"ADOPTED INTO GOD'S FAMILY" (Pastor Tom Henry) ~ 10/22/26

“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children…” (Eph. 1:5a)

“…but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15b)

True believers in Jesus Christ are part of God’s family. They make up the family of God on the earth. They have been redeemed from under the law that they might receive the adoption of sons, and because they are sons they have been given the Spirit of God’s Son, crying Abba Father. (Gal. 4:4-6) When they pass from this life to the next, they shall join the family of God in heaven. How amazing is this! How can it be that a people who are by nature children of wrath, children of the devil, (Eph. 2:3; John 8:44) should become the sons of God, and members of His household? The answer, as revealed in Scripture, is by adoption. Adoption into God’s family is a glorious Bible doctrine, and the fact of it is indeed wonderful!

The whole story of the Bible is the story of how mankind’s original filial relationship with God, that was lost in the fall, is restored through the work of Christ. The exclusive source for how we become children of God is Jesus Christ. We are joined to Him by faith, and it is only as we are in union with Him, Who is the Beloved of God, that we are accepted before God. All of this is based not on our works, but completely on the sinless life and substitutionary, sin-bearing work of Jesus on our behalf. Consequently, adoption had only one ground - the person and work of Christ. Paul stated this explicitly in our first text: “Predestinated unto the adoption of children, by (or through) Jesus Christ.”

Of all the magnificent riches of the Gospel, none is more to be cherished than our adoption in Christ. When the Father lavished His love upon us and made us His children, we weren’t just wandering orphans, roaming the streets bemoaning our deprivals, having no one to love and care for us. We were not looking for a good meal and a warm bed. We were self-absorbed slaves to sin while celebrating our liberties. We weren’t worried about where we would end up. We needed first to be made aware of our miserable and hopeless condition. Therefore, our adoption into the family of God is the quintessential freedom for which we have been redeemed. We who were aliens and strangers; who were in bondage under the elements of the world, have now been brought nigh, and made sons through union with Christ. We can call upon the Father as beloved children, even address Him as Abba Father, just as Jesus Himself. (Mark 14:36)

Concerning this glorious topic, let us conclude with this remarkable quote from J. I. Packer: “If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers, and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctly Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the fatherhood of God. ‘Father’ is the Christian name for God.”