Adoption is closely related to justification as it changes our legal status before God. At the point of justification, we are accepted into the family of God. We are identified as belonging to Christ. We bear the name Christian meaning one that belongs to Christ. I am sure you are aware of the concept of adoption. When a child is adopted by a family they have full rights and privileges of being a member of that family as if they were born into the family. The same applies to Christian adoption.

There are many benefits and privileges we receive as members of God’s family. We have the honour of having God as our heavenly Father. Those who were once sons of disobedience and of the devil are now children of God. We experience God as a loving Father. We can come before Him as his children and be comforted by him. The greatest privilege we have by adoption is the fact that God protects and disciplines us. The Father protects his children from all kinds of harm both physical and spiritual. He will also guide us on the path of holiness through prayer, reading the Scriptures, and the dwelling of the Holy Spirit. Another key part of being a member of God’s family is that we have brothers and sisters in the faith to encourage us and to pray for us.

Romans 8:15-17 says, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

What a marvellous gift of God that he would adopt even his enemies into his family. The final thought today comes from 1 John 3:1, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”