Through Christ we are adopted.
Ephesians 1:5-6 “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
Before we continue, for those readers who struggle with this Scripture and the whole “Predestination” theology thing...
“Predestined us” means all of mankind, past, present and future (even that guy who walks his dog on your lawn).
“Adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself” means the finished work of the cross.
“According to the good pleasure of His will” means your salvation is available because God’s grace, through Jesus, made salvation available and that He is pleased to have made it available.
“To the praise of the glory of His grace” means just exactly what it says!
WOO HOO!!!
God through this adoption becomes more than Creator, Lawgiver, and Judge; He becomes Father!
What is this adoption?
Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, where we receive complete forgiveness of sin, we become complete in the family of God. Not complete in the family of denomination or religion. We become complete in Christ and we are part of (adopted into) God's family. With everything that comes to each of us as a family.
Here's a short list of practical benefits of adoption (there are more!):
Adoption means God wanted you to be in his family. He chose you to be His child before you were even born (Eph 1.5).
Adoption means God will never let you go. He is protecting you and providing for you all the time, even when you don’t see it. Furthermore, he will be sure to get you home. John 10:28-29 “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”
Adoption means you have continual access to God and can call Him by the most intimate of terms: "Abba! Father!" Ephesians 2:18 “For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.” Romans 8:15 “ For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
Adoption means God has made you brand new. You are a new creation 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Adoption means God’s attitude toward you is always one of love, even when you fail Colossians 2:13-14 “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Adoption means that Jesus is your elder brother Hebrews 2:11 “For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, forwhich reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.
Adoption means you are a member of the household of faith (the church), along with all others who trust in Christ Ephesians 2:19 “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.”
Adoption means you have a glorious inheritance awaiting you 1 Peter 1:3-5 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Welcome to the family of God!!
The other day one of the employees where I work had a new sticker on her vehicle promoting the band, “Bad Religion.” Another employee who is a Christian asked me what I thought of the sticker. I told him I’ve never actually listened to the band so I had no real opinion. He said, “No, I mean, do you think she should have a sticker that says that about religion on her truck for everyone to see?”
My answer really surprised him…
Anyway, here’s a perfect example (one of many) from God’s Word that reveals why “religion” is not at all what its cracked up to be.
Take a look at Mark 3:1-3 “Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand,“Stand up in front of everyone.”
Really?
Looking at this scripture we can clearly see that the Pharisees were confident that Jesus could heal the mans hand (obviously, they had seen him heal others). They had no doubt regarding that; the only thing they were concerned about was whether He would perform this miracle on the Sabbath.
To them the miracle was less important than their religious laws.
According to Jewish law the Sabbath was the consecration of one day of the weekly period to God as the author of the universe and of all time. The day being the Lord's, it required that man should abstain from working for his own ends and interests, since by working he would appropriate the day to himself, and that he should devote his activity to God by special acts of positive worship.
Jesus saw them for what they really were...Mark 3:4-6 “Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man,“Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.”
This is “bad religion.” It requires all those caught up in it to perform a particular way, follow a set of rules, to become and to remain forgiven by God.
If you have made Jesus Lord of your life, If you have confessed Him as Lord and Savior, then you are forgiven, made righteous, and complete in Him.
Religions rules can't do that. Only Jesus can!!!
PRAISE GOD! YOU ARE FORGIVEN – NOW, GO LIVE YOUR LIFE!!
We are saved by grace through faith Eph. 2:8
We are forever pardoned. Why is this so hard to accept? As Christians we live life by faith. We do not, or should not anyway, live life trying to acquire enough faith to finally come to the conclusion that we, through Christ, are forever pardoned.
Many still struggle, and, in that struggling labor to add greater righteousness to some perceived “spiritual account” through works. We are instructed to “live life by faith in “the Son of God who loved mankind and gave himself for mankind” Gal 2:20.
Why do we sometimes think that we can create righteousness with our own program?
Seven Steps to Greater Righteousness
1. Work Harder
2. Work Harder
3. Work Harder
4. Work Harder
5. Work Harder
6. Work Harder
7. Work Harder
This doesn’t work because it doesn’t do anything.
Faith is the only key that unlocks the assurance of believing from a natural standpoint the impossible reality that God has forgiven us because of what Jesus Christ accomplished for us. But for many that just seems to easy. 2Cor. 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!” NIV
2Cor. 5:21 “For He hath made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (Jesus).”
“Well then where or how can I find the faith I need to know this assurance?”
That answer is simple...you can't find it because you've always possessed it. We were all born with it. Just as sure as you have DNA you were born with the measure of faith.
Assurance happens when the God-given, Spirit-wrought gift of faith enables each of us to believe that we are forever pardoned, that Christ’s righteousness is counted as our own, that in Christ God does not “count our sins against us.” 2Cor. 5:19
God planned this from the beginning, the proof is revealed in Romans 13:3 "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."
When we examine this scripture we see that our measured faith isn't any different than any other "measured faith" within others. We all have the same measure. Therefore we all possess the faith required to accept that our sins are forgiven. It’s why we sought out Jesus and our new creation birth. God’s demand for moral perfection has been satisfied by Christ for us (Matthew 5:17). Therefore, assurance can never be found by my looking inwardly. It can only happen by faith-believing in Him, who was “delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” Romans 4:25
Martyn Lloyd-Jones is helpful here: “We can put it this way: the man who has faith is the man who is no longer looking at himself and no longer looking to himself. He no longer looks at anything he once was. He does not look at what he is now. He does not even look at what he hopes to be as the result of his own efforts. He looks entirely to the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work, and rests on that alone. He has ceased to say, “Ah yes, I used to commit terrible sins but I have done this and that.” He stops saying that. If he goes on saying that, he has not got faith. Faith speaks in an entirely different manner and makes a man say, “Yes I have sinned grievously, I have lived a life of sin, yet I know that I am a child of God because I am not resting on any righteousness of my own; my righteousness is in Jesus Christ and God has put that to my account.”
True assurance, in other words, is grounded not on some word or work from inside us, but on the word of the gospel which comes from outside us and convinces us of what Jesus has done. Our assurance is anchored in the love and grace of God expressed in the glorious exchange: our sin for his righteousness. John Calvin wrote, “Faith is ultimately a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” And since our faith is always weak and wavering, we need to be reminded of this good news all the time as it is communicated through the preaching and teaching of God’s Word. There must be a clear, continuous, and unqualified pronouncement of the assurance of salvation on the basis of the fullness of the atonement of Christ.
Once the power and promise of God's grace is understood the truth of the above statement as it applies to Grace, becomes reality in the lives of believers. If we constantly are fed the lie that we can become perfect through works and condemnation we will, at every opportunity, speak that same dogma to those foolish enough to listen to us.
Our salvation inside us is past tense, and it is also future tense. Usually when we speak about God's salvation we talk about what we have been saved to. We look forward to our immortal body where our mortal bodies "put on" immortality. That's great news but, even better news is that we have been saved "from something."
We are saved from the eternal repercussion of our sin. Once the reality of that truth "goes in" the truth of what actually happened at Calvary and within us has to "come out!"
Do you understand the amazing grace of God and what was accomplish for each of us trough Jesus? Listen to what you are saying. Take notice! Because what you truly believe and understand about God's grace has to come to the surface as you live out each day.
"A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." Luke 6:45 NIV
