The Blessing of Adoption

The Blessing of Adoption

So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.  Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” Romans 8:15 (NLT)

  When we are ‘born again’ we become sons and daughters of God and ‘joint heirs’ with Jesus Christ, God’s Son.  How does that work?  ‘Born again’ means that when we ask Jesus into our hearts we become a new person.  Our desires change; our attitudes change and love becomes stronger than hate and bitterness in our lives.   
                                                                                                                                                              We are no longer ‘slaves to sin’.  Slaves to sin run to every evil thing they can think of and at the same time fear what would happen to them if they were to die.  However, when we receive Jesus as our Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell inside your heart and your mind; God now calls us ‘His children’.  We have been adopted into the family of God.  The Jewish people are God’s special people that He considers his own children and in the Bible are referred to as ‘the olive tree.  Now we are grafted into the branch to become one with all his children.  Not all the Jewish people chose to follow God and were like branches broken off the tree.  “Well,” you may say, “those branches were broken off to make room for me.” Yes, but remember—those branches were broken off because they didn’t believe in Christ.”  Romans 11:19-20 (NLT)

 Grafting is a process that is very powerful; tissues from one plant are inserted into those of another so that the two sets of tissues may join together.  That way both parts receive strength from the root to live and to grow. The root of the tree is symbolic for Jesus, Son of God.  In Romans 15:12, God tells us who this root is: "There shall be a root of Jesse; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, In Him the Gentiles shall hope."
                                                                                                                                                                          Now that we have been adopted and grafted in, we are actually God’s real children.  This has opened up the privilege for us to call God “Daddy”.  Where it says in the key scripture that now we can call him “Abba”, we find that in Old Testament times the word Abba was written in Aramaic and was the same as the word “Daddy”.  How often, as a child, did you call on your father, calling him ‘Daddy’?  There was a special relationship there and the same is true with God, the Father.  

 What a blessing to be able to go directly into the throne room of God and experience the intimacy of calling him ‘Daddy’?  The God that created this entire world and the uncountable stars in heaven is my ‘Daddy’; I stand in awe and wonder at such a blessing and this is just the beginning of blessings when you are a child of God.  
                                                                                                                                                                       Now we know that Jesus, King of Kings and Lord of Lords is the son of God the Father.  If we are the sons and daughters of God, we are also brothers and sisters of Jesus and are called “Joint heirs with Jesus Christ.” Romans 8:17: “And if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.”   We have inherited everything that Jesus has; the earth and the fullness within it. “If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.”   2 Timothy 2:12

 Perhaps you have been poor in your life and never had much of anything, well just wait, my friend for someday you will inherit the riches of heaven and earth.  Perhaps you have lived a life lacking nothing; when you realize you will inherit the riches of heaven, you will realize, in comparison, you were really poor and needy.  The richest thing you can ever have in this life and in eternity, is the love of a heavenly Father who gave his only Son, at that time, to die a horrible death on the cross so you might have the blessings of adoption.  Those blessings are too numerous to count, but someday you will enjoy them fully.

 Give praise to God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Son, for the privilege of living for Him today and forever.  Amen!