Scripture Focuses: Ephesians 1:5–6; Genesis 3:14–19
Table of Contents
Intro: Adoption as a Picture of the Gospel
I want to talk about adoption as a picture of the gospel. My family and I returned earlier this month from Hungary, where we adopted twins. But I want to talk about adoption not because this is something I, the pastor, have now undertaken, but rather because the Bible describes our relationship to God as a relationship of adoption.
The Bible describes our relationship to God as a relationship of adoption.
The plan of God is that you would be adopted as a child of God through God’s child Jesus Christ. That’s a truth straight out of Ephesians 1. The Scriptures describe that adoption as a kindness; a cause of praise; a reason for glory; a celebration of free grace.
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:5–6)
Why Adopt?
I hope the answer to the question “Why adopt?” will be more obvious with what I share in this sermon that applies to all adoptions, but let me answer the question “Why adopt?” specifically regarding why we, the Stewart family, chose to adopt.
One answer is that adoption was put forth as an example to both Elizabeth and me in our families before we ever met one another. Elizabeth’s youngest brother is adopted. I grew up in a household in which my mother was the director for the state of Mississippi for an adoption agency. So we were familiar with adoption—with what it means to families’ lives, and with what it means to the lives of children who are adopted. And so, to the extent that what we’re doing normalizes or perhaps inspires others to adopt, we are grateful.
Ultimately, we decided that adoption would be another way in which we participate further in the gospel. We wanted to—as the Scriptures put it—“visit orphans in their distress.”1James 1:27.
We didn’t originally plan on it being a Great Commission endeavor. We didn’t plan on crossing an ocean. Prior to this pursuit, I would have flunked a quiz on Hungarian geography and culture. But we decided to embrace the mission of our adoption agency (Lifeline): “Bringing gospel hope to vulnerable children.”
So my wife, Elizabeth, and I said, “Let’s do this.” And then, our sons William and John entered in with their own sacrificial commitments; and from there, we said, “Lord it is Your gospel, and Your hope, and Your children, so You line it all up.”
And He did.
Last summer, while I was with our GraceLife youth at summer camp and I was watching my biological son get launched way too far across the lake, I got a phone call that said there’s a set of twins in Hungary; would you like to look at their files? We’ve now added to those files a new last name and new life. One we will share with our GraceLife family.
(See video, timestamps 7:37 through 20:29 or so, for details on our twins, Kevin and Evelyn.)
The Gospel Hope of Adoption
Now let’s look at the question “Why adopt?” in a more general sense. We already looked at Ephesians 1. Let’s examine some ways adoption pictures the gospel.
Adoption Acknowledges That Our World Is Broken
Adoption exists because a child is not with the parents that the child should be with. Yes, there’s the sovereignty of God, and, yes, His grace exceeds and abounds. But the grace that enters in and fixes things, and that alternative that can happen within God’s plan—that alternative that shouts of the greater good—happens because there is a severe problem.
Were all right with the world, children would never be separated from the love of the parents who conceived them.
Were all right with the world, children would never be separated from the love of the parents who conceived them. In an unbroken world, a newborn would receive the immediate warmth and nourishment of a mother under the protective care of a father. And in an unbroken world, three-year-olds2The ages of our newly adopted twins. would continue in the established patterns of God-given nature and God-ordained nurture.
But that’s not the case in this world. And so there is a need for adoption. Adoption acknowledges that our world is broken.
Adoption Acknowledges That Brokenness of This World Pervades to the Core of Human Flourishing: The Family
The fallen condition of this world is not merely a mild annoyance. It’s not a peripheral problem. It’s not that we have merely lost paradise. There is a direct assault and devastating effect upon that which is most vital to human flourishing: the family.
There is a direct assault and devastating effect upon that which is most vital to human flourishing: the family.
Please hear what I’m saying—and what I am not saying:
- I am not saying that you aren’t flourishing as a human if you don’t have a family, if you don’t have children, if you don’t have multiple children, or if you have no plans or prospects for starting a family.
- What I am saying at a fundamental level is that there exists a certain physical reality necessary for human continuation: that physical reality is reproduction.
- In addition, from a Christian worldview, there exists a metaphysical reality necessary for human flourishing: that metaphysical reality, that organizing principle, that structure or plan, is the family: man and woman who become husband and wife who become father and mother.
The need for adoption declares that there has been a break in the physical and spiritual order of human flourishing. That’s what broke from the moment humanity sinned.
The need for adoption declares that there has been a break in the physical and spiritual order of human flourishing.
3 Mysteries in Genesis 3
Let’s review the mysterious message of Genesis. I say “mysterious” because its quick and orderly accounting of creation and fall speaks to so many of life’s problems and paradoxes in just three (opening) chapters.
Adoption acknowledges the same brokenness at the core of humanity that is revealed in Genesis.
We’ll pick up in the story after the creation and after the fall. Man has just sinned in the garden, and God is going to address each of the guilty parties involved: Satan (the serpent), the woman (Eve), and the man (Adam). And as He does, we learn about how it is that the world was broken in that moment.
The first mystery revealed is the chief battle between Satan and humanity, which is a battle described in terms of reproduction. It acknowledges the physical struggle and the spiritual warfare that will befall the offspring. Genesis 3:14–15 says this:
The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
Cursed are you more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you will go,
And dust you will eat
All the days of your life;
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
So, again, the first mystery revealed in these verses is that the battle between the enemy, Satan, and humanity operates in the realm of reproduction and offspring.
The battle between the enemy, Satan, and humanity operates in the realm of reproduction and offspring
The second mystery revealed in Genesis is that the chief pain for the woman is introduced in the realms of motherhood and marriage. The woman will have distress in childbearing, and the very relationship which was designed for the creation and protection of children will be under strain.
To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you will bring forth children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he will rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16)
The third mystery revealed in Genesis is this: The ability of the man, the husband, the father, to hold together his family relationship would now be under constant stress as he seeks to secure basic needs. The curse to Adam is, basically, “Adam, now you are going to have to work until you die.”
Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:17–19)
The ability of the man … to hold together his family relationship would now be under constant stress as he seeks to secure basic needs.
To review: Adoption acknowledges that our world is broken, and it acknowledges that the brokenness of this world pervades to the core of human flourishing: the family. Therefore, we can conclude that adoption comes with deep trauma.
All Adoption Comes with Deep Trauma
The trauma that accompanies adoption is both visible and invisible.
We probably spend too little time in awe of the human connections present in the developmental process—the connection between biological relatives.
Do you know that mothers carry in their bodies the fetal cells of their children long after having given birth to children? Some scientists have hypothesized that a greater portion of sharing of those cells correlates to healthier lives. (As an example, some studies have shown that the brains of Alzheimer’s patients have fewer of those shared cells present.)
That’s a recent discovery of science. I give this example to say this: If the physical realities of the biological connection of parents and their children are mysterious and wonderful, what spiritual realities and connections of the human soul might also be present?
And I say that, too, because—as I hope you’ve learned, if you’ve been following our study of resurrection of the dead3First sermon of the series is here.—we’re not just these compartmentalized entities of physical and spiritual. The soul and the body affect one another. And so this separation of a child from a parent in birth and/or subsequent formative years traumatizes the body and the soul. It makes little children scream in the middle of the night for reasons we don’t know. It makes little children, who are otherwise sweet and loving and caring, bite and hit and scratch. And when they realize they don’t really want to bite and hit and scratch others, it makes them bite and hit and scratch themselves.
That trauma can also cause children not to cry out in the night—because they’ve learned that when they do, no one is coming. Trauma teaches them to avoid all physical contact with this negligent world.
And that traumatized child with no help will continue the path of trauma and remain dull and detached to avoid the pain of the world.
The soul and the body affect one another. And so this separation of a child from a parent in birth and/or subsequent formative years traumatizes the body and the soul.
Adoption is a message about the condition of the world: That ours is a broken world, and that brokenness reaches to the core of our existence, and there is a brokenness that follows us all of our days.
Adoption is a message about the condition of the world.
Because adoption is a message about this condition, adoption is also a message about the need for the gospel. Adoption is itself a gospel message.
Hope for the Vulnerable
Adoption declares that there is a Father who is willing to …
- Enter into the brokenness
- Enter into the core of our existence
- Provide for us a healing that follows us all of our days
That is the simple profundity of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Another translation of that verse could be, “This is how God loved the world: He sent His Son to die, so that whoever believes in Him won’t die, and will get to live forever in the family of God.”
He is a God who conquers the brokenness of this world by subjecting Himself to it and defeating it. That is gospel hope for the vulnerable.
He is a God who conquers the brokenness of this world by subjecting Himself to it and defeating it.
Jesus brings hope to the adopted because He was Himself separated from His origin. He comes from another place, another home. He lived here as both Son of Man and Son of God.
Jesus brings hope to the adopted because He has Himself experienced the deep trauma of this world, yet through it, He brought healing to others.
Jesus brings hope to the adopted because He has Himself shown us the pathway to an eternal family, a family that never goes away.
He has Himself shown us the pathway to … a family that never goes away.
All of this is wrapped up in John 3:16—the gospel hope of Jesus, who comes from another place, experiences the trauma of this world, but shows the path to life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him will not die but will instead have eternal life.
Conclusion: 2 Enduring Images of Adoption
I’ll conclude by sharing with you two enduring images of adoption that will stick with me the rest of my life: one from the very beginning of our trip and one from the end of our time in Hungary.
We began our trip in Athens, Greece.4You can watch the recorded sermon that I preached from Athens here. The enduring image of adoption from the beginning of our trip was getting to stand where Paul stood on Mars Hill, and looking out at the things Paul saw, and thinking about these words that Paul said from that spot:
… and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. (Acts 17:26–27)
This was a fitting beginning, because I believe that Kevin and Evelyn’s appointed seeking involved the boundaries and habitation of both Hungary and America. I believe that my family’s participation in that gospel process involved experiencing some of the boundaries of habitation that span this globe.
Here’s how our trip ended: Toward the end of our required stay, we made our way to an office building in western Hungary, where we needed to fill out some paperwork and express our desire to adopt Kevin and Evelyn. In that process, Kevin and Evelyn, too, had an opportunity to—according to their own capabilities—express their desire to live with us, their interest in becoming a part of our family. After that, an official adoption decree was issued.
Upon receiving that decree, I went to another government building, which issued another document: a birth certificate. On that certificate is the name of each child—not their names given at birth, but their new names: Kevin Stewart and Evelyn Stewart. And on the line for place of origin, it reads “The United States of America.” Not Hungary. This is now their chief identity.
Thus, there is a sense in which the authorities recognize our children to have shared our name and our home from the very beginning.
And so it is with the gospel, this adoption into the family of God.
When we trust in Jesus for eternal life, we are given a new birth; we receive the spirit of adoption, by which we cry out5Romans 8:15. to the One in whose name we now share; and one day, when the records are opened, we will read that our names have been written in the Lamb’s book of life from the very beginning, written before the foundation of the world.6See Ephesians 1:4.
That is the gospel hope of adoption. It’s the gospel hope that we and all believers participate in. It’s the gospel hope that we must participate in until our Lord comes again to receive us—when we will realize in full our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies, and eternal glory in our forever family with God.
When we trust in Jesus for eternal life, we are given a new birth; we receive the spirit of adoption, by which we cry out to the One in whose name we now share.