A student says to you: “To be a Christian is to be a forgiven sinner, no more no less” How does your understanding of adoption affect how you would respond to this question?
Being a Christian has not just to do with justification, but also adoption and sanctification. A forgiven sinner means you’ve been justified - it sounds very distant, legalistic. Though justification is necessary for someone to stand right before God, it isn’t the only privilege of being a Christian. We are called righteous through Jesus’ sacrifice, but we are also adopted and called sons/ heirs of God.
Adoption also has legalistic dimension, the part where we were redeemed from a cursed way of life - to being in line to the inheritance of God’s kingdom and having security that this is going to happen. We understand that we don’t work to be a son/ heir, but believe and enter the family with a sure inheritance. This point about the security we have is the one that stuck out the most to me as I read Paul’s convincing argument to the Galatians - He pleads with them to know that they are not slaves anymore, but born again into the promise; since a slave has no assurance nor relationship with the family He’s in. God adopts us to give us that assurance, access and proximity to Him The assurance that it’s only a matter of time before a son’s full inheritance will be given. The proximity that slowly sinks into our Spirit form His and allows us to call Him daddy!
On top of this, we even get born again. In other words receive God’s Spirit, that sanctifies us. His Spirit leads us and renews us into a new way of life that lines up with the legal transaction that took place. We start becoming a chip off the old block of God. As the person mentioned we are sinners in need of forgiveness. Since, though we were made in God’s image, sin marred that image.This implies not just the need for forgiveness, but adoption into a new family with a Holy Father - our new aim, as well as sanctification through God’s Spirit that restores us to suit the new family we’ve been born into.
If we were forgiven and not adopted, then it would be like me adopting a child but leaving them in their old home. Children are usually put up for adoption because of the conditions they’re in being unfit for raising a child. In the same way, God sees our need to be taken into a new family with Him as Father. The life I lived before God adopted me was a life of self-pleasure, sinful ambition - but God has adopted me into His family, one body with other believers - a new purpose and promise of inheritance in His everlasting Kingdom.
The language Paul uses to refer to believers include ‘seed’, ‘clothed’, ’slaves’ to ‘sons’ - emphasising the fact that each of us are in need of an external salvation. We need God to adopt us for salvation. His righteousness is our new uniform - we are legally adopted - and the Spirit trains us in the righteous way. Since we are sons, then we are free to obey God to please Him, not obeying to attain sonship - I am a son of God by faith! Sticking to the language ‘son’ and not switching to ‘daughter’ because back in Paul’s day sonship meant full inheritance, whereas daughters wouldn’t - so I know I have God’s full inheritance of eternal life with Him - as a Son! haha
Being a Christian has not just to do with justification, but also adoption and sanctification. A forgiven sinner means you’ve been justified - it sounds very distant, legalistic. Though justification is necessary for someone to stand right before God, it isn’t the only privilege of being a Christian. We are called righteous through Jesus’ sacrifice, but we are also adopted and called sons/ heirs of God.
Adoption also has legalistic dimension, the part where we were redeemed from a cursed way of life - to being in line to the inheritance of God’s kingdom and having security that this is going to happen. We understand that we don’t work to be a son/ heir, but believe and enter the family with a sure inheritance. This point about the security we have is the one that stuck out the most to me as I read Paul’s convincing argument to the Galatians - He pleads with them to know that they are not slaves anymore, but born again into the promise; since a slave has no assurance nor relationship with the family He’s in. God adopts us to give us that assurance, access and proximity to Him The assurance that it’s only a matter of time before a son’s full inheritance will be given. The proximity that slowly sinks into our Spirit form His and allows us to call Him daddy!
On top of this, we even get born again. In other words receive God’s Spirit, that sanctifies us. His Spirit leads us and renews us into a new way of life that lines up with the legal transaction that took place. We start becoming a chip off the old block of God. As the person mentioned we are sinners in need of forgiveness. Since, though we were made in God’s image, sin marred that image.This implies not just the need for forgiveness, but adoption into a new family with a Holy Father - our new aim, as well as sanctification through God’s Spirit that restores us to suit the new family we’ve been born into.
If we were forgiven and not adopted, then it would be like me adopting a child but leaving them in their old home. Children are usually put up for adoption because of the conditions they’re in being unfit for raising a child. In the same way, God sees our need to be taken into a new family with Him as Father. The life I lived before God adopted me was a life of self-pleasure, sinful ambition - but God has adopted me into His family, one body with other believers - a new purpose and promise of inheritance in His everlasting Kingdom.
The language Paul uses to refer to believers include ‘seed’, ‘clothed’, ’slaves’ to ‘sons’ - emphasising the fact that each of us are in need of an external salvation. We need God to adopt us for salvation. His righteousness is our new uniform - we are legally adopted - and the Spirit trains us in the righteous way. Since we are sons, then we are free to obey God to please Him, not obeying to attain sonship - I am a son of God by faith! Sticking to the language ‘son’ and not switching to ‘daughter’ because back in Paul’s day sonship meant full inheritance, whereas daughters wouldn’t - so I know I have God’s full inheritance of eternal life with Him - as a Son! haha
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