11-16-2020

Good Morning All, 

        Galatians 4:5; “to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

     There was a young man who was troubled about his past.  He had been adopted at a very young age and had no recollection about his “real” parents.  He loved his adoptive family but felt there was a hole in his life as part of it was missing.  All he knew was that his mother had given him up at a very young age because she was unable to care for the young man and his brother.  He knew he was loved but always wondered about his past.

    Yet one day while in a weekly Bible Study, they looked at Galatians and about receiving “adoptions as sons.”  Suddenly he saw his life and faith in a new light.  “I was adopted by my parents and given a new family.  In the same way, I have become a member of God’s family and given a new identity, God’s identity.”

    Adoption is a fascinating event.  It is, at one level, very personal and emotional.  Yet it is also very much a legal event.  Adoptions must be formalized in a courtroom with a judge present.  So, while adoption is a very subjective event with all the warmth and emotional actions; it is also very objective in the way it works.  Adoption is bridge between the personal and the legal.  It takes a legal action and morphs into a very personal, new relationship between the parent and the child.

    All believers receive the adoption of sons.  We receive this in a very personal way; we receive it at Baptism.  Here we are received, one at a time by name, into God’s family and we receive this adoption because the only natural son, Jesus, gave up his life for us.  As a result, God makes us his sons, by adoption.  We are his beloved children in a very legal sense.  We have the full rights of sonship; we are co-heirs with Jesus in God’s kingdom.  We are co-heirs to eternal life and to the holy kingdom which will last forever.  We are the beloved sons and daughters in God’s family.

    Yet it is also very personal.  God chose you.  God chose you from before the foundations of creation were set.  God chose you to love and to declare a child of his own.  We not only have all the legal rights of a family member; we also have the familial rights.  We can come to our Father with our fears and our worries, our cries and our sorrows and God has promised to listen to us as a loving father listens to his dear children.  He has promised to comfort us and to hold us close in his loving arms.  We are safe in his protective care.  We are loved by our Father.

Gracious Father, you claim us as your children through the waters of Baptism.  We are marked as your dear children.  Our names are written in the palms of your hands.  Guard us by your Spirit as we are made part of your holy family.  Give us the certainty of your grace.  Lead us to live full and peaceful lives in your kingdom. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret