GOD’S GRACIOUS ADOPTION

“Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ… and it gave Him great pleasure.”  (Ephesians 1:4-5 NLT)

There is something in you that God loves. Not just appreciates but loves. You cause His eyes to widen, His heart to beat faster. He loves you. And He accepts you [in Christ]…

To live as God’s child is to know, at this very instant, that you are loved by your Maker not because you try to please Him and succeed, or fail to please Him and apologize, but because He wants to be your Father. Nothing more. All your efforts to win His affection are unnecessary. (John 1:12) All your fears of losing His affection are needless. (Isaiah 43:1) You can no more make Him want you than you can convince Him to abandon you. The adoption is irreversible. You have a place at His table. 

-- Max Lucado in “Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine”

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CALLED CHILDREN OF GOD

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”  (John 1:12-13 NKJV)

Why do we gather for worship? Why do we gather as a church? We gather as the people of God to hear our true names being called. When we are baptized, the heavens break open and we hear God saying to us, “Thou art my beloved son, thou art my beloved daughter,” because God knows our true names.

I think of my forefathers and foremothers in the time of slavery. They were called everything except children of God. But they did not derive their identity from the names that their slave masters called them. Instead, they stole away and sang: “Hush, hush, somebody’s calling my name. Hush, hush, somebody’s calling my name.” And then they sang another verse: “It sounds like Jesus, somebody’s calling me name. It sounds like Jesus, somebody’s calling my name. 

-- Zan W. Holmes, Jr. in “Encountering Jesus”

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GOD IS AT WORK

In prayer we gain the confidence that, in the midst of all that is happening, God is at work bringing about a good that we can never anticipate (Romans 8:28).  If we feel God-forsaken (and there will be such times), prayer will drive away that despair.  In prayer we experience the indescribable assurance of the Holy Spirit that all will be well.  I love the verse that reads, “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God," (Romans 8:15-16 NRSV).  But the best news of all comes from the same eighth chapter of Romans -- the promise and confidence that all things will work together for an incomprehensible good.  It's a promise that we know will be realized, because the Holy Spirit -- that crucial third member of the Trinity -- prays to the heavenly Father on our behalf, thus overcoming our own limitations in prayer.

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.”  (Romans 8:26-28 NRSV) 

-- Tony Campolo in “Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God”

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ACCEPTING GOD’S GRACE

God saw our entire lives from beginning to end, birth to hearse, and in spite of what He saw, He was still convinced “to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure.” (Ephesians 1:5 NLT)

We can now live “like God’s very own children, adopted into His family -- calling Him ‘Father, dear Father’… And since we are His children, we will share His treasures -- for everything God gives to His Son, Christ, is ours, too.” (Romans 8:15,17 NLT)

It really is this simple. To accept God’s grace is to accept God’s offer to be adopted into His family.

Your identity is not in your possessions, talents, tattoos, kudos, or accomplishments. Nor are you defined by your divorce, deficiencies, debt, or dumb choices. You are God’s child. You get to call Him “Papa.” You “may approach God with freedom and confidence.” (Ephesians 3:12 NIV) You receive the blessings of His special love (1 John 4:9-11) and provision (Luke 11:11-13). And you will inherit the riches of Christ and reign with Him forever (Romans 8:17). 

-- Max Lucado in “Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine”

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