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THE PERFECT ADOPTION #7

"I'M YOUR BIG BROTHER"

Getting an instant step-brother is the stuff sitcoms are made of - and sometimes nightmares. But it can also turn out to be fantastic. Isn't it true that, following adoption, if God is your Father, then whoever His Son is . . . immediately becomes your older Brother?

Vincent was a great sinner. He made a dubious and fitful living as a con man, stealing luxury cars from airport parking lots and selling them to so-called "chop shops" for parts. He owed hundreds of dollars in parking tickets and for various other crimes and misdemeanors. He couldn't stay in a stable relationship. He had many years ago been abandoned as an orphan; as far as he knew, his mama was dead. And on top of it all, he was a short, pudgy, balding man with a greasy little ponytail and loud, offensive habits.

And then one day — he's rotting in jail for those parking fines — who should show up at the precinct but Julius? A tall, handsome, muscular Adonis who speaks six languages and is a brilliant scientist. And he says to the weaselly Vincent: "Come on, I'm bailing you out." "Who are you?" Vincent asks, gazing up at this Teutonic Atlas who towers over him with his rippling quadriceps. And Julius almost hugs all the oxygen out of him. "I'm your twin brother." What?!

If you remember the comedy from about 15 or so years ago, some scientists in a laboratory had decided to create the perfect man. Julius was the result of a eugenics experiment — the genetic creation melded from six superstar-type men and a near-perfect volunteer woman. The "natal milkshake," as one reviewer put it, produced the flawless Julius . . . and some leftover chemical debris — "genetic junk," as Vincent sadly describes himself — made the slimy second banana in the comedy story. And that's the long and the short of it.

Well, friend, we won't go too far down this road in pursuit of Bible truth. Our topic this week is adoption, and how the reality of our adoption into God's family is truly one of the great transforming pillars of Christianity. God doesn't simply redeem us at Calvary; He makes us into His sons and daughters. And the marvelous discovery we want to emphasize today is that sometimes when you are adopted by a marvelous Father, you get an unbelievable older Brother at the same moment. Two for the price of one, if we can vastly improve upon the campaign promise made by a presidential candidate about ten years ago, who offered America his spouse as a kind of second president.

In the film, Twins, this Julius character, played, of course, by the hulking but tender Arnold Schwarzenegger, has a hard time convincing Danny DeVito that they are really twins. "Come on!" Vincent protests. "Look in the mirror, pal. No way are we twins." But Julius is persistent. Not only are they biologically twins, but there's more. "I love you," he tells his brother, whom he's just barely met. "You're my brother. I love you. I'll take care of you." And all through the rest of the story, that's exactly what he does. He provides for Vincent. He bails him out of trouble. He teaches him right from wrong. He doesn't abandon him when DeVito goes off on misguided wild goose chases to Texas. When there's trouble, he comes to the rescue. "I FEEL you," he says simply. "When you hurt, I hurt."

In a tremendous Christian book we've been reading along with the Bible for this series, entitled Knowing God, J. I. Packer writes about the wonders of adoption into God's family, and then makes this simple assertion:

"As our Maker is our Father, so our Savior is our Brother, when we come into the family of God."

We've spent a week and a half thinking about the fact that "God-as-Father" is not simply a poetic metaphor, but a full reality. In that Twins comedy, fatherhood came from a genetic milkshake which had zygotes and genes and chromosomes. And yes, in a biological way, that does determine fatherhood, and in this case, also brotherhood. Julius and Vincent were brothers because they shared some of those genes. But God the Father is our Creator! He actually designed the genes! He sustains our life. He cares for our present and directs our future. He hears our requests; He listens when we talk to Him. He communicates back to us in a variety of effective ways. Most of all, He actually loves us . . . far beyond what any human father could ever do. My point is: this is real. "God-as-Father" is more than just a doctrine; it is a description of the way things truly are in the Christian faith. If one Father is real and the other one a shadow, listen, it's the man who stood with your mom in the delivery room who's the copy, not the original.

And — also in the Christian faith — the Brotherhood of Jesus is equally as real!

Back around the end of the year, we received in the mail a beautiful calendar from some friends in the Vaishnava faith community. As a part of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, this calendar had a very Hindu flavor to it, with lovely paintings of the gods and spirit beings of their faith. The accompanying letter offered best wishes for brotherhood and peace in the year soon to come, and had this inspirational quote:

"To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give them the understanding by which they can come to Me. I, dwelling within their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance."

Except for the fact that the paragraph came from the Bhagavad-gita, it could easily be a part of the Christian Bible. After all, we do worship the same God in heaven, and the man who mailed us this gift is a true gentleman, really a gracious, kind man. A good friend. But in that faith community, even when one worships God the Father, there is no gaining of the Brother, as Christians have. Friend, when you become part of God's family, you immediately gain Jesus as your older Brother.

In the book of Mark, chapter three, Jesus explicitly says about the friends who had chosen to be with Him and support Him:

"Here are My mother and My brothers! Whoever does God's will is My brother and sister and mother."

And it's interesting that the New International Version text notes for the verse says this:

"Membership in God's spiritual family, evidenced by obedience to Him, is more important than membership in our human families."

That corroborates this idea that Jesus being our Brother is a truer reality than even that kid who chased you around the backyard when you were a kid, went swimming with you in the summertime, and shared a bedroom with you until he went away to college. As real and as wonderful as your own brother might have been — and I personally have four of the best in the world — having Jesus Christ as my Brother is more real, more eternal, and more important for me to pay attention to.

In that 1988 story, Twins, the fact of having this fantastic twin was much more than a "Get Out of Jail Free" card. Yes, Julius was always there for his little brother. He paid Vincent's fines; he went to the mat for him. But in the end of the story, Vincent was transformed. As his brother had defended him, there came a time for him to defend Julius. Instead of simply seeking one last big cash payout for himself, he turns his back on greed and stands in unity with the brother who has so often saved him. And the story closes with the family restored and with Vincent as a responsible member of that family. And it's a continuing theme in the Word of God, and also in Dr. Packer's book, that being adopted by God the Father — and now having Jesus Christ as our fantastic, living-in-the-world-today older Brother — does mean that we must live as grateful members of the family.

We already mentioned how, when Jesus came out of the tomb on Sunday morning, He immediately thought of His followers.

"Go . . . to My brothers," He told Mary, "and tell them, ‘I am returning to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.'"

And just about nine chapters earlier, in the beloved story where Jesus travels to Bethany, where Lazarus has just been buried, the two sisters come to Jesus, one at a time, and in their grief say to Him: "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." The Bible doesn't say it, but I can't help but think that Jesus wanted to quietly say to them both: "Listen, he was My brother too." Just a few verses later, Jesus Himself broke into tears, crying for His own brother, the man who would truly be made a brother by Jesus' own Calvary sacrifice just a few days in the future.

Because — make no mistake — it's the death on the Cross, and His resurrection from that death which makes Jesus our Brother. Dr. Packer observes, in this great chapter, "Sons of God":

"The Lord Jesus regards all those for whom He has died, and whom He makes into His disciples, as His brothers."

Are you thankful for that today? It didn't happen in Twins, so far as I know, but I remember the old Disney-type films where a little orphan girl, just a rescued waif from the streets, would look up adoringly and say to this strong, wonderful man: "You're the best big brother in the whole, wide world!" Friend, that's what we have.

"Thou art giving and forgiving, Ever blessing, ever blest, Wellspring of the joy of living, Ocean-depth of happy rest! Thou the Father, Christ the Brother — All who live in love are Thine: Teach us how to love each other, Lift us to the joy divine."