The One Who Has God as a Father

Some of you have been there. The orphanages of developing, third world countries. I’ve been to these places in both Russia and Ethiopia. Such suffering and poverty that is hard to comprehend.

You find sickly, undersized kids and crying babies, often where both parents have died from AIDS. They are starved for love and affection. So many children, so few workers. The future could not be more bleak for these precious children … unless adopted! This changes everything! New status, standing, home and future.

Today’s seventh loving act is when our heavenly Father adopted us into His family and changed everything about our standing before Him, our identity in this world and our future.

What was predestined in eternity past (“In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself” Eph. 1:5) came to fruition in time and space history. What was birthed in regeneration was immediately brought into fellowship through adoption. In this gracious act, the orphaned meet their Father, strangers are introduced to their family, the homeless are given shelter, the hungry are brought to the table, the poor are made heirs of the King and the slave of sin becomes a free son or daughter of God!

Dr. J.I. Packer in Knowing God, asks, “What is a Christian? This can be answered many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father.” He’s leaning heavily on Paul’s teaching in Romans 8:15-17. “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

From slaves to sons, we now recognize God as Father and can call Him by that intimate, familial term because the indwelling Holy Spirit continually bears witness to and with our human spirit that we are God’s adopted, saved, forgiven children. We belong to Him and what He owns will one day belong to us. In the meantime, suffering, but in eternity, a weight of glory beyond all comparison!

In Gal. 4:4-7 Paul says similar things, adding there that God the Father sent the Son to earth “so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” Have you ever considered that Jesus came and died so you could be adopted?

J.I. Packer continues: “If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God.”

This means as children of a faithful, covenant-keeping God, we can approach Him without craven fear of judgment or rejection, we can approach him as those already in the family, not trying to earn our place at the table, but rejoicing in our place at the table. And in Packer’s words, we may “always be sure of his fatherly concern and care.”

I recently asked my son Carson and his friend Noah, who were both nine at the time, what is the father’s main job? They conferred and said, “to take care of his family.” I said, “well, what does that look like? What does that really mean?”

Carson said, “if a robber tries to come in, it’s the father’s job to protect his family.” How many things in your life can you say, “that’s the Father’s job” and believe it? We are responsible to do what He commands us and then to rest in His care, to rest in His presence and His promise of “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Adoption is arguably the highest blessing in the gospel because it brings us into fellowship with God. It brings God to us as heavenly Father. An old Methodist saint, Billy Bray, had this unforgettable approach to prayer: “I must talk to Father about this.”

Packer concludes: “Do I, as a Christian, understand myself? Do I know my own real identity? My own real destiny? I am a child of God. God is my Father; heaven is my home; every day is one day nearer.”

Or as a brother in our church shared with me after a sermon calling us to mourn the sins of America, – “it ’s a good time to be old.” I would add, only if you are an adopted child of God. Are you?