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THE PERFECT ADOPTION #6

ADOPTION WITH A LIFETIME GUARANTEE

Once you're in God's family - adopted, as we say - can you know, absolutely KNOW, that God's not going to kick you out? In other words, can the son or daughter of God live a life of full assurance, learning obedience in a family atmosphere of love instead of fear?

He was out on the field of battle, wearing the blue uniform of a Union soldier in the United States Civil War. The year was 1863. And this young man so far from home had the same deep concern dads have had for centuries: he was worried about his kid. From a book by Stephen M. Frank, entitled "Rendering Aid and Comfort": Images of Fatherhood in the Letters of Civil War Soldiers From Massachusetts and Michigan, we find this note recorded for posterity:

"I think of you," he writes to his wife, "and wish I could be there to send Ed to bed on time." Some things never change, do they? "Should I ever reach home again I feel thankful to think I am spared on Edwin's account as I know he will grow up a bad boy unless some father guides him."

Well, we say, "Some things never change," but maybe they do change, because this was included in a much more recent book, published in 1995, in fact, entitled Fatherless America, by David Blankenhorn. He quotes from Daniel Yankelovich, who observes:

"Until the late 1960s, being a real man meant being a good provider for the family. No other conception of what it means to be a real man came even close."

And, to illustrate the change that's occurred in recent years, Blankenhorn shares a brief, wrenching story from a book entitled Do I Have a Daddy? by Jeanne Warren Lindsay.

"‘What about Daddy? Didn't he want me?' asked Eric. ‘Your daddy was excited. He came to see you when you were very little. But then he went away.' ‘Did he like me?' asked Eric. ‘Oh yes! and he was very proud of you,' Mother replied. ‘Then why did he go away?' asked Eric. ‘Caring for a baby is a big job,' said Mother. ‘Your daddy wasn't ready for that.' ‘Oh,' said Eric."

Well, friend, you read a story like that and you honestly want to just pick up a rock and throw it at somebody. You really do. Until you remember what they say about glass houses, and you remember what Jesus Christ said about throwing stones, and you remember the many times in life when you didn't keep your promises, when you bailed out on something you said you were going to do, and let down people who needed you.
But this takes us right into Week #2 of this very important Bible discussion of spiritual adoption. It's been our focus in this study that when a man or woman comes to God and embraces the Christian message, they are adopted. They become God's sons, His daughters. They join His family. He loves them, cares for them, provides for them. It's been marvelous to search out together not just what the Bible says about this incredible topic, but also some soul-strengthening insights from a book entitled Knowing God — which is what family and adoption would be all about, of course. J. I. Packer goes so far as to assert:

"You sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one's holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's CHILD, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all."

In Blankenhorn's book, he has several chapters describing fathers who are there at one point and then gone. Just these chapter titles are so tragic: "The Unnecessary Father." "The Deadbeat Dad." "The Visiting Father." "The Sperm Father." Men who are there for a while; maybe they come to the delivery room. They promise to stay and love, honor, and cherish. But when the going gets tough, or when someone else's perfume smells a bit better and a new lady shows up at work looking like a Victoria's Secret model compared to what they have at home . . . suddenly they're gone. But as J. I. Packer describes the faults and frailties of dads down here on planet earth, he reminds us that even when our own flawed experiences with fathers disappoint and wound us, we have in our minds a picture of how a GOOD dad would be. A good dad would never leave. A good dad would not let us down. A good dad would not adopt us, and then later cancel the arrangement.
And that is really all we have to say today. In this book, Knowing God, he puts it in exactly six words:
"Adoption is a blessing that ABIDES."

In other words, it is a permanent agreement. You can count on it. God is a Father who will be there for you today, and tomorrow, and forever.
He echoes, for just a brief moment, along with Blankenhorn, the sad realities that surround us here in this fragile and selfish 21st century:
"Social experts drum into us these days that the family unit needs to be stable and secure, and that any unsteadiness in the parent-child relationship takes its toll in strain, neurosis and arrested development in the child himself. The depressions, randomnesses and immaturities that mark the children of broken homes are known to us all." But now notice the incredible "counterpoint" as we consider the adoption God offers: "But things are not like that IN GOD'S FAMILY. There you have absolute stability and security; the parent is entirely wise and good, and the child's position is PERMANENTLY ASSURED. The very concept of adoption is itself a proof and guarantee of the preservation of the saints, for only bad fathers throw their children out of the family, even under provocation; AND GOD IS NOT A BAD FATHER, BUT A GOOD ONE."

I like how Eugene Peterson brightens up the famous King James line in Hebrews 13 about "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Listen to this:

"Don't be obsessed with getting more material things." A kid worried about the security of his adoption would tend to do that, wouldn't he? "Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, ‘I'll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,' we can boldly quote, ‘God is there, ready to help; I'm fearless no matter what. Who or what can get to me?'"

Of course, just two verses later, the Bible tells us this about Jesus — who, by the way, participates with His Dad in this whole adoption business:

"There should be a consistency that runs through us all. For Jesus doesn't change — yesterday, today, tomorrow; He's always totally Himself." In the King James: "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever."

Let me ask you, friend. How many of us who are Christians have said inwardly, with trembling heart: "Yes, I'm God's child today. If Jesus were to come right at this moment, I would be saved. But I don't know about next year. I worry that I won't be true; I worry that I'll be lost." Have you ever said that? What it implies is that somehow this adoption could be undone; we could cease to be God's child.
Now, let me say this. And the fact that we are discussing it today, the reality that Christians have debated for centuries the doctrine of salvation assurance . . . demonstrates that it is a difficult teaching to understand and accept. But it's true that adoption is something that the parent must offer and the child must accept. Is it possible for a kid to be adopted, even by a wonderful parent, and then later the child himself deliberately asks out of the relationship? Yes, that is possible. That can happen. I can choose to say to God: "I no longer want to be Your child."
But we're not talking about that here, friend. We're talking about the adoption from God's side, what He offers us. Is it permanent? Can we count on it? Will the sins that we commit next week or next year or in the year 2020 jeopardize — from His perspective — the adoption He offered us, the heavenly home He guaranteed? Again, as Packer puts it:

"Only bad fathers throw their children out of the family, even under provocation; and God is not a bad Father, but a good one."

And we have the word of Jesus Himself on this. In John 6, He tells us:

"Every person the Father gives Me eventually comes running to Me. And once that person is with Me, I HOLD ON AND DON'T LET GO."

If you want to savor the King James grandeur of that promise, here it is:

"All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out."

It is absolutely true that adoption also implies that the child will grow up to be loving and obedient. Packer's chapter, "Sons of God," goes on to say that many, many times. Yes, sanctification will happen. The adopted child will honor his or her heavenly Father with good deeds. That's in Matthew 5:16. If we love Christ and are glad to be adopted, we will obey His commands. That's John 14:15 and 15:14. Loyalty is important; faith without works is dead. But friend, before the child can be a good child, the Father must be a good Father. In adoption, Father goes first. Always. And it is only within the security of adoption assurance, only within the framework of knowing that you are in a family where you absolutely are not going to be sent back to Lucifer's orphanage, that you can relax and learn true, instinctive obedience. "The faith of a little child."