sons and daughters of God.

Jesus is our elder Brother.

We are members of God’s eternal family!

As His children we enjoy all the benefits and blessings of being in the family.

His riches.

His blessings.

His promises.

His everything belongs to us because He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. When we were in Satan’s family.

When we were in a sinful and doomed family.

When we knew nothing of grace and mercy!

We were adopted by a sovereign God … just because he wanted to!

Read Ephesians 1”4-6: II Corithians 1:20 and 6:14-18; I Peter 1:4--- just for starters.

“Why Have You Chosen Me?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DawCz5huNQ

THE WRATH OF GOD

Yep! Sooner or later you knew that we had to discuss this uncomfortable subject. It is an attribute of God that cannot be ignored. It is an intricate part of the character of God. The Biblical God is a God of wrath! But what does it mean to say that?

The wrath of God is an expression of His holiness.

God cannot be neutral toward sin.

The wrath of God is not something that is merely coming in the future. Romans 1:18 says that it is already present. But for now, His mercy is holding back the fullness of that wrath.

The wrath of God can be catastrophic. Look at the Flood in Genesis 6 and 7. Look at the fire and brimstone rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah. Look at the plagues upon the Egyptians.

God’s wrath is always consequential. All sinful actions will encounter the wrath of God.

When the sinner repeatedly rejects the numerous overtures of God’s grace and mercy, they will be turned over to the pursuit of their own sins.  Romans 1:24-26

Revelation 19 speaks of eschatological wrath, that is, of end time wrath, when the wrath of God’s judgment is poured out in its fury upon a sinful and Christ rejecting world!

His eternal wrath will be on display forever in Hell.  Revelation 20:14

Redemptive wrath means that Jesus Christ endured the wrath of God on our behalf in His death upon the cross. He endured Hell’s wrath for us that we may escape it. Every soul will either be damned in Hell or have their sins pardoned in Christ!

Revelation Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boyddl0ylfE

 THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD

Foreknowledge is one of those words that you think you know what it means but you have never really studied it and checked it out  …. just to be sure. It is often misunderstood and maligned by well meaning people who are lazy and never truly studied what the Bible says about the subject.

Let me begin by telling you what it DOES NOT mean.

Foreknowledge does not mean that God looked into the future in order to know something. Remember, He is omniscient; He already knows all things, present, past and future. 

It does not mean that God looked  into the tunnel of time to see what man would do and then adjusted His plan accordingly… to fit man’s agenda and schedule. That is foolish.

Foreknowledge does not mean foresight. Romans 8:29 says that  “WHOM He foreknew” --- not what He foresaw. 

Foreknowledge means that God made a choice to love a certain group of people. His people. His sheep. His family. God “knew” intimately His own family members. Foreknowledge deals primarily with people, not facts. Read Amos 3:2; Genesis 4:1 and Matthew 1:25. 

Matthew 7:23: Jesus said “I never knew you”, right?

Jesus in John 10:14 says “I know my sheep and they know me.”

Turn to Acts 2:23 --- speaks of Jesus being delivered according to the foreknowledge of God.

I Peter 1:1-2 says that Christians are “exiles, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.”

Read Romans 8:29 in its fullness.

Therefore foreknowledge refers to people not facts! God foreknew His people, lovingly and intimately and eternally.

He Came to Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr9qWqFp3gI