Adoption: October 8, 2014

TODAYS WORD FOR WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 8, 2014.

ADOPTION

DEFINITION:

Take or receive as one’s own; to take and rear another’s child as one’s own.

SCRIPTURE:

We are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Romans 8: 16b-17a.

Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. Ephesians 1:5.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

In ancient Rome, adoption was occasionally used by the emperors to pass on succession to competent heirs. Augustus Caesar was adopted by his great uncle Julius Caesar so he could be his successor. Emperors Tiberius and Hadrian did the same thing, adopting a capable person to succeed them.

Such Roman emperors had no entitlement to the emporship by right of birth. It was only because of the Roman law of adoption. Under Roman law, adopted children became an heir to their father’s estate. Adopted children under the Roman laws had all the rights and privileges of the biological children. This was different than the Jewish practice that the inheritances were to go to the first born. 

Every Christian, a believer in Jesus, is an adopted child of the King of kings. Our adoption comes at a great cost. God brought us into His family through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus on the cross. We became a child of God when we asked Him for forgiveness for our sins and accepted Him as our Savior. Although we are adopted children, God has made us joint heirs with Christ as written in Romans 8.

In Hebrews 1:2 the writer tells us that God has appointed Jesus heir of all things. As children of God we have inherited eternal salvation along with everything in the universe. Think about what this means for us who believe in Him. Every believer is going to receive, by God’s grace, the same inheritance that Christ receives by divine right. Earthly inheritances will perish, but we are heirs to God’s eternal kingdom and its riches which will never perish.

Paul tells us that “Our Lord Jesus Christ though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor so that you through His poverty might become rich” (II Corinthians 8:9). Do you realize that you are rich?

Jesus became poor so that you could be rich. He left His home in heaven and set aside His glory and became poor by coming into this world as a man to do the will of His Father. By the sacrifice of Jesus, He made us rich giving us salvation and eternal life. God is rich and owns everything. As God’s Son, Jesus is rich and heir to all that is God’s. Through Jesus’s sacrifice we are joint heirs with Christ. You became rich when you accepted Jesus as your Savior.

We should feel great indebtedness to Him for all that he has done for us. There is no way to repay Him. In return for our being adopted into God’s family, God wants us to live in a way that a child of God is expected to live.  

In Colossians 3:5 the apostle Paul writes that we are to get rid of sin in our lives when we have been adopted by God. He writes, “put to death the sinful ways of are old life; sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed and idolatry.”

These are to be replaced by activities and desires that show that we belong to the family of God. In Colossians 3:12, Paul writes for us to “put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness and longsuffering.”

Can those that meet you daily see that you are an adopted child of God? We should be able to be seen as such by our walk and our talk. Make sure today, first of all, that you are an adopted son or daughter of God and then make sure your walk and talk will exemplify your inheritance with Christ.

Now is the time to make that decision because God is waiting to adopt you. You need to recognize you are a sinner, ask Him for forgiveness and then ask Jesus to come into your heart. He then will adopt you as one of His children and you will become part of the family of God. 

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Philippians 4:13.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

PRAYER:

Thank You for adopting me into Your family. Thank You, that by Your grace I am a joint heir with Christ. Thank You for the priceless inheritance I have in Your kingdom because I am a joint heir with Christ. May all those that I meet today see by my words and deeds that I am an adopted child of God.