“Adoption – A Child of God”

Romans 8:13-17

November 25, 2007

Dr. Jerry Nelson

Imagine it is 1854 and you are five years of age.

You live on the streets of New York, homeless and alone.

No one wants you, no one cares for you - you are an orphan!

Your world is a slum.

Everywhere there are people jammed together in misery.

Your clothes are rags, not quite able to keep you warm.

Your friends are children like yourself -

· they teach you to steal bread from unattended windows,

· to peddle flowers,

· and to snatch purses from elderly ladies.

Your life is merely survival -

you wander the streets as an urban nomad.

THEN ONE DAY a man comes to you and tells you there is a way out of these slums and off these streets.

You can go to a place where you will have warm clothing and food, all the food you can eat, and most of all you will belong!

This scenario is not fiction.

In the latter 1800s hundreds of thousands of immigrants poured into New York City.

Families broke apart as some parents never reached America alive.

Armies of young orphans roamed the city streets alone.

Then a young minister, named Charles Brice, appalled at the desperate plight of these youngsters, hit upon a daring strategy to help them.

Brice, with the help of others began to write to town leaders, pastors of churches, and other individuals all along the railroad that ran west from New York.

Stops were arranged, the train was advertised, and children were placed on the train with no specific destination in mind.

For each child there was simply a nearly blind hope that some compassionate person, at some point along the way, would adopt him or her.

At each stop children were whisked into the waiting arms of men and women who wanted to adopt them.

Children were given a new name, made part of a new family, and in many cases showered with all the things they had never known before: love, acceptance and security.

In American history, we know it as the Orphan Train.

And for nearly 100,000 children the hope of a family became a reality.

Every one of us comes into this world in worse shape than those orphans.

Because of our sin “in Adam” we are born into the kingdom of darkness as illegitimate children.

BUT when we become Christians we are adopted into God's own family.

Christianity is not just joining a religion - it is to receive a new name, a new family, a new identity, a new Father - IT IS TO BE ADOPTED BY GOD!

(Much of the above is quoted or paraphrased from Steve Lawhead in the preface to a short Campus Life book or booklet - The title is lost)

Barbara and I did not conceive him.

His biological father is unknown, even to his birth mother, and his birth mother didn’t want him.

His genetic family included thieves, drug addicts, pushers and prostitutes.

His inheritance included poverty, abuse, abandonment, prison and death.

But then he was adopted.

He didn’t earn it, he didn’t choose it and he didn’t even know it, but he was – he was adopted.

His adopted family included godly grandparents, godly siblings, godly aunts and uncles, and Christ-following cousins.

His inheritance included safety, acceptance, love, family, freedom and life.

Paris Michael Nelson is my adopted son.

The only “before and after” contrast greater than his is yours and mine.

As the Bible says,

Ephesians 2:1-3 “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

John 8:43 “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire.

But now:

1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Colossians 1:13-14 “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

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!

Ephesians 1:4-6 “For (God) chose us in (Christ) before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵ he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

And now to our text for today: Romans 8:14-17 “those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.¹⁵ For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship (“adoption”). And by him we cry (exclaim), “Abba,Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 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.

In the first four chapters of the book of Romans the Apostle Paul clearly establishes how it is that we become Christians – it is by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Romans 3:21-22 “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²² This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

In chapter 5 Paul begins to describe the benefits of this new relationship we now have with God by his grace.

In chapters 6-8 Paul goes on to describe how we can live the Christian life – how we can live increasingly holy lives following Jesus.

As we saw last week, it is in the early part of chapter 8 that Paul connects holy living with the Holy Spirit of God.

He says in verse 12 that you are no longer indebted or obligated to live the way you used to.

Earlier he said that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you now can live differently.

Then in verses 14-17 he draws our attention to a truth that changes everything.

Romans 8:14 “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”

Coincident with what we might call “being saved” or becoming a Christian is this huge matter of being adopted by God.

Justification focuses on the issue of our sins and forgiveness.

Redemption focuses on release from slavery to sin.

Reconciliation focuses on the change from God’s hostility toward us to God’s favor toward us.

But adoption takes it a step further.

Adoption is about becoming a member of the family, becoming a child of the Father.

I want to speak more to that new relationship but before I do I want you to see that Paul is still writing about living as a Christian – holy living.

Every one of the verses I quoted earlier about us becoming a child of God includes the issue of holy living.

· 1 Peter 2:10 about being the new “people of God” goes on to say: 1 Peter 2:11-12 “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. ¹² Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

· 1 John 3:1 says we are “children of God. And John goes on to say:

1 John 3:3 “Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

· Ephesians says he “adopted us as sons” and then in Ephesians 1:12, “in order that we…might be for the praise of his glory.

· And here in Romans 8 we have received the “Spirit of adoption” followed by Romans 8:13 “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,

And so I repeat Paul sees a connection between our being adopted by God and living an increasingly holy life.

I think Paul dwells on that connection in verses Romans 8:14-17.

The point is similar to Paul’s words to the Corinthians

2 Corinthians 6:14 –7:1 “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? ¹⁵ What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” ¹⁷ “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” ¹⁸ “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” ¹ Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

Last week I tried to show you that the motivation for holy living is a new relationship with God.

It is specifically this new relationship of being adopted, of belonging to God in this way that is the major motivation to follow Jesus.

Why do I want to love and serve God?

It is when we realize what our relationship with God now is, by his grace, which we begin to truly live differently.

We no longer relate to God out of fear but out of affection.

Notice from the text, how God leads us?

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.”

One author has said it so well: “The Spirit does not lead by stirring up slavish fear. He leads by stirring up family affection. He does not get you to kill sin by making you a slave who acts out of fear. But by making you a son who acts out of faith and affection.” Piper, Romans 8:14-17 2002

Last week, we made the same point by citing the title of Thomas Chalmers’ book from 150 ago: The Expulsive power of a new Affection.

It doesn’t mean that now we never sin but now sin is inconsistent, illogical, unreasonable, and unconscionable because I am now part of a new family; I have a new Father; God has adopted me.

On this subject, The Westminster Confession of Faith reads as follows: “All those that are justified, God (grants), in and for 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. XII 1 Of Adoption

Adopted by THE FATHER!

This idea of the fatherhood of God is not just theological semantics.

Someone wrote, “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 whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.” (J.I. Packer, Knowing God, 201)

Too many of us have made of Christianity only a doctrine to be believed rather than also a relationship to be lived.

God is for us the One who is there but not the Father who is here.

To be sure, having our sins forgiven, having the guilt removed and the sentence of hell lifted are of foundational importance.

As Paul said it in this context in Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

That is a great truth and it is fundamental “gospel.”

But it is not the end of the story.

We aren’t just freed from eternal punishment.

We aren’t just saved from something.

We are saved too something, something so good.

Christianity is not just a legal issue but also a relational issue.

J.I. Packer wrote, “To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.” (Packer, Knowing God, 207)

Listen to the Bible:

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 NIV translation leaves out the first word of the Greek sentence – it is the word “behold,” or “look!”

“Look or stand in awe” of the great love the Father has lavished on us.

This is your relationship with God by virtue of being adopted by him.

Jesus said, John 16:27 “The Father Himself loves you…”

This is not generic love; this is not the love so often thought of when people say, “God loves the whole world.”

No, instead this for you is the kind of love the Father has for the Son, Jesus.

That’s the point – we are individually loved by the Father the way Jesus is loved by the Father.

Consider that! The Father, God, loves you the way he loves Jesus.

That’s how personal his love is for you.

But there is a dimension of his love for us that is even more incredible than his love for Jesus.

Romans 5:8,10 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us… when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son”

We have a hard time not thinking that we must earn God’s love.

We look at our deficiencies and failures and assume God looks on us with disfavor.

You remember the story of the prodigal son that Jesus told.

When the younger son finally decided to go home, do you remember what he planned to say?

Luke 15:18-19 “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. (That far, his statement was true.) I am no longer worthy to be called your son (that part was false).

He assumed his father’s actions would be based on his own actions.

The jealous older brother made the same assumption about the father but not because of failure but because of merit.

The older brother said in Luke 15:29 “Look! For so many years I have been serving you, and I have never neglected a command of yours.”

In the context he is saying, I deserve your love.

Sinclair Ferguson has nailed it: “The guilt-ridden (prodigal son) was calculating on the basis of his sin, rather than on his father’s character.” (Ferguson, Children of the Living God, 48)

And I would add that the pride-ridden older brother was calculating on the basis of merit rather than on his father’s character.

But our heavenly Father gives his love to us based on his choice not based on merit.

“There is no reason to be given for love but love.” Paraphrasing Ralph Venning

Ephesians 1:3-5

“Long ago, before God made the world, God chose us to be his very own, through what Christ would do for us; he decided then to make us holy in his eyes, without a single fault we who stand before him covered in his love. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And he did this because he wanted to.” TLB paraphrase

Not because we were attractive or worthy but solely for “his good pleasure”.

We don’t readily accept that, because we know that among ourselves there is no free lunch, there is always a price, an expectation, that if we don’t meet, it’s over.

We must come to understand that God is our Father even when we are doing poorly, even when we have failed miserably.

One author wrote, “When I seek to fashion a self-image from the adulation of others and the inner voice whispers, ‘You’ve arrived; you’re a player…,’ there is no truth in that self-concept. (Or) when I sink into despondency and the inner voice whispers, ‘You are no good, a fraud, a hypocrite, and dilettante,’ there is no truth in any image shaped from that message either. My dignity (comes from being) Abba’s child….” (Manning in Abba’s Child 63)

I know that every stage of life has its unique challenges but as we grow older we look at childhood as such an idyllic time.

“Look at that kid”, we say of our own child, “not a care in the world”.

He doesn’t have to worry about where food will come from, whether he will have a bed tonight and if anything frightens or hurts him, he comes running to me with no doubt I can save him.

I’d like him to say “please” and “thank you” but they are superfluous formalities to him because he fully expects to be cared for whether he says those things or not because, after all, I’m his father.

He may choose to disobey me and grieve the loss of a privilege or the threat of a spanking but it never even enters his mind that I would cease to love him or care for him – he knows I’m his father.

In fact if put my own life at risk to save his, if he was even aware of it, he would expect it – it would seem perfectly congruent with the relationship – after all, I’m his father.

Do you know that is your relationship with our heavenly Father?

Many Christians live with a quiet fear that they are alone and even if there is a God out there, they live with the quiet fear that they don’t measure up or they live with the proud assumption that they do.

But that is not the way with our Father.

He asks for nothing but our trust.

We should stand amazed as in 1 John 3:1 “(Look, behold) 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!

But I don’t want you to only think of the Father’s love for you as great because it is undeserved.

We might be tempted to see the Father’s love as only a kind of hard, calculated, committed choice.

Instead we must see it for what it also is – deep affection.

I’ve asked the question other times: “Does God like you?”

The answer is “Yes, he does!”

He delights in you. (Jeremiah 31:20 among other passages)

Brennan Manning tells the story of Edward Farrell a pastor in Detroit who went to visit his 80 year-old uncle in Ireland.

On his uncle’s birthday, the two of them went for an early morning walk.

After walking in silence for some time, and then standing side-by-side watching the rising sun, the uncle suddenly turned with a great smile and began skipping down the path.

The pastor followed and said, “Uncle Seamus, you look so happy, can you tell me why?”

“Yes”, said the eighty-year-old man, “You see me Abba is very fond of me.” (Manning Abba’s Child 64)

Hear that please!

We weren’t created to be God’s little robots to get God’s work done.

We were created to live in relationship with the Father and the Son and one another.

1 John 1:3 “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”

Look at Romans 8:15 “you received the Spirit of sonship (“adoption”). And by him we cry, “Abba,Father.”

Martin Luther said of this word "Abba"

"This is a very little word, and yet in spite of that, it encompasses everything.

It is not so much the mouth here speaking, but the heart.

“Therefore this little word "Abba Father," conceived in the heart, passes all the eloquence of the great philosophers of the ages."

The word "abba" is a word used by little children when calling their father - it is a word that many of you know is as intimate as the word "Daddy".

The Jews could not have imagined addressing God as "Daddy" - it would have been inappropriate, irreverent.

But Jesus used it. And here we are told that our relationship with God is so intimate that we may call him "daddy" - not out of disrespect but out of tenderness.

A family lived in another country when they adopted a preschool child from that country.

The father spoke of the months that passed after the child was adopted when he, the father, longed for a relationship with the child but she was doubtful and reserved.

But one day she appeared beside where he was sitting and she held out a shoe and said, “Daddy, I need another shoelace.”

They were the sweetest words he had ever heard from her lips. (Sinclair Ferguson, Children of the Living God, 90)

Imagine our Father’s delight when we finally understand how much he loves us!

130 years ago the hymn writer James Robinson captured the emotion of it: "Loved with everlasting love. Led by grace that love to know... In a love that cannot cease, I am his and he is mine."

Not only is our adoption by God personal and intimate but according to verse 16, "the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children."

I believe this is very subjective but nonetheless real.

Those of you who are God's children have had experiences when it was evident that the Spirit of God was working in you.

When some passage from Scripture became especially clear to you and precious to you - you knew it was God giving that insight to you.

When you first understood your need for Jesus and you saw in him the one who could forgive you and make you right with God -

you knew God was at work in you.

When you have felt close to God in a time of crisis or a time of reflection - you knew it was God drawing you to him.

Haven't you had such experiences?

That is the Holy Spirit witnessing to your spirit that you are part of the family – you belong to God.

Lastly this morning I want you to look at the first part of verse 17: "Now if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-(or joint)heirs with Christ..."

Paul writes, I want you to know something; I want you to count on it.

Since you have been adopted into God's family.

Since you are one of God's children, by faith in Jesus Christ - you are an heir to all God's promises.

That inheritance is spelled out, at least in part, in the following verses, which we will look at next week.

But suffice it for now to say that our inheritance is eternal life, in the presence of God and in the fellowship of those who love him.

And that inheritance of life everlasting with God is as sure for you as it is for Jesus himself - because you are a co-heir with Jesus.

What he inherits, we inherit!

There is popular talk of mansions of material splendor, of all the material things we lack here being a large part of what we will inherit in the next life - but to dwell on those things is to miss the major point:

Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be also."

We've been adopted - we belong to God.

Adoption is not mainly about things.

Adoption is about relationship - about belonging.

Our inheritance is the immediate presence of almighty God forever.

Everett Fullam was a missionary to a tribe of people in the interior of Nigeria.

These people had never heard the word Africa much less the word America.

When the chief heard one day of two Americans walking on the moon, he said it was impossible because one only has to look to see that the moon is too small to hold two people.

But in spite of their naïve view of the world when they became Christians their understanding of things eternal was deep.

Fullam explained it this way after he baptized three of them:

“There were two men and one woman.

We stood on the banks of a muddy river, wet and happy.

I had never seen three more joyful people.

What is the best thing about this experience? I asked.

All three continued to smile…but only one spoke, in clear, deliberate English: ‘Behind this universe stands one God, not a great number of warring spirits, as we had always believed, but one God. And that God loves me.’” (Everett Fullam Living the Lord’s Prayer 1980 p27,28)

Romans 8:14-17

God loves us, he has adopted us into his family, we have his presence with us now (his Spirit witnesses to our spirits) and we will be with him forever (we are co-heirs with Christ) in his glory.

Could there be any greater motivation to holy living?