You Mean I’m Adopted?

Galatians 4:4-7

Introduction

There are people who will say that they have attended church, had a bad experience, and never want to go to a church again. I do not want to minimize that bad experience and churches need to come to terms with the fact that people do experience church trauma. I would only say that a bad experience at one church is not evidence that all churches are unhealthy.

I would like to make two points. One is that congregations disagree on how they see our relationship with God and our relationship with each other. The other is that the image that we use to understand our relationship with God helps to shape our understanding of our relationship with each other.

One other point I need to make, when I talk about the different images that we use, I do not mean to say that one is right to the exclusion of others. Each of the images that people use are found in the Bible. I am more speaking about the consequences of our guiding image.

What would faith look like if our guiding image was that of a worshipper? How might that shape what we do and how we interact with each other? I know of a pastor who uses this image and so his main effort is to put on as many worship services as possible.

What would our faith look like if we used the image of a servant or a slave? That might lead us to try harder to follow the rules and to not disappoint the Lord.

What would our faith look like if our main image is that of a disciples? I am drawn to this one, and it could lead to a faith focused on learning as much as possible about God and the Bible.

I want to say that the Bible calls us to worship, to serve, and to be disciples. These are all good things. I am only asking us to reflect on what happens if this is our guiding image.

With that in mind, I want to ask what it would mean for our faith if our guiding image is that of being a child of God? How would that affect how we interact with God and how we interact with each other? That’s what we are going to look at.

The Galatian Context

We are going to be focusing on a passage in Galatians and it is vital that we understand the basic context. Galatia is a Roman province in what is today Turkey. Paul went through this area and preached the gospel about Jesus. Many of the people responded with enthusiasm and became followers of Jesus. This sounds like things were working exactly as they should. But there were some Christians who were not happy. They were from a Jewish background and they were fixed on the idea of Jesus as the Jewish messiah. The problem was that the Galatians were Gentiles or non-Jews. This was not a racial issue but more of a religious/cultural issue. These Christians were fine with the Galatians becoming followers of Jesus as long as they became Jewish first. This took place by accepting the covenant that included the Law and was marked by circumcision. If the Galatians did this, they could be welcomed into the church. So this is the message they brought to the Galatians as soon as Paul was gone. The Galatians, as people wanting to do the right thing, were prepared to be circumcised and to take on the obligations of the Law. Paul writes this letter to try and bring some clarity to the situation.

The Galatian Answer

It would make sense, as those Christians are claiming, that if God revealed a Law that one of the most important things would be to follow the Law. Paul was not against the Law, it was something that he had grown up with and studied. Paul that the Law was a wonderful things for Jewish people to embrace, including Jews who followed Jesus. But these Galatians were not Jews. What they needed was Jesus and not the Law. But how to communicate it?

Paul focuses on the nature of our relationship with God. We are children of God. Now, we are not children of God exactly like Jesus, who was the only begotten Son of God. We do not share in the divine nature nor are we part of the Trinity. 

We are adopted as children of God. Oh, adopted. That doesn’t really count. Adoption is second class, if that. Adoption includes shame and there is reason why children tease each other with that accusation. 

Except that is not accurate at all. I learned as an adult that I was adopted. Yes, it took some time to come to terms with it but I am not ashamed of it. I am okay that there was a father who gave me life and a dad who raised me as his son. It helps that three of our children are adopted. I do not look at our two older children as our “real” children and the three younger as “only” adopted. They are all my children. 

But you may say that is just my opinion. Perhaps, but the culture at the time Paul was writing also highly elevated adoption. You were stuck with who your biological children were but families would choose who they would adopt and so it came with great honour. Augustus, the first Roman Emperor was adopted by Julius Caesar and received all the honour that came with that family. So adoption is to be celebrated.

Now there are legal documents that go along with adoption. We had to show the court documents when we went to change the last names of our children. What is our proof of adoption? According to Paul, that document is actually the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is given to all God’s children as evidence that we belong to God. What does the Spirit do? In the context of our adoption, the Spirit helps us to cry out Abba! This is not a celebration of a Swedish pop band but is the Aramaic word for dad that Jesus prayed in Gethsemane the night before the crucifixion. This word is only used a few times in the New Testament it is never claimed that we say Abba, only that we cry out Abba. It is a promise that when things look the darkest that we can cry out to our Heavenly Father in the same way, with even the same word, as Jesus. This is something that is truly remarkable and deserves deep reflection.

Conclusion

I want to conclude by applying this image to how we interact with God and each other. What does it mean for us to be children of God? Should we live in fear that we are perhaps not living up to God’s standard and are in danger of being tossed out of the family? That is not the way that a parent-child relationship works. Yes there are expectations and there is discipline and sometimes very painful consequences for our actions. But even those things are presented as being about God loving us enough to bring us back. We have had to make some very difficult choices as parents, but none of those should be interpreted as a diminishing of love for any of our children. In a healthy parent-child relationship, the child should seek to obey their parents and yet without fear of being cast aside in their failure. God treats us with grace and we should treat ourselves with some grace as well.

But how does this affect our relationship with each other? If each of us is adopted as children of God, that makes each of us siblings. I do not want to pretend in an earthly family that being siblings means everyone gets a long. I am no expert, as I was raised as an only child, but I am observant enough to see what is going on. There are siblings who are closer than others and some who cannot be around each other. But none of that changes the fact they are siblings. It is just as true in the family of God. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ. That does not mean that we always get along or agree with each other. Some Christians we will feel closer to than others. But there is a bond that exists that goes deeper than our squabbles. We all have the same Holy Spirit and we all find ourselves at times crying out to Abba in our desperation. We can admit that we all have our quirks and at the same time chose to treat each other as fellow members of the family of God. We are all adopted and we should treat each other with the same grace that Abba has treated us with.