This weekend at Mountainview I taught on the first part of the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father …” To help us understand the nature of our new relationship with God as Father, I turned to Ephesians 1:4-6:
“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son (NLT)”
We often describe our salvation experience as being “born again” and rightly so (cf., John 3:3, 1 Peter 1:23). Through faith in Jesus, we receive a new life — a second chance. We speak of the old life being “crucified with Christ” and rising out of baptism to “new life.” These metaphors are biblical and rich with meaning.
I believe it would also serve us well to add the term “adopted” to our salvation description. Imagine this conversation:
“How did you become a Christian?”
“Well, I was adopted into the family.”
Adoption speaks to choice and intentions. No one accidentally adopts a child. Procreation is another matter.
When God set his plan of salvation in motion, he did so with the intention of adopting his lost children back into the family. Sin had created a division between humanity and God — the cross of Jesus was (and is) and invitation to return home.