MONDAY, DECEMBER 4
Romans 8:14-23
Galatians 4:1-5

Serve the Lord with
clean hands and pure heart.

THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION

In my experience as a gynaecologist, one of the happiest families I have seen is that of an infertile couple who adopted two children, a boy and a girl. From the moment they came under their roof, the couple showered them with love and devotion as their very own flesh and blood. As for the children, they had found a wonderful pair of parents from whom they received the full status of son and daughter, eventually coming into the inheritance of the family estate.

We are children of God by adoption. Whereas we were once “aliens… and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope… But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ… Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Eph 2:12, 13, 19).

It is the highest honour and most wondrous privilege to be adopted into God’s family and to have the Lord as our Father. You ask, “How can I know that my adoption is a fact? What assurance and confirmation do I have?” To answer this question we turn to Romans 5:5: “… because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” By His great gift and act of love God is saying to us, “You are now my sons and daughters. Have no fears. I have given you my own Spirit, the Spirit of adoption.”

When God’s Son became man, God the Father showed that He is His Son by sending the Holy Spirit as a dove descending upon Him. Then the Father’s voice from Heaven declared, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17). Thus the Father accorded His Son public recognition. By the same token, God manifests His love to us His children by sending us the indwelling Spirit so that we are enabled to cry, “Abba, Father!” By this we know that we are the children of God, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ (Rom 8:15-17). What a salvation is ours!

THOUGHT: On what grounds did God give us the Spirit of adoption?
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, make me Thy true and filial child.