BLESSINGS AND ADOPTION

Study SeriesII, Ephesians (1:3-5)

Did you ever hear of Edson Rogers, the son of a wealthy farmer in Virginia? This lad died of wounds in the tragic War between the States. During those hard days of fighting he had met Robert Sawyer. They became good friends, enduring much together. Bob was a poor orphan, but Ed came from a well-respected family. Near the end of the war Edson was mortally wounded. Realizing his life was fast ebbing away, he asked Bob to promise he would go to his parents' plantation and tell them of their wonderful friendship. But Bob said, "I am only a poor boy, they will not believe me, they will think I am an impostor." But Ed had thought it all through and had written a letter in a very shaky hand. He gave it to Bob to deliver. Their farewell was sad and sudden. A few months later the war was over, and Bob timidly made his way to the Rogers mansion. His clothes were shabby, which made things worse. But when he explained his visit and delivered the letter, all was changed. Later, when he started to leave, the father said, "Bob, you must not go. We want you here. Edson was our dearest treasure; he was everything to us. Won't you come to our home and be a son in his place?" What an invitation! A poor orphan boy suddenly becoming a son and heir, to be loved and honored in a home of luxury! How did it happen? It was Edson's name that made the difference.[1]

Paul while writing to the believers in Ephesus from a Roman prison in 60 A.D addressed them “Saints and Faithful.” It doesn’t mean that they can never make a mess but even when they do, God is faithful. When they confess their sin they can regain their position of being saints and faithful. But Paul did not stop there, he moved from how God looks at us to how he actually relates with us. Ephesians 1:3-5 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Vs 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will.”

I. Unlimited Blessings:
Paul attributed all the spiritual blessings to God the father that was to remind the Ephesians that these spiritual blessings were not coming from their pagan gods as their fellow citizens tend to believe; instead they were coming from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. “Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” What does every spiritual blessing mean? Some people might think that “every spiritual blessing” refers only to theological or churchly things but that is because we have made a completely unbiblical distinction between the body and spirit hence we assume that spiritual blessings are not material.[2]

God not only gives spiritual blessings but also the material blessings. In James 1:17 we read “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” When we look at our life as a big circle of spiritual blessing inside of which is the smaller component of bodily gifts and material blessings, then the trials and hardships we go through begin to make sense.[3]

James has put this duel nature of life in the right perspective when he said, James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking any thing.”

Arthur Ashe was a top ranked tennis player in the 1960s and 70s. Raised in the segregated South, he was the first African-American male tennis player to win a Grand Slam tournament. Arthur Ashe died of AIDS, which he contracted from a blood transfusion during heart surgery.For the question of why he has been beset by so much travail, "It's one of the great moral questions," said Ashe. "Why do bad things happen to good people? Because it's a matter of enduring them. Ashe could have become embittered and self-pitying in the face of his disease, but he maintained a grateful attitude. He explained, "If I asked, 'Why me?' about my troubles, I would have to ask, 'Why me?' about my blessings. Why my winning Wimbledon? Why my marrying a beautiful, gifted woman and having a wonderful child?"[4]

No matter whatever hardship you may be going through, God can bring something good out of that situation. Even in the shortage of money God can provide your needs. In the midst suffering and sorrow God can give you Joy. All we have, and all we will ever have come from Christ. As it is written in Acts 17:28 “For in him we live and move and have our being.” Next time when you are enjoying a delicious slice of pizza, having a laughter with your children, spending time with your spouse, looking at the beauty of God’s nature, sleeping in your comfortable bed, or taking a hot shower pause and think about God's good gifts in life.

When we seek to live in greater awareness of the true nature of things there are plenty of opportunities in our every day life to gratefully acknowledge God's blessings.

II. Unworthy, yet Adopted into God’s family:
Ephesians 1: 4-5 explains God’s adoption process. “Just as He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him in Love. He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.” Let me focus on a few key words:

Just as He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him in Love: In Matthew 22:14 we read "For many are called, but few are chosen.” In John 6:44, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Those of us who are saved would not have been able to make that decision to follow Christ if it was not for the drawing power of God the father. I was born and raised in a Christian family yet for about seventeen years I lived as a liked. Thanks to my grand mother’s prayers, I could not resist the drawing power of God. So it is God who has chosen you and me out of this world in Christ so that we should be holy and blameless before him.

He predestined us in Christ Jesus. The doctrine of predestination has brought much confusion and division in the Body of Christ over the centuries. Some view that there is double predestination in which God has already designated some persons to be damned. One scholar notes “The main emphasis of the verb predestination is that God chooses beforehand(in our human understanding of time) and invites us to recognize God’s eternal desire that all would be saved, that all would come to the knowledge of the truth(1 Timothy 2:4)”[5] God foreordained that through Jesus all mankind can be saved. Does that mean all will be saved? No, only those who believed in Jesus would be saved in the end. What else God has foreordained? He foreordained that we should be adopted into his family.

He adopted us as sons through Jesus Christ. The word son here has more in-depth meaning, whether you are a woman or a man when you accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior you were adopted as a son into God’s family. Let me further explain this adoption process.
Joyce Maguire quotes, “Adoption is not about finding children for families, it’s about finding families for children. That is exactly what God did for you and me longtime ago. We were lost in sin, living in abject poverty of soul. We were wandering aimlessly trying to make sense out of life but nothing seemed to satisfy and give the true love we were looking for. The harder we tried the more desperate we became. Our life was a hopeless mess. God stepped in and adopted us by paying a high price through the blood of his son. Now you and I have legally become his sons.

Following scriptures explain how God has adopted us into his family:
Galatians 3:26 “We become sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus
John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,

I John 3:1, 2“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are.”

Galatians 4:4, 5, 7 “God sent forth his Son, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Therefore you are no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

God, lovingly, longingly wants to adopt you as a son. It is not that God needs a son but you need a loving father and a family the family of God. All you need to do is to accept the invitation and by faith become his son. Then what comes after being a son? In Bible times sons carried a lot more responsibility in the family. It is still the same in many eastern countries. Similarly when we become sons through adoption we carry a responsibility. Our father’s business becomes part of our interests and the focus of our energies. These unlimited blessings and un conditional adoption into God’s family is made possible in Christ alone. God is delighted to pour out spiritual blessings on us and adopt us as his children.

How about you today? Have you responded to God’s invitation to become his son or daughter? If you have already, are you growing in the awareness of the privileges and responsibilities of your Sonship?









[1] By Roy Allan Anderson, Signs of the Times, July 1966 http://www.pacificpress.com/signs (Shared by Dale Galusha) Wit & Wisdom - July 27, 1998
[2] The Unnecessary Pastor, Marva Dawn, page 45
[3] The Unnecessary Pastor, Marva Dawn Page 45
[4] http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1003676/index.htm
[5] The Unnecessary Pastor, Marva Dawn page 48.