Adoption

13 July, 201313 July, 2013Marissa

About two years ago I read a booklet that claimed it is a “misunderstanding” to describe Christians as “adopted” children of God “rather than His actual begotten sons.” The bulk of the booklet was excellent and had nothing to do with this topic, but I wanted to bring this up by way of introduction. If I had not felt uncomfortable with the way this part of the booklet was phrased, I probably never would have looked into the concept of “adoption” in the New Testament.

Once I began studying it, I started to think that adoption as presented in the NT is a way of describing the process by which we become God’s children. We were once separated from God by our sins, but because of Christ’s sacrifice we have been brought into God’s family (Col. 1:21-22; 1 Jn. 3:1-2). They are calling people who were once outside Their family and making them children. Sounds like adoption to me.

Romans 8

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together (Rom 8:14-17)

The word “adoption” used here comes from the Greek word huiothesia (G5206). When looking at the history of this word, there is no question that its intended meaning is adoption. Spiros Zodhiates says it is used “of the state of those whom God through Christ adopts as His sons and thus makes heirs of His covenanted salvation.” He goes on to explain that,

Paul in these passages is alluding to a Greek and Roman custom rather than a Hebrew one. Since huiothesia was a technical term in Roman law for an act that had specific legal and social effects, there is much probability that Paul had some reference to that in his use of the word. Adoption, when thus legally performed, put a man in every respect in the position of a son by birth to him who had adopted him, so that he possessed the same rights and owed the same obligations. Being a huios, a son, involves the conformity of the child that has the life of God in him to the image, purposes, and interests of God and that spiritual family into which he is born.

Several verses later in Romans 8, the same word is used again.

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body (Rom.8:22-23)

Adoption as Redemption

In Romans 8:23, “adoption” is so important to this process of becoming God’s sons that it is equated with “redemption.” This is not an isolated comparison.

Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ (Gal. 4:3-7)

These verses tell us that Jesus Christ came with the purpose of redeeming us in order that “we might receive the adoption.” In such a context, adoption sounds like a description of the process by which God takes people who were not part of His family and makes us His children.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved (Eph. 1:3-6)

Adoption — being redeemed from sin and placed in God’s family — is something we were predestined to “according to the good pleasure of His will.” Another usage of huiothesia underscores the importance of this concept. In Romans 9:4, adoption is listed alongside “the glory,” “the covenants, “the giving of the law,” “the service,” and “the promises” as something which God gave to Israel (Rom. 9:1-5).

No Longer Orphans

Though Paul is the only New Testament writer to use the Greek word huiothesia in his writings, the concept of adoption is not isolated to his letters. When Jesus Christ promises in John 14:18 “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you,” the word “comfortless” is translated from orphanos (G3737). In the Septuagint, this same word is used in Psalm 68:5 to describe God as “A father of the fatherless.”

Zodhiates says this word is derived from “an adjective not found in the NT meaning obscure, dark, because the orphan is often little esteemed and neglected and thus forced, as it were, to wander in obscurity and darkness. Orphaned, bereved, spoken particularly of children bereaved of parents (James 1:27).” This darkness and obscurity perfectly describes the state we were in before Jesus Christ rescued us to be His adopted brothers and sisters.

From examining these verses, it seems clear that use of the word “adoption” in no way indicates we are anything less than God’s own children. Like the Roman custom Paul was likely referencing, this adoption takes someone previously not in the position of son and makes them a child in every sense of the word.

Jesus The Christ

8 July, 20138 July, 2013Marissa

I’d like to share a quote from a book I picked up a couple weeks ago. I still haven’t decided whether or not I like Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill, but it has given me several things to think about. For example, there is an interesting footnote to page 50, in which the author discusses the shift from approaching Christianity through a “Jewish conceptual framework” to a Greco-Roman view that disconnected Christianity from its Jewish roots.

By the time of Constantine, Jesus was already shedding his Jewishness; and the Greek word Christos (Christ), meaning ‘Anointed One,” a translation of the Hebrew mashiach (messiah), had become in effect Jesus’s surname.

The problem with this is that treating “Christ” simply as a surname can make us lose sight of an important aspect of Who He is and what He was sent to do. His names have meaning, but too often we pay no more attention to those meanings than we would to the fact that the names John Doe mean “God is gracious” and “a female deer.”

Christ, the Anointed, is a title that God gave Jesus. It is so important that it quickly became part of His name — the name “Jesus Christ” is used 198 times in the New Testament and “Christ Jesus” 58 times. “Lord and Christ” is how Peter referred to Jesus in his Acts 2 sermon.

This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on My right hand, until I make Thy foes Thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:32-36).

Looking For a Messiah

Having read from the scriptures we know as the Old Testament (some were discussed in this post last week), the Jews of Christ’s day were expecting an Anointed Savior to appear from the Lord. When Andrew (who became one of the 12 disciples) first met Jesus, he said, ““We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ)” (Jn. 1:41, NKJV). Even the Samaritan woman who Jesus spoke with at the well said, ““I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things” (Jn 4:25, NKJV). In reply, Jesus said, “I who speak to you am He.”

The fact that the Jews were expecting the Messiah — the Lord’s Anointed, or masiyach (H4899) — is why He is referred to as “the Christ” seventeen times in the gospels. It is why John’s Gospel was written, so “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name” (Jn. 20:31).

What Was He Anointed to Do?

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. (Luke 4:18-19)

This scripture is one Jesus chose to read as He taught in the synagog at Nazareth on the Sabbath. After reading it, He said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21). Quoted from Isaiah 61, this mission is what His anointing included. Here in Luke and Acts 10:38 are the only places I’ve been able to find where the word “anoint” is used this way in the NT, but I think it is safe to say that the anointing Jesus received from God included other roles, such as High Priest (Heb. 5:1-10).

If we forget the meanings contained in Jesus’s names, we lose sight of much more than just the Jewish roots of our faith. The fact that Jesus is the Christ, the One chosen and Anointed by God, is one of the founding principles of our faith, and should not be ignored if we seek to follow and honor Him.

The Lord’s Anointed

6 July, 20135 July, 2013Marissa

It happened again — I intended to write a post about one thing and got sidetracked by a different verse. This time, it was Psalm 2 out of The Holy Bible in its Original Order.

Why do the nations rage, and the people plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Christ, saying, “Let us break Their bands asunder and cast away Their cords from us.” (Psalm 2:1-3)

The word translated “Christ” in this version is typically translated “anointed” (compare texts from the NKJV, NIV, and ESV). This is from the Hebrew word masiyach (H4899), which we typically Anglicize as Messiah. As pointed out in John 1:41, Messiah is, “being interpreted, the Christ.”

Messiah

Looking at the use of this word in the Old Testament, it is translated several ways. The first time it appears, it is referring to “the priest that is anointed” (Lev. 4:3, 5, 16; 6:22). Since it usually refers to a consecrated person, it can also be used of kings (1 Sam. 24:6; 2 Sam. 23:1) or God’s people (1 Chron. 16:22; Psa. 28:8).* Warren Baker and Eugene Carpenter say in their dictionary that the concept of “Messiah, as a Savior is not fully developed in the Old Testament. .. this concept is developed later, during the New Testament period and fits better with the parallel Greek word christos.”

Daniel’s prophecy is the only place where masiyach is translated Messiah in the KJV.

Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. (Daniel 9:25-26)

Christ’s Kingdom

Though masiyach is only translated as Messiah once, its usage in the OT may not be as disconnected from the NT as Baker and Carpenter seem to think. Take 1 Samuel 2 for instance. Hannah’s prayer of thanks after Samuel’s birth ends with a prophecy:

The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall He thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and He shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of His anointed.(1 Samuel 1:10)

This seems to me like it could be a prophecy of Jesus Christ coming, and I’m not the first to think along these lines. Writing in the early 18th century, Matthew Henry said,

We have reason to think that this prophecy looks further, to the kingdom of Christ, and the administration of that kingdom of grace, of which she now comes to speak, having spoken so largely of the kingdom of providence. And here is the first time that we meet with the name Messiah, or his Anointed. The ancient expositors, both Jewish and Christian, make it to look beyond David, to the Son of David. Glorious things are here spoken of the kingdom of the Mediator, both before and since his incarnation; for the method of the administration of it, both by the eternal Word and by that Word made flesh, is much the same.

His Anointed

Though Henry does not not draw the same conclusions about the following verses, I would like to bring them up as well. When the Lord rejects Eli’s sons from being priests because of their sins (1 Sam. 2:22-36), He says,

I will raise Me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in Mine heart and in My mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before Mine anointed for ever. (1 Samuel 2:35)

Neither The Holy Bible in its Original Order nor the NKJV capitalize “anointed” in this verse, but I could easily see this as referencing two God-beings. It is a similar situation in chapter 12, when Eli addresses the people after anointing a king over them.

Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before His anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you.

And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any man’s hand. And he said unto them, The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found ought in my hand. And they answered, He is witness. (1 Samuel 12:3-5).

I would love to hear my readers’ thoughts on these verses. Could they be references to the Lord’s Anointed? or am I reading too much into this?

*according to Strong’s Dictionary and The Complete WordStudy Dictionary: Old Testament. See “About” for complete citations.

A Love Story

11 May, 201311 May, 2013Marissa

Once upon a time there was a family of two mighty Beings. Their relationship of love was so close that They were often known by a single name. One day, They decided that They wanted to share Their love with others. But instead of creating little robots, They made people who, like themselves, had freedom of choice. They made a beautiful home for these people and created marriage to give Their creation a taste of the relationship they were intended to have with their Creators. The new people were also given one simple rule to follow.

But these people would not follow their Creators’ rule. This made the mighty Beings sad, because They knew that the penalty for not obeying this rule was an eternal, final death which would exclude Their creation from being part of Their family. In Their infinite love, one of these Beings promised to come to the world one day and die in their place.

As the years passed and the people increased in multitude, He chose a special people to whom He spoke and whom He loved more fully and purely than the best of husbands loves his wife. He rescued them from flood, fought against their enemies, and freed them from slavery, but they turned away from Him like an unfaithful wife. He was jealous and angry, but He never stopped loving them. And true to His promise, He did come to their world and took on himself the penalty justice demanded for His people’s wrongs. In doing so, He gained the name of Son and the Being who sent Him became known as the Father.

The first marriage the Son had made with His people, the marriage to which they had been unfaithful, ended with His death. But the love that these Beings had for their creation did not end. His Father brought Him back to life and gave back the power He had before coming to the world They had created. They offered Their creation a new marriage agreement which was faultless and eternal. They offered redemption and an opportunity to live forever with Them as the Son’s beloved bride.

Some people did not believe anyone would dare to die for them. Some did not believe that anyone needed to die for them. But there were others who realized what the Son had done and were so in awe of Him that they devoted their lives to making themselves ready for this marriage. They knew that the One who loved them enough to die for them would return to bring them into His Father’s house as His bride.

It felt as if they waited a long time. But just as He had delivered His people from perils in the past, so did He powerfully aid His bride for the time that she had to be away from Him. And finally, in a triumphal victory over evil and death, He returned to claim the bride who had made herself ready for him.

The wedding feast was grander than anything ever imagined. The family, finally grown according to the plan these Beings envisioned when They first made creation, overflowed with love.

And They lived happily ever after.

This is the short creative piece that I use to introduce my longer study paper/short e-book “God’s Love Story.” I’ll be posting the full text of this paper next weekend.