Adoption

ADOPTION OF SONS

Text: Gal. 4:1-7

Intro:

Background of the epistle (Judaizers, Paul skilful in his argumentation; 3 divis.  Today a similar situation would be that where someone is saved by faith out of a system of works.)

-Importance of doctrine=system of belief (Deflection in doctrine will produce a defection in practice; what you believe affects how you live.)

1.      Believe that man is not created in God’s image=will not practice capital pun./(In fact, it is likely you may support the termination of the life of someone who no longer enjoys a certain quality of life.)

2.      Do not believe in an any-moment rapture

3.      Galatians problems (inward=flesh; outward=strife)

-In this context, Paul presents a glorious aspect of our salvation=adoption.  I know that within our church family are individuals who have experienced the joys of societal adoption.

Denotes the idea of preference.  See Rom 9:4 that relationship which God was pleased to establish between himself and the Israelites in preference to all other nations.  It is by regeneration that one enters the family of God, but it is by adoption (to place as an adult son) that we enjoy the privileges of God’s family.

Are we enjoying the blessings which God affords us through this divine act of adoption?

I. Preparation for Adoption 

God had this in mind for us in ages past, but how was He to work it out/bring it to pass?

A.    This preparation was sequential in nature. (v. 4a)  

Eph. 1:5-“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.”

How powerful is God?  Only He could create the dimension of time.  It His uniquely His creation.  What is time?  One dictionary defines time as “a nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future.”  More complex than we tend to realize!  To help understand time, consider eternity.  Unlike time, eternity is always the same and always indivisible; in it there is no being created and no becoming; there is no such thing as being older and younger in eternity; there is no past, present, future.

Time is often the difference between life & death (John 11-Jesus and Lazarus), fortune & poverty, hope & despair (Jesus and Lazarus), victory and defeat, promotion & shame.  As created beings, we are subordinate to time. 

1.      We are not to abuse time any more than any other part of God’s creation.  The Biblical admonition is that we ought to master time and not let it master us (Eph 5:16).

2.      God will always meet our need “in the fulness of time”  He will neither be late nor early with His gracious provision (Ps 27:13,14).  If you are seeking the things of God above all else, He will aid you in your distress.  In Galatians 4, we see that God’s timing in bringing to fruition His redemptive plan was exact.  History reveals that the time for the Messiah was ideal.  The Gentile world was ripe for the coming of the Promised one.

Romans=elaborate road system, peaceful empire

Greeks=a language throughout the empire

Jews=had been proclaiming the coming of the Messiah for centuries

the Law=had concluded all under sin (3:22). 

B.     This preparation was significant divinely-speaking.

Each Person of the Godhead is involved like Matt 3.  Very important as the baptism of Christ marked the beginning of His earthly ministry in which He would proclaim the Kingdom of God has come.  Illus. Have you ever noticed the more significant an event or circumstance is, the more people become involved?  For example, one way you can tell that you’ve really messed up at work is by who talks to you.  Your immediate supvsr may approach you, then the dept. manager, then regional spvsr, until finally you are summoned to meet with the company president.  We ought to be interested in whatever God is interested.  If God has taken such pains, you might say, to accomplish this aspect of our salvation, ought it not mean something to us?  Shouldn’t this truth impact our lives for the glory of God.  Sadly, what God thinks significant often men approach flippantly.  Perish the thought such an attitude be true of our moms and dads, our teens, our young people. 

II.  The Product of Adoption

A.  Security = eternal security (Rom. 8:16)

Illus.   I understand that when a family legally adopts a child as their own, that child is guaranteed a share in the father’s inheritance.  However, a father may refuse to include his natural child in his will.

B. Standing = our position before the God of heaven

1.  No longer a servant (4:7)  Paul draws upon the common practice among families of that day. In Roman society there was no practical difference between a young child and a household servant.  Sons were heirs, destined to inherit what belonged to their fathers; slaves, however, were part of the inherited property.  Minor children were subordinated just like the servants. 

2.  No longer a child  (4:1)  Under the Mosaic System, men and women experienced what the NT refers to as the new birth.  They were very much so children of God.  In every age, mankind has received salvation from God by exercising faith in divine revelation.   God’s revelation today says that you are to believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that is, believe who He is and what He has done.

But their relationship with God was different from ours today if we are in Christ.  Paul says that believers under the OT Law were children implying a definite difference.

This sonship that we experience produces something else.  As a result of becoming sons of God, we gain a new perspective of who God is (4:6).  Our picture of God is no longer only that of a distant Judge who demands strict obedience to a Law (as the OT saints would have envisioned, Ex. 19:17) but by the work of the Holy Spirit, the believer today may now, in addition to the former description, know God as his affectionate, tender Father (Ps. 103:13 “pitieth”=to love deeply, be compassionate).  Illus. bad day, bully picks on him, fell on sidewalk, stung by a bee, will burst out “Daddy”!  Life will deal its share of unfair blows, waves of discouragement may crash upon our head, at these times we ought to cry out, Papa, Father!  The wonderful truth is that He Who was unapproachable, may now be approached by every child of God with absence of fear. 

Conclusion:

Is your status that of children of wrath?  Wouldn’t you rather be placed into God’s family?

If you are saved, are you living as heirs/sons of God?