Children of the Highest: Adoption
Take your time in reading this vivid narrative from Ezekiel 16:
“Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.
And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live… Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.
Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil…” God goes on to describe how He clothed, ornamented, and fed her in the richest way, then continues, “thy beauty… was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.”
Ezekiel describes in visceral language the story of someone who goes from being unwanted, unloved, filthy, disgusting, abhorrent and utterly alone, to being washed, nourished, clothed, beautiful, cherished, belonging. It is the greatest contrast imaginable. God says, “I entered into a covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine.” This loving transformation was more than a passing infatuation, it involved a legal process and commitment.
Ezekiel, though addressing the nation of Israel, is also describing the adoption story of each one of God’s children. It is incredible that sinners drowning in the pollution of their own bloody depravity could become known as “the Children of the Highest,” (Lu. 6.35) but that’s exactly the rags to riches story that the Bible tells us. God transforms sinners from loathsome to lovely, from lonely to loved, from outcasts to heirs. He goes further than restoring them to the relationship Adam enjoyed, He adopts them as His own children.
Predestination
The idea to adopt sinners and outcasts into the loving intimacy of His own family did not just strike God on a whim one day. Eph. 1:4-5 says “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children...” Since before the foundation of the world it has been your high and noble destiny to be adopted into God’s family.
In an adoption, the child comes into a legal relationship with the parents, but parents also enter into a legal obligation to the child. We should find great comfort and security in the fact that God has committed Himself to our care, knowing that God never breaks His promises. But we long for more than security. We crave what every child craves – to be loved. Verse 5 tells us about predestination and adoption, but the last word of verse 4 is love. Ezekiel says, “when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love.” In 1 John 3:1 we see John awestruck at the depth and power of a love that would motivate the holy God to make sons of sinners: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!” God determined to adopt His chosen people because He loves them.
Redemption
There is another glorious adoption passage in Galatians 4:1-7: “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
This text is packed with precious truths that jump immediately to the eye. We have received the adoption of sons. God has given us the very Spirit of his Son. Now, as Jesus did in Gethsemane, we call God “Papa,” or “Daddy.” We are God’s heirs! But the most important word in this text can easily fly under the radar – redeem.
Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines redeem: “To purchase back; to ransom; to liberate or rescue from captivity or bondage, or from any obligation or liability to suffer or to be forfeited, by paying an equivalent; as, to redeem prisoners. To repurchase what has been sold.”
The adoption process, though it may be motivated by love, is still a legal one and it can take months or even years to resolve legal complications and delays. God loved, God purposed, but God had a legal problem to resolve, because we belonged to someone else.
We had sold ourselves to the slavery of sin and earned our due wages of death. (Rom. 7:14, 6:23) We were in bondage to the law because of our rebellious determination to cling to our own insufficient righteousness. We were conceived in sin and shaped in iniquity (Ps. 51), born to godless, idolatrous masters. As Ezekiel puts it, “Thy birth and thy nativity was of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.” And our old masters had a rightful, legal hold on us. We owed debts that we could never pay and were digging ourselves deeper every day. We needed redeeming.
Jesus Christ the Son of God paid the equivalent of what we owed, the price required to purchase back, to ransom, to liberate, to rescue from our captivity and bondage and clear the way for God to claim parental rights and adopt us as His own children. In Gal. 4:5 we receive the adoption of sons because of His redemption, and we are sons and heirs of God “through Christ.” In Eph. 1:5 we are predestinated unto the adoption of sons “by Jesus Christ.” In Eph. 3:15, the whole family in heaven and earth is named of “our Lord Jesus Christ.” In Eph. 2, those who were afar off, aliens and strangers, without God, without Christ, and without hope are brought nigh even to the household of God “by the blood of Christ” and given access unto the Father “through Him.” In Heb. 2 we see Him “made perfect through sufferings” in bringing many sons to glory. Through death He delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Jesus is the reason we are now the sons and daughters of God. Jesus is the hero of our story.
Belonging
When a child is adopted, he immediately gains every right and privilege enjoyed by the parents’ biological children. Jesus took our rags on Himself so that as the adopted Children of the Highest, He could clothe us in riches.
We gain a Father, the “one God and Father of all.” Jesus Himself tells us to address God as “Our Father.” Your earthly Father may have disappointed, neglected, or even abused you, but God is the perfect Father, the archetypal Father. Jesus reminds us that if one of our own children came asking for bread, we would not be so cruel as to laugh in his face and give him a stone. How much more then will your heavenly Father give good gifts to them that ask Him?
We gain a Brother, our elder brother Jesus Christ. In fact Hebrews 2 tells us something amazing: Jesus is not ashamed of his adopted brothers and sisters. “He is not ashamed to call them brethren.”
We gain a Family, “the whole family in heaven and earth” named of Jesus Christ. (Eph. 3.15) All through the New Testament we see the saints delighting to call each other “brother” and “sister.” My favorite is at the end of the Roman letter when Paul includes a greeting from “Quartus, a brother.” I can just imagine a 10-year-old boy tugging at Paul’s sleeve asking to be included. All we know about Quartus is that he is a brother, and what a noble and precious title it is! We’ll get to know our brother Quartus in heaven. That’s how real God’s adopted family is.
Finally, we gain an Inheritance. Rom. 8:17 says that being children we are heirs: “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.” That inheritance awaits us, “incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven for you,” (1 Pet. 1:3-5) and the Father Himself “hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” (Col. 1:12)
Rejoice beloved, for now are we the sons of God. God has predestined us to be so, Jesus redeemed us to make it so, and the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that it is so. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Dan Beauchamp is pastor of Meadlan Chapel Primitive Baptist Church, Graham, Texas.