Papa

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.”  1 Corinthians 6:19-20

“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are God’s children. And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ) – if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.”  Romans 8:15-17

 As we explored earlier, once Adam and Eve ushered sin into the world, we have all fallen victim to its lies. The ultimate generational sin is sin itself. Just as certain behaviors are encoded in our DNA, I wonder if this is one of them? Like, once they sinned, Adam and Eve’s DNA was changed and when they procreated their tendency to sin was passed on to their children. Either that or simply living with sinful parents engendered the tendency to sin. It’s the old debate of nature vs nurture. But since we don’t have DNA samples from Adam and Eve before the fall, we’ll never know this side of heaven. In either case, the reality is that before we come to know Christ as our Savior, we are slaves to sin. In John 8:34 we read, “Jesus answered them, "I tell you the solemn truth, everyone who practices sin is a slave of sin.” He goes on in verses 35-36 to say, “The slave does not remain in the family forever, but the son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, you will be really free.” Just before this, in John 8:31-32, Jesus told them, “…If you continue to follow my teaching, you are really my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” As we embrace our roles as disciples of Jesus, followers of His life and teachings, we will come to know the truth. We will see sin for what it is and see through the enemy’s deceptions. The Son of God will have set us free. While some parts of this happen immediately upon our acceptance of Jesus, namely we are no longer bound to sin and we have the ability to escape its hold on us, others are worked out over the rest of our lives in the process of sanctification.

 In Romans 8:15 (posted above) we read that through Jesus we did not receive a spirit of slavery. He did not indenture us to Himself, causing us to have to work out our own salvation. Instead, He paid the whole price of our sin and gave us the Spirit of Adoption. We are adopted into the family of God and made brothers and sisters of Jesus. God the Father is our Heavenly Father. As I mentioned, in John 8:35 Jesus tells us that while the slave does not remain in the family, the son remains forever. We are forever a part of God’s family when He adopts us. Just like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, we can cry out to God with His personal name of Abba, Father. In Romans 8:15 (above) and Galatians 4:6 we read that through the Spirit of Jesus we are granted this privilege. In an American colloquialism, this would translate to us getting to use the intimate title of “Daddy” rather than the formal “Father.” This will have different meanings for different people, likely based on their relationships with their earthly fathers, but the sentiment remains the same. God becomes personal to us. He is not a far-off, separate, distanced entity in the universe, but our very close, paternal, loving care-taker. We are not just joining a club or organization, or even a church, we are joining a family.

 Throughout history, even this has had different connotations. During the late-medieval period in England and trickling down to early American culture, adopted children were often seen as nothing more than servants. They were brought into a family and given a meager subsistence in exchange for sometimes ridiculous amounts of work. Sometimes these children were forced to go out and work in factories and such to bring in money in exchange for their care. Thankfully, the tide has turned on these practices and to truly adopt a child requires a great deal of interest and work, although there are sadly still a huge number of incidences of child trafficking, especially in poorer countries, that are done under the guise of adoption. Having adopted a child myself, I have a unique perspective on these verses.

 Adoption, particularly international adoption, had been on my heart since I was 16 years old. God prepared me far in advance for this particular challenge and blessing. He matched me with a husband who was similarly inclined, and we moved forward together in this adventure when our boys were only 1, 3, and 5. As my oldest son inquired, “You keep having babies and they keep coming out boys. When am I gonna get a sister?” they then went on to learn that “Little boys come from the hospital and little girls come from Africa.” Don’t worry, they’ve been educated beyond that now 😂. But I’ll tell you, that season of adoption was one of the most difficult of my life, and I’ve had multiple brain surgeries! From the work it took to get through inches of paperwork and education (our adoption agency required a great deal of training), to the atrocious pain of having to say goodbye to my little girl and leave her in an orphanage where she was being terribly abused, to the unending wait for bureaucratic red tape, to the incredible joy and unimaginable difficulties of integrating a new child into our family who came with a history of her own. I tell you what, children who are born into a family can always wonder at the circumstances of their conception (Was I planned? Was I a surprise?) but children who are adopted have to know that they were desperately wanted.

 Just like my daughter was a loved, wanted, and desired addition to our family, so too are we wanted by our Heavenly Father to join His family. In Romans 8:17, we are assured that we are not just family members, but fellow heirs (some versions say “co-heirs”) with Christ. In 1 Peter 1:3-4 we find that we have an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading reserved in heaven for us! Then again in Galatians 4:7 we read, “So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you are a son, then you are also an heir through God.”

Here’s the Thing: Our adoption was bought at an even higher price than any earthly adoption, and keep in mind those costs start in the tens of thousands of dollars. We are even more wanted and even more prepared for and even more loved by our Heavenly Father. We are invited to call Him “Daddy” or “Papa” if you are more inclined. We are made a part of His Heavenly Family, not just in name only or as some form of club membership, but in a personal, familial way.