Dear Church Family,
Have you ever the Bible and had a verse jumped out at you? It causes your heart to beat a little quicker and might make you say aloud, “Wow!” 1 John 3:1 has done that to me more than once. It reads in the NIV, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the sons of God!” In English it reads like a question – one that should cause us to reflect on God’s incredible love for us.
Here is how Question 74 of the Larger Catechism answers what adoption is: “Adoption is an act of the free grace of God, in and for His only Son Jesus Christ, whereby all those that are justified are received into the number of His children, have His name put upon them, the Spirit of His Son given to then, are under His fatherly care, are welcomed to all the liberties and privileges of the sons of God, made heirs of all the promises and fellow-heirs with Christ in glory.”
I trust you were blessed by all the words of “His Mercy Is More” that we sang in worship this past Sunday. Note “the act of the free grace of God” that opens the third stanza: ‘What riches of kindness He lavished on us; His blood was the payment, His life was the cost.’ The cost of adopting a child today averages $10,000 to $15,000. It cost God the death of His only Son to adopt you to be His beloved child. Does that make your heart beat faster?
The catechism answer goes on to unpack the many blessings that belong to God’s children and can never be taken away. Re-read the paragraph above and then rank in order which ones are the best. I rank them all as number one! You can accuse me of cheating, but they all have such infinite value that all deserve the highest rating.
Today is my older brother’s birthday. So I just called him, and after birthday greetings, I asked for his rating. He quickly replied, “Simple answer is being loved by Him.” Certainly, all the others benefits flow out from God’s great love and grace to us. We had fun discussing it for a few minutes until his need to be on a conference ended our time.
Today may we live to God’s glory as His beloved children!
In great hope,
Pastor Gillikin