Dec 15
27
Predestined to Adoption
Ephesians 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
I know a little about the subject of adoption. I was adopted into the family of Leo and Maggie Eddmenson in 1956. They made arrangements to adopt me before I was ever born. Before I ever took my first breath they chose me to be their own. I had no voice in the matter. I had no decision to render. I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t communicate. I had no ability to rationalize or think for myself. I was totally oblivious to everything that was going on. You could basically say that though I had just been born, I was dead to having any voice or say in my destiny. They picked out my first name and gave me their last name. They made a commitment for the rest of their lives, to the best of their ability, to see that only good things happened to me. They were absolutely wonderful parents but in the providence of God, they left this life and are no longer with me.
But I have a heavenly Father who has made me His son and has promised that He will never leave me or forsake me. He has adopted me by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. He chose me before the worlds were ever made. He chose my name and called me by His grace when it pleased Him to do so. He causes, ALL THINGS, everything, to work together for my good. He found me dead, naked and bloody and he covered me and He made me His own. I wandered far from home but He caused me to come to my senses and return to Him. I am His Prodigal son. He provides for my every need. He causes me to cast all my care on Him, for he cares for me.
Dear friends, He does not just care about me, he cares FOR ME. (1 Peter 5:7) He sees that I have everything I need and all that He requires, in Christ His precious Son. In this adoption I had no say so, for he chose me and caused me to come to Him before I was ever born. Romans 8:15 tells me that I have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby I may cry, Abba, Father. Whenever I cry in trouble and distress He hears me.
O, my earthy parents were loving, caring and sacrificed all they could for me. But my heavenly Father sacrificed His Son, His only son, that I might become one of His many brethren. (Romans 8:29) My earthly adoption was by the will, purpose and grace of God, but much, much, more importantly was my heavenly one.
David Eddmenson David Eddmenson
The Father Blesses the firstborn
The purpose of God according to election is that his Son, Christ Jesus, be the Firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8: 28-34). As we look at how Jacob was given the blessing belonging to the firstborn, even in the midst of sin and deceit, we see a picture of how a sinner must come to God the Father only in the name and merits of Christ Jesus the Firstborn (Jn 14: 6).
The gospel comes at first like Rebekah’s word came to Jacob (vv9-14). God the Father will know I am a deceiver because all I am is sin. I am nothing like Christ the Firstborn: Christ is righteous, I am a sinner; Christ is holy, I am altogether unclean. But Christ, the Surety for each child given him of the Father from before the foundation of the world, hath redeemed each one from the curse of the law being made a curse for us (Gal 3: 13). His word is “obey my voice.” When the Spirit of Christ speaks through his bride (his witness) into the heart he has made new, like as Jacob obeyed Rebekah, so the sinner obeys.
Rebekah prepared everything and gave to Jacob (vv15-17). So everything required of a sinner is prepared by another (1 Cor 4: 7; Eph 2: 8). Coming to God the Father through faith in Christ is to come robed in the garments of the Son of God’s love, with nothing in our hand but that in which the Father delights (Isaiah 61:10).
Jacob came in the name of another (vv18-27). So the believer comes to God the Father, not in our name, but in the name of Christ (vv18-27; Acts 4: 12; John 16: 23). Faith rests in Christ who accomplished for us what the Father bid us do, glories in the LORD who brought salvation unto us and thus is found smelling of the savor the Father loves (Phil 3: 9; Rom 8: 3; Ps 45: 6-8; Eph 5: 2).
Jacob was blessed of his father with the blessing of the firstborn son (vv28-29). So the believer is blessed of God, made joint-heirs in Christ the Firstborn (vv28-29; Rom 8: 14-18). Clay curtis.
The Conditions for Salvation
Remember, that the conditions of fallen man’s salvation are two — and no more — namely, perfect atonement for sin, and perfect obedience to the law. Both of these conditions Christ has completely fulfilled, in the stead, and for the infallible salvation of every soul that comes to His blood for cleansing, and to His righteousness for clothing. “To what end, then serves faith?” To let thee into the knowledge, possession, and enjoyment of this free and finished redemption!
Augustus Toplady
Coming to Christ
John 6:37, 44, 65
Holy Scriptures contain many exhortations and invitations regarding coming to Christ for salvation.
Consider a few. “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:22). “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1). “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28). “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37f). “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).
Coming to Christ is in these texts equated with looking to Him in faith, acknowledging that no help is to be found in self, and that all that is desired is found in Him.
And we would add that at the very moment one begins to come to Christ, he has fully arrived at Christ.
Here is Christ’s doctrine on this subject in John chapter 6.
I. “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me” (v.37a). Here is an unmistakable affirmation of the glorious doctrine of election to salvation. Those whom Christ calls “All the Father gives Me” are those whom the Father in grace chose in Christ to salvation before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3-5).
Here also is an unmistakable affirmation of the glorious doctrine of the effectual call to salvation. Christ declares “All the Father gives Me will come to Me”. Elsewhere we read the manner in which they will be effectually called (2 Thessalonians 2:13): those whom “God from the beginning chose … for salvation” will come to Christ “through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Every one of God’s elect will come to Christ for salvation! None will be cast away!
II. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (v.44). Here is an unmistakable denial of the heresy of salvation by an act of man’s freewill. Man is completely incapable of coming to Christ of his own will.
Christ elsewhere declares, “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:40). In comparing these two texts, we observe that man of his own will is unable to come to Christ only because he is unwilling to come to Christ.
Man is unable to come to Christ because he is “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). He is prevented from coming to Christ by virtue of being in “the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:26; Ephesians 2:2f). He is unwilling to come to Christ because, as Christ said, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do” (John 8:44). We are all therefore by nature “slaves of sin” (John 8:34; Romans 6:17, 20). Consequently, “There is none who seeks after God” (Romans 3:10). And none is either willing or able to come to Him whom he will not seek.
However, the Father in time “draws” to Christ all that He in eternity “gives” to Christ. He draws men to Christ through His gracious influence, not by forceful coercion. “Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power” (Psalm 110:3).
III. “No one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father” (v.65). Every aspect of coming to Christ is freely performed by the one coming, but graciously granted by God. God opens the heart so that it may voluntarily heed the gospel (Acts 16:14). God grants the faith with which the gospel is believed (Ephesians 2:8f; Acts 18:27; Philippians 1:29), and the repentance with which the heart is turned from Satan and dead works to Himself (Acts 5:31; 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25f).
This doctrine of Jesus Christ so offended His nominal disciples that they would no longer follow Him (vv.60 66). But it so blessed His true disciples that they would not depart from Him (vv.67-69). Will you receive it? Have you truly come to Christ?
Daniel Parks