The Gospel Union: Adoption: pure and faultless religion

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Adoption: pure and faultless religion

Since my wife and I adopted two beautiful girls several years ago into our family, I know something about being an adoptive parent. As a Christian, I know something about being an adopted child. Put the two together, and I know something about love.

What does that have to do with pure and faultless religion?

Think about the greatest command there is, to love. From the perspective of an adoptive parent, it is exciting to equate the love I have for my children (both my biological and adopted kids, of course) to the love God has for his children. I know the love I have for my wife and kids is beyond measure--I would gladly lay down my life to protect them. What an amazing thing to realize that this is exactly what Jesus Christ did for us.

We are sons of God through our faith in Jesus Christ, and are adopted into Him when we become children of the promise; when we are clothed with him.

Galatians 3:26-29 - You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. (NIV)

Because of our adoption (or rebirth) into the family of God, He has made us heirs, receiving the full rights of sons:

Galatians 4:4-7 - 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. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. (NIV)

It is interesting that the New Testament scriptures speak of being born again as identical to being adopted--something I, as an adoptive parent, understand well. There is no difference in the love I have for my biological and adopted children, or the rights I bestow on them. The privileges of one are the privileges of the other.

(What's interesting is that none of my children got to choose which family they were added to. They have to accept that their siblings are their siblings, whether they like it or not. When they disagree with each other about something, what do I say? "You're all brothers and sisters, and there's nothing you can do about it. So get along and love each other.")

So take a look at James' description of "pure and faultless religion:"

James 1:27 - Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (NIV)

There are many thousands of children that are in need of adoption into stable Christian families. Can you imagine if that entire generation could be loved and cared for in obedience to the command to love and care for the fatherless? I'm not talking about putting them into some group home. I'm talking about individual believers taking the initiative to adopt these kids out of the public agencies, where the most needy children are, into loving Christ-centered families. What an awesome way to share God's love that he showed to us with the next generation.

If you are interested in doing for a needy kid through adoption what God did for you and for me, please consider it prayerfully and don't hesitate to ask me questions about it. I've done it and I've been blessed by it. You can post questions and thoughts on the "Comments" link below, or contact me directly at kevinAT8harpers.com.

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Choice scriptures:

Romans 15:1-7 - "We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up...May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God."
(NIV)

2 Thessalonians 3:1 - "Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you."
(NIV)

Romans 1:16 - "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile."
(NIV)

John 17:20-21 - "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me."
(NIV)

Choice quotes:

Alexander Campbell - "We will not hearken to those questions which gender strife, nor discuss them at all. If a person says such is his private opinion, let him have it as his private opinion; but lay no stress upon it; and if it be a wrong private opinion, it will die a natural death much sooner than if you attempt to kill it."

Alexander Campbell - "But men cannot give up their opinions, and therefore, they can never unite, says one. We do not ask them to give up their opinions--we ask them only not to impose them upon others. Let them hold their opinions, but let them hold them as private property. The faith is public property; opinions are, and always have been private property. Men have foolishly attempted to make the deductions of some great minds the common measure of all Christians. Hence the deductions of a Luther, and a Calvin, and a Wesley, have been the rule and measure of all who coalesce under the names of these leaders. It is cruel to excommunicate a man because of the imbecility of his intellect."

Alexander Campbell - "Dear sir, this plan of making our own nest, and fluttering over our own brood; of building our own tent, and of confining all goodness and grace to our noble selves and the "elect few" who are like us, is the quintessence of sublimated pharisaism. The old Pharisees were but babes in comparison to the modern: and the longer I live, and the more I reflect upon God and man--heaven and earth--the Bible and the world--the Redeemer and his church--the more I am assured that all sectarianism is the offspring of hell; and that all differences about words, and names, and opinions, hatched in Egypt, or Rome, or Edinburgh, are like the frolics of drunken men; and that where there is a new creature, or a society of them, with all their imperfections and frailties, and errors in sentiment, in views, and opinions, they ought to receive one another, and the strong to support the weak, and not to please themselves. To lock ourselves up in the bandbox of our own little circle; to associate with a few units, tens, or hundreds, as the pure church, as the elect, is real Protestant monkery, it is evangelical pharisaism."

Alexander Campbell - "I have tried the pharisaic plan, and the monastic. I was once so straight, that, like the Indian's tree, I leaned a little the other way. And however much I may be slandered now as seeking "popularity" or a popular course, I have to rejoice that to my own satisfaction, as well as to others, I proved that truth, and not popularity, was my object; for I was once so strict a Separatist that I would neither pray nor sing praises with any one who was not as perfect as I supposed myself. In this most unpopular course I persisted until I discovered the mistake, and saw that on the principle embraced in my conduct, there never could be a congregation or church upon the earth."

Alexander Campbell - "I have no idea of adding to the catalogue of new sects. I labor to see sectarianism abolished and all Christians of every name united upon the one foundation upon which the apostolic church was founded."

The Gospel Union

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Adoption: pure and faultless religion

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