Our Redemption In Jesus Alone Series

Dr. Bradford Reaves

Crossway Christian Fellowship

Hagerstown, MD, USA

www.mycrossway.org

View this and other messages at: https://mycrossway.churchcenter.com/channels/8118

We are continuing in our study of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. So far we’ve uncovered this amazing introduction and started diving into this section in verses 3-14, which in the original Greek is one continuous sentence. Last week I identified with you 32 blessings within this sentence. Namely that we are chosen by God as His adopted heirs. That in itself is something that is incredibly mind-blowing.

This week, we are going to dig deeper into three ideas: adoption, redemption, and predestination. All of these are vital elements to understanding the Christian faith. You can’t grow soundly theologically in your faith without first understanding on a basic level what these mean. And we have some bad theology in our modern churches because we haven’t first stopped and considered these principles.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:3–14 ESV)

1. IN JESUS ALONE WE ARE ADOPTED

5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:5–6 ESV)

In various cultures, adoption can mean various things. For instance, in Guinea-Bissau, where I frequent, there are no social services for child welfare. Young children are viewed as liabilities and even a threat to survival because they tax resources and limit the mother’s ability to work. Children who are born with disabilities are almost immediately drowned because it is viewed as a curse by demons. Only when a child is old enough to contribute to the survivability of the family do they bring any value. Often children are sold into slavery or trafficked. Adoption would be quite informal when it does occur.

On the other hand, in the Philippines, adoption is quite common. If a family has too many children, it is not uncommon for those children to be passed along to another family. If that is not possible, the children are often left to fend for themselves on the street (known as street urchins).

Here in the States, where we have an abundance of social services, adoption has varying views. Andrea and I have found, as adoptive parents, that our family, friends, and church family look at adoption as such a gift. However, in most medical services and social services, we are looked down on as adoptive parents. Probably because those persons do not think it is possible for us to love a child in the same way a parent loves a biological child.

There was no process for adoption in the ancient Jewish culture. If a man died, his brother automatically became the head of his household, so there was no need for a legal adoption process. The word adoption when Paul wrote Ephesians, referred to the Roman concept of adoption. For children in Rome who had no family, to be adopted was better than winning the lottery. For these children, they had no hope as orphans. Adoption gave them a future. To make an adoption official, the adopting father went to the Roman magistrate and presented a legal case for the actual legal transference of the person to be adopted into his own Potrea Protestus. And when all this was complete, the adoption was done. In most cases, an adopted child, at that time, was most honored than natural children.