The Greatest Secret: How Being God's Adopted Children Changes EverythingSýnishorn

 Adoption – Celebration not condemnation  

We are often burdened by self-condemnation, worrying about whether we are measuring up, living in fear, thinking of ourselves as failures, enslaved to the demands and expectations of others, or by our physical appetites and temptations. Paul wants us to know that the Spirit of adoption can help us know who we are and celebrate it. 

The previous seven chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans highlights the fact that all of us are facing charges for which we should be found guilty in God’s court of law. We have been caught red-handed. There is incontrovertible evidence against us. There is no excuse and there are no extenuating circumstances. We deserve to feel condemned. But there is a dramatic shift in tone between chapter 7 and chapter 8. It is as if the judge has adjourned to the privacy of his chambers to make his deliberations and decide on the sentencing. Then he comes back into the courtroom to declare that although we are guilty, and he has to mete out the full extent of the punishment for our crimes, nevertheless there is to be no condemnation for us, no penalty to pay, no fine to remunerate. 

But this is not the end of the story. It is only half the story when it comes to God’s amazing grace. The courthouse where God justifies you is the same courtroom where he declares you adopted. There is not only reprieve, there is also relationship. There is not only freedom from the past, there is also family and a future. There is not only a Judge who makes us right, there is a Father who draws us close, and a Spirit who testifies to our spirit that we are his children, co-heirs with Christ. The family that is the Trinity has included us – legally and irrevocably. There is no condemnation – but there is celebration. 

Sometimes I think we are like my daughter who, aged 2 years old, came with us to court for her adoption hearing. We can be oblivious to the enormity of what is going on, because someone mentioned ice-cream. Our identity, our history, our future, our freedom, our inheritance are all being worked out and we are playing with the gavel. If only we understood the full implications. What God has done means that we are stuck with him forever come what may. By God’s grace we are both justified and adopted. Everything has changed.