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Deep Redemption, Wide Adoption
by
Cadet Xander Coleman
Cosmic Anticipation
Romans 8:15-19
(NIV)
For you did not receive a
spirit of slavery again to fear, but you received the Spirit
of sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit
himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
Now if we are children, then 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. I consider that our
present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that
will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager
expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
There's something about
adoption that tugs at our heartstrings, isn't there? Our
hearts leap for joy when he hear stories about Oliver Twist
finding Mr Brownlow, or when Daddy Warbucks falls in love with
little Annie. It's something that's close to our hearts.
And God Himself seems
concerned about orphans; they're mentioned countless times in
the Bible, from Exodus 22:22, “Do
not take advantage of a widow or orphan,”
through to James 1:27, “Religion
that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to
look after orphans and widows in their distress...”
Perhaps the reason that
orphanhood and adoption is so precious to the human psyche is
that each of us have an understanding of the orphaned state.
I don't know anyone who has not known some form of loneliness,
of rejection, and of insecurity.
Although we have all
experienced periods of loneliness and rejection unless we are
actually an orphan we have no real idea of what it must feel
like to be without ‘blood’ parents. Yet when it comes to
spiritual parentage we all begin life as orphans.
However, this passage from
Romans assures us that God Himself will give us (if we
believe) the Spirit of sonship! Some translations actually
refer to a Spirit of adoption! Through the Holy Spirit, we no
longer have to be enslaved to that fear and pain which is
common to all spiritual orphans, we don’t have to be afraid
of not having it all together or of being rejected.
We can know what it means to
be a son or a daughter of the Most High. I think that's
amazing. Absolutely incredible!
Paul draws an interesting
contrast between slavery and adoption. The slave has no
rights. He or she is property, owned by another human being,
and bound to do whatever they command. Slavery is the
antithesis of sonship or daughtership. It's the exact
opposite! But we
'did not
receive a spirit of slavery again to fear', this scripture
tells us; we're not in bondage anymore, we're not bound to
behave in a certain way. Fear is no longer our master! We're
free! Hallelujah! Free to be sons and daughters, free to
take up our positions as children of the Most High.
And it's important to
recognize that for the Romans at this time, adopted sons had
the same rights as born sons, including inheritance rights!
We have an inheritance in Christ as a co-heir with Him.
Hallelujah!
Yes, once we were slaves to
Fear and as such were obligated to obey Fear because of that
bondage. But now, through the Spirit of adoption, we are set
free, adopted into the family of God. Our sonship and
daughtership doesn't come without responsibilities, but we
don't obey God our Father as we obeyed Fear, as slaves. Now
we obey our Father because we love Him. We are still
compelled to obey but not out of slavery but by our love for
God . This is not slavery, it's freedom!
We have been adopted into
the family of God, and we have all the rights and privileges
that come with adoption. Hallelujah!
Verse 15 tells us that it's
by this Spirit of adoption that we cry out, “Abba, Father”.
Now that word, Abba, is more than just a band from the 70s,
it's the Aramaic word for Father. And it doesn't just mean
'Father' in a cold, legal sense. The word connotes closeness,
a special relationship. It implies intimacy, much like the
English word, “Dad,” or even “Daddy.In the same way, the Holy
Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are His children, and
not just in a cold legal sense, but in a living, breathing,
intimate and relational way. His Spirit rises up in us and we
cry out, “Daddy, I love You; Daddy, I want to be close to
You”. We are prompted by His Spirit to relate to God with
intimacy! This is HUGE! That you and I, sinful by nature,
can know intimacy with the Living God! It is a massive
condescension on God's part, and only possible by His grace.
But it's at His instigation. He desires us to be intimate
with Him. Wow! O, that we would respond to His call to
experience that Father-son or Father-daughter relationship!
This idea was revolutionary at the time. Jesus related to God
as an intimate Father, and the religious leaders hated it – it
was tantamount to blasphemy to be so familiar with God! The
relationship Jesus has with His Father (as disclosed in John
14, 15) would have been seen as scandalous to the religious
elite of His day. And this is the very kind of relationship
God wants with us – that we would abide in Christ, even as He
abides in the Father!
Verse 16 says, “The Spirit
himself testifies that we are children of God. And if
children, heirs also; heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ,
if indeed
we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.”
(emphasis added).
There's something noble
about suffering, isn't there, in the Christian faith. I don't
understand it, I don't even know why God allows suffering to
happen, but there it is. It seems to me that the most holy
people I know; those with the greatest spiritual power, are
those people who've known what it means to suffer. People
like the prophets Elijah and Jeremiah, like King David, like
John the Baptist, like Jesus himself, like Paul, Peter; or
more recently people like Mother Theresa. They all
experienced suffering, and gained a crown because of it. Why
is there such a blessing in sharing with Christ's sufferings?
maybe it's the 'overcoming' talked about in Revelation. 'To
him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my
throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his
throne.' (Revelation 3:21). To be so committed to being like
Jesus so as to take part in His sufferings? That's the kind
of Christlikeness this world needs!I cannot even begin to
understand what life must be like for the thousands of
Christians around the world who haven't got enough to eat
today, or for those who, worse still, are being marginalised,
persecuted, tortured, killed for their faith.
It puts our 'light and
momentary afflictions' into context, doesn't it?
The writer, Paul, is himself
no stranger to hardship, and persecution and suffering, as we
read in 2 Corinthians 11:24-27.
Five times I received
from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was
beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was
shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have
been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from
rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own
countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in
danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from
false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone
without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often
gone without food; I have been cold and naked.
Yet he writes in Romans
8:18 “...our
present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that
will be revealed in us”. Paul
knows that as an adopted son of God, he has an inheritance
that will far exceed any earthly suffering. What an amazing
plan for redemption that God has for us! We're not just saved
by the skin of our teeth then whisked away to heaven when we
die. No! Redemption is so much bigger than that! Even in our
sufferings with Christ, we can be glorified with Christ. We
are joint-heirs in an inheritance with Christ! We can know
freedom, forgiveness, fullness, in Christ!
We can be glorified with
Christ!
And our collective
redemption inaugurates the redemption of the whole world.
There is a cosmic anticipation of this that is expressed
beautifully in verse 19: “For
the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for the
revealing of the children of God.”
There is an expectation, an anticipation which is building,
and creation itself is groaning, crying out, willing the
people of God to rise up and take their positions as sons and
daughters! To walk in fullness, to walk in His plan for our
lives, and to walk in the knowledge that we are forgiven and
set free. Creation understands that Christians living as they
should be living, the people of God rising up in the authority
they've been given – is critical to the redemption of the
whole universe!.
And so it's our great
pleasure, it's our great joy to know what it is to be a son or
daughter of the Living God. And yet, our adoption isn't just
for our sake, but so that the whole world can be redeemed.
Hallelujah! That's our goal! That's our mission! How often
do we sing those words in the Founder's song: “The whole world
redeeming...”?
John Wesley said, “there's
no holiness but social holiness.” He's talking about this
truth, that the collective redemption of the people of God
will make an impact on the world. It must, necessarily, make
the world a better place. You and I have a responsibility to
ourselves and to God, but also to a dying world, to pursue
lives of holiness, of fullness, of whole redemption. Deep and
wide! We must go deep into God so that His Kingdom is spread
wide throughout the earth. Deep redemption, wide adoption.
Lieutenant-Colonel Janet
Munn describes the Kingdom of God as an ever-expanding circle
of inclusion, and that is what it is! Those of us who have
know the joy of adoption have a debt of love to pay. This
must affect the way we live. We must spread our Father's love
abroad, far and wide. The children of the Queen of England
have certain duties they must discharge because of their
position. As sons and daughters of the Most High, then, how
much greater are the responsibilities we have been given to
discharge – to care for the broken and invisible people of
this world, to war against the injustice which oppresses
them? Or, as Isaiah put it, to 'to preach good news to the
poor... to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for
the captives' (Isaiah 61:1)
Let's pursue lives of holiness.
Let's be intimate with God. Let's take up our position as
adopted sons and daughters of God. Let's allow His Kingdom to
invade every part of our lives. Let's join Christ in His
sufferings so we can join Him in glory as He redeems the whole
world to Himself. All of creation is waiting in eager
anticipation for us...
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