Adoption
(IV)
As
we ponder Romans 8:12 – 30 (in context), what is the story we are reading? If you
were to script this for a play, what would it look like? If you were to tell the
story of the passage in your own words, to a group of people who had no frame
of reference, how would you tell it?
Dear
friends, if we cannot tell the story then it is likely we do not understand the
passage. If we cannot tell the story of Romans or Colossians or 1 Kings or
Mark, we likely do not understand these books of the Bible, they have not yet
become ours and we have not yet come to belong to them – belong to the Story of
the Bible – which reveals Jesus to us in His unfolding glory.
What
do we “see” in Romans 8:12 – 30? What are the highlights of the story? What is
the trajectory? What is the culmination?
Where
are you in the story? Where are the sons and daughters of God?
In
this story, how is the term adoption (the placing of a son) used? You might
want to ponder Galatians 3:23 – 4:7 to help with this.
Adoption,
the placing of a son or daughter, is connected to inheritance (this should be
especially clear in reading Galatians 3:23 – 4:7). Children do not receive inheritance,
it may be ready and waiting for them, but as long as they are children they
cannot receive and possess the inheritance, they must grow up, they must mature
before they can be entrusted with responsibility.
We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, all that Christ has we have in Him, our inheritance is indivisible, it cannot be divided. We are not like ancient Israel which divided the inheritance of Canaan, we do not say that I am of Judah or I am of Benjamin or I am of Gad or Asher – our inheritance is indivisible. We are One Body with Christ Jesus as the Head. We are the Bride of the Bridegroom, and in marriage there is One Person, not two – the two become One.
English common law long recognized the “unity of person” in marriage, and this
concept was naturally found in our original colonies. It is a legal
understanding that was practiced into my own lifetime, and in real estate law
when a husband and wife purchased property, they took title as "tenants by
the entirety,” which meant that they took title as one person. Sadly this legal
concept has been destroyed in recent years.
This
is why, when reading John 16:14 – 15, we are to remember that all that the
Father has is Jesus’, and all that Jesus has is ours. The Holy Spirit takes
what belongs to Jesus and discloses it to us, but of course we must be
faithfully growing in Jesus Christ to be able to receive from Him, we do not
share with children what they cannot handle, we do not give children great
treasure to steward, we give them quarters or dollar bills.
Nor
do we place great callings on our children, great responsibilities, they must grow
into responsibility, they must be nurtured and trained and disciplined and
mentored. (We see this especially in our Galatians passage.)
In
Romans 8, inheritance is connected with suffering, and suffering is connected
with calling, and this is all the fabric of us “being conformed to the image of
His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29).
In
the Story of Romans, we were once slaves to sin and to fear, but now we are slaves
to righteousness as sons of the Living God (Romans 6:15 – 18; 8:12 – 15). But
there is more! Having been freed from slavery, we are now called to live life
in Christ in such a way that a time, a season, will come in which creation will
be freed from its “slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the
children of God” (Romans 8:21).
Having
been freed from slavery, we are now called not only to free others by
proclaiming the Gospel (Romans 1:14 – 17), but we are called to live in such as
way, growing up into the Firstborn (Ephesians 4:11 – 16), that the creation
will be released from its slavery to corruption into the freedom which we ought
to be expressing as the children of God.
O
dear friends, there is no hope for the creation if we do not live as the sons
of daughters of the Living God in Jesus Christ.
We
are so easily distracted by teachers of the “End Times” who focus on the tea
leaves of world events, when we are called to be looking unto Jesus, seeking
Jesus, growing up into Him in all things as His People, His Body, His Bride,
His Temple. We are to be looking for the New Jerusalem, for the City whose
Builder and Maker is God, we are to be about our Father’s business – not preoccupied
with discerning the entrails of dead news and chasing after ministries that do
not call us to follow Jesus, but which rather appeal to our sense of curiosity
and desire for special knowledge. We are called to be mature daughters and
sons, not children on a religious playground.
This
in turn means that we participate with Jesus in His sufferings, “if indeed we
suffer with Him” (Romans 8:17). This means that we learn to desire to “know Him
in the koinonia of His sufferings” (Philippians 3:10). As sons and daughters,
we learn to allow “death to work in us, but life in others” (2 Corinthians
4:12). For if we will not embrace the cruciform life which we are called to in
Jesus Christ (Mark 8:34 – 38; Galatians 2:20; 6:14), the creation will not know
freedom from the slavery of corruption, nor will our generation know the
glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. (It may know some brand of cotton – candy Christianity,
but it will not know Jesus).
To
inherit with the Son is to participate in all that the Father has, this
includes the high – calling of the Son to lay down His life for the world. For
you see my friends, God not only loved the world so much that He gave His Only
Begotten Son, He loves the world so much that He keeps giving His sons and
daughters (who are in the Son). Isn’t it a glorious privilege to be
participants in our Father’s love for the world, for all mankind?
Are
we learning what it is to live as those who are “being placed” as sons and
daughters?
As
those who are learning what it is to be about our Father’s business?
What
does this look like in my life today?
In
yours?
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