I'm So Glad I'm A Part

I’m So Glad I’m a Part of the Family of God

Gal 3:26-4:7

26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,

27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

1 What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.

2 He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.

3 So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.

4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law,

5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."

7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

Illus.: “Adopted by Christ”

John was born into a family of 12 children. They were very poor. He was the youngest. He never remembered his father eating a meal with the rest of the family. He had to work long hours to feed his family. One day his father ran off with another woman, leaving his mother to care for all 12 children. At age 6, his mother told him through tears that she was going to put him up for adoption along with 3 of his sisters. She told him she had no choice. If she didn’t take this step they would likely starve.

She placed an ad in a newspaper of a nearby town and within 3 days a couple responded. When the day finally came for John to leave, he said it was the worst day of his life. They were at the train station, ready to say their last good-byes. He said, “When the conductor reached down to take me from my mother’s arms I felt something die on the inside of me.

His new family was very loving and kind but it was just not the same. John lived with the constant fear that one day they would give him away too. He grew into adulthood and finally went out on his own. He spent year after year absorbed in his work, trying to bury the deep hurt in his soul

One day something beautiful happened. In a moment of great discouragement, he visited a church, hoping he would hear a word that would boost his spirits. Little did he know that his life would be changed forever. The preacher talked about how God loves to adopt people into his forever family. At the end of the sermon he asked if anyone would like to join God’s family. John raised his hand and then went to the altar. At last, the ache in his heart was healed. Jesus told him He would never abandon him, never send him away. After years of turmoil and hate, John felt loved and accepted. He now had a security he never dreamed possible. He felt the Lord saying to him, “John, I know about that day at the train station. I know how you felt and I’ve been waiting all these years to adopt you into my family.”

There is never a single, horrible memory but what God plans to eclipse it with a better one. Like green grass sprouting to recolor a burned-over field, so God brings along beauty for ashes.

THE GREEK WORD TRANSLATED “ADOPTION” literally means “placing one as a son.” Throughout the Greek and Roman world the wealthy and influential practiced adoption. Sometimes just a simple declaration in the marketplace turned a slave into a son. It was a remedy used when a marriage failed to produce a male heir. No change in name resulted, but the adopted son immediately became heir to the entire wealth and position of his adoptive family (as in the film, “Ben Hur”).

Conversely, the adopted son also assumed responsibility for the parents in their time of need. Adoption in the Greek and Roman cultures of New Testament times was a beautiful picture. No concept is more meaningful to a believer. Adoption deposits everything that God owns to the accounts of His sons and daughters. Adoption is all about position and privilege.

To take a hopeless sinner and elevate him to become a hopeful child requires a miracle—a miracle which the apostle Paul calls ADOPTION!