Adoption - Ephesians 1
-- by Grace Wiebe, 1990
The other week as I was reading Ephesians 1 - I felt God focusing on the whole aspect of His ADOPTING of us as His children! As I asked Him to clarify this for me and to interpret it to me, He began to minister such encouraging things to me and then to touch on other aspects that I still needed healing in. Through this He ministered to me and brought deeper healing and freedom in these areas!
I want to share with you some of the things I felt that He let me see -- maybe it will encourage you, too.
It begins with saying that we have been blessed with EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING in the heavenly realms...what are some of these? Some that came to mind are these:
- God's deep Father heart of love for us - 1 John 3:1 says He LAVISHED His love on us by calling us CHILDREN OF GOD - and that is what we ARE!!
- power in Christ - authority to heal, deliver
- power to overcome
- forgiveness - redemption by His blood
- eternal life - the Holy Spirit living in us
- we receive healing from Christ in every aspect of our lives as we begin
to live in the truth of what He has accomplished for us on the cross - we
are protected from the enemy
- power to walk in the Light - power to love God and others
- power to forgive others - power to obey and act on His Word
- the ability to know Christ - the ability to be conformed into the likeness
of Christ
- we have HOPE - we know the Way, the Truth and the Life
- we have an infinite Resource - who is, to us, EVERYTHING we need
- we have our Father, our Guide, our Teacher, our Protector, our Provider,
our Defender, etc.
- we have promises which ARE GOING TO COME TO PASS because God is Truth and
because He is Love and because He is Faithful, etc. - we have sure victory
over Satan!!!!!
- we have the hope of heaven - we have new bodies to look forward to
- we have angels watching over us!
- we have His life in us so we can beget spiritual children
- we are Overcomers because of Christ living in us - Himself the Overcomer!,
etc. etc. etc.
- we have been chosen in Him before the creation of the world (obviously He
wanted us and He had a plan). The plan was that 'we were chosen to be holy
and blameless IN HIS SIGHT. (God doesn't look at the outward appearance but
at the heart).
- He chose us in Him IN LOVE ... IN LOVE He predestined us...we often think
of predestination as a negative thing - but predestination is an act of His
GRACE (because we ALL deserve the penalty of death for our sin!)
- to have CHRIST IN US - the Hope of Glory! - so whatever
HE can do, HE CAN DO THROUGH US as we trust in Him! I CAN do all things through
Christ who strengthens me!
- IN LOVE He predestined us to be ADOPTED as His sons...through Jesus Christ
(this adoption is not possible through any other way, that is why the Word
says Jesus IS THE WAY)...we couldn't have been ADOPTED without Jesus!
What does it MEAN to be adopted as His sons/daughters? How is that adoption worked out?
...we "were predestined to be ADOPTED AS HIS SONS THROUGH CHRIST...in accordance with His PLEASURE AND WILL"...
WHY was this His PLEASURE and WILL?...because v. 6 - it brings praise and glory to His GLORIOUS GRACE!! - it makes His GRACE shine out! His GRACE is clearly seen because of this.
Another spiritual blessing is this GRACE which He has FREELY given us in the ONE HE LOVES. His gifts are always connected with His relationship to us -- THROUGH CHRIST -- He never gives us gifts, or spiritual blessings, apart from our RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS SON, and so we can see, here, how Jesus is our Mediator - another aspect of grace demonstrated.
More spiritual blessings and aspects of being ADOPTED...IN
HIM we HAVE (present and on-going):
redemption through His blood
the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the RICHES OF GOD's GRACE...
What ARE the RICHES OF GOD'S GRACE? a couple are:
- forgiveness - redemption (He redeemed my life)
- He made known to us the mystery of His will - His plan of salvation and
His plan to use us to reconcile all creation back to Himself!! (He didn't
have to)
...the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that
He LAVISHED on us!
He LAVISHES THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE ON US!! Why? Not because we deserve it, because we don't, but because He chose us, and loves us, and because we accepted His love for us based on HIS redemption of us and on HIS forgiveness of our sin -- SO, because this is all based on what HE has done for US, we can freely enjoy and part-take of the RICHES OF HIS GRACE that HE LAVISHES ON US, and not turn aside from receiving His grace!
He lavishes the riches of His grace on us WITH ALL WISDOM and UNDERSTANDING (ie. like a loving parent - doesn't give too much or too little, but according to what's best for the child's maturing process and for the child to really know and understand the love of their parents, etc.
So, as adopted sons/daughters, He, as our spiritual Parent, LAVISHES His grace on us -- because He adopted us from another family (we were part of the family of the FATHER OF LIES) where we did things differently than His family does them -- we were different than His family IS. We functioned from a totally different source. Because of this, as we are adopted and gradually BECOME more and more like our new parents (or Parent) and older brothers and sisters (transformed into the likeness of Christ), HE, because He has redeemed us, to adopt us, now extends His grace to forgive us when we sin and fail in our attempts to become like our new family. He is a wise and understanding parent -- "the God and FATHER of our Lord Jesus Christ" (v.3)
As a parent, He's also given us the family direction/goals..."And He made known"...how??..."and He made known to us the mystery of His will (He let us know what His expectations are and what we can expect in this family)...
An adopted child has usually been rescued or redeemed from some kind of situation - we were rescued from the Kingdom of Darkness and from the Father of Lies, who's goal is to steal from us (what God has prepared for us), to kill and destroy us and our families and all that God has given to us. Our Father rescued us from constant physical, sexual, emotional and spiritual abuse from the enemy of our souls, and instead loves us purely and perfectly!
An adopted child is normally adopted because of LOVE - we have been adopted because of the LOVE of our spiritual Father
An adopted child has been CHOSEN - we have been CHOSEN
Adoptive parents usually have to pay a price for the child - adoption fees, etc. - we have been BOUGHT WITH A PRICE by our Father - He paid for us by sacrificing His ONLY SON -- can you imagine an adoptive family paying such a price in order to adopt a child from someone else's family?
In adoptions, there is a LEGAL CONTRACT with the previous parent/(s), etc. - in our adoption, there was a legal contract between God and Satan which Jesus made possible by shedding His blood for it - the seal of that contract is the Holy Spirit in our lives!
Adopted children acquire all the rights of the family as they become a new member of the family - and the adopted child is entitled to the full inheritance, just like the other children - everything the family owns, and status, etc., the adopted child now also receives! It's not based on what THEY have done, but on what the parents did in adopting the new child! We are entitled to the same rights and inheritance as JESUS!!! Isn't that incredible! In John, somewhere??, it says that ALL HE HAS IS OURS!
The adoptive parents love the child unconditionally and not on the basis of performance.
The adopted child IS now a son/daughter - and is treated and loved and disciplined and blessed AS A SON! -- we, too, are loved by our heavenly Father JUST AS HE LOVES JESUS! Jesus's prayer in John 17 basically expresses His desire that we come to experience the same love and intimacy with Jesus and our heavenly Father as HE has with His Father - our Father!! We have been given the opportunity to have the same kind of relationship with God as Jesus has - that's why He gave us the Holy Spirit - so this would be possible! The Holy Spirit is the one whose ministry it is to see to it that we are indeed receiving all that our Father has given to Jesus, who has in turn given it to us! We also need discipline...Jesus 'learned obedience by the things He suffered..."...so that is why we are told in Heb 12 not to get discouraged when we are disciplined by our Father, BECAUSE HE IS TREATING US AS DEARLY LOVED SONS/DAUGHTERS!
An adopted child takes the family name and gets a new name (maybe?) from the new parent -- we, too, have been given the Family Name - we are also told in Revelation and other places that He is going to give us a NEW NAME!
The adoptive parent provides for and protects the adopted child just as they do their OWN! How well did God look after Jesus?...THAT is exactly how well He is ready to look after us - as we begin to live according to the promises/Truth of God's Word and begin to experience all that He has indeed bought for us as He took us back from Satan! It's mind-boggling and impossible to comprehend that God treats us JUST AS HE TREATS JESUS!!! All HE has done for Jesus, who was perfect and worthy, He has done for US!! THAT'S GRACE!!!! -- and THIS was the mystery of His will - this was/is His PLEASURE!!! As we begin to grasp this, we begin to see that this is all a part of "grasping how wide and long and high and deep is the love of God"...(Eph)...and this is part of 'growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ -- because all these things are IN CHRIST and THROUGH CHRIST.
The adopted child has to ACT on his new rights and privileges
in his new family and receive the love and benefits, or they won't do him
much good. He/she'll have his/her STANDING as an adopted child, but it won't
help him/her much unless he/she lives in the fullness of that. I've heard
it explained by the following analogy (although this analogy is limited as
to being able to illustrate biblical truth fully)...if one wants to get to
the top floor of a building, they can have all of the benefits of an elevator
available to them, but if they just admire it and look at it and watch people
using it, it won't help them get ANYWHERE. But if they GET ON IT and ACT ON
THE FACT that it IS able to take them to the top, then the knowledge of the
truth becomes an EXPERIENCE OF TRUTH...have you heard this before? I don't
remember where I heard this...I think it was at one of the Bible studies I
was a part of some years ago when I was just beginning to learn how to walk
in the Spirit. I found it helpful, even though it is inadequate.
* * *
Anyway, I hope this has been encouraging for you, too -- I wish I could explain
it as clearly as I felt/saw this that night!! It blew me away and I hardly
got any sleep all night! I hope to use my concordance and do some more studying
on our 'adoption' in Christ -- this is such GOOD STUFF!!! I feel like shouting
this out into the streets!! Maybe someday I'll get to!???
I've ince been doing some more studying up on this (inheritance we have in Christ and our adoption in Him) since what happened here (that I just wrote about), and it is getting more and more thrilling and mind-boggling for me! If I ever wanted to write a book, this is what I would want to write it on -- I have had this desire in my heart for several years already, but believe that there is much more He wants to show me and teach me about this, and live out in my life, before I would be ready to impart that to others properly...?
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