Adoption Informes Identity (Part 3)
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.
—Galatians 4:4-5
He that is adopted is taken out of the old family of the devil and hell to which he was heir apparent, and is made of the family of heaven, of a noble family
— Thomas Watson,
Beatitudes Research shows there is a common desire among adoptees relating to identity. They long to know “who do I belong to or who are my people?” Often if a healthy connection can be made with their biological family or heritage, it can help them answer these questions. This heart desire by an adoptee can be a strong one. Similarly, those who are adopted in Christ, will spend their lives searching the treasures of who they are in Him. To know God is to know self. But we are not sons & daughters of God by nature. Jesus is the only one with the right to be called a “natural” son, meaning He alone is eternal God the Son in perfect fellowship with God the Father and God the Spirit in triune harmony for eternity. Since we are sons of Adam, sons of transgression, we have no natural claim to His Kingdom and family. We were once aliens and strangers, without hope and without God. This isn’t true just for the non-Jew (Gentile) but even the Old Testament people of Israel were themselves once orphans (Romans 9:4).
Thankfully, adoption involves redemption. In the US, adoption has a reputation of being expensive, but God’s adoption of his elect sons & daughters was more costly than all earthly adoptions from the beginning of history combined. The price of our adoption was one we could never pay.
“No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him—the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough—that he should live on forever and no see decay…But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself. Selah” – Psalm 49:7-9; 15
The cost of our adoption was no less than God’s own Son, Jesus Christ. He became sin, who knew no sin, He redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Christ took on the wrath that our rebellion justified and absorbed it in His own body. In Christ we are permanently reconciled to God. Through the crucified and risen Jesus, we are no longer orphans but sons & daughters! In precious Jesus, those who were once slaves are now sons, those who were once sinners are now saints. Our “sonship” into God’s family now means that our primary identification isn’t by our last name, which will perish with time, but by the name above all names, Jesus Christ. As Russell Moore says in his book, Adopted for Life, “Whether our background is Norwegian or Haitian or Indonesian, if we are united to Christ, our family genealogy is found not primarily in the front pages of our dusty old family Bible but inside its pages, in the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Our identity is in Christ; so his people are our people, his God our God”.
Though most of us share the same blood with our earthly family, we are now adopted into a new family sharing something much deeper…the precious blood of Jesus. Therefore, adoption informs our identity. We are a new creation. We are now forever beloved “sons” or “daughters”. Let that last part resonate. In Christ, we are those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved (Col. 3:12). The soul that thirsts for identity, the heart that cries “who am I?” can find rest in that truth. Relief (from thirst) is what we did consuming broken cisterns, rest (satisfaction) comes from consuming Christ (John 6:35). How else should our heart’s respond to such things but to say“see how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are” (1 John 3:1a).
