The Highest Privilege

crown

Building on our question from the other day and how we can describe Christianity as the privilege of calling God our Father, today we look at the fact of our adoption thru faith.

Adoption may be the highest privilege of the gospel.

Think thru this with me this morning: the fact of justification meets our need as sinners worthy of the wrath of God due our sin. As such, we stand condemned by a holy God, under His judgment due our sin. We stand guilty before God.

So, undoubtedly, we need forgiveness, we need to be justified. We need our relationship with God restored, we need to be reconciled to God. And to be sure the gospel offers and assures of this. See Acts 2:38; 3:19; 10:43; 13:38-39 for just a few examples.

Even Chapters 1-5 of Romans made this clear as we studied them. Justification thru faith alone. Made possible thru the work of Christ alone. Righteousness rightly being offered to sinners. Therefore God could be just and the justifier of those who have faith in Christ - see Romans 3:21-26; 2 Cor. 5:17-21; Gal. 3:13-14.

And our adoption rests even in this justification. But adoption takes it even farther because of the relationship it involves. Think thru this: justification involves law issues and God as a righteous judge. In justification, God declares a sinner to be righteous, that believers are no longer liable for their sin and its penalty through faith in the sufficiency of the work of Christ as our substitute.

But adoption takes this farther in the sense of the relationship between the sinner and their God. It is this close personal fellowship that results from justification and pictured thru the reality of not only our forgiveness thru faith in the gospel, but also our adoption that we speak to as being an even higher privilege.

Whereas justification was a legal concept, adoption is a family concept. Justification sees God as judge, and rightly so, but adoption sees God as Father. In justification God forgives, yet in adoption we see that same judge taking the forgiven in as sons and daughters.

Imagine that. It is one thing to be forgiven, for the judge to declare you forgiven, but it is a whole different level and relationship for that judge to take the forgiven home with them to live as sons and daughters. And the gospel teaches us that this is exactly what God does thru adoption.

Thru faith in the gospel, God establishes those who believe as sons and daughters. Invites us into close personal relationship and fellowship. Children of God. Closeness, affection. To be right with the judge is one thing, but to be loved and cared for by the judge is another thing.

See Romans 8:15.

That is enough for today. Think on this today. It is why we said the other day that you can know what a person thinks of Christianity by what they make of having God as their Father.

Enjoy that relationship today, God as Father. Make much of your Father today through all you do. May our obedience to and seeking to glorify God be that of a child-Father relationship.