Confession Study: Adoption
of Adoption from our Confession of Faith, Chapter 12. Once again, one paragraph but a glorious doctrine that we have. To be called the sons of God is something that the Apostle reflects upon or calls his audience to rejoice in, in his first epistle, John the Apostle. It's something that Christians throughout every age rejoice in, the privilege it is to have God as our Father.
So I'm going to read the paragraph of Chapter 12 of Adoption, the single paragraph, and then we'll have a look at this wonderful doctrine.
Introduction
All those that are justified, God vouchsafed, in and for the sake of 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." That's wonderful language there. Hopefully, as you see there, in just reading a simple paragraph, we see the beauty of the doctrine, to be given the privileges and the benefits and the advantages of being a son or a daughter of God. We can think of not much more glorious with respect to salvation than to be redeemed from out of slavery and to be brought into the household of the triune God. a beautiful doctrine that we have summed up here by the Confession. A definition of doctrine is already given in the paragraph.
To condense it, we can understand adoption as the Shorter Catechism summarizes, adoption is an act of God's free grace whereby we are received into the number and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God." You see how the confession there reiterates, with regards to every point of salvation, it is an act of God's free grace, and we'll have time to reflect upon that more as we continue in this study, but at every point of doctrine that the Catechism rehearses, because at every point of doctrine that the Bible rehearses and sets forth to us, with regards to man's salvation, it is an act of of God's free grace and adoption is no stranger to that blessed divine reality. Adoption assumes, but some introductory subject matter here, adoption assumes and asserts that those adopted were not God's children beforehand. There's a fluffy emotionalism out there, a religious ambiguity that says we're all the children of God We all just need to float around and seek after our better uses. The Bible doesn't present that as a reality.
Yes, we are all the offspring of God, Paul asserts at the Areopagus, but that's in the context of God's sovereign creatorhood. He has created all things, he upholds all things. In him we live and move and have our being. In him we have our isness.
But the reality is that redemptively speaking, salvifically speaking, we are not all the children of God, but rather as Christ says, you are of your father the devil. The desires of your father you want to do outside of Christ. We are the sons of disobedience and children of wrath. Just a summary of sonship in the Bible.
There's a number of aspects of sonship that come up in the Bible, so to sort of coordinate ourselves or locate ourselves with regards to the sonship of adoption, there is the sonship according to eternal generation in the Bible. That is a unique sonship, peculiar to the Son of God. He is eternally generated by the Father. That doesn't mean he has a beginning.
It's eternal generation. The peculiar relative property of the Son is that He is eternally begotten of the Father. That's why He is the Son of God. He is eternally begotten of the Father.
So Christ has a unique Sonship. The Sonship of the Son of God is not our Sonship. There is the creative sonship of all men to God. We just noted that.
All men are the offspring of God. Each and every one that draws breath in God's universe is a son in that respect, but only by virtue of God's sovereign creatorship. of over and of all things. There is sonship to Adam, our representative head. This is clear.
We are the fallen sons and daughters of Adam outside of Christ. Those who do not have Christ as head, and it is only those who are saved by Christ in the new covenant that truly have Christ as head. Those who do not have Christ as representative and federal and glorious covenantal head, are the fallen sons and daughters of Adam and have him as their representative head. So there is sonship to Adam in that respect.
There is sonship according to ordinary generation. We are physical sons and daughters of a physical father and son. Ordinary generation, the manner by which people are brought into this world under God's sovereign, creative, and providential guidance, direction, and decree. sonship legally according to adoption. There are not that many instances that we have really in the Old Testament because the Israelites didn't really have a culture of adoption much.
You don't see the word or the concept all that much referred to with the exception of Israelites in the context of a pagan environment. For example, Moses in Egypt is an adopted son, but there isn't any sort of developed cultural societal adoption within Israel as there may have been and as there was with surrounding pagans, especially when we get to the New Testament and we see the Greco-Roman principle of of adoption, that sort of thing. There is as well sonship with respect to the theocratic sonship of Old Covenant Israel. They're called God's son.
In fact, Paul uses the term adoption in the New Testament in Romans 9 to refer to Old Covenant Israel. Theirs was the adoption, the promises, the oracles of God, etc. There is rabbinical sonship in the Bible. Christ deals with this in his earthly ministry.
He says, call no man father but your father who is in heaven. The context there is the the various competing rabbinical schools or houses where one of that house would call the rabbinical leader father. There is evangelical sonship to a spiritual father that we have in the New Testament. For example, when John calls the recipients of his letter, dear children, Paul uses the language with respect to others that he identifies in his Pauline epistles.
The fact that one who preaches the gospel to a sinner is a spiritual father in the sense that they proclaim the riches of God's grace, and that one that they proclaim that to is brought forth by God. from deadness and sin to life in Christ. So there's that reality of sonship, evangelical sonship, if you will, to a spiritual father. The sonship that we're dealing with this morning at the point of adoption is that blessed sonship that we have to God our father with respect to God our father or God's relationship as redemptive and saving father to his elect, those that he has brought forth in His appointed and accepted time, to be sons by His grace and for His glory." So let's, if we could, we could call it redemptive sonship. The fact that God is our Father, that we have a filial relationship to our Divine Father, and it's the Besides the sonship of the Son of God in eternal generation, it is the most glorious sonship that we have, to be called the sons and daughters of God.
Hopefully we'll see that as we move along.
Recipients of Adoption
So we want to try and do five things as we move through here. As we look at the language of the Confession, and the first thing is we want to note the recipients of adoption. Notice the recipients of adoption.
All the Justified Are Adopted
The language right at the beginning of the paragraph is, all those that are justified. So the recipients of justification are all those who are justified. And if you'll grab your confession and follow along with me, I want you to see the progression of the identification of those who receive the blessings of amazing grace in salvation. If you wanna turn back with me to chapter three.
First chapter 3, we want to follow a progression and then once we've done that, note that this is simply an expansion upon what the Bible discloses with regards to effectual salvation. Notice in chapter 3, at paragraph three. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestined or foreordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ to the praise of his glorious grace. Now quickly turn to chapter 10.
And you'll notice in paragraph one, those whom God hath predestinated unto life, he is pleased in his appointed and accepted time, effectually to call by his word and spirit. Now chapter 11, paragraph one, those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth. And then our doctrine, chapter 12, right at the beginning, all those that are justified, God vouchsafed to make partakers of the grace of adoption. You see the progression there.
We have foreordainment. We have predestination unto eternal life by Jesus Christ. We have effectual calling from out of that state of sin and death to light and life in Christ Jesus the Lord. We have that blessed declaration from God that we are righteous based upon the righteousness solely and alone of Christ imputed to us.
And then we have this reality in paragraph 1, the only paragraph of chapter 12, all those that are justified God made to be partakers of the grace of adoption. You see there's an inexorable, an inviolable link between predestination and election in Jesus Christ all the way through these various glorious links in the chain of of redemption or the chain of salvation. It's been called the golden chain of salvation.
The Golden Chain in Romans 8
Where might the confession be getting this language from? Where might the confession be summarizing or even expanding upon, if you will, from with respect to the biblical witness? Well, you can turn to Romans 8, and no doubt this is a passage you know well. And as often as we repeat it, we're never brought hopefully to a point of exhaustion because to rehearse these things is to rehearse the very amazing grace of God.
So the recipients of adoption, we noted again that inviolable link from predestination all the way through to God by His grace making us sons and daughters. Notice in Romans 8 beginning at verse 28, And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called.
Whom He called, these He also justified. And whom He justified, these He also glorified. Now, maybe the question you're asking is, well, I don't see adoption in there. Well, you should see it in there by virtue of casting your eyes upon and contemplating a skeletal framework with respect to salvation.
From beginning to end, salvation is of the Lord, whom he predestines, he calls, whom he calls, he justifies, whom he justifies, he also glorifies. That's why we have this language in our confession, all those that are justified are adopted, to summarize. So those who are the recipients of adoption are all those who are justified. Those who are justified were those who were effectually called.
Those who were effectually called are those who were predestinated unto life by Jesus Christ to the praise of God's glorious grace. This is the glorious biblical pattern of the golden chain of salvation. And you know, it's the cause for thanksgiving on the part of the Apostle Paul in many places. One of those places where we have this golden chain brought forth is in 2 Thessalonians.
And you can turn there if you have your fingers at the ready to navigate the Word of God. 2 Thessalonians 2. this golden chain of redemption, this golden chain of salvation is contained within these words of thanks that the Apostle Paul engages in as he's writing to the Thessalonians. Notice in verse 13 of 2 Thessalonians 2, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see the reality that these glorious elements of salvation, adoption being one of them, adoption being one of those constituent elements of the blessed salvation that God gives us, we see this inviolable connection from beginning to end. God saves.
He saves without a helper, and He saves to the praise of His glorious grace, and all those that He intends to save, all those that He purposes to save, are saved, will be saved, and cannot suffer the danger of not being saved. And this adoption For all who are justified is a blessed aspect of God's divine and saving grace. Now, if we were to consider the elements of, we probably wouldn't be stuck to this three-fold framework, but just to think about things for a moment. three sorts of relationships we could say. If we're summarizing our relationship as Christians being once the fallen sons and daughters of Adam, but now being the gloriously redeemed sons and daughters of God, there's a threefold relationship that we bear to God.
With respect to justification, for example, we now no longer stand before God in a relationship as those legally condemned before a terrible judge, but we stand as those now justified before that judge by virtue of the deeds and the dying of another. One has suffered in our place, having already perfected obedience in our place, he brings us into a relationship before that judge, and we are now legally justified in the sight of that judge. There is now no longer any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So we have a relationship to God as judge, but not as those who bear the curse of the law because Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.
As it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree. We have a relationship now to God as master. No longer do we have a relationship to the devil as our master, being his slaves and his sons, but rather we have a relationship to God our master, and we are the redeemed bond servants now of God, no longer slaves of sin and sons of disobedience. And we have a filial relationship, which is legal still, It's a legal relationship that we have with God.
God has redeemed us, purchased us from out of our sonship of disobedience, from out of the reality that we were children of wrath. He has redeemed us from out of being slaves to now being His sons and members of His household. And hopefully this language, perhaps without my aid, helps you to rest on and to glory in the reality that we're sons and daughters of God. I don't know if we can ever really fully grasp the weight and the glory of that reality.
Perhaps it's a little bit of our remaining pride and arrogance or something that we really don't think that we were once sons of our father, the devil, doing his desires. salivating after sin and the lusts of the flesh. Perhaps our own self-assessment just really doesn't want to make us be that bad or look that bad or consider that we were once that bad. We were without hope. We were without strength.
We were the sons of disobedience. We were the children of wrath. But God, in His grace and in His mercy, brought us forth and washed us and cleansed us and set us into His household. where we have no risk of being booted from the household, yes, chastised, but we have all the privileges and the benefits of the sons and daughters of God and we have an inheritance laid up for us that is incorruptible, undefiled, and that will not fade away. Beautiful doctrine of adoption.
Author of Adoption
The author then, secondly, the author of adoption. the author of adoption. All those that are justified, God vouchsafed to make partakers of the grace of adoption. That language, God vouchsafed there, isn't speaking of the fact that we are vouchsafed, but the language is that God vouchsafed us. God vouchsafed us to make partakers of the grace of adoption.
The language is gifting or granting. Vouchsafe can take on the character of or mean condescension, but that's only when it doesn't have a direct object. What's that called? An intransitive verb?
How about that? So it can take on the character of condescension, but in this case, because it's a transitive verb, we're exegeting the confession now, but because it's connected to an object, all those that are justified, that means that it is a divine gift. It's condescension, sure, that God condescends to give us this gift, of being the sons and daughters of God, but the language here is that all those that are justified, God has gifted, God has granted in His benevolence and undeserved from our vantage point, He's given us this gift of being partakers of the grace of adoption. That God is the author of adoption is obvious, But it's nevertheless in need of constant reiteration, especially as errors in the doctrine of salvation continue and will continue, no doubt, until Christ comes again.
You see there's a stream out there in Christianity that would say that by the exercise of our will, we make effectual this relationship of sonship. In fact, you can turn to John 1 for a moment. John chapter 1. You might say, well, yeah, obviously God is the author of adoption, and it is obvious, because we're dead in our trespasses and in our sins, wholly unable to come to Him outside of saving grace.
We stand as sons and daughters of the devil and of, you know, miserable sons and daughters of Adam, and it's not against our will, it's not, you know, somehow reluctantly so, but outside of Christ, men and women, boys and girls, love being the miserable sons and daughters of Adam. They love their sin and continue in it, waking up in the morning devising wickedness. Notice in 1 John 1, Remember, this is in the context of John speaking with respect largely to the incarnation of the Word or Son of God. This prologue contains or is highlighted by the fact that the Word that was in the beginning with God and that was God took upon himself man's nature in order to redeem. the fallen sons and daughters of Adam.
And notice what we have here in verse 12. Well, let's back up to verse 10. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name. Well, there you go. You see, he gives the right of sonship and daughterhood to those who receive him. So it must be that faith precedes regeneration.
Of course not. There are people that will stop at verse 12, perhaps willingly or in ignorance, and not see the divine reality and amazing grace behind this giving of the rights of children. Notice verse 13, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." You see, our sonship doesn't come by ordinary generation. You know, the Jews in Christ's day could boast of being the descendants of Abraham, where the sons and daughters of Abraham were not slaves to anyone.
That isn't wherein sonship, true sonship to God exists. Being the physical descendants, being born of blood. That isn't where our rights and privileges of being divine sons and daughters, it's not where it lies. Nor of the will of the flesh.
So it isn't the exercise of the will that we somehow have to stir up and conjure up something that's native to all men in order for God then to reward us with. award us with the rights of sonship and daughterhood. It's not of the will of man, it wasn't anyone else who willed our sonship, or it's not the province of anyone outside of ourselves that brings us into a relationship with God, that is, no man. but rather we're born of God. Our rights to become children of God, yes, is given to those who believe in His name, but these are born of God. And so the order is, is that we're born of God, we're brought forth by amazing and victorious grace, we're brought forth by the very same power that created the heavens and the earth and that raised the Son of God from the grave. were brought forth by that power, and we believe and are made the sons of God by grace.
That's why the Shorter Catechism says it is an act of God's free grace. So again, to emphasize here, the author of Adoption is God. We're given the rights by Him to become children of God, having been born of Him. And that's what's in view there.
Behold What Manner of Love
You can turn as well to 1 John 3, the same author, but in his first epistle. You've probably heard it before when we get to 1st John 3 verse 1, it's almost as if it's or it's parenthetical, or it's as if John is stroking his apostolic beard and contemplating the riches and the excellencies of God, because it's almost as if this verse doesn't flow with the context. Not that it's contradictory, but simply it seems to be one of those instances where the author launches into an adorable reflection upon the adorable God the glories of amazing grace. Notice in 1 John 3 verse 1, That's something that every one of us is to say with John and amen after reading John write that.
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. That language of behold hopefully speaks more to you than a simple, hey, consider this. The behold is a word that's in the Bible that sometimes you have it translated low. Low I am with you, even to the end of the age.
The word behold there is to draw us to attention. We are to rouse ourselves when we see, behold, in order to reflect upon and glory in what follows the behold. What is the behold pointing to? Lo, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us.
There's that language of vouchsafed. God vouchsafed. He bestowed on us this right to become children of God. He bestowed on us to be partakers of the grace of adoption.
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. You see, because we once were not children, but slaves. We once were not the children of God, but sons of disobedience and children of wrath. And so behold what manner of love.
That's why the reformed theology, Calvinistic soteriology, let's just say biblical theology that God alone saves, That's why it exalts God alone, Father, Son, and Spirit in the realm and in the sphere of all things and of salvation. Because we can only by grace and we can only because of divine favor and immutable and eternal love say behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God. The author of adoption is God. all those that are justified are made to be partakers of the grace of adoption by virtue of amazing and victorious grace. Well, thirdly, we want to note some things with respect to adoption. before we note in closing some of the benefits and what we are to do in light of adoption.
Pre-Temporal Provenance of Adoption
Thirdly, but firstly in this last set of three, the pre-temporal provenance of our adoption. Don't be scared away by that language. I'll just repeat it one more time. the pre-temporal provenance of our adoption. That simply means the before creation, the before the foundation of the world, origin or foundation of our adoption.
What is the origin, the foundation, the source of our adoption? The immutable decree of election flowing from divine love. That is the pre-temporal provenance of our adoption, the immutable decree of election flowing from divine love. You can turn with me to the book of Ephesians in chapter 1.
You probably know where we're going there in Ephesians 1, but it's a place that we have to go and that we should delight in traveling to when we consider the doctrine of adoption.
Election in Love Before the Foundation
Notice in Ephesians 1, and never come to Ephesians 1 as a Calvinist, thinking that it's a place of scripture where we need to beat up people who don't believe the way we believe regarding salvation. There's a time and a place to come to Ephesians 1 to, sure, engage in apologetics and polemics against those who would exalt the free will of men. But this is a place here where we have Paul reflecting doxologically on the glory of the Father in light of Triune salvation. Notice what we have beginning in verse 3 as we progress towards the text in verse 5 that speaks to our topic this morning in Ephesians 1 verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him. in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the Beloved." You see all that language there, which would take millennia to unpack adequately. But look at the language that we have there. Now, just a note, in verse 4, We, I think it's right and it's, you know, interpretative discretion to put the comma, to move the comma after love and... move it back so it comes after before him.
So we read it just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him. I think if we have the in love with the before him, it's almost as if the in love character is ascribed to those who are holy and without blame. You see, so that while it is the case that God chose us unto this reality of being before him without blame and holy, but you see it's in a character of love, our love, towards the one who chose us for that state. And I don't believe that's what the author Paul is getting at, because what's he rehearsing?
He's rehearsing the glory of the amazing grace of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We could read the end of verse 4 and verse 5 by saying, in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself. You see, that's where we have this glorious language or this reality that the pre-temporal providence of our redemption is in the immutable decree of election, but that immutable decree of election flows from divine love. You see, The decree of election should never be contemplated as some sort of, you know, woodenly, rigid thing that a cold, fatalistic deity executes prior to bringing things into existence.
That's just madness. The confession upholds and the Bible upholds clearly because we just read it, that divine predestination, that election, that foreordination flows from the everlasting and unchangeable love of God. In fact, our confession, and if you turn to chapter 17 with me, uses this language, never let Never let your doctrine of salvation be just something that rehearses language wrapped up in predestination and election devoid of love. It's always the case, because God is love, that election and predestination and foreordination flows from the character of an everlasting and immutable love.
Notice in chapter 17 at paragraph 2, Speaking of the perseverance of the saints, we read, this perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father. See, that's the glory of election. That's the glory of predestination. the free and unchangeable love of God the Father. Unconstrained, you know. unnecessitated by man's will, by what he foresaw as man engaging in the psychic exercise of faith in order to conjure up some sort of reality where he grasps the truth of God.
God doesn't base his election upon what men do. That's the whole point in that section in Romans 9. Before Jacob and Esau had done anything, before they were even born, before they had done good or evil so that the purpose according to election might stand. He said, Jacob, I have loved, and Esau, I have hated.
You see, our election, our predestination, our foreordination unto eternal life by and through Jesus Christ flows from free and unchangeable love. And that's the only, that alone is God's love. No one else has free and unchangeable love. As much as you might sing the praises of your wife, or your mother, or your father, or your husband, or whatever, there's only one who has free and unchangeable love, and that's the Triune God.
And it is out of that love, adoption is the topic this morning, it is out of that love that He has made us to be the sons and daughters of God. It's glorious. The pre-temporal provenance of our adoption, that simply means Before the foundation of the world, source of our adoption is the immutable decree of election flowing from divine love.
Objective Historical Ground of Adoption
Fourthly, the objective historical ground of our adoption. So if we have something that's pre-temporal, How about then historical? When time is, what is the historical ground of our adoption? If it is the immutable decree of election flowing from divine love, what then is the execution of that decree in time?
What is the historical objective ground of our adoption? Well, let's turn in our Bibles to Galatians 4. Galatians 4. The apostle is writing concerning the time before Christ came.
I don't wanna use the word, I won't use that word, dispensation, but we can use the word dispensation, but just not wrapped up in that man-made hermeneutic. But there was a time before Christ came where the nation of Israel, of course, was governed by the ceremonial law. They were governed by the Mosaic institutions. and the Apostle Paul is rehearsing that that served as a guardian and a steward until the time appointed by the Father. He speaks of being under bondage to those things.
But when the elements of the world are, excuse me, verse 3 of Galatians 4, even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. That language of elements of the world is most likely pertaining to the various accoutrements of the Mosaic institutions. the ceremonies, the washings, all of those things instituted by God, having a divinely-divined obsolescence that would be wrapped up in and completed and fulfilled in Christ, the substance of those shadows. And now we get to verse 4, and notice what we have here. Beautiful language regarding adoption.
But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons." You see, this doctrine of adoption, intimately connected to, because every doctrine of salvation is, intimately connected to the doing and the dying and the rising again of the Son of God. The work of Christ is the objective historical ground of our adoption. That's what Paul is saying here. This one who came, and notice the language, but when the fullness of the time had come.
You know, what is the fullness of the time? Well, first off, it's what we just spoke about with respect to the pre-temporal provenance of adoption, that it was according to the eternal decree. God decreed that in His appointed and accepted time, He would raise His elect from deadness to life in Christ and place them into His household, making them sons and daughters. And so in time, that occurs in the fullness of the time.
So it respects the decree of God before the foundation of the world. It also respects the prophetic declarations and old covenant promises that there is a time coming where the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. And that's what's in view as well when we see the fullness of the time as well. We would have stuff like Daniel 9 in there, the 70 weeks, Christ the Messiah coming and being cut off and bringing an end to sacrifice and sin and bringing in everlasting righteousness.
All of those things are wrapped up in the fullness of the time. the pre-temporal decree of God and the prophetic promises that are given by virtue of that decree in order to proclaim the coming Messiah, this one who God sent forth, his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law. And notice this purpose clause here, that. Whenever you see that, take notice of that. Whenever you see that when you're reading your Bible, when we read these arguments, these apostolic arguments, not casting aside the Old Testament, but because we're in the New right now, Galatians, just as an example.
Whenever you see these apostolic declarations concerning salvation, reflecting upon the grace of God, reflecting upon the perfect work of Jesus, very often you're going to see that clauses. You're going to see these sorts of things follow after a rehearsal of the work of Christ, or the grace of God. Notice, that we might receive the adoption as sons. There's a purpose given here with respect to the coming into the world of the Son of God, who is born of a woman, born under the law.
The purpose is that we might receive the adoption as sons. we reflect upon the doing and the dying of Christ, we reflect upon the crucifixion of Christ, and we are to draw a line back from our being brought into the household of God, back to that bloodied massacre upon Calvary's cross, and see that there, not only do we have regeneration, justification, sanctification, ultimate and inevitable glorification, but we have at the cross our adoption as sons being wrought by Jesus Christ our Lord. That's what we have before us here. The work of Christ is that we might receive the adoption of sons, and it's connected to, in the context, those being under the law, having the curse of the law removed, in order that we might have adoption as sons. Christ comes into the world, that one born under the law, redeems those who are under the law, under its curse, that's what Paul gets at in Galatians 3.13.
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, not the law itself, The law is good, the law in and of itself isn't a curse, but it functions with respect to curse because the curse is the condemnation for the law's violation. And so Christ redeems us from that curse, in order that we might receive the adoption as sons. And he does that by becoming a curse for us. Never make the mistake of not connecting substitutionary atonement to our adoption as sons.
Christ becomes a curse for us, being born under the law, taking upon himself our curse that was due us, that is, the condemnation for the law's violation. He takes that upon himself upon that Roman gibbet of execution, taking upon himself the wrath of God, and it is to redeem us that we might receive the adoption as sons." Blessed truth. The objective historical ground of our adoption is the saving work of Christ. It turned to Hebrews with me as well.
There's an interesting verse, perhaps you've maybe, well, maybe you have, but maybe you haven't, ever reflected upon this with respect to adoption and the reality of our sonship. the sonship is connected here to the sanctifying blood of Christ. Hebrews 2 is a rehearsal of the sufficiency, the superabounding excellency of Christ Jesus over the shadows of old covenant religion that only pointed forward to him and that he brought to an end by the sacrifice of himself. But wrapped up in Wrapped up in the explications of the Apostle here in Hebrews concerning the excellence of Christ is our sonship and the inheritance and the benefits that we have with Christ our brother in the context. Notice in Hebrews 2 beginning in verse 10.
Hebrews 2 beginning in verse 10.
Christ Not Ashamed to Call Us Brethren
are all of one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly. I will sing praise to you. And again, I will put my trust in him. Now notice, and again, here am I and the children whom God has given me.
See that? You see that language there? Christ speaking here. Here am I and the children whom God has given me.
What is the apostle saying? The apostle here is saying that Christ Jesus is reflecting upon the perfection of his saving work He sanctifies all those who are being sanctified by the perfection of His blood. And He is saying these beautiful words here, here am I and the children whom God has given me. God gives the Son, the Father gives to the Son a people to redeem.
He goes in their stead and redeems them. They're covered by his blood, they're perfected by the salvation of their Captain Christ, and he brings them to this blessed reality of sonship in the same household, and he's not ashamed to call us brethren. Those are some of the most amazing words in the Bible. I mean, there's lots of amazing words in the Bible.
The preacher can say that a lot, but he's not ashamed to call them brethren. The one who goes to the cross and is put to death in a bloody massacre in order to redeem his people by that selfsame shed blood, not shed at all in vain, he sanctifies and perfects all of his brethren, those to whom God has given him. Here am I and the children whom God has given me. It's absolutely beautiful.
Temporal Application of Adoption
Fifthly and lastly then, the temporal application of the grace of adoption. So we have the pre-temporal provenance of our adoption. Again, that is the immutable decree of election flowing from divine love. We have the objective historical ground of our adoption, the saving work of Christ, and we have now then the temporal application of the grace of adoption, and that is the effectual power of the Spirit.
We once were not the children of God. Remember that that is the language of Ephesians 2. We were children of wrath, just as the others. We're not all the sons and daughters of God in some sort of intimately religious sense.
That is, every man and woman, boy and girl, every human being that ever was and that ever is now and that ever will be, we're not all intimately in a filial relationship to the intelligent designer who only pours out benevolence on those who really, really, really, really try hard and are nice and are liberal. We have a God who, or excuse me, we have the reality with the fallen sons and daughters of Adam. That we are all, outside of Christ, children of wrath. That's Ephesians.
We are sons of disobedience. That same language is used in the book of Colossians. And we are of our father, the devil, outside of Christ. John chapter 8.
And so this is the reality. We once were not the children of God. But God, in His appointed and accepted time, brought us forth from death in sin to life in Christ. making us sons. That's why, you know, that's a reflection when we sing the song, the hymn Amazing Grace next time, you can reflect upon that in light of our study in adoption, that we're sons and daughters of God by virtue of God in his appointed and accepted time bringing us forth from death and sin to life in Christ.
That's why when we sing Amazing Grace, we ought to reflect very briefly on this most certain truth, that we were once outside of Christ, the fallen and miserable sons and daughters of Adam, who loved being the sons of our father, the devil, desiring the lusts of the flesh, being without hope and without strength, but God, in his mercy, and in his condescending love, according to the immutable decree of election flowing from divine love, in his appointed and accepted time, brought us forth, putting us into his household." Turn to Ephesians 2 with me for a moment. We see this language of household that the Apostle Paul uses. No doubt the The cultural, societal, and legal reality of adoption is in view, where one is taken from a position where they do not have the rights and the privileges of a householder. Perhaps an orphan or something like that is adopted by a benevolent father.
They once did not have the rights and privileges of a householder, but stood outside those rights, having no part and no parcel of them. but then that benevolent householder brings them in and legally confers upon them all the rights and the privileges of being a member of the household. Notice in Ephesians 2, and we'll just first quickly read beginning in verse 1 and ending in verse 5, And you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved.
Now notice verse 19. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. So we have this reality that we were once sons of disobedience and children of wrath, but then grace comes, but grace, but God, making us alive together with Christ. And now therefore, some of the closing words of Paul, we're members of the household of God.
It's absolutely glorious. The temporal application of the grace of adoption is such that God condescends to send forth his spirit in accordance with or connected to the historical and objective ground of our adoption that Christ in time and in history came to redeem us, and the spirit makes us alive and places us into the household of God, our divine and benevolent Father. Notice as well, just quickly as we have a few moments left, Galatians, the same idea. If we were to continue reading, we will now, but if we were to continue reading after verse 5 where we read in Galatians 4, to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons, Notice as it continues in verse 6, And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father.
Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. A beautiful language. You can make a note, Romans 8, 15 to 16, and verse 23, where the same language is used by the Apostle Paul, that we are joint heirs with Christ, and by virtue of our adoption by God.
Application
A couple things that we can take away from this doctrine of adoption, and no doubt we can't exhaust a reflection on these things in two minutes. But the first thing is, we ought to take great joy from and comfort in the reality of our adoption. Notice what the confession says. If you can find your way back to the chapter there, chapter 12, notice some of the things that we have here listed with respect to our adoption as sons.
To make partakers of the grace of adoption by which they are taken, excuse me, into the number and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God, have his name put upon them." Language of ownership there. Have his name put on them. You can refer to, among other places, Jeremiah 14. Revelation 3, where we have our name, where, excuse me, where he puts his name upon us.
It's the language of ownership. We don't have the name of the devil written upon us. We don't have a brand that says, Adam, your representative head. We have the name of God written upon us. beautiful as the sons of God.
We have our owner, our master as God. We receive the spirit of adoption, that is, by which we are enabled to cry out, Abba, Father. We have access to the throne of grace with boldness. Remember, that coming to boldness to the throne of grace isn't, I think as Richard Barcello said, some sort of lion-hearted courage that we stir up as Christians who've been empowered by God.
We charge the gates of heaven and and bring our petitions before God. No, the boldness by which we come to the throne of grace rests upon the finished and complete and perfect work of Christ. That is the boldness by which we come. How do we come to the throne of grace?
Because of Christ and the perfection of His saving work in giving Himself a ransom for guilty sinners. We have access to the throne of grace as the sons of God were enabled to cry, Abba Father, we're pitied, we're protected, we're provided for. Isn't that wonderful? God pities us.
When we are going through seasons of sin, when we're going through hardship, when we're going through affliction, we don't have an absentee father that is dispatched beyond the realms of Pluto just doing whatever and not considering his people. We're pitied, we're protected, we're provided for. Remember, we need not worry and we need not be anxious in anything because if God clothes the flowers and gives seed to the birds of the air, he'll take care of his elect, he'll take care of his redeemed. We are pitied, we're protected, and we're provided for.
And never cast this off and turn your back to this. We're chastened by him as by a father. Welcome chastening. It might not be good in the moment.
That's what Hebrews 12, I believe, says. At the time, it doesn't feel great. But on the other side of chastening, you are the better for it. What happens is, very often chastening can come by way of a faithful brother and a sister, a husband or a wife, a parent or a child rebuking us.
You know, very often chastening can come from some sort of season where God removes His intimate covenantal presence, if you will, from us, where it seems that He is far away from us. It's very often the case that we want to put on the garments of pride instead of ripping those off and welcoming the chastening hand of the Father. will, instead of receiving a rebuke, will say, yeah, but you, having kept a record of wrongs, will throw something back at the person accusing us, and those sorts of things. We are to welcome the chastening by the Father, and it says, we are never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises as heirs everlasting salvation. And as well, we are to live in light of our adoption.
Ephesians 5.1 says, live as dear children, as imitators of God. We are to live and walk in light of our God and in light of our adoption. We're to act, we're to function, we are to conduct ourselves as householders. You know, the doctrine of adoption isn't just a benefit that's granted, this legal benefit, our filial relationship now to God, the householder, but now as those who are members of the household, we are to conduct ourselves and be imitators of the one who has washed us and cleansed us and placed us into his household.
Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time together in your word. We thank you that we can reflect upon this glorious doctrine of adoption. We behold with John how glorious it is that we can be called the children of God. What a gracious gift you have bestowed upon us.
We do pray that you would help us to rejoice, help us to reflect upon these blessed things, and help us to live in light of so great a privilege. And we do pray that you'd go with us now, and that as the sons and daughters of God, you would cause us to worship you, our householder. We might give you all honor and all praise. And we pray in Christ's name, amen.