45 - Adoption
- rcbarbas
- Mar 26, 2024
- 13 min read
It's all about love
“to take by choice into a relationship - especially : to take voluntarily (a child of other parents) as one's own child” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adopt
We’ve all seen and heard about adoptions all of our lives; we all know what an adoption is. There are myriad kids all over the planet that need parents and families. The act of adoption is a choice by the adopting family that will completely change their family dynamics. The new kid requires space, things/toys, food, attention, clothes, training, friends, activities, etc. Maybe the adopted child needs to learn a new language, a new culture, and a new way of life. Maybe the food at the new house is completely different. Maybe the new family is a different race, which means the adopted child is a different race from his/her as well.
Adoption is a huge choice made by a family bringing the new child into their home; it is also a huge change for the child coming into the new home. In a new family, an adopted child has deliverance from his/her former lifestyle, into a family that should no longer think of the child as someone “else” but a family member - as much as anyone else in the family.
In Christianity, we are called the adopted children of God. Ephesians 1:3-6 reads “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”
“every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ”; we have access to everything in heaven as much as anyone else.
“He chose us”; just as in human adoption, Christians were chosen to be brought into the family of God.
“predestined us to adoption as sons”; God decided that we would be in His family before we were born – our destiny, as his children, was previously determined.
“according to the good pleasure of His will”; God was pleased to bring us into His family, it was His pleasure and He willed/decided to do it.
Angels were not adopted; they were created to be in God’s presence from their beginning. We were placed on earth, in the garden of Eden, at times, remote from God’s presence. Eden was the garden of God (Speaking of Satan, in Ezekiel 28:13, the text reads “You were in Eden, the garden of God...”)
God made us to have fellowship with Him, but we messed that up. Even through our failure, God had planned to put us into His family via salvation/adoption. We are offered salvation/adoption through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus took our place in paying for sin and that offers us admittance into God’s family.
Adoption requires a redemption fee; adoption agencies, orphanages, humane societies for animals all require that a fee be paid to adopt a person – or even an animal. That price can be as low as $20 to upwards of tens of thousands of dollars, or whatever the particular currency might be. Notice that human adoption fees are made with man-made financial currency. The redemption currency is set by the person in control of the sale.
Adoption also requires that the adopter provide a home for the new child equal to the standard of everyone else in the family. We’ve adopted four kids, and every time, when we went before the judge, we were questioned about the home we were bringing kids into, the opportunities we would provide, the clothing, food, everything, had to be equal to what everyone else had.
Jesus also paid an adoption fee to bring us into the family of God. The currency with which Jesus paid for our adoption was not based on silver, gold or some other precious metal or mineral. Our adoption fee, also called ransom, was paid with life, not dollars. The redemption currency was blood/life, and that currency was set by the one in control of the ransom - God. Blood is life. In Leviticus 17:4, Moses wrote “the life of every creature is its blood” In Leviticus 17:11, Moses wrote “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”
Mark 10:45 calls the fee that Jesus paid a ransom; “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”. The Greek word that was translated into English as “ransom” is lytron, λύτρον . In Strong’s G3083, it means “the price for redeeming, ransom, paid for slaves, captives, for the ransom of life, to liberate many from misery and the penalty of their sins.” Jesus paid a ransom fee for us, as slaves to sin, to liberate us from the misery of the penalty we would have to pay if we don’t believe in His propitiation of the debt. He ransomed us into His family.
Adoption requires that kids assimilate into the new family. If you were to adopt a 3-year-old or a 17-year-old into your family, it would require a little bit of time and integration before they would feel like a family member. As such, you wouldn’t immediately give them run of family affairs. They would need time to learn the family before being allowed to represent the family. They would be called a complete family member, but they wouldn’t be a good source from which to learn family history, plans, expectations, gifts, finances or properties, etc.
New Christians are not very educated on the bible, much less are they scholars – they are new family members. They should not be given authority positions in the church any more than a 3 -year-old should be considered a family tree expert; they are learning. You wouldn’t take in a new 12-year-old and give him/her control of the family check book, and God doesn’t want us to put new Christians in charge of church functions. 1 Timothy 3:6 “...not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.”
Maturity after being adopted into a family requires time and experience.
There are several reasons people have for adopting kids; usually the main reason is a desire to provide a better life for a kid. Sometimes there are self-serving reasons such as money or appearance, but these adopting people are actually more a group of self-serving greedy snakes than adoptive parents. Years back, Haiti had a problem with adoptions when they found out that some people were adopting kids into servitude instead of into families. They began investing more time in vetting adoptive parents so that they wouldn’t be sending their kids into the world to be slaves somewhere. But these are the minority of cases.
However, families generally provide better prospects for personal development and relationship building for kids than orphanages, or being homeless.
Families provide better, and more, opportunities for bonding with others and developing relationship skills.
Families provide opportunities for children to excel academically/intellectually. (Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpens iron)
Families help kids mature and develop adult skills.
Being in a family usually lowers the risk of behavioral problems (poor communication skills, violence, drug abuse.
Being in a family can result in greater happiness due to being cared for and being needed.
Everyone should realize that families include conflict, and therefore being in a family lends itself to learning conflict resolution skills.
Adopt is to offer people a better life. It is forever. The adoptees should expect to be taken care of better than before adoption occurred. Adoption is for life; the bills keep coming and the parents keep loving. With Jesus adopting us, we should keep in mind that He continually sustains us for the rest of our existence. Humans adopt for years, God adopts for ever - beyond years; time will stop one day and we'll still be His and He'll still be sustaining us.
When we adopted Jordan, Ashlyn and Caleb, they were young babies, less than 6 months old and living with foster parents. They couldn’t speak or walk; nothing was theirs.
When we adopted Johnsley, he was 4 years old and living in an orphanage in Haiti; he spoke Creole, walked, ran, had friends, they shared belongings. It was a big deal to those kids when they were placed into a “forever home”; it was a big deal to all the kids when one kid was placed; it showed them all hope. Adoption told them all “there is someone out there to love me, and want me to be in their family, we just have to meet”.
Christians are adopted children of God; He wants us to be in His family; He will provide us the best life possible. (Please remember that God’s perspective on best life possible is different from ours. We tend to think “drive a Mercedes” “Eight-bedroom, six-bathroom house with a pool and a chef” “vacation when and where we want”, etc. God thinks in terms of everlasting residence with Him) God is a relationship God – He wants to have a bond with us. As Father, Son and Holy Spirit – three persons in a single Godhead - He is an inherently relationship-based being; He made us to have rapport with us. His desire for us is to have the best existence possible. It is limited by us wandering from Him and that relationship, but in the long run – we need heaven after death – we are to have a perfect everlasting existence.
Romans 8:15 “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”” We are children of God. Abba is the Hebrew word for “dad”/ “father”; I didn’t really get that until I heard the son of a Hebrew friend of ours call him “Abba”; the son said “Hey, Abba...” and my brain clicked – that really means “dad”. Then my brain clicked “Duh, that’s what Jesus said”; that’s what He meant by we are to call God “Abba/dad”. We are His children, adopted by choice for our benefit.
Galatians 4:4-6 “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.””. We are repeatedly called children of God and adopted children of God. He paid His own ransom for us to bring us into His family. “His own ransom” means that God set the cost for redemption of our souls – everlasting death, or the blood of the ONLY pure lamb who is capable of making the eternal payment for sin.
I was talking with a friend a long time back, after we had adopted four kids. He said he was thinking of adopting kids because we had done it. I told him that it is a lifetime commitment, it is not about keeping up with the Joneses. Adoption should only be about extending your family, loving a new member as much as other family members and at least as importantly giving a kid family to surround him/her with love (s)he wouldn't ahve received otherwise.
For people adoptions, the child gets placed into a family for the rest of his/her life. (S)he gets a new family name to be identified with the people who decided it was a great idea to add to their family and offer the child new opportunities and identity. The child is now a family member with access to all of the positive things the family offers – in earthly life that does include negative events as well.
For Godly adoptions, the person gets placed into a family for the rest of his/her life. (S)he gets a new family name to be identified with the people of the family. God decided it was great to add to the family and offer the person a new eternity and identity. The person is now a family member with access to all of the positive things God’s family offers – in earthly life, before we die, that does include negative events as well. Unfortunately this is true; Jesus told the disciples in John 16:2 “They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.”. Matthew 24:9 says “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.”
But after life on earth is completed for each of us, we are also assured that the result of our adoption into the family of God will be everlasting joy. Romans 8:17 has a huge statement for the result of our adoption “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” We are co-heirs of heaven with Christ.
Revelation 21:3, 4 says “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.””
We are co-heirs with Christ; families pass their fortunes to their children; inheritance is not receiving misfortune. Families do not pass debt to their children barring some bizarre legal document(s) the children have agreed to beforehand. (One could make a bizarre argument that a child can inherit bad genes, etc. but that point of this topic is inheritance upon death, not birth) It’s kind of weird to think of Jesus as being an “heir” to heaven, but look at Galatians 4:7, “Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”. “Heir” comes from the Greek word κληρονόμος, klēronomos, defined in Strong’s G2812 as “one who has acquired or obtained the portion allotted to him”; we have been allotted (assigned a share) our portion of heaven.
We used to belong to the group that, in John 8:44, Jesus called “your father the devil”, but Christians have been adopted into the family of God, with an assigned allotment in heaven for eternity. Our father is no longer the devil, He is God, Abba, Father, creator of the universe and all that exists. No one in their right mind can be happy with being a child of the devil. The devil’s inheritance for his family members will be Hell, which will then be thrown into the lake of sulfur/fire.
According to Revelation 20:10-15 “10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. 11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”. That’s not an inheritance, that’s a sentence. It’s the opposite of an inheritance; note, the point was made two paragraphs previous to this that inheritance is positive.
We become children of God, we get a new name, we become part of the family of God, bride of Christ, our dad is the creator, King and God of the universe and all that exists. As for the church (Christians) being the bride of Christ, we note that Jesus referred to Himself as the bridegroom several times in the four gospels, speaking of the Bridegroom being here for a short time then taken away (Matthew 9:15, Matthew 25:1, 5, 10, Mark 2:19, 20, Luke 5:34, 35, John 2:9, John 3:29). The church is described as a wife being presented to her husband in Ephesians 5:25-27 “25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”. We are also called the body of Christ, especially in Romans 12:4, 5 “4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.”
Further description is provided by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:14-26 “14 For in fact the body is not one member but many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.”
God lets us know what He thinks of us as His adopted children – He calls us his children, the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, and then goes on to describe how important we are, much like our body parts; they all complement each other and function together. We are intercalated into God’s family as required pieces of the puzzle.
When someone accepts Christ’s offer of salvation and is added to family of God – angels rejoice. Luke 15:10 says “Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
It is a grand thing to be adopted. On earth, kids get a new family that is supposed to take care of them and treat them as a complete family member because that is the oath taken in court. In Heaven, our adoption is grand; we are promised to be the Bride of Christ, the Body of Christ, co-heirs with Christ, children of God – the Creator, King and God of all that exists. Angels sing. We are promised things beyond our imagination. Adoption is a good thing.
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