Our Perfect Father Who Adopts Us As His Own
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Father’s Day 2023 - Romans 8:14-17
Scene 1/ Father’s day is hard!
And I think we need to give dads a break; in fact a pat on the back, because most do the best they can with what they have.
Father’s day is hard for preachers, because each year you have to come up with something that is challenging, blokey, inspiring but gracious.
As most preachers are male you don’t want to be seen to be a hypocrite in front of your church, or worse still your own family.
Most dads’ do the best they can with what they have.
Father’s day is hard for those who have lost fathers.
There is the grief of loss, the what if questions.
The things that should have been said, but weren’t.
The things that were said that shouldn’t.
The time that should have been spent but wasn’t.
The things left undone.
Most dads did the best they could with what time they had.
Father’s day is hard for those whose fathers let them down.
The betrayal of not being protected.
The hurt of abandonment.
The insecurity of constant criticism.
Some dad’s get it very wrong.
But perhaps that is all they themselves knew.
Father’s day is hard for fathers who fear they have let their children down.
The guilt of not being there.
The grief of missed opportunities to set a child on the right path.
The self loathing of not getting it right and feeling that your children have suffered because of your faults.
Scene 2/ There is only one perfect Father and even his children went off the rails;
So men, let’s not beat ourselves up if our wife isn’t always happy with us, the kids aren’t perfect and life is a bit messy at times.
Fatherhood is not about performance!
It’s about relationship!
The perfect Father set up the opportunity for a perfect relationship with his children.
Listen to what happened.
READ Genesis 3: 1-13
1 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” 2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’ ” 4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” 6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. 8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” 11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” 13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”
The perfect Father put his children in paradise.
As a perfect Father he provided for his children, just as fathers everywhere want to do.
As the perfect Father he provided everything.
Which we can’t.
As the perfect Father he protected his children, just as fathers everywhere want to do.
As the perfect Father he protected them from disease, injury, death and all suffering.
Which we can’t.
As the perfect Father he gave his children opportunity to do what is right.
As the perfect Father he gave them only one rule to follow.
And even the children of the perfect Father broke the rules.
God’s children disobeyed him.
And sin, suffering and death entered into the world.
And God’s heart was broken.
So when your children open the box of unintended consequences which cause you heart ache and pain.
When your best efforts to provide for them are simply taken for granted; or thrown back in your face as not good enough because they don’t have everything they want.
When your best efforts to protect them are misunderstood or seen as being too strict and you are accused of being unreasonable.
When you give them opportunity to learn and grow and do what is right and instead they demonstrate a nasty character that scares you.
Understand this.
God’s children did the same.
They broke the relationship and humanity has been in rebellion against God ever since.
We, our wives & our children are rebels against God!
But!
Out of love for us
Scene 3/ The perfect Father offers to adopt us rebels as his own.
(14, 15b-16)
Listen to this amazing truth from Romans 8: 14-16
READ Romans 8:14-16
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.
The Holy Spirit is the “spirit of adoption”
When the New Testament speaks of adoption it has an incredibly rich meaning which is very different from ours.
Adoption in our western understanding is often seen in a negative light.
We think of children taken from their mothers by a society that “knows best”.
We think of mothers having to give up a child because they couldn’t care for them.
We think of children who years later are still searching for their identity.
And while all these things are true for many they don’t consider the love of the adoptive parents.
When the New Testament speaks of adoption it did so in an entirely different cultural context.
The New Testament view of adoption was an incredibly positive one.
It was always about an act of graciousness by the head of the house, the Father.
Towards one who had nothing to give and nothing to offer.
It was an act of incredible charity.
And in the New Testament it is always an act of God
It is as if we were always part of the family.
We come into God’s family by birth.
The birth that results in placing our faith in Christ.
The instant this happens God makes us his own.
We instantly move from disobedient outcast to being fully part of the family. [1]
We are no longer separated from our heavenly Father by our rebellion.
We are part of his family able to call him Father.
Not in a formal legalistic sense, but in the sense of a close genuine relationship.
The Aramaic language of the New Testament had a special word for Father.
It was a word that a young child would use to express a close loving relationship.
That word is “Abba” in verse 15.
It is a term of excited endearment.
It is not the sweet gentle voice of a half asleep child.
The format of the sentence insists that it is a loud cry of excitement.
And for the adult Christian there is a clear intention that the cry of Abba Father is a Holy Spirit inspired act of worship, using a term that Jesus himself used.
We have been adopted as God’s children
It is a powerful experiential and supernatural act by our perfect heavenly Father.
Scene 4/ This perfect Father gives his adopted children life everlasting and a share in the infinite riches of heaven. 17a,
This adoption is not just for this life.
It is forever!
Read Romans 8:17a
17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
The primary purpose of adoption in Biblical times was inheritance.
An act of incredible charity would bestow the wealth of the household onto someone who had nothing.
Often a beloved slave who would now become the beloved son.
But verse 17a goes even further than this.
It draws on the whole of the Old Testament understanding of the people of Israel being God’s inheritance.
God chose them and he chose to give them the promised land.
When the Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Romans he built this incredible picture.
A picture of a people, specially chosen by God.
A picture of a land chosen for those special people as an inheritance.
And then Paul transfers that entire picture to the church.
And he upgrades it.
No longer is it one special group of people chosen by God.
Now it is all people chosen by God.
No longer is it a land chosen for one special group of people.
Now it is all creation, specifically the new heaven and the new earth, an inheritance for all people chosen by God.
When God adopted us we received an enormous upgrade.
From hell to heaven.
From death to life.
From the poverty of slavery to sin, to the riches of freedom in Christ.
If you walked into a gas chamber, expecting to be executed for some great crime and instead you were given a bag of gold, new clothes and freedom, do you think you would be happy?
You would not just be happy; you would be overcome with joy.
And I think you would make a rather quick exit from that place of great danger.
You would want to be in a place of safety and you would be forever grateful that you had been pardoned and your life spared.
You see when God’s Spirit makes us adopted sons of God.
It is not just a one of act.
It is not just a single occurrence, like a pardon from some great crime.
It is an ongoing relationship.
Scene 5/ The perfect Father drives away fear & walks with us through the struggles of life;
READ verses 15 & 17b
15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
Sometimes life is tough.
Sometimes there is fear and suffering.
Even Jesus suffered.
But the Spirit of our heavenly Father did not give us a spirit of fear.
He gave us a Spirit of life.
We are lead by the Spirit through life.
Not against our will but willingly, because we are children of the heavenly Father.
Yes we must face suffering; we still live in a broken world.
But we do so in the sure knowledge that our perfect Heavenly Father, through his Spirit, drives away fear.
Father’s you are not perfect,
But hang onto God’s perfection,
His comfort,
His strength.
When things go well with your children, with your wife, thank God.
When things are difficult and you do not know what to do.
Seek God!
Because he has made all who are lead by his Spirit his children, not children of fear.
Wives and children,
When your Father’s & husbands do well.
Thank God for them.
When they get it wrong, remember they are just like you, a rebel in need of God’s adoption.
[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Ro 8:5). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.