Are we all children of God? – Biblical studies

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In love, he predestined us for adoption. (Ephesians 1:4–5)

So adoption is part of God’s predestination plan. It is not as if we were created, by sin we prove to be cranky orphans, whom God had to devise a plan called adoption. That would be a totally wrong conception. Rather, there was a plan called predestination. He predestined us for adoption. And if you ask, “Well, when did that happen?” Verse four makes it clear:

He chose us in him before the foundation of the world so that we would be holy and blameless before him. (Ephesians 1:4)

1. Your adoption was decided in eternity past.

Before you existed, before the universe existed, God looked at you in your sin. And then he looked at his crucified and risen Son, and then destined all believers through that crucified Son to be forgiven of all those sins and adopted into his family. All that before you were. We were predestined on the advice of his will for adoption. Now, that has several important implications.

“You are not adopted on the basis of your aptitude, value, or distinguishing characteristics.”

You are not adopted on the basis of your aptitude, value, or hallmarks. You didn’t exist yet to make any badge. Therefore, its adoption is not fragile, tenuous or uncertain because it is not based on what it did or did not do. It was decided in eternity. Therefore, it is as firm, sure, and unshakeable as God’s eternal purposes.

Oh, how we love in this church to rejoice in the meaning of predestination for the firmness and solidity and freedom for the love and sacrifice that predestination brings to our lives. Wonderful! Your adoption into the family of God through faith in Christ was planned before the creation of the universe. The adoption is his.

2. your adoption is only through Jesus Christ.

And the adoption is through him.

In love, he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.

What does he mean when he says that our adoption into his eternal family of joy is through Jesus Christ? It means that we had to die for us so that our sins could be forgiven, and God’s justice could be satisfied, and his wrath could be dissipated, and therefore we could be treated mercifully and welcomed into his family. . If he hadn’t died for us rebels, there would have been no adoption into his holy family. But through Christ he was able, with justice and mercy, to gather repentant sinners into his divine family. That has implications, two of which I’ll mention.

not all children

Not all people are children of God. At least if you’re going to use that language, “all humans are children of God,” you’re talking in very loose language that doesn’t relate to a person’s salvation. In fact, it is not helpful to talk about all humans being children of God. I’m not going to say it’s wrong. I just want us to define it properly, like creatures, okay?

We are all creatures of God and, in that sense, if you want to use kids in that way, which Paul does in Acts 17, and that’s why I’m not getting rid of it other than to say it’s ambiguous. But if you want to use “sons of God” in a fully biblical sense, you have to talk about through Jesus Christmeaning through faith in Jesus Christ and what he did . Those who believe they are welcomed through Jesus Christ into the family of God (Romans 3:25). That is the first implication of saying that the adoption is through Jesus Christ.

none were cute

Here’s a second. God did not adopt cute orphans; he adopted enemies. He set out to go to the most rebellious part of the kingdom, to the meanest, most rebellious and nosy children on planet earth and said, “Those are going to be mine, and I’m going to give them to my Son to make them mine.”

So when we’re thinking about God’s adoption for us, let’s not have any warm and fuzzy feeling of, “Oh, he just picked me as the cutest.” You weren’t cute. You were in rebellion against him. You disliked him. His wrath was upon you in his justice. You deserved eternal punishment. But since God is not only justice and not only wrath, but also mercy and also love, he found a way by which the dirtiest, nastiest, most rebellious and ugliest children would be his through Jesus Christ.

Therefore, we love the gospel. We love the cross. We love the blood of Jesus because we know we don’t deserve this adoption. of the. adoption is of him because of predestination and by him because of Jesus Christ.

3. Your adoption is to the praise of God’s glorious grace.

And he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace. What is the purpose of its adoption? For what is this? For what is this? The purpose of your adoption is that the glory, the beauty, the resplendent wonder of grace be praised. That is the goal of adoption. That is what it is for: the praise of the glory of his grace.

The reason God designed to choose, predestinate, and adopt unworthy children is so that their grace, not cunning, would be praised. It is not so that he can find the prettiest child, but the ugliest child and take it as his own, and so that we praise his grace, not his cunning eyes to recognize cuteness. The wonder of God’s grace!

“Your adoption into the family of God through faith in Christ was planned before the creation of the universe.”

But now, right here, I know from years of teaching God-centered grace, people really hit a wall. God adopts you for himself, for his glory, for his praise. Now if you put it in a certain way, “God’s adoption is very God-centered,” there are people who start backing off and say, “I just don’t know if that’s loving God to be so self-exalting and self-aggrandizing.” same in this whole matter of salvation. I do not know about that. I run into this everywhere I go because I love pushing this theme that God is radically God-centered in everything he does, including adopting children who are sinful and rebellious.

Now, this is why it is not God’s heartbreak to exalt himself. The glory of God is the only reality in the universe that I was created to see, enjoy and be satisfied with. If God doesn’t exalt that for me to see, taste, enjoy, and be satisfied with, he’s not loving. He must preserve, display, exalt himself for me to enjoy if he loves me. He is the only being in the universe who can love me this way.

So please don’t trip over the fact that God is God-centered in adopting you to the praise of the glory of his grace. Just know that his praise to the glory of his grace will be his eternal happiness. And therefore, he is the best of all worlds. He gets the glory. You get the joy. It couldn’t be better unless you think that getting the glory is the key to your joy. And if you do, you will probably never be a Christian.

You have to leave that. He has to get all the glory, then you can have all the joy. Well, you won’t have it all. He also receives a lot because he takes great delight in making you happy in him.

So those are my three points: from him, by him and for him is the adoption. It is under the praise of his glory that we have been adopted.

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