Adopted by the Father into the Family

Adoption is one of the greatest pictures given to us to understand our relationship to God as the church. Unfortunately, it is also veiled because adoption in the ancient world was quite different than adoption in the 21stcentury. If we are going to imagine the kingdom, a kingdom headed by a Father whose Son is King, we must allow Paul’s understanding of our adoption to paint its picture in our hearts.While some might think I planned to start this theme of adoption on Father’s Day, but I’m not that smart. However, as I was preparing this week, the thought crossed my mind that this would make a good Father’s Day message (and then I realized…). J. Todd Billings, on the subject of adoption, writes,“The gospel does not so much offer a low-cost ‘eternal life insurance’ as it gives the tremendous privilege of learning to be children of the King, living into our new identity in a kingdom that is coming forth to us from the future.”After exploring the marathon of faith in Hebrews 11-13, we now turn to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians where he calls us to imagine a whole new way of relating to God and one another.