Adoption Into God's Family

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” - John 1:12 

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Christ did not come into the world only to save sinners from wrath, but to bring them into the nearest and dearest relation to God. He came not only that we might be pardoned, but that we might be adopted. It is a great mercy to have the guilt of sin removed, but a far greater mercy to have the person of a sinner received into the family of God. Pardon takes away the punishment of sin, but adoption bestows the privileges of sons. The slave may be freed from chains and yet remain outside the household. But the believer is brought into the house, given a name and a place, and reckoned among the children.

Behold the love of Christ in this: that He who was by nature the Son of God became the Son of man, that we who are by nature children of wrath might become the children of God. He who is the only begotten makes many adopted sons and daughters. He wears our nature that we might wear His name. He takes our poverty that we might share His inheritance. Every believer is not only forgiven, but beloved; not only spared, but embraced. The God who might have condemned us now delights in us. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our Father.

Let Christians then live as children. You need not stand afar off as if God were reluctant to receive you. The door of the Father’s house stands open, the table is spread, and the welcome is full. You are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow heirs with Christ. Let not your hearts be troubled with the fear of rejection. If God had not loved you, He would never have given His Son for you. And if He gave His Son to make you His child, He will never cast you out.

(Taken From The Unsearchable Riches of Christ by Thomas Brooks)