“Adoption”

        My sister, Gail, adopted two children, and I have two sisters-in-law who adopted as well. And they love those children fiercely! Adoption is as strong as—and perhaps even stronger than—natural birth. From God’s point of view, the bond of His adoption of a person is far stronger than the bond of His original creation of that person.

         There are several examples of adoption in the Bible:—

·         Abraham was going to adopt Eliezer as his heir. Gen.15:2, 3.

·         Jacob adopted Joseph’s two eldest sons as sons of his own, i.e., Ephraim and Manasseh were Jacob’s grandsons, but they were honoured as equal heirs with Judah, Reuben and the rest. Gen.48:5.

·         Moses was adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter. Ex.2:10

·         Esther was adopted by her cousin, Mordecai. Est.2:7.

·         Jeconiah (aka Jehoiachin or Coniah) [Jeremiah 22:30] was cursed that no direct descendants of his would ever sit on the throne. See also Matthew 1:12. This is a difficult story to follow but it seems to mean that Joseph (husband of Mary) could never be king but his adopted son, Jesus, could, by way of David’s son Nathan, and Mary.

        In the Roman world one of the most dramatic adoptions was Julius Caesar adopting Octavian (post-humously, no less, i.e., in his will) so the latter could become the next Emperor (called “Augustus”). Augustus later adopted Tiberius as his son and heir.

        When we move into the New Testament, the subject of adoption takes on a whole new meaning and brings us into the spiritual realm and into the family of God. The strongest verse on the subject doesn’t even use the word: John 1:12-13. “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.”

        There are five main verses referring to ‘adoption’ in Paul’s letters (and only Paul uses the word):

1.      Romans 8:15. The Spirit has brought about our adoption to the Father. Before that we were not children but slaves. Now being children of God we are on such a footing with Christ that we are co-heirs with him and must expect to share his sufferings as well as his glory.

2.      Romans 8:23. Full and complete adoption includes the redemption of our bodies.

3.      Romans 9:4. “Adoption to sonship” was intended for Israel but Israel failed.

4.      Galatians 4:5. The sequence is redemption, adoption, sonship, heir.

5.      Ephesians 1:5. Paul goes even further back and tells us that believers were predestined for adoption to sonship.

        Other Scriptures come at the same subject from a different angle. The believer in Christ becomes an “heir” with Him, a “co-heir”, a “joint-heir”, simply because the Father has adopted them. Every time we say “Father” or “Our Father” we are taking the place of children adopted into God’s family.

        And this brings us to still another subject, the new birth. How does the new birth tie in with adoption? “The adopted one became, in the eyes of the law, a new creature. He was born again into a new family.” [Unger’s Bible Dictionary] He lost all rights held in his former family and, by extension, all obligations (and all transgressions) as well.

        Many of the old hymn-writers thrilled to the fact of their adoption by God. For instance, in the Believers Hymn Book alone there are at least fourteen hymns that mention this fact: We will end with two of the better known:

#249 by John Kent:

Heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus

Long ere time its race began;

To His Name eternal praises,

O what wonders love hath done!

One with Jesus;

By eternal union one.

 and #366 by J.N.Darby:

That love that gives not as the world, but shares

All it possesses with its loved co-heirs.

ISN’T IT GREAT BEING IN GOD’S FAMILY?

Return and give thanks!

     One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?”  Luke 17:11-19.

        Several months after Joy and I were first married, we went to a park in the west end of Toronto. The swimming hole was just a widening of the river and there had been a heavy rain the night before so it was pretty murky. As she and I walked into the water, we noticed a few bubbles coming up to our right. We walked on in and swam for five or at the most ten minutes.

        We came back out and Joy’s foot touched something.  “There’s a body down there, there’s somebody down there!”, she shouted. So I reached down right to the bottom of the river—it was about three feet deep—and pulled out a seven or eight year old boy. I lifted him up and shouted for the lifeguard. The two young lifeguards who were on duty went to pieces, but the master lifeguard came, got the child over his shoulder and drained the water out of his stomach and his lungs; the ambulance came and they took care of him; they took my name and address and phone number. And as the ambulance left they said over the loud speaker that the little boy would be okay.

        The next morning we called the hospital and couldn’t get any information. We tried to find something of the story, but nothing—absolutely nothing. So in the end, we know how Jesus felt—we saved that boy—he was as good as dead—we saved his life—nobody ever thanked us, we never even found out any more of the story.

        That takes me back to this story of Jesus and the lepers. I was thinking that in the Breaking of Bread, we’ve done what Jesus wanted us to do. He said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” And in doing this, we return to give Him thanks.

        There were ten lepers, and if we look around at a typical Lord’s Supper there are not huge numbers. Are there nine more out there somewhere, who have never come and given Him thanks? I believe there are.