The adoptive love of God (sermon notes)

Tito Mercado preached this morning.

God’s adoptive love was the topic of his sermon, and the Scripture passage was Ephesians 1.

[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] even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love [5] he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Main idea: God adopted us through Christ so we might know His love and thereby live to the praise of His glorious grace.

(1) Whom does God adopt? God’s saving plan was never confined to Israel or to the original creation. His intention in creating a humanity that would reject him was so that He could restore a people for himself, showing a new kind of love based on the gift of His own son. Our adoption was never Plan B. It was planned in eternity past. “…even as he [the Father] chose us in him [the Son] before the foundation of the world…” John Stott writes:

When people ask us the speculative question why God went ahead with the creation when he knew that it would be followed by the fall, one answer we can tentatively give is that he destined us for a higher dignity than even creation would bestow on us. He intended to ‘adopt’ us, to make us the sons and daughters of his family.

The beautiful parable in Ezekiel 16 compares God’s people (Israel) to an illegitimate child cast away in an open field on the day of her birth, who God has pity on, bringing her to life and making her his own. And in spite of His love, she goes astray after false gods and commits adultery with them. This we can see as a picture of ourselves. Apart from Christ we are helpless like that baby, and we were not cute orphans either, but enemies.

Before time God knew His children by name. Stop trying to earn your salvation.

“For if we are chosen in Christ, it is outside ourselves. It is not from the sight of our deserving, but because our heavenly Father has engrafted us, through the blessing of adoption, in the Body of Christ. In short, the name of Christ excludes all merit, and everything which men have of themselves; for when he says that we are chosen in Christ, it follows that in ourselves we are unworthy.” (John Calvin)

Every time we call ourselves Christians, we are acknowledging that our salvation comes only through faith in Christ.

(2) By what means does God adopt? Through Jesus Christ, by whom God made possible our adoption. God’s adoptive love was made evident and possible through the life and atoning sacrifice of God’s Son. Without the Incarnation, how would we know that God loved us? And without the Cross, how could God save us? Only through Christ. All God’s gifts to us come through the Son and by His cross.

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God…” (1 John 3:1)

(3) To what end does God adopt? Why did He do it? “To the praise of His glorious grace.” God derives honor, joy, and glory by forgiving the guilty, regenerating the dead, and adopting the enemy. It was not to make much of us, but it was so that we would rejoice in giving God the glory. He gets the glory, and we share in His joy. John Piper writes:

God adopted us in our unworthiness to make his grace look great. You were adopted for the praise of the glory of his grace. God’s action in adopting us is radically God-centered and God-exalting … We are adopted by God not so that we will rejoice that God made much of us. We are adopted by God so that we will enjoy making much of God’s grace as our Father forever. We are adopted so that in this family the Father and the unique elder Son, Jesus Christ, will be the source and focus of all our joy. We are adopted “to the praise of the glory of his grace.” … That is the final meaning of adoption.