Text: Romans 8:12-30
Date: December 28, 2014
The Big Idea: Because we are loved by God in Christ, we dwell in the most solid and secure place in the world: in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
There are two major questions we will answer in this sermon. First, why do we need to be adopted? And secondly, what does it mean to be adopted by God?
1) Why do I need to be adopted?
We need adoption because we were by nature children of wrath. Adoption takes us from being a child wrath to a child of God.
Before we were Christians we were slaves; slaves to sin and the devil. We had the spirit of slavery, we were slaves. As Paul said in verse 2, you did not receive the spirit of slavery and a have been set free by the Spirit of life from the law of sin and death.
Paul uses this language in Galatians also in the context of Christians being sons and daughters of God. Galatians 4:3-7, “In the same way we also, when we were children, we were enslaved to the elemental principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”
2) What does it mean to be adopted?
- We are led by the Spirit of God. “Christians are led by the Spirit; their entire lives are under the control of the Spirit. Paul is providing us with a definition: a Christian is one who is led by the Spirit. The great life-changing event (regeneration, being “in Christ” as opposed to being “in Adam”) is marked by the Spirit’s leading us to mortify sin and pursue Christlikeness.” (Derek Thomas) What are some practical ways you can implement this in your life? Paul writes in Galatians 5:18 once again about being led by the Spirit. When you are thinking through a decision and want to know if you are led by the Spirit of God, run through these questions:
- Will this decision help me grow in love?
- Will this decision increase my joy in God or rob me of it?
- Do I have peace about the decision?
- Am I being patient in this process or am I trying to force things to happen?
- We have the Spirit of Adoption. We have not received the spirit of slavery but the Spirit of adoption. John Calvin wrote that it would be safe to describe the chief work of the Holy Spirit in our lives as “the Great Adopter.” The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of adoption in us that we might be children of God. By the Spirit we cry, “Abba! Father!” This word cry is an interesting one. It is not a cry of sadness that Paul is talking about, or even a cry of joy. It is a cry of desperation, it is a cry of need, it is a cry for help. Remember that the Spirit is leading us to make us holy, to kill the deeds of the body. Because we are children of God, God is for us and not against us. Being a child of God drives out fear. It drives out fear because the Spirit of adoption enables us to cry out to our Father.
- We are heirs of God. Paul says we are are heirs of God. Think about this in the context of family relationships. If you are an only child and your parents die, you are the sole heir. When they die whatever belongs to them now belongs to you. What belongs to God? God owns everything. There is nothing that God does not own. One day we will share in everything that God owns. We are fellow heirs with Christ which means that every blessing we get as children of God comes to us because we are in Christ. If we are heirs this means there is something to come in the future. We do not currently possess all that will be given to us. Paul says we are fellow heirs with Christ, heirs of God, provided we suffer with him that we may also be glorified with him. There is more to come but for now we suffer. But we suffer as those who have hope because we will be glorified with him.
- We have security. Our status as a child of God is sure, it is secure. Our Father who began a good work in us will see it to completion. “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” There is so much certainty with God that one day He will glorify His children that Paul can speak of it as a past event. There is nothing that can jeopardize our status as God’s children.
What can separate you from being a child of God? Nothing! Why? Nothing can separate us from the love of God, from being His child, because we are loved by God in Christ Jesus. God’s love for us as His children is based on His love for His Son Jesus. If it were possible for our Father to stop loving Jesus then we have every right to worry. That can never happen. Because we are loved by God in Christ we are in the most solid and secure place in the world; in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Almighty God,
I am loved with everlasting love, clothed in eternal righteousness, my peace flowing like a river, my comforts many and large, my joy and triumph unutterable, my soul lively with a knowledge of salvation, my sense of justification unclouded.
I have scarce anything to pray for; Jesus smiles upon my soul as a ray of heaven and my supplications are swallowed up in praise.
How sweet is the glorious doctrine of election when based upon your word and wrought inwardly within the soul!
I bless you that you will keep the sinner you have loved, and have engaged that he will not forsake you else I would never get to heaven.
I wrong the work of grace in my heart if I deny my new nature and my eternal life.
If Jesus were not my righteousness and redemption, I would sink into the lowest hell by my misdoings, shortcomings, unbelief, unlove; I Jesus were not by the power of his Spirit my sanctification, there is no sin I should not commit.
O when will I have his mind! When shall I be conformed to his image?
All the good things of life are less than nothing when compared with his love, and with one glimpse of your favor.
All treasures of a million worlds could not make me richer, happier, more contented, for his unsearchable riches are mine.
One moment of communion with him, one view of his grace, is ineffable, inestimable.
But O God,I could not long after your presence if I did not know the sweetness of it; And such I could not know except by your Spirit in my heart, nor love you at all unless you did elect me, call me, adopt me, save my.
I praise you for your grace.
(From the Valley of Vision)