Adopted Children

There is “an old Irish legend of a ruler who wished to leave his kingdom to the cleverest of his three sons. He took the first son on a long journey. On the way, he said, ‘Son, shorten the road for me.’ The oldest son was overwhelmed by the task, gave up, and they returned home. They king embarked on the same journey with the second son and said again, ‘Son, shorten the road for me.’ Like his older brother, the boy was daunted by the request, gave up, and they too returned home. The king then took the youngest son on the long journey. Once again he said, ‘Son, shorten the road for me.’ The youngest launched into a story so long and so engrossing that before the king knew it, he had completed the long journey.”

Reflecting on this dilemma in which many pastors, parents, workers, and all kinds of caring people find themselves today: that no matter how good or sincere they are, they can’t lessen the number of miles (kilometers) on the road, even for people they deeply love. They just can’t walk that long way for those people. But, like the king on the road, I know that just having a companion on some part of the road, can make the long, lonely walk seem shorter, and make the journeys, however difficult, infinitely more bearable.

Have you ever considered the Apostle Paul’s journeys? All those roads he traveled throughout Israel, modem Turkey, modem Greece and Italy? All that walking and, knowing Paul, all that talking? In Greece, even today, there is an astounding symmetry of the Roman roads, and the care with which they were built throughout their vast empire is incredible.

Always exactly fifteen feet wide with a curb on either side and a gutter in the cities; all roads did indeed lead to Rome – and they made Paul’s missionary journeys infinitely easier.

Imagine Paul and Silas, Paul and Timothy, Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Luke, walking along for miles (km) after hot dangerous mile (km) through those small villages and over those mountains and deserts, and forest, talking, working out their theology as they went, telling stories, reflecting on the Scriptures, Jesus, and the truth. Although Paul never uses the metaphor of faith as a journey in the same way that we modern Christians often do, his life was a journey of faith after his encounter with the risen Christ on ‘a road. The road to Damascus: when Paul was blinded by God’s penetrating light and was overwhelmed with the voice that cried out, “Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me?” (Acts 9:1)

Paul conceives of Christ’s Spirit as the stimulus within every Christian working to bring about obedience to God’s will, (Luke 12:12) and His law. The kind of obedience typified in the life and work of Jesus the Christ. When the apostle talks about God sending the Spirit of God’s Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” it is one of the few instances outside the gospel tradition where the literal words of Jesus are preserved in their original Aramaic form. For Paul, who spoke Greek, Hebrew and Latin, and probably not Aramaic, those words uttered by Jesus are obviously important. Abba, the Aramaic word for “Father”, put into Greek letters followed by its equivalent. (Mk 14:36; Rom. 8:15, 16). Why is this important? They symbolize Christ’s willingness to fulfill His commitment to be the Son of God in an absolute sense that the early church preserved them as originally spoken.

“Abba! Father!” were words kept by the early church in their original form, because they were words of a prayer used by those who prayed to be faithful in God’s call under very difficult circumstances. “You have not received the spirit of bondage; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” (Rom. 8:15) The phrases, spirit of bondage and Spirit of adoption are parallel. Perhaps we could say, in a better sense, ‘the state of the mind that belongs to slavery,’ and the ‘state of the mind that belongs to adoption.’ The outcome of the former is fear; the outcome of the latter is the ability to pray and to address God as Father. What a privilege!

Because of changing values, lifestyles and acceptances, adoption is a difficult process in our time. It used to be much easier to adopt a child years ago. Until recent years, adoption was a widely practiced way of giving children a new community of love and acceptance. However, still “there is a special work to be done for the children more advanced in years. Let families of our faith who in the churches can do so, adopt these little ones, and they will receive a blessing in so doing.” (WM 232- 36) “The question of adopting a child, especially an infant, involves most serious responsibility. It should not be lightly regarded.. .The question to settle is this; in doing this shall I be merely gratifying my own wishes, or is it a duty the Lord has appointed for me?

Is this His way or a way of my own choosing?
Carefully search our hearts and study our motives.
Many hearts are centered on their affection and not Christ. (WM 232-36) Perhaps God has withheld this blessing and has a wise purpose for withholding it. It should not be taken as evidence that it is your duty to adopt a child. In some cases it might be advisable. But if the Lord bids you so to take an infant to bring up, then the duty is too plain to be misunderstood.

Great consideration must be exercised in the work we undertake. We are not to assume large burdens in the care of infant children. This work is being done by others. Let families who can do so adopt the little ones, and they will receive a blessing in so doing. (6T 246,47) (WM 232-36)

But Paul says we are all adopted when it comes to our relationship with God. Nobody has a deeper relationship because of blood or genetic ties than any other person. We are all – every one of us – adopted children. Like a parent who loves the child whether it was born into the family or adopted into the family, God loves us all the same. It doesn’t matter. We are all heirs however we came to the family table and altar. In the case of our status as Christiana, however, the situation is even more compelling, because we are all adopted, and we are all heirs. Nobody has more status than anybody else. What, however, are the prerequisites to adoption as God’s children? “Those who receive Him and believe in Him become the Spiritual children of God. They are adopted into the royal family; and as they seek to do the will of God, they become conformed into His image.” (SD 230).

“It is also conditioned on obedience to God’s commandments.” (SD 15) Also, “all who enter into a covenant with Jesus Christ become, by adoption, the children of God.” (SD 15) (2 Cor. 6:17, 18)

“God is our Father, a tender parent, solicitous for His spiritual children. He is pledged to be the protector, guide, counselor, and friend, of all who are obedient to Him.” (SD 14)

There is a story of an old man who ran a cotton gin mill near a cotton plantation in a country town of Louisiana, in America. He began talking about religion one day to one of the truck drivers waiting in line to unload their cotton. He said something memorable, “You know, Gene, when we get to heaven, it’s gonna be like bringin’ your cotton to the gin. We all came by different roads and different means. But God ain’t gonna ask you what road you took. God is gonna wanna know, “How good is your cotton?”

We often forget the essentials of the faith. So easily we get caught up in doctrinal disputes and territorial arguments and power plays and division in the church that we forget the truth and the Law. “Many Church members rely on the pastor, preacher, or leader to keep their weak faith alive and to take the place of Scriptures as man’s guide. They ought not to hand their weight on the minister or leader.” (6T 134)(GC595)(WM111)

God does not care about our labels and who meets human standards. In God’s infinite grace, we are called to remember one essential fact: we will, everyone of us, come before God at that Great Banquet, that time of feasting and joy, when God will include some people we have despised – the last, Jesus calls them – and exclude others – the first – and we will be surprised. It doesn’t matter about our achievements or our standards of righteousness but about faith and how it has borne fruit. For many it is impossible to be a good Christian in the church, if the church identifies itself too closely with the rest of the world and culture, “we are to be a peculiar and distinct people, separate from an unbelieving world.” (IT 286) Many of the members of any church, I would venture, are nothing more than names on a church membership list. They are not loyal, committed members who give their lives to Christ through the church. If their faith has made no difference in their caring, in the way they spend their money and time and energy, then it is no wonder that evil people use the church for wicked purposes. It is no wonder, then, that the church condemns or minimized its weakness in our time if it has made little or no difference in the way people live. A sanctified Pastor most likely sees this all the time: so many people talk about their faithfulness to the church but withhold their very lives from God. They forget their vows and/or covenant with Christ. “They are not educated to bear responsibilities.” (GW 198) They suffer from spiritual amnesia!

A kind of spiritual amnesia plagues us and haunts us, until we realize we are all children of God’s reviving grace, adopted, everyone of us, but heirs.
We shall inherit the Kingdom!
AMEN

Dr. John Theodorou
Greece