Adopted By A King Romans 8:12-17
Adopted By A King
Romans 8:12-17
Pastor Barry Kerner
My Father is rich in houses and lands
He holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands!
Of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold,
His coffers are full, He has riches untold.
My Father’s own Son, the Saviour of men,
Once wandered on earth as the poorest of them;
But now He is reigning forever on high,
And will give me a home in heaven by and by.
I once was an outcast, stranger on earth,
A sinner by choice, and an alien by birth;
But I’ve been adopted, my name’s written down,
An heir to a mansion, a robe and a crown.
I’m a child of the King, a child of the King;
With Jesus my Saviour, I’m a child of the King.
Do you know that I am the child of a King? Not just any King but THE KING. Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Eternal and Unchangeable. The Creator of the universe
If you’ll open your Bible to Romans 8 we’ll be looking at verses 12 through 17 today.
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
This world has taught us to earn.
We’ve been conditioned to earn for as long as we can remember — earning praise and affirmation from parents, earning grades from teachers, earning playing time from coaches, earning attention from boys or girls, eventually earning paychecks from employers. We learned how to earn before we learned how to speak or even walk.
But our penchant for earning paralyzes us before God’s offer of true grace. We don’t know how to receive favor without working for it. And so we subtly (or not so subtly) trade away the one true gospel because we prefer to work for and serve God as slaves (or at least as employees), and not as sons. We don’t feel safe letting him do all the work, and earning gives us some semblance of control. We simply can’t believe eternal security and everlasting life could be offered as a gift.
THERE ARE THREE PROMISES FOR CHILDREN OF GRACE
Galatians as a whole suggests that we will be tempted to compromise and deny the gospel by treating God as an impersonal Master, and not a father. We’ll try to prove ourselves to him and earn his love when he has already loved us, and sent his Son for us.
When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:4–7)
Three unusually sweet promises lie in these four verses for precious sons and daughters of God.
First, when God redeems, he secures us forever. He never forgets or forsakes his own children. With Christ, we have eternal security.
Second, we have intimacy — a deep, personal, satisfying relationship with a heavenly Father, who knows us thoroughly, who loves us continually, and who promises to protect and provide for us.
Third, with Christ, we become heirs of all things — all things. Security. Intimacy. And the truest, fullest prosperity.
FIRST, YOU ARE SAFE.
The greatest threat in any of our lives is our own sin, because every sin deserves God’s wrath. Isaiah 53:6, 10 reminds us that the God we offended — the God we rebelled against — shielded us from his fully righteous punishment when he crushed his Son on the cross. You don’t have to wonder whether you’re good enough. You’re not. But Christ is. And being found in him by faith, you are counted as righteous in him. Hebrews 12:67-7 let us know that God may discipline you as your loving Father, but he will not punish you a second time because as Romans 8:1 tells us, he already punished His Son on your behalf. You are safe and secure in the care of your Father.
Every moment of every day before surrendering to Christ, we were in awful, eternal danger. Every second we resisted him we put ourselves at greater and greater risk, having no idea where we were headed and what we would pay for our sin.
But God rescued us in Christ. He paid our debt, bought our forgiveness and freedom, and staked our security on the worth of his Son. He redeemed “those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:5). As a child of God, you are safe and secure from horrors you can’t even imagine. You are safe. You have a Father who watches over you, who knows your needs, who’s defeated death for you, who promises to deliver you to himself — safely.
SECOND, YOU ARE KNOWN AND LOVED.
We’re not only saved by God (at the cross) and from God (his wrath), but we’re saved to God. Being a part of God’s family means enjoying a Father-child relationship with him. “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Galatians 4:6). We can come into God’s very presence and speak with him, worship him, and ask for help. If you are in Christ, you have an infinite, almighty, and caring Protector and Provider.
The word Paul used for “Son” when he said, “God sent forth his Son” (Galatians 4:4), is the same word he uses two verses later: “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Galatians 4:6). In the same way that God sent Jesus into our broken world to save us, he sent the Spirit into our sinful hearts to make us his sons and daughters.
By the Spirit, God himself is in us, binding us to himself, making us his own, and giving us access to him now through prayer, and then forever in eternity face to face. Psalm 16:11 tells us that we have intimacy with the only one who can truly know us and satisfy us. By our faith, he lives in us, listens to us, loves us; he is with us by his Spirit.
The Spirit gives us the confidence and freedom to cry out to God. He assures us that God really does love us. The cry he inspires is a cry to a dad: “Abba! Father!” The Spirit inside of us pleads as a child, and not as a slave. As children, our intimacy with the Father means his love is deep, persistent, and not decisively based on our performance. We are thoroughly known and profoundly loved. We are his.
THIRD, YOU ARE WEALTHY BEYOND IMAGINATION.
Lastly, we have true, lasting, other-worldly prosperity — a divine inheritance kept in heaven for you. “So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:7).
It’s no mistake that, when Paul compares sons with slaves, he calls the son “the owner of everything” (Galatians 4:1). He’s speaking about sons in general, but he means for us to see something about what it means to be God’s son. All that he has — and he has it all — he wants to share with his redeemed and adopted children.
In 1 Corinthians 3:21-23Paul writes, “So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” That promise is so spectacular that it’s almost impossible to quantify or estimate what it could even mean. One day, we will own it all. And yet the greatest treasure we will inherit is not anything God can give us, but God himself. He’s the most valuable, most satisfying, most fulfilling reality that there is, and in Christ, we are his and he is ours (Revelation 21:3).
But by God’s grace, every single person in the whole wide world can become a member of Jesus family!
There is a Way
You Must be Born Again as a Child of God
John 1:12 says, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
You Will Be Adopted into Jesus Family
Ephesians 1:4-5 says “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ.”
You Will Reign with Jesus in Heaven
Romans 8:17 reminds us, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
How should we then live?
You are to Represent Jesus Here on Earth
In Ephesians 1:4 Paul wrote, “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”
If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you are a part of the King’s daughter! The church! You have been adopted by God and given a whole new identity in Christ. The idea of a King’s daughter comes from Psalm 45:13. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what it means to be a King’s daughter, as we examine this verse word by word.
The King’s daughter is all glorious within” Psalm 45:13.
The King’s • Note the possessive apostrophe on King’s. You belong to the King of kings! He says to you, Isaiah 43:1 tells us, “Fear not, I have called you by your name. You are Mine,” He will never leave or forsake you. The King is ALL powerful for you, ALL knowing of you, and ALL loving towards you.
daughter • You are a cherished member of God’s royal family, given access to the fullness of His love and provision. You are not a slave nor a hired hand for God. You are a daughter—an heir of God. Romans 8:16-17 says, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.” As a King’s daughter, everything Jesus has is yours. Everything Jesus is, you are. 1 John 4:17 puts it this way, “As [Jesus] is, so are we in this world.”
is • It does not say “The King’s daughter will be”—nor “when she is good enough”—nor “in heaven”—nor “trying to be.” In Christ, the King’s daughter IS all glorious within. Your identity was sealed at salvation. It is final!
all glorious within • You are filled with the very life of Christ to do all things. Colossians 1:27 says, “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery…which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” When you know who you have within, you won’t go without.
The Armor Of God is found in Ephesians 6:10-19. God’s sons and daughter are outfitted for battle. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit.
I now think there should be an seventh element and this is our crown. For we who wear this crown are warriors who are fully armed and ready for battle with the true enemy. I want that enemy to know that I am the part of the daughter of the King and I am also adorned with the imputed righteousness of Christ Jesus. I am a part of the daughter with a sword and a crown!
While we are all God’s children, we are not all children of God. Scripture verifies this in the words of Paul as he spoke in Antioch to the Gentiles laying the foundation for Christian liberty. Galatians 3:26 tells us, “For we are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.” Once again it is only through Christ and his death on the cross and claiming Him as our Savior that we may be called children of God.
“I am son/daughter of a King, who is not moved by the world. For my God is with me and goes before me. I do not fear because I am His.”
These strong and beautiful words were written anonymously. While they are not scripture I choose to claim them because I claim Christ who claimed me. I know that I was formed by His mighty hands, dreamed up in His heart and placed in this world for a purpose. My crown is a little crooked and tarnished. It doesn’t hold exquisite jewels but it is now part of my armor of God and who I am.
This crown was placed upon my head and represents the work of Christ Jesus who refines me internally through His grace of The Holy Spirit, for I am His jewel. As He fills me with His imputed righteousness and covers me with it, it becomes clothing wrought of gold. Rich, glorious, substantial and strong. I am surrounded by princess warriors who have walked through the fire and more that will. We all wear the same crooked and tarnished crown. These are my sisters in the Kingdom of God and I love them dearly.
Here is what my King has done… He left his heavenly home and all the glories there to live in a dark and sinful world. He battled Satan in the desert and emerged a victor. He suffered the brutal torture and death on the cross, and He bore the sin of all mankind so that we might be made free and privileged to be called His own. The very worst day of His life was the very best day of my life!
Sons and Daughters of this remarkable King serve a living and risen Lord. He will return for me and you and that day is coming although we know not when. If you are uncertain where your crown is you have only to cast your eyes and your heart heavenly. He is waiting on you to claim Him as the son of God, the Savior and Redeemer. And even more He longs to have a relationship with you and enable you with His amazing gifts to further His kingdom and serve Him in this lifetime.
So dust off your crown, straighten it, and when you look in the mirror I hope that you see the face of Jesus smiling back at you as God Says, “Behold My Prince / Behold My Princess.”