Adoption perhaps stands second only to marriage as a physical, earthly actualization of the gospel. The whole process from the parents’ selection of the child to that family’s struggles (i.e. paperwork, financial cost, corrupt legal systems, and time away from loved ones) to securing a precious child from a rough situation displays how Christ graciously chose us and also suffered for us so that we might have eternal bless. And for this reason alone, the church should be excited and supportive of adoption. Moreover as James writes, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the father is this: to visit the orphan and widows in their affliction” (1:27). But, the benefits of adoption as an expression of true faith do not stop here.

Community Benefits

The arrival of adopted children also brings the Great Commission zooming into in our towns and communities. When our children’s ministries are filled with Asians, Africans, Hispanics, Caucasians, and every other race, our churches can no longer make missions something that happens out there (oh say, in Africa somewhere). It’s happening here and now on the playground. When we teach Sunday school, we are reaching the nations. With the entrance of each adopted child into our kids’ zone, our churches begin to resemble heaven more and more!

Are you excited? I hope you are! Adoption when done through the love of Christ is amazing.

The Community Challenge

Now, it will challenge our application of the gospel. If we think that church should be a nice social club for this ethnicity or for that culture, we will be troubled. Likewise, those who love the idea of their child marrying someone just like them will probably be put out by the possibility of their child marrying someone with different skin tones. But those who think this way don’t ultimately have an issue with adoption.

The One Way Forward

Their problem is with Jesus. Our Savior teaches that “Here there is not Greek, Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all” (Col 3:11). If this is true, then the color; culture; and; ethnicity of our kids or of our kids’ friends don’t matter. Now, putting off sin and embracing Christ is a big deal. But all the other discriminating ideas we embrace are superficial and can be outright sinful. Notice that James 2:9 says, “But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” To be a loving follower of Jesus, we must joyfully embrace adoption and all its ramifications for our local church. There is no other biblical option.

After all, our Savior is not all about protecting our church’s music style or our family’s homogeneous Christmas pictures. His plans are way bigger than making sure we feel comfortable in our sanctuary. Jesus is about saving people from all over the globe. Notice, he commands us to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Math 28:19). He wants his people to follow his example and love all people from all cultures and ethnicities as if they were our brothers, our family members. Adoption powerfully reminds all of us of God’s mission and also enables all of us to partake in God’s global kingdom plan.

Being the hopeless romantic that I am, I decided to go above and beyond for my wife’s past birthday. I searched and dug until I found the perfect gift that made flowers and Godiva chocolate seem like gumballs. I presented her with a Chicago Cubs onesie for our recently conceived son (Since the two were still one, I thought it an appropriate gift). Because my wife is amazing, she was wowed by my gift! She was also quite amused and not for the reason you are thinking. You see, it seems that the great “onesie” creator decided to make onesies in more than one size. Who would have thought? Recent predictions project baby Witkowski to be wearing the Chicago Cubs onesie sometime around the year 2016.

I have since learned that onesie sizes go from preemie to adult XXXL. In a much, much more grandeur way, the free gift of salvation also does not have an age limit or time sensitive restrictions. The seven-year-old child comes to Christ in the exact same way as the seventy-seven-year old man. They both only need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved! Becoming a Christian is easier than choosing the correct onesie. God has done all the work.

God Does It All

Because God is holy, sin must be punished (Is. 13:11). And our punishment for sin is death in this life followed by eternal separation from God’s love in hell. This is our fate. To avoid death, we have to be perfect. If we commit one sin, we are doomed (James 2:10). And as anyone who has kept a class full two-year-old onesie wearing babies can tell you, perfection is impossible as our very natures are corrupt from birth.

Jesus Pays For Us

But being fully man and fully God, Christ lived a perfect life. He offered himself on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. Knowing that we deserved divine judgment, Jesus intervened in human history following the plan of God the Father. By surrendering himself to the cross, Jesus lifted the burden of sin from the shoulders of believers. He who was perfect became sin for us (II Cor. 5:21). He was, as Romans 3:25-26 makes clear, our penal (legal) substitution. In the eyes of God’s divine justice, Jesus us took our punishment. He experienced God’s wrath for our sin and felt the eternal separation from God’s love that we deserved. He was the perfect sacrifice for our sins. By his wounds, we were healed (1 Peter 2:24).

God Calls Us

Because we are corrupt from birth, we do not naturally seek after the salvation that Christ made possible (Rom. 3:10-12). “If God were to leave it up to us, not a single person would ever want to be with God, and no one would ever desire to do what pleases God” (Ware, p. 172). But, God in his mercy actually seeks after his children! In Romans 8:30, Paul tells us that Christians are called by God! We begin to question our allegiance to the lust of the flesh, to the lust of the eyes and to the boastful pride of life because God is calling us and drawing us to himself through scripture, other believers, nature, and the happenings going on around us.

The Holy Spirit Regenerates Us

But God does not stop with calling! He also transforms. He saves us. John 1:13 reports that we were saved, “not by blood nor the will of flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” God takes our hearts of stone and makes them hearts of flesh (Ez. 36:26). As Ephesians 2 makes clear, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Having worked as a hospital chaplain, I’ve seen many dead bodies. And dead bodies are a tad unsettling because they sit lifeless in the bed with eyes and mouths frozenly open. But no sounds come out; no muscles twitch. In the same way, we are spiritual dead, lacking all power to respond to the gospel. But God who is rich in mercy made us alive. He gives us hearts of flesh enabling us to respond to the gospel with belief and faith. He regenerates our hearts, infusing them with life by his power.

Jesus Justifies Us

And when the Holy Spirit regenerates us, we get the righteousness of Christ (II Cor. 5:21). Those who believe in Christ are fully justified from all sins both past and future. Christ becomes our sin, and we get his righteousness. We are no longer are under condemnation. When God looks at us, he sees only the righteousness of his son.

God Adopts Us

And it gets better! Because we have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ, God makes us his sons and daughters (Rom 8:15-16). We now have the privileges that come with being a member of God’s family. We are led by the Holy Spirit. When we fall into sin, God’s disciplines us so that we flee lawlessness and return faith stronger than before. And lastly, being adopted entitles us to a divine inheritance full of imperishable heavenly rewards. Praise God for his love and mercy!

So What Now?

If you are like me you are probably wondering, “What roll do we play in our salvation if God does everything?” Are we as irrelevant as an onesie on a fashion walkway? The answer is no. We repent and believe (Acts 2:38)! As Dr. Bruce Ware explains,

“The only thing we can rightly do, and the one thing we should do, is this: we should bow our heads and admit before God that we are helpless to save ourselves. We are unable to make ourselves come alive…But that’s not all. We also know that God is kind and that he comes to those who are humble before him (see Isaiah 57:15)…We should put our hope in the kindness of God, his mercy toward sinners, and his power to save those who admit they cannot save themselves…He alone is our hope” (Ware, p. 160)

Embrace Jesus who saves!