Saturday, December 5, 2015

What Does It Mean to Be Adopted by God?







Is Our Adoption By God Any Way Less In Status And Privilege To That Of The Only Begotten Son of God?

Question : Jesus is called the only begotten Son of God, we are called the adopted sons of God. In what way we relate to God, is it equal to how Jesus related with God the Father? In other words, is our adoption as sons of God any way less in status and privilege to that of the only begotten Son of God?

Answer : God has only one begotten Son of God who is eternal and have become human and again have gone in to heaven even the highest heaven and no one has seen God except the one who has been in the bosom of the Father (John 3:16). We are adopted sons of God as the Bible clearly reveals, "5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;" (Eph 1:5-8, KJV).

The Word "begotten" which has been used in KJV, NASB and the NKJV English translation has been translated from the Greek word 'monogenes ', which actually means "pertaining to being the only one of its kind within a specific relationship." For example Abraham had many sons but only one through Sarah, but Isaac was considered to be the only son of promise being 'monogenes' to all legal inheritance that Abraham had (Heb 11:17). Apostle John uses this word 'monogenes' in this gospel to highlight that Jesus is uniquely God's Son by nature — sharing the same divine nature as God (John 1:14, 18; 3:18; 20:31; 1 John 4:9) — as opposed to believers who are God's sons and daughters by adoption as we have seen above in Eph 1:5. So John the apostle also tries to convince all heretics that believe Jesus was literally "begotten" as in “produced” or “created” by God the Father to be false as he tries again and again in the Jewish Language to emphasize that He was God and was existent before he ever became man (John 8:58; 17:5; 6:46; 1:1, 14, 18). The very word Father and Son is used in anthropomorphic human terms that help us understand the relationship between the different Persons of the Trinity, here it is the 1st Person and 2nd Person.

We as believers are both begotten John 1:12-13 (cp. 1 Pet. 1:3) and adopted sons of God Gal. 4:5 (cp. Rom. 8:15; Eph. 1:5). We are begotten by God the Father to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, in other words when Christ rose up from the dead all of us from then on who received Jesus as our Lord and Savior (John 1:12), were born from above spiritually by God putting a regenerated new spirit within us which made the Holy Spirit to be sealed within that new spirit-man inside us (Titus 3:5; 1 Cor 6:17; Eph 1:13-14), which has given us a direct access to the very throne of God situated in New Jerusalem the mother of all believers 24/7/365 (Heb 12:22; Rev 21:2). New Jerusalem became the mother of all believers because we like Isaac was, we are children of promise who by God's covenant with Jesus was born spiritually by His will when Jesus took His blood in to New Jerusalem and forever made New Jerusalem to beget God's children spiritually on earth through God's New Covenant with Jesus (Gal 4:23, 24-25, 26, 27-28; Heb 9:12, 24; 10:19). Now we are born according to the Spirit in our spirit and not in our flesh, so when we cast out the work of flesh then the son of promise the spirit-man within us from being a "spirit of a child" adopted legally with a special status of adoption as God's child or childship, are then "graduated" into sonship day by day as we cooperate with the leading and constant teaching of the Spirit of God by which we cast out the works of the flesh (Gal 4:30-31; Rom 8:14; 13:12, 14; Gal 5:16, 24-25).

Luke 3:38 reads, "the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God."

Adam was created a son of God. All who were born after him were born as sons of man. (except Jesus who was the Son of God (came down from God) born of a woman thus also the son of man). To become sons of God everyone else must be born spiritually which equals adoption as a son of God (which we were not originally). In other words, our forefather Adam was born in the perfect image of God in the beginning (Gen 1:26-27; 5:1), but as Adam and Eve sinned and were thrown out of Garden of Eden, ever since all the sons who were born to them were all born in the image of Adam and they all lost the image of God due to the sin of one man Adam which spread to all men (Gen 5:3; Rom 5:12)

All those who have borne the image of First Adam as his fleshly children have become rebels and enemies of God because of the inborn sin nature which marred the image of God to make it become inoperative spiritually, but God by His love, mercies and grace towards us, God made us alive spiritually even when we were yet sinners through Jesus Christ's death and resurrection (Rom 5:6-7, 7-8, 9-11). Because we are saved through Jesus now by reconciliation to God and look for future salvation from wrath of God in hope, Apostle Paul assures us saying, "For we did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."" (Romans 8:15). Here we come to understand that the Spirit of adoption who is the Holy Spirit is the one who is in us as God's seed when we were begotten through the Gospel of resurrection and this is the very reason for us to be called the adopted sons of God (1 John 3:9; 4:4, 13; 1 Cor 4:15; 1 Peter 1:3-5; Rom 8:9-10). There are no second class adoption when it comes to a just God who loves us all unconditionally and equally, the same Love of God that was shown to Jesus from the Father God, the same has been shown towards us in Christ Jesus (John 17:23, 26). In regards to begetting, Jesus the Word was the only begotten Son who again begot us through God's holy Word and will (John 1:1; 1 Peter 1:23, 25). Joseph a righteous human adopted by faith Jesus the only begotten Son of God when he became the son of man born through Mary the woman who was betrothed to him (Matt 1:19-20; Gen 3:15, 20; Gal 4:4-5; Luke 2:49), so that when we the sons of men were born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5; Eph 5:26), to come in to the Kingdom of God, God by faith graciously adopted us to make us the sons of God (Gal 3:26; 2 Peter 3:15; Rom 9:16, 21-22, 23-24, 25-26). Thus Jesus the only begotten Son of God became the son of man, so that we the sons of men could become the sons of God through Him. Now we have one Father who is above Jesus and also above us, we can relate to the Father God in the same way Jesus related to receive grace and lived a glorious life of heaven on earth for God's glory (John 20:17; Eph 3:14-15; Heb 5:7-10; 4:14-16)    

Our present promised adoption as child of God culminates on the day we rise up in our new glorious body during Rapture as Romans 8:23 confirms it saying, "Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body." This also shows that the adoption originally happens and gets fulfilled completely only through the redemption of our body.

When we were in the flesh, the law ruled us leading to death. Christ came to redeem us from the flesh by having crucified it through His flesh has set us free as God's children to receive the adoption as sons to live forever in liberty (Gal 4:5; 5:1; Rom 8:3; Php 2:7; Eph 2:14-15; Col 1:19-22; Heb 10:19-22). In the same way if we suffer like Jesus to walk in the will of God, we will also be glorified as Jesus' brethren in the same way (1 Pet 2:21; 2 Tim 2:12; Rom 8:17; 1 Peter 4:13; Heb 2:11-12). GLORY TO GOD! Now as we are in the Spirit (Rom 8:9), we have come to inherit everything that belongs to God as spiritual Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises (Rom 9:4; Gal 3:6-7, 8-9; 6:16, 18). Hallelujah!

The picture that Paul by the Holy Spirit is using here in Galatians is definitely the Roman law of adoption of sons and not Mosaic Law of adoption (Gal 4:1-3, 4-6, 7). Adoption as a son in Roman law meant that you had the right to the name and the citizenship of the person who adopted you, and the right to inherit his property. The adopted son had the same rights and privileges as a naturally born son. Hence as there is no difference between Jesus and us in regard to the inheritance from God, and the status and privilege as God's child, let us suffer to live in the center of the will of God and inherit all the authority, power, riches and all inheritance of God to legally receive it for living a overcoming life of faith which glorifies God and receive it all with great joy when we go to heaven to be rewarded with all of those things (Rev 3:11; 21:7; 1 John 5:4). In it is one thing to live on earth in imputed righteousness of God (Rom 4:5-6), but it is totally another thing to use that imputed righteousness to work out righteous works which God has prepared for us beforehand to work out by faith that which God works in us (Eph 2:10; Php 2:12-13), these imputed righteousness cannot be availed except for entering in to heaven where reward will be given only for works of righteousness and not just the intentions of it (Romans 2:6-11; Jer 17:10; 1 Cor 3:13). That is why Paul the apostle said and emphasized, "that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works...because these things are good and profitable to them for eternity ahead." (Titus 3:8). So, keep working your righteousness for reward until Jesus comes, or you go to Jesus when you die to be with Him forever!  

Much Blessings.....



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