Will the plastic children please sit down?
Often, when someone finds out that some of my children are adopted, the question asked is, “which ones are your real children?” A couple weeks ago, I was sitting outside with a few of my kids and that question came up and I turned to Ania and thumped her on the leg, “Are you plastic?” I asked.
4Even as [in His love] He chose us [actually picked us out for Himself as His own] in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy (consecrated and set apart for Him) and blameless in His sight, even above reproach, before Him in love.
5For He foreordained us (destined us, planned in love for us) to be adopted (revealed) as His own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the purpose of His will [a]” style=”font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; “>[a]because it pleased Him and was His kind intent]–
He destined us to be adopted, revealed as His own children. When a child is adopted, he receives the rights and privileges of sonship. Romans 8:16 says that we have received the ‘Spirit of adoption [the Spirit producing Sonship]’. It is because of this, we cry ‘Abba, Father!
Who are the real children of God and who are the plastic ones? This is an historical debate.
“As pig-flesh eating Gentile believers-formerly goddess worshipers and Caesar magnifiers and all the rest began confessing Jesus as the Messiah, some Jewish-Christians demanded to know, “Are they circumcised?” This meant of course, “Are they really our brothers?” Russell Moore, Adopted for Life
Here we Christians are a couple of centuries later running around claiming our inheritance, our sonship, the outpouring of grace as if it were truly ours and there were no arguments about it to begin with. We claim not to be plastic, but real children of God and we are accurate in our belief!
“And if we are [His] children then we are [His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ….” Romans 8:18
So what does this mean for modern-real-life-adoption? Isn’t this just Biblical theology? As Russell Moore shares and I agree -you can’t separate the theology of the Bible from the reality of adoption. The message is the same.
Can belief be separated from actions? Yes, but should they? If we have this wonderful gift of adoption that gives us sonship in the family of God for eternity, shouldn’t we live it?