Your Adoption is Final

Assurance of the Righteous
Romans 8

2. Your Adoption is Final (vs. 12-17)

Review: Your freedom is complete. Your adoption is final.
12So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- 13for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15For 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!" 16The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and 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.
In Roman times, with all the destructive wars, there were many broken homes and orphans. Children were destitute and mothers could not provide for them when their fathers went off to war. Adoption laws were established to provide for these destitute children. A father or guardian would find someone who wanted to adopt his child and the child would be brought before the prospective father, who, in the presence of witnesses would be asked if he wanted to adopt the child. If he gave an affirmative reply, both parties would make certain vows and the child would belong to his new father, who would be as much his father as his biological father was. Paul draws on this reality to assure believers that we have been adopted by the heavenly Father, who regards us as His children, even entitling us to His inheritance along with His Son Jesus. Wonderful things happened on the occasion of our adoption. Our obligation to our baser nature, which was leading us to death, ended as the Holy Spirit put our old nature and its deeds to death and gave us a new nature. We may be certain of our adoption because there were two witnesses, “The Holy Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Furthermore, we are “led by the Spirit” and we have received “a spirit of adoption.” Like the child in the Roman situation, we too call out to God, saying, “Father, Father,” as we recognize our new Father and acknowledge our sonship. (Preachers have made too much of the word “Abba,” saying that it is a term of endearment, such as “papa” or “daddy,” and even have us sitting on God’s lap calling Him daddy. (It’s strange how a “fuzzy” idea like this gets started and then encompasses the globe. I heard it preached during the Charismatic Revival 25 years ago. But the word is Chaldee and means nothing more than “father.” We have no way of knowing why Paul repeated the word in two languages). Our adoption made us heirs of God and entitled us to the same inheritance as His first born Son.
But our loving Father asks something of us. We must suffer with Christ that we may also be glorified with Him. We suffer, not for suffering’s sake but in the course of enduring whatever obstacles we encounter. Would you want it any other way? Do you expect the Father to swing low in a sweet chariot and sweep you up to glory, after seeing His natural Son suffer the ultimate abuse and die on a cross? We have our Father’s assurance that we will go where Jesus is; we are also told that we will have to go the way He went—through suffering and endurance. “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest....Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we might receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need”(Heb. 4:11, 16 ). Doesn’t this make you want to shout, “Father! Father!?” If it does not, you should have a talk with your Father and see if you can’t renew your relationship with Him. Whatever sorrow and suffering you have to bear in this life is more than outweighed by your blessings as a child of God. Paul writes of those whose loved ones die in Christ, “We do want you to be informed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope” (1 Thes. 4:13).
You may be unhappy with those who have been rude or unfair to you. You may dislike those who have failed to understand and encourage you. Your brothers and sisters, both in your physical and spiritual families, may have mistreated you, but if you are an obedient child of the Father who loves and adopted you, He will make all things right. You will love and praise Him for being so good to you. If you are right with God you are righteous, and you may be sure of this: Your adoption is final.

Sharon wrote the following: “I particularly like the fact that this lesson reiterates the fact that we can’t do anything but that He has done it for us. That is one of the hardest concepts I have in Christianity. I have a hard time remembering or accepting it sometimes. This is a good reminder and a good lesson. It is hard sometimes to remember that God is a loving God and is not out to get us. This lesson is also a good reminder that he doesn’t condemn us but our sin.”
Comment: King David understood this principle long before Jesus came. He wrote, “You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it ...The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Ps. 51:16, 17). David was deeply convicted of his sins and came to God with a broken heart for forgiveness and healing. God forgave and restored him, and afterward called him, “A man after my own heart.” Then Jesus came and presented Himself to God as a sin offering saying, “Father forgive then.” We are saved, not by what we do but by what Jesus did for us. We love Him for this and remain faithful to Him, knowing that our sins are forgiven forever. Many of us were so conditioned by trying to work our way to salvation, and so guilty because we couldn’t do it that we lived in doubt and guilt rather than in faith and assurance. We should be living in eternal gratitude and joy, knowing that God accepted us and is keeping us for eternity, As to God’s part and our part in our salvation, let’s just say that God acts and we react. We don’t initiate the process, we only respond to the Initiator. Jesus said, “No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). And Peter said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (I Pet. 1:3-5). In the initiation phase, we have no part at all; in the response phase, it is up to us to respond. I hope this will help those who are fixated on obeying laws and plans, and free them from the burden of always trying to do something to get right with God.
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