We need to be adopted. We are all orphans without a home lost in a world that is cold and hard and unfeeling. We try to figure out who we are and where we belong.

I want to look at a couple of Bible passages today and look at the spirit of slavery, the spirit of adoption and the spirit of the Son. Our adoption has already been approved and sealed. We only need to accept it.

SPIRIT OF SLAVERY

Romans 8:15

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again

Paul was writing to the Roman church. He wanted them to understand who they now were and who they once were. They had not received a spirt of slavery. Look where slavery leads. To fear. Did you see that? “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again.” Some of us live our lives in constant fear. We are afraid of our world and everything in it. The Father is not the author of fear. Fear is the work of the slave master.  Fear is only a symptom that we need to be adopted. We are rejected and caught in sin and fear. We need redemption. We cannot make this happen on our own. We are trapped in this spirit of slavery. When we become entrenched in fear with a need to belong, a need to fit in, a need for approval, we become slaves to that thing. Where does the fear come in? After having done everything, we are still rejected. We are still unwanted. It will never be enough.

SPIRIT OF ADOPTION

Romans 8: 15-17

 but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters 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. (NASB)

Our adoption is spiritual. Our adoption allows us to cry out “Abba! Father!”  Abba. It’s not a word that the western world uses, but it at its basic means “Daddy.” It is a very personal name for a father. Our adoption allows us to have a personal close relationship with God. We become his child.

 We become His heirs and fellow heirs with Christ. What does it mean to be an heir? That means that someday when someone dies, we will inherit what someone has left to us. Now since God will never die what does this mean? When we die, we will inherit what he has for us. When He returns, we will inherit what He planned for us. When we become a child of God we suffer with Christ. We may not be nailed to a cross, but we share the persecution, rejection by the world, shame, and reproach, that Jesus did. We share the “family name.” In sharing the family name, we also are glorified with Him. Whatever reproach we endure on earth is wiped away in glory.

SPIRIT OF HIS SON

Galatians 4:4-6

Our adoption stands ready. It has been bought and paid for all we need to do is accept it. Receive the family that is Jesus. Notice what Paul writes in Galatians 4:4-6

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters. ⁶ Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!”

God does everything in His time. When the time was right, Jesus was born in Bethlehem. When the time had come, Jesus died on the cross for our sins. It is this one act of sacrifice that allowed us to be redeemed, to be adopted. We only need to accept the adoption that is waiting for us. Paul points out that after we receive the adoption as sons and daughters, God sends “the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!” After we accept Jesus and the price he paid for our redemption, we are no longer slaves to fear and sin. We are sons and daughters. The Spirit takes up residence in our hearts and we enjoy personal relationship with God calling him Abba!

You can have that relationship with Him today. A new destination in life. I don’t know what is going on in your life. I don’t know where in the world you may be. I do know you need to be adopted and redeemed from the slavery of fear you are in. You need the Spirit of the Son in your heart. You need Abba. You need the Father. Today you can change your heavenly family. All you need to do is cry out to Jesus. He will show you the rest. Won’t you do that today?

Angela

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