Adoption
This is an interesting subject, which Paul uses quite often to try to describe a “Heavenly Concept” but we are all stuck with only “Earthly Concepts.” Romans Chapter 8 is well worth another read, and especially contemplating on this concept. Adoption is as old as the hills, and from ancient Hebrew, this is often how it played out in an Israelite Household. Say, a daughter, slave or servant girl finds herself pregnant out of wedlock. The child is born, and is brought before the head of the household, a decision is then made as to acceptance or rejection, (sort of like Sheep-Goats, Wheat-Tares) and if accepted, then they “ARE” part of the household, and if the mother is a daughter, then the child is adopted as part of the family, non-negotiable, and the new mum gets a new baby brother or sister. The Adoption is so powerful, it is as if the child was actually born to their grandparents. (Israel adopted and claimed Joseph’s two sons as his very own kids.)
If the child is rejected by the head of the Family, then the new mum must put the baby in a basket, take it to the Market Place, and leave it there, rejected and removed from the Family. Now that wee baby is “Public Property” and anybody can claim it as their own, take baby home, and if the head of family accepts it, then it is “flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone,” the baby has a new family and identity, it has been “Adopted” and all ties with their birth family are forever severed, the adopted family “is their family,” and that is non-negotiable. This may sound a bit rough, but surrogate mothers have been around forever as sheep, goats, wild animals and human beings; females of every type are very quick to adopt strays into their own family group, and draw them in and make them part of the family, as it is all about who raised you and not who birthed you.
Ephesians 2:1 “And you [hath he quickened], who were dead in trespasses and sins:” Colossians 2:13 “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;” John 8:44 “Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” 1 John 3:9 “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
Romans 8:15-17 {MSG} This resurrection life (New Life, Adoption) that you received from God, is not a timid, grave tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next Daddy?” God’s spirit touches our spirit and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and Child. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us – an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!” In the concept of “Adoption,” our “Birth Father,” Satan is still trying to get us back into sin and destruction, estranged from God, who is our “Re-Birth Spiritual Father,” born of the Spirit and washed in the blood, we are now living in “The Spirit” and living Eternally, yet Satan is trying to get us back into the pig pen of his family, of living by the flesh, that sinful flesh, and we all know what the wages of sin is. No more living in the Pig Pen, we have gone back home to where we really belong, our patiently waiting Heavenly Father, who has forgiven us our many sins and adopted us as his very own.
We all know John 3:16, but how about its companion verse 1 John 3:16 {MSG} “This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.” Remember “Love is of God” so if love disappears from your life, then you went back to the Pig Pen, back to your birth father the Devil, you just gave up on your Heavenly Father who adopted you.
Ezekiel Chapter 16, is really all about you and I, our “Birth Family” just walked away from us, abandoned us right from the very first breath, but not God. He walked the Market Place and looking longingly at us and cheering and wooing us to live and survive, then he Adopted us, then he Married us, and the flood of gifts poured in, and what did we do, we went right back to our birth family, Satan and sin, did some serious damage to our own credibility and character, and then what did our short-sightedness do to God? Pastor Hosea forgave and restored his wayward wife Gomer, and God through Christ Jesus wants to restore you, but will you let him? The promises to Ezekiel Chapter 16, flood with assurances of full redemption and restoration, Adoption back into the “Family of God,” so are you coming home? Are you going to leave the Pig Pen? Why not accept right now full forgiveness through Christ Jesus, and Adoption into the Family of God, to be his actual Child, and have a proper caring Adopted Heavenly Father?
Quote; “Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God’s ideal for His children. Godliness–godlikeness–is the goal to be reached. Before the student there is opened a path of continual progress. He has an object to achieve, a standard to attain, that includes everything good, and pure, and noble. He will advance as fast and as far as possible in every branch of true knowledge. But his efforts will be directed to objects as much higher than mere selfish and temporal interests as the heavens are higher than the earth.
He who co-operates with the divine purpose in imparting to the youth a knowledge of God, and moulding the character into harmony with His, does a high and noble work. As he awakens a desire to reach God’s ideal, he presents an education that is as high as heaven and as broad as the universe; an education that cannot be completed in this life, but that will be continued in the life to come; an education that secures to the successful student his passport from the preparatory school of earth to the higher grade, the school above. {Ed 19}
Quote; “God’s ideal for His children is higher than the highest human thought can reach. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” This command is a promise. The plan of redemption contemplates our complete recovery from the power of Satan. Christ always separates the contrite soul from sin. He came to destroy the works of the devil, and He has made provision that the Holy Spirit shall be imparted to every repentant soul, to keep him from sinning. {DA 311.2}
