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Adopted

The other day I was chatting with a friend who is part of a very active, effective local church. As a group they have faced some real trials in the last few months including serious illness and death of some of those in their fellowship. This has drawn them together and given them a deep appreciation for each other. They really value each other and the relationship that they share because of the Lord Jesus Christ.

My friend told me about two men who visited their church recently. These men are immigrants in Canada from a country where Christianity is not valued. Indeed, it is opposed at every turn from the highest level of government on down. These men are well-educated, bright fellows but they wanted to connect with people in their new country. Though Christianity is suppressed in their country of origin, the very first Sunday they were in Canada, they looked for a church. The one they found was that of my friend.

They attended one of the services and afterward my friend chatted with them about their lives and how they came to be visiting that day. One of the men in particular was very impressed with the warmth he saw demonstrated among the Christians. He said words to this effect, "The people here show that they are really good friends. No! They are more than friends. They treat each other like they are all part of one family. I would like to know how I can become part of this family." I thought it was interesting that he instinctively used the analogy of the family to describe what he witnessed. God reveals Himself often as a Father and the New Testament is full of allusions to Christians as spiritual brothers and sisters.

At any rate, this man was immediately aware that his need for connection with others was not being met as soon as he saw Christians relating to each other in an authentic way. He hadn't come looking for relationship. He was curious about something that he had never been allowed to experience in his homeland. But he instantly recognized that there was something missing in his life when he visited that church. Admittedly, he might not have had that insight visiting any church, but God had directed his steps to a healthy fellowship where he could both identify and find what was missing in his life.

When I heard about this, I thought about how I would answer the question he asked: "How can I become part of this family?" Our first response might seem rather trite. Under normal circumstances, we become part of any family by being born into it. Physically, that's an impossibility. Once you're born into one family you can't be born into another family. However there are two ways we can respond to this.

The first is an answer to the question of becoming part of another family in purely human terms - we call it adoption. This is a legal rather than biological process by which the biological child of one set of parents becomes the child of another set of parents legally and socially. We all recognize adopted children as being... well... the children of the adoptive parents. Very rarely do adoptive parents introduce their child as "This is our adopted daughter." They simply say "This is our daughter."

In many cases, the majority of acquaintances have no idea that someone was adopted in his or her early life. Before the law, an adopted child has all the rights and privileges of a birth child. The Bible sometimes uses the language of adoption to explain what happens to us as we come into the family of God. For example, in Romans 8 we read "For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, 'Abba, Father.'"

One of the things that adoptive parents often tell their children is "We chose you." The Bible tells us the same thing about those God adopts into His family. "He chose us." Listen to this from Paul's letter to the Christians in Ephesus: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will."

So one aspect of the answer to the question "How do I become part of the family of God?" is to say that God adopts us into His family. The other aspect is one about which there is some confusion as the term "born again" has become misused in a variety of non-spiritual contexts and abused often by some who don't seem to fully grasp what it is. That aspect is of course, spiritual new birth. It is often referred to by the shorthand term: "born again."

That expression comes to us from John chapter three where we find the record of a conversation between Jesus and a Jewish pharisee named Nicodemus. Jesus took pains to explain to him that He was not talking about a physical rebirth but a spiritual one.

The Bible makes it clear that, naturally speaking, we are spiritually dead. In other words, our sin has separated us from God who is the source of all spiritual life. In this context Jesus's words make perfect sense, especially when we consider that the Greek words translated "born again" carry the thrust of being "born from above." Even though we are physically alive, we are not spiritually alive unless we have experienced the new birth from above.

When we turn from our sinful selfish independence to God, He adopts us into His spiritual family and gives us His Holy Spirit. This makes us His true children in every way. But while God initiates all of this, we have a part to play in responding. In order to overcome the obstacle that our sin presents, making us effectively dead spiritually, God did something. He sent His Son, as a man called Jesus, to die. This death was necessary if God was going to be able to extend His grace to us and offer us life. Justice demanded it. That was God's part. Our part is to respond. We do that by faith, taking God at His word and agreeing with Him regarding our sin and the way it separates us from Him. We also agree with God concerning the value of Jesus' death on our behalf.

Knowing everything God has done for us will not save us if we don't respond personally. Perhaps this is your moment - the time when you will open the very core of your being to the truth and let it touch you in a profound way. When you believe that Jesus died for your sin, God forgives you and adopts you into His family giving you His very Spirit which prompts you to call Him "Father."

Ron Hughes
© February 2003