(Gal 4:4 -7) But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

God the Father has lavishly poured out His Love upon us! As John the Apostle exclaimed, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1)

The Father's love is liberating! To truly know and apprehend that love, would cause us to walk in a freedom and liberty unfettered by the chains of fear, doubt, and uncertainty.

Furthermore, the Love of the Father is that which gives us our purpose and destiny.

(Eph 1:4 -6) In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

I'm Adopted!

In both of these passages from Galatians and Ephesians, Paul uses the term "adoption".

This term, Adoption, distinguishes the sonship of believers from the sonship of Christ.
Jesus is the Only Son of God by Nature.

Human beings are not God's children by nature - (contrary to popular belief, see, John 8:44) People have no natural right to claim to be God's children. Physical birth never has and never will guarantee membership in God's family.

The scripture declares it plainly, "But as many as received Him, [Jesus] to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12 -13)

Only the Father's gift of grace, through Christ's work in redemption, and by the Spirit's work in the life of the believer can bring adoption and make one a child of God.

Through responding in faith to Jesus Christ we have been made free from our slavery to sin and freed from the jurisdiction of our former "father" Satan.

A Place in the Household of God

The Greek word that Paul uses for "adoption" is "Huiothesia", literally means the "placing of a son"

According to Kittel's, Theological dictionary of the New Testament; Paul's' aim is to show that the sonship of believers is not a natural one but is conferred by divine act. The term might refer either to the act or to the result.

In other words it is important to note that "Huiothesia" is not referring only primarily to being Born Again. But also a placing of position within the household, and a responsibility to walk in. (Cf./Gal.4:1-7)

The term, Huiothesia, refers, in part to a son's stepping into their place in the household of God. It is a word of both relationship and of position. Through our faith in The Only Begotten Son, we also have been made sons, and given a place within His Household!

There is a longing for belonging…

People have an innate need for love, acceptance, and fellowship. Everywhere you look there are signs that people are hungering for fellowship, community, and a sense of family. Beer commercials, for instance, don't sell beer, they sell fellowship. No one is ever portrayed drinking alone; it's always done in the context of
people enjoying each other's company.

In adoption we receive the position of a son of God. Every Christian obtains the place of a child and the right to be called a son the moment he believes. Through our adoption as sons we find our deepest need of belonging
met in our fellowship with the Father.

Many of us are not walking in the freedom of that fellowship that the Father delights to bestow, simply because they fail to truly believe the love the father has for them. Sometimes our own myopic vision keeps us from
receiving the love of the Father.

The Love of the Father is so deep, so high, so wide, and so humanly incomprehensible, that many will not apprehend it for themselves. We judge ourselves to be "unworthy" of such a great love. We feel that we are unlovable based upon our own views of ourselves, or the views that others may have of us. The tragic result being that many Christians are walking around trying to "prove themselves" to God, or to other's around them. This striving ultimately leads one, once again into bondage. A legalistic bondage of religious works, and a societal bondage of striving to
gain the favor and approval of others.

However, I went to share a liberating truth with you! When you truly see and receive the love of the Father,
you can be set free from the striving to "prove yourself". It's over!

Freedom comes when we recognize the Father loves us as we are, for who we are, and there is nothing that we can do to "add" to that love. Simply believe He loves you, because He has both spoken it and shown it through the cross and receive it in faith and gratitude!

Christians need to have a sense of security in their identity as adopted sons in the household of God!

The reason I say this is, many in the church are struggling, perhaps even suffering, because they truly do not understand their identity. They truly do not understand the depth of the Father's love. How wide! How high! How deep! How unfathomable is the Father's love for His adopted Children! The very word "adoption" carries the idea of being especially "chosen". I have friends who have adopted children, they went to an agency where they saw pictures of children who needed a home and a family, and out of all the needy children they "chose" a particular child, a child they felt a tug in their heart for. They love that child as their own flesh and blood. No one could ever tell that child was not their natural child. They don't take better care of their natural children over and above their adopted child. In a similar, and yet far more glorious and infinite way, The Father has chosen You!

"…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before Him in love having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,…" (Eph 1:4-5)

God, left His home in heaven, came down to this pitiful orphanage called earth, where the keeper of the orphanage was the devil himself! Then, he looked upon us with incomprehensible mercy and said, "I want that one…and that one…and that one…in fact, give me the whole orphanage! What's the price?"

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (Eph 1:7)

Do you see yourself as "accepted in the beloved" and "adopted as a son"?

We live in accordance with our perceived identity. In fact, no one can consistently behave in a way that is inconsistent with how he perceives himself. Your attitudes, actions, responses, and reactions to
life circumstances are determined by your conscious and subconscious self-perception.

Many Christians are striving and laboring to "gain favor" with God. However what we truly need to see is that we have already "gained favor" with the Father through our adoption! We are accepted in the beloved!

(Eph 1:6) "…to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

Again, there are many Christians who are struggling with emotional bondage. Their theology tells them that God loves them, but they fail to apprehend that love on a consistent and daily basis. They are quickly shaken by everyday occurrences. However, our assurance and confidence should not be placed in the circumstantial events of our lives or we will be shaken. Therefore we also need some understanding of…

The Father's Loving Discipline.

(Heb 12:5) And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives."

Very often believers become confused about the Love of God when they are going through hard times. We go through seasons when it seems that everything is against us, that all of our best-laid plans go awry.
We begin to think that even God is against us.

As a good friend of mine has written in a tract called, "Father's Family", Frank Howell writes:

" The father is going to have mature sons. He has predetermined this for those whom He has adopted. They will be comformed into the image of Jesus, who is the "first -born of many brethren." (Rom.8:29)…Child training and discipline are part of the process We will find ourselves in situations that peel away the veneer of our lives so that we can see where we need to grow up. God will bring correction and strong discipline at times into our lives so that we will change. This will often bring confusion or even despair into the hearts of many of [His] children.
It will certainly be the case if we only see "God", and not "Father"!"

This is a liberating point! Don't let that point escape your attention. God is God to the world, and yes He is God to us also - but more then "God' He is the believer's Father!
We need to see not only "God" but we need to see "Father"! What an awesome thing to truly grasp!

Some years ago I was debating the truth of the gospel with a leader of a local Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah's witness.As I was witnessing to him about my wonderful conversion and salvation experience he asked me, "Why don't you call God by His name Jehovah?" I explained to him that I accept that name for God, but then the Holy Spirit welled up inside of me and with tears in my eyes I told Him I called God by a greater name, he looked at me in puzzlement and said, "God has no other name!". With tears of joy in my eyes I said, "I call him Father!" I said to him, "Perhaps the reason you only call him by His name is because He's not your father? You can't call Him Father, anymore then I would call your earthly father, "Father", but by his name, because he's not my father." I could see he was stunned by my response.

You see he didn't have the witness of being a son!
As Paul writes, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,…" (Rom 8:16)