I am in the middle of a short sermon series that I have entitled “Foundational Truths That Transform”. The first message dealt with the power of Christ’s work for us. He has become to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption… to boast in the Lord! Then we looked at new life and a new walk in the Spirit. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Today, I want to look at another all important truth that transforms. JI Packer begins a chapter in his book Knowing God by asking the question: What is a Christian? He answers:

The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father.

How does that land on you? Do you think much of being a child of God? Jesus made this primary in one of the most famous verses in all the bible when he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” For years, I knew the words of that verse, but unconsciously, my mind assumed that what Jesus was saying was that he was the only way to heaven. But it doesn’t say that. It’s true - Jesus is the only way to heaven. But John 14:6 doesn’t say that. It says Jesus is the way to the Father. And that’s what Jesus came to do. To bring us home to God our Father. He came to “bring many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). 

Adoption might be the highest privilege in the gospel. Maybe the most centrally important blessing of the gospel is justification, but the highest privilege of the gospel is adoption. Justification has to do with “how does a sinner get right with God?” and deals with the legal issues of breaking God’s law, guilt, condemnation, and how we can be pardoned and justified. Adoption deals with our alienation from God, and how God reconciles enemies and makes them his beloved children. Adoption is a familial, relational reality. We are brought into God’s family, not part way, but all the way and forever. 

Again, JI Packer in Knowing God said the following: 

If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of 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 distinctively Christian, as opposed to merely Jewish is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God.

Jesus Christ came to restore us to God our Father. Think about the deepest relational reality that Jesus and the Father have enjoyed forever - it’s Father and Son. Now, it’s not uncommon to hear people say things like, “Everyone is a child of God. Every person born into the world is God’s child”. It’s not true. We are not children of God by natural birth. We are children of God through faith in Christ, as a result of the new birth. Galatians 3:26 says, “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” It’s in Christ Jesus and through faith. Well, let’s jump into our text. 

BIG IDEA: Gospel Adoption is the Father, Son, and Spirit working in perfect harmony to bring children of God into the love, protection, assurance, and privileges of God’s family forever.

I hope you noticed in the text the Trinity - the Father, Son, and Spirit all at work in our adoption. Michael Reeves (British theologian) said something like, “The more tinitarian the salvation, the sweeter.” This is as trinitarian as it gets. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit working together for your adoption and your enjoyment of it. 

So what I want to do is uncover the treasures that are found here. How the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit each work for our adoption. And then we’ll think through what the implications are if we believe this. 

• The overflowing love of the Father directing and initiating our adoption. 
• The sufficient work of the Son to purchase our adoption. 
• The Spirit’s inward ministry and witness of our adoption. 

The Father Overflows In Love

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son (v. 4)

We are wrong if in any way, we view God as tight-fisted and stingy, rather than open-handed and generous. It is only the ingrate who has such a view of God. Romans 8:32, “He did not spare his own Son!” When the fullness of time had come. This speaks of intention, deliberateness. This speaks of a plan. The Father had a plan that was being carried out - an adoption plan. Isn’t it wonderful to know that God is not making his way through history “shoot from the hip”, as he goes. He is working out his plan to adopt children. And stunningly, in Ephesians 1:5, we are told just how ancient this plan was. Check this out.

In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ…

Predestination speaks of God’s plan in eternity past. And what was this plan? Adoption. To adopt us to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. He did it “in love”. This is amazing. If you are a believer in Christ now (genuine not in name only), when asked how long God has loved you, the answer is FOREVER. Amazing! 

So that was the eternal plan. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son. I love that. At just the right time - according to God’s plan - God “sent forth his Son.” The word translated “sent forth” means to be sent with commissions, to be sent with purpose. Of course, we know what the purpose was. To redeem lost sinners so that he could be the firstborn among many brothers! That’s what he was sent forth to do. 

That’s not all the Father initiates though. Look later at verse 6:

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts…

What was God’s great motivation for all of this? Love. In love God predestined us to be adopted as sons. For God so loved the world that he gave his Son. 

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. (John 3:1)

Adoption begins with the Father overflowing in love. And then there is the sufficient work of the Son. 

The Son Accomplishes

God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (v. 4-5)

Jesus came and accomplished redemption. Jesus was born of a woman. That’s incarnation - the eternal Son of God was truly and really born into this world. Born of a woman. Born under the law. He came under the yoke of the law. To redeem those under the law. This points us to the perfection of Christ’s obedience to the law. Jesus said, “I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.” Sometimes the way I hear Christians talk about the law concerns me. As though the law of God is bad. It’s not. The law is good. We are bad and unable to keep it. So Jesus was born under the law to redeem those under the law. He is the perfect Lawkeeper FOR lawbreakers. So Jesus came to redeem. 

But what was the goal of redemption? We have to get this. What does Jesus accomplish here? He redeems us so that he may share what he already has with us. He shares his status as Son with us. He shares his relationship with the Father with us. This gets to the core of this high and glorious privilege of adoption. It is not just that we are children. You see the words “so that” in verse 5? This points us to the end or goal or purpose of the work of Christ. What was the goal? That we might receive the full (adoptive) rights of sons. We are going to see this more when we look at the ministry of the Holy Spirit. 

Verse 7 reiterates this when it says, “So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” Do you see the logic? If you are in Christ, you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if you are a son, then you are an heir. In other words, you have received the full privileges of sonship - because the eternal Son shares his very sonship with you. Listen to what Jesus prays to the Father in John 17:22-23:

The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 

Because we are in Christ and he shares this relationship with us that he has with the Father, the Father loves us even as he loves the eternal Son - Jesus Christ. And so our adoption is fully accomplished through Christ coming in the flesh, obeying perfectly on our behalf, and dying to redeem us.

The Spirit’s Ministry and Witness

And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!”  (v. 6)

We have talked about overflowing love of the Father and the work of the Son. There needs to be work within us to make us alive to that truth! That is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Father sends him into our hearts - not merely in our direction and then leaves it up to us to lassor him in. No, the Father sends the Spirit into us! I can’t help but make the connection between this and Romans 5:5

God’s love has been poured into our hearts, through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

The Father wants us to know, truly know his overflowing love, the love that motivated him to send his only Son to redeem us and so what does he do? He sends his Spirit into our hearts. Because the best ministry of the Spirit is the inside work, the work of transforming our hearts so we no longer act like rebellious orphans and we behave like dearly loved children of the Father. 

The Holy Spirit gives language to us… gives us the ability to voice what he is doing in us. Verse 6 seems to say that the Holy Spirit cries “Abba, Father!” Romans 8:15 puts it a little different way, where it says, “You have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry “Abba, Father!” The Holy Spirit puts this cry within us, and we cry “Abba, Father!” Then Romans 8:16 says these wonderful words: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God.” 

This is the unique ministry of the Holy Spirit - bearing witness with our spirits. This is a powerful and rich and deep assurance that we are children of God forever. We have the objective assurance from Scripture. This gives us subjective, inner assurance. 

Now, the word “Abba” is a term of endearment, meaning dearest Father. It is a term of love and intimacy. The only other Person who uses this word when addressing the Father is… Jesus. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before his crucifixion, Jesus is praying and addresses the Father as “Abba.” And you and I are entitled, in Christ, to call God “Abba, Father”. I hope the Spirit has given you this assurance and you do in fact know God and address God as your dear Father. The highest, the loftiest privilege of the gospel is adoption! 

Implications. If we believed this (more deeply), what effects would it have on our lives? Many. 

Outlook on life - this will have massive implications for your outlook on life. We all know that the world is a different place than three years ago. So many things have changed and are changing. And we can look toward the future with fear and anxiety or anger. When we think about the political forecast - it looks pretty cloudy, some storms ahead - that will affect us all. When we look at the economic forecast - it looks like there may be some trouble there too - that will affect us. We could envision another health crisis that will affect us to some degree. And then all of our own personal concerns - health, work, relational, and so forth. 

I saw a number recently that shocked me. Well it did and it didn’t. Eighteen percent of American adults struggle with some sort of anxiety disorder. Forty million Americans. Most (or all) of whom are on medication. Many are Christians. I am not taking aim at all use of medicine, but only highlighting how our nation is riddled with fear and anxiety… no doubt many Christians. Those who have God as their Father. 

Is it possible for us to face the future unafraid, not anxious precisely because we know that God is our Father? Can Psalm 112:7 describe us when it says, “He is not afraid of bad news”? Of course! Anxiety, fear is as old as sin. Listen to what Jesus says,

Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life… therefore do not be anxious saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows you need them. (Matthew 6:27, 31-32)

We can live securely, fully assured, and bold because God is our Father and will care for us. It doesn’t mean that we will be spared hard circumstances, but it certainly does mean that we know that our Father loves us and is ruling over them for our good. Remember at the baptism of Jesus, the affirmation of the Father? “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” This was the Father’s word of affirmation before Jesus would head into the wilderness to be tempted and go down the path that would lead to the cross. If you are in Christ, the Father speaks the loving words over you, “You are my beloved child.” And so if the future looks like more of the same crazy… we can say confidently: 

This is my Father’s world, O let me never forget. That though the wrong seems oft so strong. God is the Ruler yet. 

Ethics and morals - this truth will have implications for our conduct. You’ve heard the saying, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” As we grow more and more, this should be true of us. It needs to be said that we are not brought into the family because of our conduct, but if we are born of God, we will want to and in fact will, increasingly, conduct ourselves as children of God. 

And this is our duty to conduct ourselves as part of the family of God. We have exalted in the immense and high privilege of being called God’s beloved children. This is the corresponding responsibility. Here’s the way Paul puts it in Ephesians 5:1: 

Be imitators of God, as beloved children. 

Be imitators of God. Not in order to become beloved children, but as a beloved child of God. Because you are a beloved child. God has sealed you with his Spirit, put his mark on you, given you his name. Now conduct your life in a manner worthy of that. 

It’s like a wealthy King adopting a hopeless orphan. He brings her into his palace and makes her a full heir. He gives her a new wardrobe full of the most beautiful clothes. It is her privilege to put on the new clothes he provides her. But it is also her responsibility to. Same with us. You must. 1 Peter 1:15, says, “But as he who called you is holy, so you also be holy in all your conduct.” This glorious truth WILL impact your conduct. You will want to imitate your Father. And in fact, you will do so more and more.

Prayer. This transformative truth will impact the way you pray. The pattern of prayer in the NT is that we pray to the Father, through Jesus (in Jesus’ name), and in the Spirit (the Spirit helps). Of course, we can pray to Jesus and the Spirit, but the pattern in the NT is we pray to the Father, through Jesus, in the Spirit. . Destination, road, car.

Jesus teaches us this way. Who do we address? “Our Father”. Let me encourage you to practice to God as, “Father”. As we grow it will help fill our hearts with the appropriate reverence and love for Him. He’s our Father, meaning there is authority. But also, he’s our Father, meaning he loves us and is tender toward us. 

The Church - Family. You have been brought into God’s family. So have you, and you, and you. What does that make us? Brothers and sisters, heirs of the same inheritance, a part of the eternal family of God. God is “our Father”. Not just mine or yours. But ours. That matters. It matters how we approach God together. It matters how we love one another… Amen. Let’s pray.