God's Mighty Acts in Salvation by Starr Meade

Author:Starr Meade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2010-08-12T00:00:00+00:00

As for me and my house . . .

• Watch a young child playing and notice how many times someone has to stop him or her from doing something dangerous or wrong. Thank God for giving us his law to show us what’s right and what’s wrong by his holy standard—but don’t count on being able to keep it on your own! Let it lead you to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

21

Adopted by God

Galatians 4:1–7

“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’”

Romans 8:15

Do you know anyone who has been adopted by his or her parents, instead of being born to them? Maybe you yourself were adopted. In our culture, people usually adopt young children. In Paul’s time, Romans sometimes adopted young adults. If a Roman had no children of his own, he would want to adopt someone who would change his name to the name of the adopting parent. In that way, the Roman’s name would continue through his adopted child. This was especially important to wealthy Romans. They had large amounts of money, possessions, and land; who would get all that when they died? The adopted child would be the Roman’s heir, the person who would inherit all that the adoptive parent left behind.

It might be nice to be the heir of a very wealthy Roman, but how much better is it to be the heir of God? That’s what Paul told the Galatians they were, if they were true believers in Christ Jesus. In another place, Paul wrote that Christians are God’s heirs and co-heirs with Jesus (Rom. 8:16). In other words, whatever Jesus receives from his Father, God’s adopted children will receive too. God’s children will share in Jesus’ glory; they will rule with him; they will receive the rewards for a life of perfect righteousness that he earned. An inheritance is something children wait for; they’ll receive it later. God’s children will share in Jesus’ glory and rule with him later, when Jesus returns. But adopted children have rights here and now as well. An adopted child expects her parents to provide for her and protect her. She can count on her parents to love her. She knows she can go to her parents whenever she has a need or just when she wants to be with them. Since she has been adopted, she has all the rights and privileges children have with parents.

The reason Romans often waited until someone was a young adult before adopting him was that they wanted to be sure they were making a good choice. This person would represent the family and carry on the family name. Before adopting someone, a Roman wanted to be sure the adopted person would be a credit to the family.

That’s one important difference between how God adopts his children and how the Romans adopted people. The Romans looked for strong, healthy young adults who had proven their good character—worthy people who deserved to be adopted.

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