7 Certainties about our Adoption

Life with Christ

May 12, 2024 | Ephesians 1:5-6 | Aaron Lee | Youth Sunday School

I have been teaching a Sunday School series called Life with Christ where I show how doctrine impacts our entire lives. I wanted to share this specific lesson on adoption as it is especially important to me and my family. The following is an edited transcript.


In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:5-6)


1. Our adoption is a spiritual reality.

It's not something that I'm making up. It's not a man-made concept or framework. We really become adopted into his family, and we are made into his sons or daughters. We are made into his children. This is something that God is actually telling us. This is what he does.

2. Our adoption was done in love.  

Before we talk about predestination, we have to see that it was done in love. When people talk about predestination, they think that God is cold and aloof, and distant. No, it's done in love. It's done because he loves you and cannot forget that. When God brings you into His family. He's not doing it in a mean way. He's doing it in a loving, tender, caring way. Earthly adoption does not reflect that all the time. I can't be perfectly loving to my sons and my daughter. I can't be perfectly loving to my son who we adopted. It's impossible. I'm a sinner, and he's a sinner. We're all sinners. So we can't do it. We have an imperfect love. But when God brings people into his family, and he treats us as our father, it's in perfect love. You have to feel that. Our earthly families are echoes of what God does for us. It does not even compare. You have to remember that our adoption was done in love. 

3. Our adoption was predestined. 

Even though God rescued us from Satan, it wasn't in reaction. It wasn't reactionary. It was planned before the world began, that God would do this. That's what it means to be called. That's what it means to be an elect child of God. That's what it means to be predestined. God chose you before you existed. Not only can you not save yourself, but you can't even bring yourself to come into God's family. God has to predestine that for us. Our adoption is not an afterthought. It's what God had planned along from the very beginning, that he would bring you into His family.

4. Our adoption is accomplished through Jesus Christ.

God can't just say, “Hey, I'm going to rescue you from Satan, and bring you in now” because you're actually still a sinner. You cannot come to God as a sinful person, because it's not compatible. God does have to clean you, he does have to wash you, before he brings you into his family. And He does that by sending His own Son to die in our place. Jesus is the actual Son of God, and we are children of Satan. What does God have to do? He has to sacrifice his own legitimate son, so that us as illegitimate sinners can be brought into his family. That’s huge. When you start thinking about it that way – that God would have to make this ultimate sacrifice, not just to cleanse you, but to bring you in – this changes everything. That's how much God and Jesus loves you. God would sacrifice his own son, to bring illegitimate children into the fold. It's accomplished through Jesus Christ, and Jesus being our older brother. That's how we relate to him. We say Jesus, thank you for loving us in that way. 

5. Our adoption is in accordance with God's will. 

We wonder if our life is working out. We ask if we are living in the way that God wants us to. Am I following God's will? And if you are a true son and daughter of God, if you have believed in Jesus, you have been spiritually adopted into his family, you can be sure that this is God's will for you, and God is going to take care of you. You don’t have to doub this love or the fact that you have been adopted and that he loves you. Not only is it his will to bring you in, but it's his will to take care of you through the rest of your life. When God brings you into his family. He doesn't just say, Okay, that's it, you're on your own go off into the world. No. Like a real father, he guides us along way. And he never leaves us. He never sends us off without his presence anymore. You can imagine that his will to do all of this includes the future as well. Our assurance in our adoption and in our salvation and in our sanctification and in our ultimate glorification – that we will reach Heaven – stems from the fact that we were adopted in accordance with God’s will.

6. Our adoption is to the praise of God’s grace.

As adopted children, we might be tempted to think that we're so good. “God loves us because we're great people.” No, we're sons of Satan. God loves us, not because we're good, but because God is good. And so when God brings us into His family, we can't say, oh, we're great people. That's why God chose us and not others. No. It's all because of grace. And that's what we're supposed to praise and worship Him for when he does this. We say Jesus Christ, God, the Father, Holy Spirit – it's nothing of our own will. It's because of what you did for us. It's all of grace. 

7. Our adoption affords us all of God's blessings.

If you think about it, just being saved doesn't give us any blessings. Being saved gives us freedom from sin, and a relationship with God. But what we get as children of God is the entire kingdom. It’s the fact that we get to rule with Jesus as our brother in heaven. It’s the fact that all the riches that God has as the ruler of the universe – that belongs to us as well now that we're His children. Anything that we get spiritually inherited from God, is due to the fact that we're His children. It's not due to the fact that we're saved from our sin, but it's due to the fact that we are in God's family now. This changed everything for me. This helped me understand that everything I have in this life is a means of grace. Because I'm God's child, every single blessing that comes to me is not because I've been saved from my sin. It's because God is my dad. As you see blessings come into your life, it's not because you're living a good and sin-free life. No, it's because you're God's child. That's what gives you everything. And it's all free, because you inherit them as God's child, and all of our blessings are afforded because we've been adopted into God’s family.

Big Idea

Christians belong to the family of God, being loved and blessed by their Heavenly Father.