Adoption and the Gospel
27 Sep 2016
I hope you will forgive the personal nature of this month’s blog post. My wife and I have just been approved as adoptive parents. It has not been an easy few months since we first approached the council. The assessment is very thorough and intrusive - as it must be. As well as the interviews we have had to do our own study about adoption and the kind of backgrounds adoptive children have come from. This has been both eye opening and heart breaking.
One added bonus for me has been how the process has opened my eyes to an important theme in the Bible. Now it might be that I’m noticing “adoption” everywhere because I’m thinking about it lots - in the same way that when you buy a new car you start noticing how many cars of that type there are on the road. I don’t think it’s just my natural bias though. Adoption is an important, and often ignored aspect of the gospel.
Because of our reformed tradition we rightly underline the legal aspect of our salvation. We are justified by Christ. Our sins have been paid for. The wrath has been taken. We are declared not guilty now by faith, and we are looking forward to that day when Christ returns and makes it clear that we are saved. The language and imagery of the courtroom is all over the Bible - not least in Romans.
However that’s not the only imagery used to help us understand the gospel. Family imagery is also used, both by Jesus and by the other New Testament writers. The people Jesus met with on the streets in Jerusalem thought they were right with God because they came from the right physical family (from Abraham’s family tree). But Jesus deliberately shocked them into understanding their need of him. “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires” (John 8:44).
These days many children who are adopted have been removed from terrible family situations which will both harm them now, and mean that their future is bleak. In a similar way, Jesus is saying that left to ourselves, we are all born into a disastrous family situation that means that we have a terrible future ahead of us. We are all born into the family tree of Adam who chose to rebel against God (Romans 5:12-14), and we show that family likeness by our personal rebellion to God in all kinds of ways. When we do that we are displaying the character of the one who is at the head of that family - the devil. And if we continue in that family we have no hope for the future, we are heading for judgement.
The good news of the gospel is not just that Jesus has paid the price for our sin and forgiven us. No - in Christ, God takes us out of that harmful family, and places us in his family. More than that, he brings us as close as we can get to him! Just as an adoptive child doesn't go through life thinking they are not as loved by their parents because they are adopted, we now call God Father.
“In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” Ephesians 1:5
It is vital to remember this, just as we remember the legal aspect of our salvation. We can very easily stand at a distance from God even though we know we are forgiven. It may be that we simply can’t believe he loves us that much. “Yes, he may have forgiven” we think “and I’ll be in heaven, but the thought of a close intimate relationship with God is too unbelievable”.
If we only think of the courtroom when explaining the gospel we may not be giving the complete picture. After all, the defendant who is declared not guilty leaves the court in relief to get on with his life. He may not think much about the judge for the rest of his days.
But - to mix the images - the gospel involves both a not guilty verdict in a criminal court, and a declaration of a new status in a family court. The gospel is fundamentally about knowing Christ, being united to him, and knowing all the blessings that are found in him. This means that becoming a Christian is not the finishing line, but the start of a relationship with continues into eternity. As Tim Keller recently wrote:
“The only person who would dare to wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is his child. We have that kind of access”.
I’d go further - if we know Christ we have that access because we are his child, and he is our Father.