John 1:12

Sermon preached on October 9, 2008 by Laurence W. Veinott. © Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. Other sermons can be found at http://www.cantonnewlife.org/.

When I was a kid I knew a few other kids that were adopted. Back then adoption had something of a stigma attached to it, at least from our kids' perspective. Adopted kids were regarded as a little bit different. We didn't talk about it openly but rather whispered when we mentioned it. Some kids who had been adopted weren't even told that they were adopted so we were warned never to mention it to them. I believe the logic of not telling them they were adopted, at least when they were young, was that it would be harmful to them, that they would think that their real parents didn't want them or that they didn't really belong with their adopted family.

It's a good thing concepts like that are outdate. If one still held to them he might think that the biblical concept of adoption is nothing to get excited about, that it's no big deal and that we should concentrate on doctrines like justification and regeneration and forget about adoption. But that would be a great mistake. The Bible tells us is that our adoption into God's family is one of the greatest things that ever happened to us. As the apostle John put it in 1 John 3:1-2,

"How great is the love
the Father has lavished on us,
that we should be called children of God!
And that is what we are!"

John was amazed and astounded by our adoption for it showed the greatness of the depth of God's love for us.

This morning we're going to consider God's adoption of us and hopefully we'll grasp some of John's understanding of what a great thing our adoption is.

Now the main thing to understand about adoption is that

it's about Christians being have been adopted into God's family.

Our text reads,

"Yet to all who received him,
to those who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God."

John Murray writes, (Redemption, Accomplished and Applied, p. 132)

"By adoption the redeemed becomes sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty; they are introduced into and given the privileges of God's family."

"adoption has to do with our relationship with God as our Father, and in adoption we are given many of the greatest blessings that we will know for eternity."

"You are all sons of God
through faith in Christ Jesus,"

Again, it could not be any clearer. The way we become children of God is through faith in Jesus.

We see this connection between becoming sons of God and Jesus Christ in many other passages. For example, in Galatians 4:6-7 Paul wrote,

"Because you are sons,
God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,
the Spirit who calls out,
'Abba, Father.'"

The verses that come just before that shows the close connection to Jesus Christ. They're all about Jesus and His work. Verses 4-5 read,

"But when the time had fully come,
God sent his Son,
born of a woman,
born under law,
to redeem those under law,
that we might receive the full rights of sons."

We see the same connection in the great passage about sonship in Romans 8. In verses 15-16 we read,

"For you did not receive a spirit
that makes you a slave 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."

And in verses 20-21 we read,

"For the creation was subjected to frustration,
not by its own choice,
but by the will of the one who subjected it,
in hope that the creation itself
will be liberated from its bondage to decay
and brought into the glorious freedom
of the children of God."

Now if you look at the context of those verses, chapter 8, you'll see that it's all about the work of Jesus Christ. The chapter begins,

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus,
because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law was powerless to do
in that it was weakened by the sinful nature,
God did by sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.
And so he condemned sin in sinful man,
in order that the righteous requirements
of the law might be fully met in us,
who do not live according to the sinful nature
but according to the Spirit."

So the Bible makes it clear that we become sons of God and have a right to the privileges of such—based on the work of Jesus Christ. You need to believe in Jesus. You need to have faith in Him. That's the only way to become a child of God.

This is important because it shows that not everyone belongs to God's family. Some people who are not Christians will say,

"We're all God's children. God is everyone's Father."

"And he is not served by human hands,
as if he needed anything,
because he himself gives all men
life and breath and everything else.
From one man he made every nation of men,
that they should inhabit the whole earth;
and he determined the times set for them
and the exact places where they should live.
God did this so that men would seek him
and perhaps reach out for him and find him,
though he is not far from each one of us.
'For in him we live and move and have our being.'
As some of your own poets have said,
'We are his offspring.'
Therefore since we are God's offspring,
we should not think that the divine being
is like gold or silver or stone—
an image made by man's design and skill."

Paul stated that all people are God's offspring. The Bible sometimes speaks of that. But if you look at the context there Paul was warning them that they needed to repent or otherwise they would be condemned on the great day of judgment. So although Paul acknowledged that in one sense, they we are all children of God, those who refuse to go to Jesus will be condemned.

Usually when the Bible refers to God being a Father, it uses it in the very restricted sense of those who believe in Jesus. Those outside of Jesus are in a different status in relation to God. For example, in John 8 the Jews who rejected Jesus tried to claim that God as their Father. But Jesus said to them, (verse 42)

"If God were your Father,
you would love me,
for I came from God and now am here."

Then in verse 44 Jesus said to them,

"You belong to your father,
the devil, and you want to carry out
your father's desire.
He was a murderer from the beginning,
not holding to the truthÖ"

So Jesus, like John in our text, made a very clear distinction between those who accepted Jesus and those who did not. Those who accepted Jesus were brought into a very special relationship—they had God as their Father, and those who did not accept Jesus did not have God as their Father.

We see this in the apostle Paul's teaching in Ephesians 2:3. Paul told the Ephesian Christians that before they came to Jesus they were

'children of wrath'.

They were not children of God in their natural state. In order to become children of God they had to trust in Jesus.

Now if you're not a Christian this means that you need to believe in Jesus.

Have you ever read a story or seen a movie about the old orphanages? Sometimes there would be a day when a family was coming to the orphanage to adopt a child. All the children would hope that they would get picked, that they'd be able to leave the awful orphanage and be able to go with a mother and father into a nice, comfortable, loving home. But as it happened, many were disappointed. They didn't get picked and they were left in that awful place.

For those of you who don't believe in Jesus let me tell you surely that if you don't go to Jesus you'll be left in a much worse place and that there will be no hope for you ever. You'll never be brought into the family of God with it's joy and happiness. Instead you'll find that you belong to the worst possible family—the family of the devil. In that family there is no love, no friendship or fellowship—but only loss, suffering and loneliness. Don't let that happen to you. You need Jesus. Go to Him today. As Him to save you. Commit your life to Him.

The second thing we see about adoption from our text is that

it is something that God gives.

Again, we must understand that adoption is all about grace. In bringing us into His family God does something that is absolutely marvelous. John Murray, (Redemption, Accomplished and Applied, p. 133)

"Adoption is, like justification, a judicial act, it is the bestowal of a status, or standing."

"The new relationship with God need not have been automatic. Having justified us, God could still have left us on a much inferior level of status and privilege. Instead, he took us into his own family giving us the status and privilege of daughters and sons."

"Both the one who makes men holy
and those who are made holy are of the same family.
So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.
He says,
'I will declare your name to my brothers;
in the presence of the congregation
I will sing your praises.'
And again,
'I will put my trust in him.'
And again he says,
'Here am I,
and the children God has given me.'"

Think of it. Jesus is your brother. On the last day you will take your place at His side. You will know that you are loved. As we read in John 17:23 when Jesus said,

"I in them and you in me.
May they be brought to complete unity
to let the world know that you sent me
and have loved them
even as you have loved me."

Or consider the fact that God is your Father.

Romans 8:15-16

"For you did not receive a spirit
that makes you a slave 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."

Abba is equivalent to 'Daddy'. One of the great privileges of adoption is that you are able to relate and speak to God the Father is the most intimate terms. You are His son or daughter. You should know that He loves you dearly and that He is going to take care of you. As Jesus said in Matthew 7:11

"If you, then,
though you are evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father in heaven
give good gifts to those who ask him!"

You can go boldly to the throne of grace. What a privilege, what a right is yours.

This is the third thing we see in our text.

The Father gives us adoption as our right.

As Leon Morris says of Christians, (John, p. 98)

"They have received full authority to this exalted title."

"Adoption is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God."

"Understand, then,
that those who believe
are children of Abraham."

But we have even more than that—we have been brought into God's family. As the apostle John said about it in 1 John 3:1-2,

"How great is the love
the Father has lavished on us,
that we should be called children of God!
And that is what we are!"

Isn't that incredible? We are not just children of Abraham—we are much more than that—we are children of God!

The fourth thing we should see here is that we have been given the right,

to 'become' God's children.

This may seem strange at first. We've already seen from 1 John 3 that we are God's children now. We also see that from Romans 8:14 which says,

"because those who are led
by the Spirit of God are sons of God."

We became God's children as soon as we believed? That is our present status. Why then does John say that we have been given the right 'to become' God's children.

What we should understand is that there are aspects of adoption that are still in the future. We see this in Romans 8:23 which reads,

"Not only so, but we ourselves,
who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
groan inwardly as we wait eagerly
for our adoption as sons,
the redemption of our bodies."

The redemption of our bodies is related to our sonship. Yet it belongs to the future. John Murray writes, (Romans)

"Adoption is used here of grace to be bestowed in the future. This does not interfere with the reality and privilege of the adoption enjoyed now. It means simply that the term is used both of a present privilege and of a future bestowment and that the latter brings to the fullest realization the status and privilege enjoyed in this life as sons of God."

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us,
that we should be called children of God!
And that is what we are! Ö
Dear friends,
now we are children of God,
and what we will be has not yet been made known.
But we know that when he appears,
we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is."

Now what does this mean for us?

First, we should be praising God for this.

This adoption is not something to be ashamed of. Murray, (Redemption, Accomplished and Applied, p. 134)

"Adoption is an act of transfer from an alien family into the family of God himself. This is surely the apex of grace and privilege. It staggers imagination because of its amazing condescension and love."

"Look, Gracie, she's just like you."

"She not like me. She Chinese!"

• John 1:12