Astonishing adoption
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)
Those who’ve gone through an adoption process can tell you that there’s a whole lot of paperwork involved. It doesn’t just happen quickly. But once the process is complete, the child is truly adopted; truly your child, with all the rights, privileges and obligations that involves. Why would people start this big hassle? Out of love! They want the child to be their child, to love and care for them. And, as any parent can tell, they won’t be able to do this as well as they like, let alone perfectly.
With our new motto verse for 2023, we marvel at the love of God the Father. In adopting us as his children, we see His love for us, astonishingly great. And the cost for him was greater too, infinitely greater than long, bureaucratic, hassle – it cost him the death of his own Son. God the Son, the man Jesus Christ, God with us, dying for his own people, to save them from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Not merely to set our legal record straight (‘justification’), ‘completing the paperwork’ as it were. No, much more, to bring us to the Father, to make us greatly loved “co-heirs of Christ” (Romans 8:17).
Our adoption as children of God is, as John Murray wrote, “surely the apex [mountain top] of grace and privilege. We would not dare to conceive of such grace, far less to claim it, apart from God’s own revelation and assurance.” Yet that’s what we have! If Jesus Christ is your Lord and Saviour, you can rejoice with wonder at God’s inspired word: “… children of God. And this is what we are!”
Klaas-Jan Gunnink