Among Us: Adoption and Forgiveness
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Introduction
Watching the movie A Christmas Story has become a family tradition. TNT and
TBS even show the movie for twenty-four hours straight on Christmas! The
movie tells the tale of a young boy, Ralphie, who wants a Red Ryder BB gun for
Christmas. His mom is against it, so he spends much of the movie dreaming
about the gun and trying to convince various adults that he should get one.
Ralphie spends the entire time of Advent preparing for a present he hopes he
can convince his parents that he needs (directed by Bob Clark [MGM/UA, 1983]).
This season of Advent, we are seeking to prepare ourselves for the arrival of
Jesus by looking at the Gospel of John, and today we’re looking at some of the
very specific gifts that came with Jesus when he entered the world on that first
Christmas so many years ago.
There are two specific gifts we’re focusing on today, and they are interrelated.
The first is the gift of adoption.
The Gift of Adoption
The Gift of Adoption
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:9–13 tells us that if we receive and believe in Jesus, we are given “the right to become children of God” (v. 12). This is not an action of our doing, as the very next verse makes clear, but rather the result of the will of God (v. 13).
Imagine! We are called children of God! We are given a relationship with God, not simply as created beings or distant subjects but the relationship of a child with their Father. (And for those who perhaps have unhealthy relationships with parents, know that God isn’t like that. This is a perfect relationship: the way it is supposed to be).
Spoiler alert: In A Christmas Story, while Ralphie spends the movie trying to
convince his mom to buy him the BB gun, it ends up being his dad who gives it to
him. It is a touching moment when the father explains to his wife that he had one
when he was young, and then he and his son bond over the opening of the
package and that first experience of the gun. The father knew what his son
wanted, even though his son never asked him for the gift—and we have a
relationship like that with our father as his children.
Jesus says in Luke 11:11–13:
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Through Jesus we are given a good Father who knows what we need and want, and will take care of us.
The next gift we are told about is found a little later in the chapter, and it is the gift of Forgiveness
The Gift of Forgiveness
The Gift of Forgiveness
In John 1:29-34, John the Baptist gives a title to Jesus:
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes
away the sin of the world!” (v. 29). This language, like the tabernacle language
before, links the work of Jesus to the sacrificial system of the Old Testament.
From these two gifts a very clear image emerges of just what God’s desire was in
sending Jesus to earth: a loving relationship with his children. By adopting us as
his children, God is making his heart’s intention clear: he loves us. Each and
every one of you is loved by God. By providing a pathway for our sins to be
removed, God is also making something clear: because of Jesus, he holds
nothing against you. Your sins are gone. They have been taken away. The Greek
word in John 1:29 for “takes away” is airō, and it means “to take upon one’s self
and carry what has been raised up, to bear”
It is as though the sins of the world are being laid on Jesus’s back, and he is
carrying that load for us. We can now stand tall, knowing we are right with God
and loved by him as his very own children. If this is a gift you haven’t
experienced yet, then why not ask God for forgiveness? Why not put your trust in
the name of Jesus? He will not turn you down. That’s not the character of our
loving Father