Adopted as Children of God
A sermon given by Rev. Jonathan Scanlon
Genesis Presbyterian Church
January 5, 2015
The 2nd Sunday of Christmastide 

Ephesians 1:3-14   3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,  4 just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.  5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will,  6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.  7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace  8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight  9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,  10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.  11 In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will,  12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.  13 In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;  14 this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people, to the praise of his glory.

5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will,  6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.  

I could preach a whole sermon on just the first half of Ephesians 1 verse 5. God destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ. How do we unpack such a statement? First off, what does it mean to be destined? Often when I am meeting someone new and they hear I am a Presbyterian, their mind immediately goes to dark side of Calvinism and their staunch opposition to the idea of predestination. I first like to respond with the fact that John Calvin never preached on the doctrine of election, or what we consider to be predestination, like I am doing right now, but rather Calvin only wrote about what he called election to explain texts like this and what Paul wrote in Romans. This information is normally received as a surprise to such individuals. 

Secondly, Calvin did not dwell on the negative damning side of election. For Calvin, this concept was something much more positive. In Calvin’s commentary on Ephesians, when describing today’s text, he writes, “We were chosen because we were worthy, and because God foresaw that we would be worthy… for if we are chosen in Christ, it is not of ourselves. ” Calvin goes on to say, “No doctrine is more useful, provided it be handled in the proper and cautious manner, of which Paul gives us an example, when he presents it as an illustration of the infinite goodness of God, and employs it as excitement to gratitude.”  In my experience, those who complain the most about predestination are not thinking about it in such a proper and cautious manner. 

Do you, like I, believe that God is all powerful and good? Do you believe God lives somehow outside the confines of time and space? Do you believe God knows what decisions we are going to make before we make them? If so, then the concept may not be much of a problem for you. Maybe you disagree or struggle with these ideas. And there is nothing wrong with that either. The point this text is getting at is how God created each of us for a purpose, however it was destined to be.

We now come to this Greek word Huiothesia (hwee-oth-es-ee'-ah), translated as adoption. The same word is used in Romans and Galatians. This is a compound word from the Greek huios—for "son," and thesis— meaning "to place." Huiothesia literally means to "place as a son". The word “adoption” does not appear in the Hebrew Old Testament because legal adoption was not prescribed in Jewish law or practiced by the Israelites. Sure, there are stories of surrogate parental figures taking in children and rescuing baby Moses from the sea of reeds, but doing so was only following the commandment to care for widows and orphans. To best understanding Ephesians, we need to think with a Roman mindset. Romans recognized that when a baby was born, you basically got what you got, whatever came out, if you will. Whether you liked the baby or not this child was yours, including the child’s gender, mental capacity, deformities, birthmarks, or any other random trait. 

According to Roman law, a naturally born baby could even be disowned from the family. But men adopting a son knew exactly what they were getting. By law an adopted child could not be disowned. He was permanently added to the family. 

During Paul’s day, adoption was part of the Roman law and world. Girls were not adopted under Roman law, because women could not own property. Only sons inherited property and adoption was a legal mean though which a man could bequeath his estate.  The Caesars adopted sons frequently, in order to leave them their grand inheritance. The focus of such adoptions remained on the Caesar.  It was the will of the Caesar or wealthy man that was important; not the will of the adopted son. All legal rights were with the father and none with the son.  It was the father’s will which controlled everything. In the Roman culture, the adopted son experienced four major changes: a change of family, a change of name, a change of home, and a change of responsibilities. Initially, the son’s ties to his biological father were severed. This allowed the boy to come under the full control of the adoptive father. 

This is all well and good, but where is the child’s voice and agency in the matter? The fact is the will of the young Roman boy didn’t matter much in the day. The child did not have the ability to refuse such a legal transaction. Are we okay with that? 

All of this talk of adoption goes to say, we have been chosen for a relationship with God. By specifically using the word “adoption,” Ephesians emphasizes that salvation found in Christ is permanent. Each of us, the children chosen for us a special relationship become permanent members of the family of God, forever sealed in Christ. This adoption is not the result of any merit on our part, but solely the outworking of God's love and grace. Our being adopted as children by God was not a result of our doing. Our being adopted was by the good pleasure of God’s will. By our nature we are not the sons or children of God but only earthly creatures. 

Parents who care for their children, and who are able to do so, will make provisions for their children’s future, as much as they reasonably can. Wills are written to lay out a plan in the case of death, not only for financial support, but also considering their nature and care, should the parents die before their children reach an age of maturity. 

As children of God, we have an inheritance along with Christ. We have an eternal destiny in the will and purposes of God, and so when difficulty or opposition comes our way now, we need not keep our eyes fixed purely on the trials of the present: we can look into God’s great future and remember what our Creator has willed for us. And when we do that, we receive the love God has been longing to pour out on all. We are adopted, because God so wants us in the family, and we can now take risks for faith because we understand such great security. The fact we are guaranteed an inheritance, strengthens us to the point we can cope with the setbacks and the resistance to our faithful living, because we know what God’s love has for us. This vision is God’s, the initiative is God’s, and the power by which it will come to pass is God’s. God creates, God destines and blesses, God wills, reveals, and accomplishes according to God’s good purposes. Acknowledging who God is, proclaiming what God has accomplished through Christ and is actively doing in the world today, allows us to know who we are, what we were created for and what we will be doing in the end. 

It is because we are the ones chosen for a relationship with God that we are chosen to praise God. Our purpose is to praise, and God is the one to whom, for whom, and before whom our praise is given. This text is not only meant to be read and understood by its readers; this is a text that is also meant to be performed by the faith community. This text encourages worship and praise. It is only truly understood when it forms our individual lives and our life together.

The letter to the Ephesians is a call for us to live in peace, to love and respect those whom we initially despise, and to live together into God’s good future. Ephesians is written for first-century Christians who remain uncertain about their identity. This letter reminded them of their baptism and gave assurance that by God’s grace they have been given a new identity in Christ and made into part of a new community and new humanity. Ephesians can remind us too of our baptism. This is a letter that reminds us of the grace of God in Jesus Christ that has established this new social reality of which God graciously make us a part. It can remind us that our identity as Christians is a gift, a very gracious and at times very challenging gift, but a gift of God nonetheless. 

God’s grace was there existing before the foundation of the world. The funny thing about grace is that it remain there whether we choose to fully accept the change or not. Like the young Roman boys being placed as sons of other men, the transaction is completely out of our control. Adoption is a comprehensive and total transfer of one’s passions, love, and allegiance from the world to God. God is both the free initiator of adoption and the recipient of our lives. Our praise of God is the end toward which such adoption is directed. We are therefore not only chosen for a relationship with God, but also entrusted to convey the gospel message of God’s love to the world. Through our faith and relationship with God we become the storytellers, the harbingers, the messengers of the truth of the world to come.

We traverse through, trying to hold ourselves together, through all of life’s struggles, carrying on as best we are able.  We dare not ask for help or show any vulnerability. And like all of God's embattled children, who long to be gathered up and loved and told that we are safe and that, despite the pain, and the loss, and the anguish of this world, there is something better coming for us, something better coming from us, if we will only keep dreaming. And best of all, someone better coming to us--if we will only live toward a reality that so far is only promised, but which, in the power and mystery of God, is sure. Remember, before any of this existed, God’s plan encompassed us and the human story of faith. May it be so?