ADOPTION (1)

Recently I had to purchase new license tags for an automobile. As I was waiting I fell victim to the latest governmental gimmick to pluck more tax money from its citizens. As I saw the numerous specialty plates hanging around the waiting room, I just had to ask if they had one for which I could qualify. Yes they did, and if I returned with my Form DD 214 another day, I could purchase my very own specialized plate. Now I did resist the more expensive of these vanity plates, but I did go the extra $10.00 and purchase a US Army veteran plate.

Why is it that our vanities are tickled so easily? Isn't it because we want some claim to uniqueness? We want something to set us apart? Human pride is so easily pumped up for public display in almost every area of our lives. In evangelical circles, the mere fact of being a PCA Pastor has its advantages because of the esteem with which our people are often viewed. Several times, I have been asked what sets the Presbyterian Church in America apart from the rest of the denominations. I am afraid that my pride at the privilege of serving in the PCA has been often overweening. I have been known to compare our status in Christ's Church to that of elite military bodies within the Armed Services.

As if it ever mattered to our God in heaven, which church we felt called to serve in! Or if it mattered to other drivers what was engraved on our vanity plates. Too often, we act as if we are the first born in God's family when in fact, we are all adopted children into the family of Grace. It is good, even as we enjoy the status of family members, to remember the real truth of our origin. Once, by nature and by human birth, we were outside the spiritual family of Christ's own Church. Then by the free grace of God, we who were elected before time, have been called into a saving relationship with the one and only Triune God of Creation. While being justified establishes our new relationship, we must go on to understand the new relationship into which we have suddenly been born.

Now at this late date it is probably impossible for you or I to remember when we were first born. Yes, there was probably the traditional slap on the rump to get us to breath and clear our lungs. Then there was the wrapping in warm clothing, the cuddling and the cooing to encourage us to put up with the awesome new surroundings. There was the light that first blinded our eyes, but in time that light enabled us to visualize the wide world around us. In a few hours we established a comfortable relationship with the new status. In some months, as we grew and learned new experiences, we grew special attachments to Mama, who was almost always there. Then there was that stranger, with the often hairy lip who stimulated our curiosity about all of those who were not mother. Very often, to the chagrin of our primary care giver, we identified that other person by name before we honored the one who gave us birth. Daddy, we exclaimed when he gave us warm and loving attention, or even pulled us away from trouble and limited our freedom to experience life to its fullest.

After all, who could ever realize in those first few months that pulling the table cloth could also bring down a rain of utensils, dishes, glasses and other things that we couldn't see from the floor. Mom and Dad had a lot of training to do, to establish the rules, regulations and all the little things that make a house and a home safe, wholesome and emotionally rewarding. In the same way, we must learn to appreciate our status at being adopted into the family of God. A.A. Hodge puts it this way: "As set forth in Scripture, [adoption] embraces in one complex view the newly-regenerated creature in the new relations into which he is introduced by justification."

Sadly, adoption is hardly ever mentioned in teachings about salvation and our true status in the family of God. Too often, the mercy of redemption is the focal point of new born Christians. Yes, that is of vital importance, but as Thomas Watson observes: "it is a mercy to redeem a slave, but it is more to adopt him". Redemption is indeed grand, but adoption is grander still. You see, with the new birth, we must learn to realize that we are now part of God's own family, the family of faith. And just as being born into a material world causes us to look around and discover the essential relationships in our human family, so too must adoption into God's family cause us to consider our status and the parameters of our new life.

Now, there are in this adoption relationship very very many privileges, freedoms and blessings, but there are also a few responsibilities as well before we are allowed the run of the house and the use of the properties! When we were once wee ones, we had to look up at the towering figures of our Fathers and Mothers. Very often, if the truth were to be known, we only obeyed them because they were bigger than us. How much more should we consider proving our adopted relationship by obeying our heavenly father? This is the first and primary responsibility laid before us by the several commentators who helped me with this doctrine.

And what have we read in John's letter this morning about true children of God?

"This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother."

Just as membership in any military organization demands disciplined living from us, so too does adoptive membership into the Church of our Living Lord. Years ago, on the bus to Fort Knox, Kentucky, the young man sitting next to me had found a vital reason for being glad of enlisting in the Army. You see, while we were at Fort Hayes in downtown Columbus, the draftees had been numbered off and the first twenty-six were informed that they had been fortunate to win membership in the United States Marines. My companion had been one of them, in order to escape the honor he had had to enlist for three years in the Army as did six of the twenty-six. Well did he observe, that he had never been so happy to be in the Army when he was adopted from a rival service.