Adoption and the Spirit of the Son

We have occasionally noticed the Christian's spiritual adoption on this blog - its strength and its gracious nature.  As the subject of spiritual adoption is a glad one for any follower of Christ, I will beg your indulgence in turning now to one of its chief effects, which is seen in its relation to the Holy Spirit. 

Galatians 4:4-7 is the focus of our attention here.  It says, "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.   Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'  Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God."

It was the Father's good pleasure for His divine Son to be established in an earthly family, that we in turn might be transplanted into His heavenly family.  We see the chain clearly:  the mission of the Son brought redemption, and then adoption into God's own family.  May our knees bend and touch this hallowed ground!  This work of grace will prostrate us if we let it.  And yet, for all this lustrous wonder, God has fashioned yet another link for this glittering chain - our adoption prompts Him to send us the Spirit of His Son.  Did you notice that in the text?  Look once more:  we have the Holy Spirit because we have been adopted into God's family.

This is marvelously unthinkable to our stunted human sensibilities, but it joins so simply with the rest of Scripture.  God adopts us and sends the Spirit of His perfect Son into our imperfect hearts, that we might learn to act and think more like His Son.  Indeed, we see something like this in earthly adoption, in which a child must learn how to operate in his or her new family.  What behavior is expected?  How does the household operate?  The more this new child can integrate into this new situation, the easier things become.

God's family is holy.  It is righteous behavior that becomes His household, and the perfect paradigm, the exemplary member of this family is our oldest brother, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Our loving Father wants us to look like Him, because Jesus' flawless and divine example is the pattern by which the Father is honored, and by which we are satisfied.  Thus He disciplines His children (Heb. 12:6), of course, but His gifts do not stop here.  Mere discipline would simply assure constant discipline, thanks to our sin-filled hearts.  We would never learn or change. 

Thankfully, God's "divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness," according to 2 Peter 1:3b.  These powerful blessings are channeled into our souls by means of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.  We would have nothing worth having as Christians, were it not for the continual work of the Holy Spirit in us.  The Spirit of He who sympathizes with us, who immersed Himself in those difficulties that we ourselves must endure (Heb. 4:15), knows how to care for us and to give us exactly what is needed out of this immeasurable treasury of "life and godliness."  And we begin to look like Him, because His Spirit, having breathed life into us, now resides in us and changes us - because the Father desires us to look like His unique and divine Son.

I want to show you some familiar words; read them afresh in the light of this discussion:  "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son." (Rom. 8:28-29a; emphasis added)  The Spirit of Jesus within us, then, is certainly not going to spend His time and energies frivolously within us.  He will work with purpose, the Father's good purpose - He will keep us in the faith, and He will begin to conform us to Christ's image.

Adoption gives us the Spirit of Christ, and it delivers certainty about our purpose.  Rest, dear worker of the Kingdom; take heart, dear solder in Christ, in the glad knowledge that the Spirit whose very presence gilds your soul is an abundantly sufficient guide and helper in your every step toward righteousness, because of what He has come into your soul to accomplish!

The Strength of Adoption

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12) How comforting it is that our adoption by God is not simply an empty title or an honorary position – we are not merely called children of God; rather, we have become children of God by His grace.  As the hymn says, “I, thy true son.”

 

If anyone doubts the strength of adoption, we remember what some have pointed out regarding our Savior’s earthly kingship.  Although both Joseph and Mary were tied directly to the line of David, Jesus would have inherited His claim to the throne from His paternal side, per Jewish custom.  Thus His right of earthly kingship came from Joseph, who was not His father by birth, but by adoption.  If there were no strength behind adoption, then, Christ would have no claim to the throne, and He would not fulfill all the Messianic prophecies, meaning that He could not be our Savior!  The strength of Christ’s earthly adoption is the basis for the strength of our heavenly adoption!

 

We also see its strength by its longstanding nature.  Our adoption was in the Lord’s plans before time began (Eph. 1:5), and it will culminate through to eternal glory (Rom. 8:23)!  This is no casual undertaking by the Father, but carefully calculated and painstakingly brought about.  We are certain that God is faithful to complete the work that He starts in His people (Phil. 1:6).

 

Finally, its strength is made obvious when we consider our own hapless natural parentage.  We were formerly sons and daughters of Satan (John 8:44, 1 John 3:8) , to be classified as “sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2) and “children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3).  This is an evil, self-destructive, despondent sort of lineage; children from this family possess absolutely no qualities that might charm a holy Judge to spare them.  In spite of this, however, that very Judge has made Himself to be the heavenly and eternal Father of a great multitude adopted out of this natural family.

 

Our response to our own adoption should reflect an intimate awareness of its strength.  For instance, we know that the Holy Spirit brings a powerful testimony to those adopted by God that they are indeed His children (Rom. 8:16).  This certainty is what allows us and strengthens us to hold to the Lord and to get on with His kingdom work, in spite of seemingly overwhelming adversity.

 

Along these lines, Paul proclaims that our adoption by God should generate a ruthless attitude toward personal sin (Rom. 8:12-17).  Gone is the spirit of slavery within us, and in its place, the spirit of adoption powerfully directs us away from fear and toward Spirit-led living!  We thus cling with a divinely-imparted tenacity to our newfound Father through earthly temptation until our labors give way to the triumphant glory of eternity.

The Adoption Bonus

This incredible declaration by our Lord was cited in a recent sermon by John Cox in connection with the cross of Christ:

"For thus says the high and exalted One
Who lives forever, whose name is Holy,
'I dwell on a high and holy place,
And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit
In order to revive the spirit of the lowly
And to revive the heart of the contrite.'"

- Isaiah 57:15

It is a simple pronouncement, but let us not overlook the amazing implications contained therein. The Lord crafted this statement before time began; He delivered it in an age of antiquity, and He has taken omnipotent care to preserve it up to this very day and through time. Let us look again, then. The holy, eternal High King of all things, who dwells in a place of exaltation, nevertheless does not hesitate to dwell with those who are indescribably lower than Himself - people like us.

He tell us this in His Word because there is glory in it for us to survey. In fact, this verse points to the central glory of all the universe. We may make what seems a simple case that the Lord could easily have divined a way to save us without drawing near to us and revealing that wonderful nearness. The fact that our purposeful, deliberate, careful God did not choose to execute things in this manner is very telling: if asked what the aim of redemptive history truly is, we cannot answer simply, "Salvation, of course." There is more to it than this. Salvation lies at the core of redemptive history - hence the name - but what it accomplishes is the illumination of the unspeakable glory of God. Mark this well. He draws near to the lowly not because He must, but because as He draws near, His glory looms incredibly larger and clearer. The aim of redemptive history is the glory of God.

This is clearly expressed in Ephesians 1:4b-6: "In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved." Do you marvel at the glory? We are lovingly grafted into a place we dare not presume to insinuate ourselves: the very family of the Almighty. He comes to dwell in our midst according to His own predetermined plan, and this occurs not "to the salvation of His people," but "to the praise of the glory of His grace."

Our salvation both demonstrates God's glory and gives us eyes to perceive it, until our hearts are saturated and overflowing with an unprecedented, unexpected gladness. Yet atop this glittering and lofty mountain of grace, the Lord has still more to pile and to heap, until we are blinded and staggered again at the renewed brilliance before us. The divine arm that extends to save us is the selfsame arm which draws us irrevocably into the eternal and holy family of God, there to remain forever. We see His eternal, infinite glory in His salvation and His adoption, and we will rightfully praise Him forever for the glory that we see.

In considering the happy pinnacle of utmost blessing on which we now permanently stand, let us not stop short by considering only the grace that we receive, but also the glory that the one true God receives. The grace points to the glory; the salvation points to the Savior. If our thinking allows us to divorce the glory from the grace, the grace begins to mutate into entitlement, and the vacuum created will inevitably replace God's glory with our own - a poor and transient substitute at any time.

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."

-Ephesians 3:20-21