Adoption

The following verses show how born again believers whos hearts have been circumcised and who have been purchased by Christ’s propitiatory work on the cross have become part of the same family through adoption.

“12 So then, BROTHERS, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are SONS OF GOD. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of ADOPTION as SONS, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are CHILDREN OF GOD, 17 and if CHILDREN, then HEIRS—heirs of God and FELLOW HEIRS with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8:12-17)

“4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that WE could receive ADOPTION AS SONS. 6 And because you are SONS, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but A SON, and if a son, then AN HEIR through God.” (Galatians 4:4-7)

“4 even as HE CHOSE US in him before the foundation of the world, that WE could be holy and blameless before him. 5 In love he predestined US for ADOPTION through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:4-5)

“In the highest sense, not true of any one else, Jesus Christ is God’s Son (8:3). But in the widest sense all men are “the offspring” (γενος) of God as shown in Ac 17:28 by Paul. But in the special sense here only those are “sons of God” who are led by the Spirit of God, those born again (the second birth) both Jews and Gentiles, “the sons of Abraham” (υιο Αβρααμ, Ga 3:7), the children of faith.” (Robertson’s Word Pictures Romans 8:14)

So another way that God’s multitude (ecclesia) are to see themselves as a family is through the idea of adoption.

Since we have been adopted, we have become brothers and sisters spiritually, of ONE family. I am not saying that a church is your family, since the ecclesia who attend a church are just as much your spiritual family as those who are living in your neighborhood or in your house. You have as much responsibility, if not more so, to ACT as a family with the ecclesia who live in your neighborhood or house as with the ecclesia who go to a church 5-10 miles away. So why not make those in your neighborhood your priority as the 12 apostles did each other, and as the NT believers did in Acts chapter 2?