Have you ever looked at a child who was acting out, and told them “Grow up!”? Where is the magic button that makes our children obey us? We wish we knew! All of us parents have faced this challenge, and it can be more difficult when the child is adopted. We might not know what the child is thinking or going through at that moment. Because we do not know, we struggle with the correct way to approach the child. We find out that being an adoptive parent is not easy.

The Bible uses the analogy of adoption to describe how we become God’s sons and daughters. This resulted from Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. Paul says in Ephesians that the purpose of God adopting us is that we live holy and blamelessly, which will result in praise of His glorious grace (1:4-6). This occurs in three phases: past, present, and future. For those of us who have adopted, the past phase is the judicial (court) declaration granting the adoption. Spiritually, this declaration occurred when we repented of our sins and embraced Jesus Christ as Lord. God pronounced that we were His sons. This decree proved our adoption was final and once-and-for-all. Nothing can shake the permanence of this adoption. This is the position of our adoption.

The future phase of our adoption consists of being a permanent part of God’s family, based on the promise that we will live forever with Him. This is rooted in the guarantee of that promise being the Holy Spirit dwelling inside the believer. Because of the security the Holy Spirit gives, our confidence in our future adoption is unshakeable. We might have questions about our adoption, but the Holy Spirit reminds us we will always be God’s sons. This is the promise of our adoption.

While waiting for the future phase of our adoption, we have a purpose in the present. This is the phase of our spiritual growth as His sons and disciples. Because of our adoption, we cannot live in our past. Instead, we must learn to communicate with God in a new language through the Bible reading and prayer. We also desire fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Just as a new adoptive child needs to learn to honor his parents, so we have to learn to honor our Heavenly Father. Honoring Him involves both obedience and remembering what He has done for us already. When we suffer, we should turn to God because, as Father, He knows what is best for us and He wants to comfort us. This is the practice of our adoption.

It is the position, promise, and practice of our adoption that explain the how and why of God choosing to adopt us. We will struggle with each of these, but only find our true identity in Him as we understand what our adoption means.

How do you think that this applies to you? Have you ever adopted or been adopted?