Your True ReflectionSýnishorn

You Are Adopted:
The Greek word for “adopted” is υἱοθεσία (huiothesia), which means to legally adopt as one’s child and bestow all rights of inheritance and family privilege.

We are choosing to start out this entire conversation concerning our identity with the term adopted for a reason. Adoption means complete! Every right to what God has is legally yours!

So, we start with the frame in which all other blessings reside. Picture an impenetrable wall that encircles you and me and holds all other things we need within it. That is what adoption does—it gives us a home! Where once we were fatherless in our spiritual nature, now we have a Father who has chosen us.

By adopting you, God has claimed you as His child forever in Christ, and you share in every blessing of His kingdom. Adoption is a legal term: “The action or fact of legally taking another’s child and bringing it up as one’s own. The action of choosing to take up.” God has chosen to take us up as His own! Romans 8:15 (NASB) states, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’”

Adoption is one of the most tangible expressions of grace at work in our world. It is complete and unconditional acceptance of a child who is given every right and every blessing from a family. Adoption is permanent. In many countries, it is even more permanent and legally binding than being a naturally born child of a family. The law favors the adopted in virtually every single situation. And while the child did nothing to earn any of that, she has the security of both the law and the love and grace of her new parents as they call her their own. Have you ever taken the time to consider what it means that God has adopted you through the saving grace of Jesus?

When David was King of Israel, he remembered the love he had for his friend Jonathan, the son of King Saul. Jonathan was like his brother; they had grown up together and were best friends. Saul tried to kill David on several occasions. He exiled David and put a price on his head. Soon after that, both Jonathan and Saul died in battle against the Philistines. It was a messy situation, and Saul’s relatives wanted to lie pretty low once David became Israel’s king to avoid retaliation.

But David wasn’t looking for revenge. Once David became king, he decided to look for any surviving descendants of Saul, so he could show them kindness for the sake of his friend Jonathan. The only relative left was Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth, who was permanently disabled as a small child while fleeing to hide after Saul’s death. He hid in fear for years, but when David found him, he welcomed Mephibosheth into his home as family, not as a guest. He restored to him wealth and servants and invited him to eat every meal at the king’s table. David wanted Mephibosheth and his family to share in every blessing of his kingdom for generations.

Mephibosheth had nothing to offer. His disability prevented him from serving the king. Because of who his grandfather was, he was terrified for his life. But in kindness and out of love for Mephibosheth’s father, David made him like his own son. In Christ, we are adopted as daughters and sons of the King. Like Mephibosheth, we have nothing of value to offer in return. But God makes us His children out of His love and kindness toward us. Mephibosheth would have been viewed as an enemy of King David in the same way that we were enemies of God. But the love of God—the love David showed—is a love that turns an enemy into an heir.

So our journey now begins. The framework has been laid out for you to explore this world that God has chosen to give you. Now that you are adopted, everything God has is yours to discover, to help change you, and to enjoy for all of eternity. This will be, we hope, a life-altering study that will reframe your view of God and of yourself.