Jesus Saves! But How? PART 16 Adoption

Andrew Grey continues the adult Sunday school series on Salvation, with Adoption. This is from Sunday 10th May 2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

We come this morning to think about the very highest height of our salvation. So this course we're working through Jesus saves, but how? And we're reaching, if you like, the highest height. Last week we thought about justification, God's legal declaration of righteous, which He makes of the believer, the one who is joined to the Lord Jesus Christ, clothed with the righteousness of Christ. It is a legal declaration. If that, if you like, is the foundation of our salvation. It's the bedrock. And our topic for today, adoption, it's like the very highest of heights. So if you'd open in your Bibles, please, the book of Romans, Romans chapter 8. I will read from verses twelve to thirty. Let me pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word which is life to us. We pray that your Holy Spirit through it would grant us joy and assurance in the Lord Jesus and in all he has done for us. And we pray in his name. Amen. So Romans chapter 8, I'll read verses 12 to 30. Let's listen to God's word. So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption, and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly as we are eagerly await for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees, but if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified. Well, thanks be to God for his word to us today. Adoption. We are not by nature children of God. Sometimes here people, even in churches or wider Christian circles, say or assume that all people everywhere are children of God. God is the father of the whole of humanity. You're a child of God simply because you are created. And the Bible will actually say that's not right. Because obviously, something happened to humanity since our creation. We'll see in a minute that Adam was indeed a son of God, but something has happened to our paternity. Ephesians 2, for example. You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. There is our paternity, we are sons of disobedience, walking in step with the devil. And Jesus says very bluntly in John 8 44, you are of your father, the devil. We are by nature children of wrath. Ephesians 2, verse 3. Our relationship to God, it is not naturally a loving family relationship. It's actually a wrathful relationship. So if we are to join God's family, and what we are thinking about here has to do with family and the family of God, it will only be as adopted children, not as natural children. God must make us into sons. And as we go on, by the way, we'll see why it's actually quite important, whether we are a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, to think of ourselves as sons. I'll try and explain why. Right, the Old Testament story of the sons of God. This is the background to the Christian's adoption as a son. It is worth remembering, and it's really important, that adoption into the family of God does not begin in the New Testament. Start with Adam. Adam was given the identity and the privileges of a son, a son of God. That was shown in the dominion or the rule that was given him in the garden. He exercised that, for instance, in the naming of the animals, Genesis 1 and 2. And when we come to the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3, Adam is specifically called the Son of God. And even back in the garden, he could have risen still higher had he not fallen. Had he obeyed, had he crushed the serpent, had he protected the garden and his wife, he could then have eaten of the tree of life and received perhaps a think of it as a kind of a higher level of sonship, a higher kind of sonship, a greater glory. But he fell. He and all of his children. Continue, we continue to be creatures of God, but not with the privileges of sonship. Instead, children of and enslaved to our Father the devil, until the gospel does something for us and in us. There's Adam. Second, Israel. In the New Testament, Paul says in Romans chapter 9 that to the Israelites belong the adoption. It's a funny phrase that to them belong the adoption. And what he has in his mind is this that Israel was identified as the Son of God. So when God through Moses comes to Pharaoh in Exodus 4, the children of Israel are enslaved in Egypt. And God comes to Pharaoh and says, Let my son go. Israel is the Son of God. Deuteronomy 14, 1, when God gives commands to his people, it's on the basis that they are his sons. You are the sons of the Lord your God, so therefore, keep my law. In Isaiah, we read, O Lord, you are our Father. So Israel was adopted. Now we it's it's worth just saying a tiny little bit more about that. She was adopted in a very specific way. And this is what Paul talks about in Galatians 3. Israel was adopted when, having been rescued from slavery in Egypt, she was brought to Mount Sinai, and God gave her his law. And she became his adopted son and heir. So if you're a son, you inherit. We're going to see this, that is super important. If you are a son, you inherit from the father. And so Israel was God's heir, but was still an underage heir. Think of a child. A child who is going to inherit one day, but is underage. So you don't give a six-year-old the, I don't know, the keys to their father's Ferrari. When they get to a certain point in time, I don't know, maybe when they're 42 or something, then you then you, when they get to maturity, you give them the keys to the Ferrari. So Israel as a whole is adopted as a nation. Individual believers had the Holy Spirit. There were not that many of them, it would seem. And for the Old Testament period, their idolatrous hearts meant that life under God's good law was a kind of slavery. And they were awaiting the coming of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and a different kind of adoption, a maturity, a full inheritance of the promises and blessings of God. So there's Adam, the Son of God. There is Israel, the Son of God, the king, the kings of Israel. When the monarchy was established in the Old Testament, you know, from Saul and David and Solomon onwards, there was one individual in and over the nation who was singled out as the Son of God. So 2 Samuel 7, this is the covenant that God formed with David. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from me. Or Psalm 2, I will tell of the decree, and this is God speaking to his anointed king. The Lord said to me, You are my son, today I have begotten you. So God takes a person and makes them king, but more than that, he makes them his son. So in the pages of the Old Testament, the story of the Old Testament is a story of sonship, Adam the Son of God. And he points us, obviously, forward to the Lord Jesus, who is the last Adam and the obedient Adam, the one who did not fall. There's Israel, who is the Son of God, who points us forward to the true Israel. You're the faithful seed of Abraham. And the New Testament says there is one faithful seed, and that's the Lord Jesus, the Son of God. David's son, the king, points us forward to a perfect king and the greater son of David, who is the Son of God. And so we then come to the Lord Jesus, the Son of God. And this is where we have to think a little bit carefully about the Lord Jesus. He is the Son of God in two senses. And here we're thinking about Trinity and we're thinking about incarnation. And you know, cast our minds back to where we began months ago. We thought a little bit about both of those things. First, he is God the eternal son, he is the second person of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, fully divine. He is begotten of the Father before all worlds, as we say in the creed, he is uncreated. Second, he is the human son. For us and for our salvation, God the Son took on an additional and human nature. And in that nature, he is Son of God in a distinct sense. This is where Adam and Israel and the kings, the Christs, they all come together. He is the last Adam, He is the true Israel, He is David's greater son. He is, if you like, humanity raised to its greatest height, and he becomes the exalted man because he obeys. He obeys perfectly, and it's sealed in his resurrection from the dead. So there is the Son, you know, this the Son par excellence, the Son above all others. And now we come to us. So we've seen already that we are not by nature sons. If we are going to become sons of God, God must make us into sons. He must do something, he must adopt us. Well, let's come to our adoption. Let me read chapter 12 from the Westminster Confession. All those that are justified, God vouchsafeth. Now, old-fashioned word, it means guarantees. I think vouchsafes is actually better. It's a stronger word. Anyway, run with it. All those that are justified, God vouchsafeth in and for his only son Jesus Christ to make partakers of the grace of adoption by which they are taken into the number and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God. Have his name put upon them, receive the spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace with boldness, are enabled to cry, Abba, Father, are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by him as by a father, yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation. Think about our adoption of sons. It is the work of our triune gods. God the Father. God the Father begins, if you like, the process of adoption. It's in his eternal counsels. It is his will for us. In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to the purpose of his will. It is accomplished through the Son. We are adopted as a result of the work of the Son. And this is why God, the second person of the Trinity, God the eternal son, became a man, became the perfect human son. So from Galatians 4, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. So adoption flows from the work of the Son. And it happens when we are joined in union with the Son. So this is really important. We are sons in the Son. By being brought into union with the incarnate Son, we get to share in the status as sons. We share the sonship that he has. Now, obviously, we do not share in that first aspect of his sonship. The divine son. God the Son, the eternally begotten of the Father. He's utterly unique. We do not share in that aspect of his sonship. In his humanity, he is the firstborn of many brothers. We become his brothers, brothers, brethren of the Son. We get to enjoy those privileges now and in glory. One tiny window into this, and maybe this is a window into the greatest blessing of sonship. We are described as praying as the Son prayed. So in Gethsemane, remember, he cries, Abba, Father, we get to pray in exactly the same way. Our adoption is the work of God, the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit we are joined to the Son, and our adoption is enacted. So key is the Spirit to our adoption that Paul calls him the Spirit of Adoption. So our adoption into the family of God, it is the undivided work of the triune God. Adoption has a Trinitarian shape, if you like. And actually, all of the works of God, all of the external works of God, by God the Holy Trinity, are undivided. He is one, he works as one. And whatever he does, there we see the Holy Trinity at work and gloriously in our adoption. Our adoption as sons, we have to distinguish a now and a not yet. That is to say, we are adopted as sons if we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have, if you like, the mature benefits of union with Christ, being joined to the Son, but we don't have everything yet. And you can see that now and yet pattern, now and not yet pattern in Romans 8, in that passage we just read. So verse 15, you have received the spirit of adoption as sons. Romans 8.23, we wait eagerly for adoption as sons. And then he explains what he means. The rest of that sentence, the redemption of our bodies. We have some, but we do not have all of the blessings of sons of God. So legally, it's all ours now. We are the heirs. But our renewal as sons comes in stages. It's at work in the inner man now, but the outer man is wasting away. You know, you and me, our bodies, um, are wasting away, even as our inner self is being renewed day by day. And so our full renewal as adopted sons awaits us. You know, the return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead. And when all of uh God's adopted children receive their new resurrection bodies. And it's a search, it's an absolute dead cert because we've been given the Holy Spirit. He's the Spirit who adopts us, he's also the spirit who guarantees the hope which is to come. Let's think about some of the specific blessings of adoption. I'm just going to mention these quite briefly. We could spend a lot longer on each of these. First, access to God. Through him, we both, that is, people from a Jewish background, people from a Gentile background, Ephesians 2.18. For through him, through Christ, we both have access in one spirit to the Father. So just think about it. We are sons of God, we are in the Son, and so we can come to the Father. Jesus says these amazing and beautiful words in John 20. I am ascending to my Father and to your Father. Just think on that for a minute. I'm ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Or in the letter to the Hebrews, Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers. It's an amazing thought, isn't it? He looks at us, he knows us, knows us through and through, and he is not ashamed, not ashamed to call us brothers. And so, you know, chapter 12 of the Westminster Confession, when it tries us to tries to pull into a few words the beauty and the blessing and the truth of adoption, right at the right at the top of the list is this access to the throne of grace with boldness. And that's talking about prayer. When the disciples came to Jesus and said, Teach us to prayer to pray, where does he begin? Our Father. This is the beginnings of prayer, but it's also the the end of prayer, if you like. You come as an adopted child to your father in heaven. We take it so for granted, don't we? But it it is extraordinary how you know Jesus in Gethsemane could pray, and we can cry in the same way. We read that in Romans uh Romans 8. Uh we cry by the spirit of adoption the same, Abba Father. And the Father will always hear us, and he will receive our prayers, and he will receive us, he will receive our persons, never drive us away. And following on from that, and this is this is a distinctive thing about a father. The father is on our side. He is for us because we are joined in union with his son. Just in a human family, a parent and particularly a father is on his children's side. That is part of the nature of fatherhood. And various things then flow from that. Now, where do we see this in scripture? But a few different ways, but just think on Jesus' baptism, Matthew 3. When Jesus was baptized, we hear these words from heaven, my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. And in union with this Son, we know that that is how the Father feels about his adopted children. With you I am well pleased. He knows all of our sins and weaknesses. They are forgiven, they are covered by the work of Christ, through the justifying work of Christ. The Holy Spirit is working to sanctify us and make us actually more Christ-like. But in the Son, joined in union with the Son, he is well pleased with us. That is the Father's demeanour towards his children. Suffering. If you are a Christian, you should expect a cross. And that is no accident. And it is also part of the fatherly love of God. It's a form of fatherly discipline in the sense that the father uses hard things to make us more like Christ. That's why the Westminster Confession says that the Father pities us, protects us, provides for us, and chastens us. Fathers who love their children discipline their children. And the father loves us and he disciplines us. Being in the family of God, it brings with it family obligations, privileges, yes, but also obligations. You're in the family. Okay, so now live like it. So we are called then to love God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and obey him. We bear the family likeness. So when you're baptized, you have the name of Christ put upon you, and then for the rest of your days, you are baptized, man or woman, boy or girl, for however long you live. And you carry that name. Will you carry it well? That means saying no to our old family. By nature, remember it, remember, we're in the family of Satan, and sin and the world is our kind of natural environment in which we're to say no to that. And we are only to worship and love the triune God. There are other things in this world around us that claim to be like fathers, that take on a kind of godlike and idolatrous father role. Back in the ancient world, if we're in Bible times, the Roman Emperor, for example, many emperors actually claimed to be a divine father. Zeus was standing behind. And citizens were expected to treat this person as like God the Father, to depend upon them for actually what you should only depend on God the Father for. But not if you're a Christian. Not if you're a Christian. Feels like we live in a different kind of world and place and time. Not quite sure that's entirely true. I think we are encouraged in different ways, for instance, to look at the state. Think about the NHS. Here is the thing that will keep us alive, that will give me what I need. When I'm in trouble, I will look to it. Does that ever become idolatrous? I think it probably does. So actually just living as a faithful Christian. Well, it's to deny those other gods, but to deny those other fathers as well. Family obligations to God, but also to our brethren. So it means, doesn't it, when we when we come upon another Christian, maybe a Christian who is full of error or weakness, they still should receive from us a brother's embrace. So you come to God as Father, and every Christian becomes brethren also. Lastly, a heavenly home. Jesus inherits everything, doesn't he? Jesus inherits everything. The whole shooting match. And his adopted sons share in his inheritance. If we suffer with him, we will be glorified with him. Glorification, resurrection of the body, sharing in all of the blessings of Jesus' reign and rule. And one way of thinking about this is home. Here's a lovely quote from a 19th century minister as he was reflecting on adoption, and actually as he was preaching on adoption to a congregation who were all slaves. Extraordinary thought this home. All that is wrapped up in that sweet, transcendent word, heightened, sanctified, glorified, and projected everlastingly. Our Father's house, because Jesus' Father's house, with all it includes, of fellowship with God the Trinity, with holy angels, with glorified saints, with elect relatives, brethren and friends, ineffable communion, indescribable communion. And to this will be added, if to it aught can be added, all outward circumstances of glory which can be collected by an almighty Father around the brethren of his son. So there is our home. God be praised. Let's take a few moments just to share, maybe talk to a neighbour, things that have encouraged us, any questions we might like to ask, and then we'll uh talk about those together for a few moments. Talk to a friend. Does anyone have any questions they'd like to ask? So lots of talk about sons and brothers. I guess where do where do where do you fit in if you're a woman? Yeah. Um just I think probably two or two or three things to say. The first and most important thing is it's right to talk about sons because our adoption is in the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so our identity is so closely tied to His. Uh, He is the Son, inheritance and blessing come from the Son. And so the scriptural pattern would be to talk about all Christians. You know, so Paul in Romans 8 or Galatians, he's not just talking about men and boys in the church, he's talking about everyone who says, You're a son. That's just a fact, because he is the son. And in our in our brain, when we think son, we ought we ought first and foremost to think inheritance. It's not so much a sort of a sext statement, it's a it's a it's about inheritance. Uh second, um God is the one who gives us our our identity and our identity markers. So I guess what one of the challenges of the Christian life as you go on is letting God define you. Um obviously lots of other things want to compete for who I am. And I guess you know, the sinful nature I want to determine myself, and obviously our place and time has gone very crazily down that world. And I guess part of part of being a Christian and submitting to a great and gracious father is actually just receiving gifts from him. Sometimes those gifts don't feel welcome to start with, but actually as you go on in the Christian life, you just learn to accept who you are. Something I think that helps it, helps that makes it easier, uh, just reflect on our corporate identity as the church, we are the bride of Christ. So together, the church, men and women, boys and girls, we are the bride of Christ. Uh that is to say, you know, Christ is our our bridegroom, he is uh he is our husband. And I guess Christian men and Christian boys have some kind of mental and heart work to do to receive that and welcome it and reflect it. And you know, God determines that. Um so in so, in a sense, it's it's not exactly parallel and equivalent, but I think that I think that's a helper. Any other questions? Family, yeah, yeah.

unknown 31:19

And then mentality talk about family.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

Yeah. And you know, it's it's it's obviously appropriate to talk about sisters in Christ as well as as brothers. That's obviously an absolutely appropriate. And so sometimes when the word sometimes when the New Testament uses the word adelphoi, it does mean brothers. Sometimes it means brothers and sisters. Um and I think context helps us work that one out. Yeah. Yeah. And I find that super encouraging. So the letter of James talks about my brothers the whole time. The the people to whom he he wrote that letter, you've got to say at least some of them were not doing very well Christianly. You know, you double-minded people. You adulterous people, yet he still calls them my brothers. And I find that kind of encouraging. It is, it is. Yeah. You know, however weak or however sinful a Christian might be, if they're in Christ, even just by their fingertips, you're a brother, you're a sister. Yeah. So if you've got if you've got Romans 8 open still in front of you, just think so, just think about our sufferings now. Yeah, verse 23, not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. So Paul does not in any way kind of narrow down what that suffering or what that groaning is. I think it is all of the groanings that come from living in a fallen world and with a body that still bears the marks of fallenness. So, yeah, it's not, it's not it's not that the only kind of Christian suffering is a martyr's suffering. It's just that the frailties of this of this form. Um, inwardly we are being renewed by the Holy Spirit day by day, but outwardly we are wasting away. And some days we see that and feel it very acutely, some of us, don't we? Um, I mean, just headlines on you know the Christian's future. Uh when we die, uh at the moment of death, we go to be with Christ. So our our experience thereon in is with Christ, but the separation of body and soul is is a is an unnatural thing. The body is a good thing, um, and hence you know, full redemption is uh the resurrection of the body. And we're when we're given a glorified body, one like uh in some ways like the resurrection body of the Lord Jesus. Um I can't tell you for sure what exactly it will feel like to go from you know with Christ, and that's the best thing, be with Christ, to having a resurrection body with Christ in a renewed creation. I I don't know. I don't know exactly what that will feel like, but that I think is the the kind of the stepping stones of our future. Yes, we're awaiting a body. We are with Christ. You know, think of the thief on the cross, today you will be with me in paradise. Um it's immediate happiness in the presence of God, but we're still awaiting on that judgment day when everyone gets a new body. Actually, not just not just Christians, but actually those who die outside of Christ will receive a new body, and it's in that body that they will experience hell, which is a rather terrifying thought, actually. I'm gonna stop and pray. God our Father, uh, we have thought on wondrous things this morning. Uh, we bless you for our adoption as sons. We have so much still eagerly to receive from you. We want to wait uh patiently. You give us patience, even as you use hard things to make us sons and daughters who more resemble the Lord Jesus. We thank you for your uh pleasure in us. We thank you for the blessing and privilege of an open door uh to our words and our prayers, and to us as we come before you. And we bless you for that in Jesus' name. Amen.