“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
John 1:12 (NIV)
What does it mean to be adopted as sons and daughters by the living God? I don’t know about you but there are moments of pure and profound joy as the deep reality that I am and remain the known, accepted, and beloved child of the God who I can call with intimate affection Abba, Father is brought home in my heart once again. The fact that we can walk with God in the cool of the day as Adam and Eve once did as His children is a privilege that we never earned. The outstretched, nailed arms of Christ, who freely chose the path of the cross and who was willingly given by a God who wanted to restore the lost broken, hurting, sinful hearts of humanity to the honourable place of acceptance as children of God, no longer orphaned and alone. This ultimate act of selfless love was not only Christ’s choice to take upon himself the wrong things we had committed, felt, thought, said and done but more deeply still, to repair and restore the broken orphan heart of each person from which this shame and sin manifested out of that had been a consequence of Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden.
Jesus proclaims to His disciples: I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you (John 14:18). In a very real sense, he does this from the first moment we first receive him as Lord and saviour in us. This reality of Jesus abiding within us is the essence and outworking of what Christ accomplished for you and me when he took our place at the cross and cried out “It is Finished” (John 19:28-30). In that moment, the curtain separating the Holy of Holies was torn in two ripping up the barrier between man and Holy God and with it ripping away the curtain separating people’s orphan hearts from the God’s own heart. Sonship and Daughterhood, fractured and broken by Adam and Eve was restored by Christ on earth. With Christ’s death and resurrection:
Dear reader, if you have received Jesus you can look with joy and not dread or disbelief at God as your loving Heavenly Father today. As Romans 8:15 proclaims:
“you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,”[a] leading you back into the fear of never being good enough.[b] But you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,”[c] enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, “Beloved Father!”
Romans 8:15 (The Passion Translation)
The question is, do you believe he accepts you in Christ as his beloved son or daughter? You are not orphaned and alone, you have a Father in Heaven who loves you with a Holy love; a perfect love; a love in which there is no flaw. Take time to meditate on the verse and chorus from this worship song by Ray Boltz. I heard it sang today and it melted me my heart in worship to the gracious, loving Father the God truly is. May it do the same for you too:
And I was there the first time that you prayed
And I heard all the promises you made
And when you fell before me
Crying father I have sinned
I picked you up
And held you close again
And you will always be a child in my eyes
And when you need some love
My arms are open wide
And even when you’re growing old
I hope you realize
You will always be a child in my eyes
Ray Boltz, Always Be a Child © 1994, BMG Rights Management
© 2021 B. Trowbridge
Abba's Dearly Beloved 