My Dearest Sister,
It all starts the day after Thanksgiving. Department stores are flooded with shoppers, television commercials spout the latest holiday sales, and wrapping paper is sold by the thousands of yards. It’s the season of giving and even the best of us can get caught up in the mad rush to find the perfect gift for our loved ones. All too often though, we forget the very first and greatest gift ever given. It was over two thousand years ago that God sent His Son to this world in the form of little babe born in a stable in Bethlehem. In doing so, He made a way for us to become a part of His family, adopting us as His very own children.
The apostle Paul tells us more about this gift of adoption in Romans 8:15: “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God, and if children then heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified together.” To fully understand the magnitude of this adoption process, we have to consider the audience to whom Paul is writing, the Romans. In order to adopt a son in Ancient Rome, the adoptive father had to buy him three times from the biological father, selling him back again after each time. After the son was sold to the adopting party for the third time, the biological father could claim him no longer. The son was then considered to be in the family of the adoptive father and had the same inheritance rights as one of his natural-born children. However, unlike a natural-born son, he could never be disowned by his adoptive father; the adoption was permanent.
Usually these adoptions happened when a person of great wealth or influence needed a son to carry on their family name and heritage. For example, Caesar Augustus was adopted by his own uncle, Julius Caesar, who had no children of his own. As a result, Julius was able to carry on his lineage and Augustus inherited an incredible position of power. It was a win-win. Because of this custom, it was virtually unheard of to adopt a slave. After all, the adoptive father needed someone worthy of carrying on his legacy, not some poor, dirty wretch who wouldn’t know the first thing about being the inheritor of a wealthy estate or important position. Yet we know from scripture that we were indeed once slaves to sin, following the desires and whims of our flesh. What, then, does God have to gain from adopting us as slaves of sin into His powerful family? What do we have to offer Him that makes us worthy of His affection? The answer is absolutely nothing. That’s what makes His desire to adopt us so amazing!
You see, God already had a Son to carry on His legacy and inherit all of His riches and glory: His name was Jesus Christ and He was perfect in every way, the apple of His Father’s eye. And yet God chose to send Him to this world in the form of a little baby boy, so that He would grow up to be persecuted, mocked, and killed by the very people He came to save. Do you understand what a sacrifice that was? Jesus took the blame that was not His and God, not being able to look on sin, had to forsake His precious only Son on the cross. And for what? For us, sister! Just as a Roman father had to buy his adopted son three times, God bought us with three days and nights of Jesus’ death.
There is only one thing that could explain such an amazing sacrifice: “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 1:3). LOVE, dear sister. God cared about us – poor, wretched slaves to sin as we were – enough to purchase our adoption with His own Son’s blood. And not only that, He made us equal inheritors with Christ. I ask you, what greater love can there be than that? So this season, let’s take a break from all the last minute shopping and present-wrapping to appreciate the greatest gift we will ever receive – our adoption as sons and daughters in the family of our ever-loving Abba Father. Merry Christmas, my precious sister!
In His love,
~ Lauren