In this Lent episode of In Light of the Cross, we continue reflecting on God as Father by focusing on the New Testament theme of adoption, using Romans 8. We talk about how being led by the Spirit means we’re God’s children—adopted into his family—so we can cry “Abba, Father,” and live as heirs with Christ even while we still suffer.

Paul’s “now and not yet” frames adoption as both already true and still awaiting its full experience in the future resurrection and the redemption of our bodies. We also trace how creation’s restoration is tied to the revealing of God’s children, showing God’s cosmic plan to redeem all creation.

We end by inviting each other to reinterpret stress and hardship through our identity as God’s loved children and pray the Lord’s Prayer together.

00:00 Lenten Theme Setup

00:59 What Adoption Means

01:46 Romans 8 Adoption

02:32 Suffering and Future Glory

04:34 Grafted Into One Family

05:28 Cosmic Redemption Scope

07:32 Now and Not Yet

09:33 Living as Gods Child

10:44 God Gives Good Gifts

11:42 Reframing Trials for Good

13:26 Reflection and Lords Prayer

Welcome back to another episode of In Light of the Cross.

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We are grateful that you all are joining

us this Lenin season as we look at all of

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scripture and life and light of the cross.

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And yesterday we talked about

this paradigmatic shift between

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the Old Testament and the New

Testament, um, and the perception

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of God in particular, God as.

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Father, and today we are continuing

this theme with God as Father, and

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we're gonna be talking about, this

New Testament theme of adoption.

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Yeah.

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So why don't we just start by asking

God to calm our mind, put away things

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that have been distracting us so we can

focus on his word and what he wants to

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say to us in the next 10 or 15 minutes.

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Adoption is a beautiful word, isn't it?

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It is.

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My wife and I had the beauty

of adopting a child, and

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obviously this is many years ago.

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She's an adult now, but it

was a, a wondrous thing.

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it was the best thing for the

child, in the circumstances, but it

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was also a glorious thing for us.

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And so we understand firsthand the, the

beauty of that and we understand what

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it's like to look at an adopted child,

but feel no difference than your own flesh

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and blood, your heart feel towards them.

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The exact same thing.

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And it's a beautiful thing then

that in the New Testament we are

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described as guy guy's, children.

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Those adopted into his family, you

read a passage yesterday, Nathan,

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about that, from Romans chapter eight.

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You wanna read that again?

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Yeah.

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This is Romans chapter eight and

listen to all the language about

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adoption and being the children of God.

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Chapter eight, verse 14 says, for

those who are led by the spirit

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of God, are the children of God.

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The spirit you received does not make you

slaves so that you live in fear again.

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Rather the spirit you received

brought about your adoption

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to sonship, and by him we cry.

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Abba Father, the Spirit himself

testifies with our spirit

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that we are God's children.

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Now.

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If we are children, then we are heirs,

heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.

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If indeed we share in his suffering.

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In order that we may

also share in his glory.

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Right now, Paul is writing to people

who were enduring some suffering.

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So the next section of Romans eight,

right after that talks about how to

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interpret that suffering in light of

the fact that we are God's children.

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So why don't you go ahead and read

the next paragraph, if you would.

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So Paul says this, he says, I

consider that our present sufferings

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are not worth comparing with the

glory that will be revealed in us.

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For the creation weights.

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An eager expectation for the children

of God to be revealed for the

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creation was subject to frustration,

not by its own choice, but by the

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will of the one who subjected it.

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In Hope that the creation itself

will be liberated from its bondage

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to decay and brought into the freedom

and glory of the children of God.

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We know that the whole

creation has been groaning.

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As in the pains of childbirth

right up to the present time.

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Not only so, but we ourselves who have

the first fruits of the spirit grown

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inwardly as we wait eagerly for our

adoption to sonship the redemption of our

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bodies for in this hope we were saved.

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But the hope that is

seen is no hope at all.

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Who hopes for what they already have.

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But if we hope for what we do, not

yet have we wait for it patiently.

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Yeah.

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That's a great passage.

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Yeah.

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It's very, it's very rich.

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And there's a, an argument

that he's trying to lay out

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that takes some unpacking.

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It does.

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And there are a lot of things here

that we could go to the weeds on.

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Technically.

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For example, the creation is waiting

for the children of God to be revealed.

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It was subjected to frustration.

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Well, well who did that?

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You know, in hope it will be

liberated from, a bondage to decay.

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There's a lot here, but let's not

lose the main flow of the argument.

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Paul is telling the people in Rome

who are undergoing suffering, look,

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you are adopted, this guy's children.

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That doesn't mean though, that

in this present life, you're

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not gonna have suffering even

though you are guest children.

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Yeah.

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Now he's talking to the church in Rome.

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Right.

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Which is primarily a gentile church.

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Right.

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Um, and so one of the images that

Paul uses a lot here is this idea

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that you have this tree that has

natural branches and then gentiles

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have been grafted into the tree.

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Mm-hmm.

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So that those that weren't in

the family have been adopted.

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They've been grafted into the vine.

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They're, they become.

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Part of the same tree that

is the family of God, right?

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So what we see here is this expansion of

who is included in the story of, Israel.

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Really?

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Mm-hmm.

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we've traced that theme all

throughout the Old Testament.

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We've seen, okay, this thing isn't

just for this particular ethnic

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group, but in the New Testament we

see that expanded, that all people.

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Jews and Gentiles can be

brought into sonship because of

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the work that Jesus has done.

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Yeah, exactly.

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Yeah.

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It's a beautiful thought that God

is making one family through Christ.

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Now, notice a couple things about

this passage somehow the redemption of

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creation is linked to the redemption

of humanity in its fullness.

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So creation cannot be redeemed

and restored to what it should

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be until all those who are God's

children are revealed as such.

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Now we don't know how that works exactly.

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we could talk about some ideas, but

let's just take that main theme The

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next part then kind of ties into that.

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Can I jump in real fast on that?

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Yeah, go ahead.

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It's so interesting as we've

traced this throughout the Old

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Testament, is that the scope of

what is renewed isn't just humans.

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Right?

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It's all of creation.

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Exactly.

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So you see in Genesis one, when Adam

and Eve, instead of, uh, enjoying

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and appreciating creation, they

now use creation to hide from God

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when they sin in Genesis three,

and then through their saying, God

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says, all of creation is cursed.

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What Romans eight is telling us is

that that's going to be undone when the

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sons and daughters of God are revealed.

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Right.

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So that's, way bigger than just

God's plan of salvation is way bigger

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than just that God loves you and

has a wonderful plan for your life.

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Yeah.

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It's, the scope is way bigger than that.

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Yes, So somehow there's this linkage.

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God's goal is cosmic.

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He wants to redeem all of creation.

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As part of that though, he's

still committed to this idea that

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humanity has to have this key part.

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And so until humanity, is redeemed and

restored, creation can't be either, right?

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Right.

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So then he talks about the next part.

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The whole creation has been groaning

as in the pains of childbirth,

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right up to the present time.

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And not only that, but we ourselves who

have the first fruits of the spirit.

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In other words, we have

the spirit within us.

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It's kind of this sign, this down payment

that God's salvation is real within

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us, we are also groaning inwardly.

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Why?

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Because we're waiting for something.

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We are waiting eagerly.

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For our adoption to sonship

the redemption of our bodies.

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Now, what does he mean by that?

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Well, he seems to mean that

though we are adopted in a sense,

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we're already heirs with Christ.

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As he talks about in the first passage

he read the realization of that, the

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fullness of when that happens and we

experience it is still in the future.

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And it's linked to the

redemption of our bodies.

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So when we, when we receive

our resurrection bodies.

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and all creations restoration is

linked to that as well, because

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only then can we function as a true

image of God within this creation.

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And we have to wait for it though.

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it's so interesting that point that I

never noticed this before, but the two

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places, he says adoption to sonship in

this passage, in verse 15, he says, the

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spirit you received brought about your

adoption of sonship, past tense, right?

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And then here it says.

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we ourselves grown inwardly as

we wait eagerly for our adoption

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to son chip, future tense.

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Mm-hmm.

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So that's, that's so interesting

the both, dimensions of that

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past and future as you're saying.

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Yeah, it is.

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And we see that often in the

New Testament, that whole

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idea of the now and not yet.

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Right.

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And I, I was trying to think

of an analogy for this.

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When we adopted our daughter, in

our case, we actually had possession

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of her after three days, but the

adoption wasn't final for another

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year, there's a waiting period.

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In Illinois, you have to jump through

a lot of hoops, but one could easily

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conceive of a case where the adoption is

legal and formalized, and yet for whatever

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reasons, logistics, or, or some other

hoops that they have to work through.

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The other way, they don't

receive that child yet for.

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Six months or a year, and that's more

like what Paul is talking about here.

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In God's mind, it's already done.

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It's legally been accomplished.

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It's nothing that will stop our full

adoption because God's the one who

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GU guaranteed it and said it's true,

but we don't experience that yet.

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We're still awaiting for that.

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Mm.

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And groaning inwardly.

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Yeah.

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As we eagerly wait.

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Yeah.

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And I think the challenge is while we're

waiting not to forget that we are indeed

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adopted as sons and daughters, we can

forget that because we go through and

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we experience different sufferings in

life or whatever, and it's easy not

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to live day to day with the knowledge.

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I am the adopted son and daughter,

son or daughter of God himself.

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Yeah.

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I think going throughout our days with

that perspective has the power and

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potential to reframe our entire existence.

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It does.

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I mean, is that an overstatement to say?

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No.

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No, not at all.

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I mean, think how we would live

differently about the things that

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cause us anxiety if we were totally

conscious of the fact that God is using

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all those things to perfect us in that

adoption to make us all that we can be.

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Think about.

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The competence we would have knowing

as we go through the various trials

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of life in the end, God's gonna use

all these for my good as part of my

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adoption into what he wants me to be.

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think of how little we would care

about what other people think of us

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or say of us if we had this knowledge.

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God calls me his child.

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Yeah, I go back to thinking about Jesus's

words in Luke chapter 11, where he's.

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giving Luke's account of

the Sermon on the Mount.

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And he, he's like, how many of you

guys, if your child asks for a piece of

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bread, we'll give them a stone, right?

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Or if they ask for fish,

you'll give them a scorpion.

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He's like, if you guys know how to

give good gifts to your children, how

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much more your heavenly Father and.

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That reveals two things.

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One, that the, the kids in that

parable are still hungry and

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still going to God for something.

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So there's still that, waiting

and that desire for something,

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but also just the goodness of God.

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. That, that perspective, keeping that

in front of us, remembering that we are

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loved, that we are siblings of Christ

and co-heirs of the world with Jesus, how

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much more will our heavenly Father give

good gifts to, to those who he loves?

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Hmm.

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Yeah.

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I'm glad you brought that out.

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Thanks.

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It's interesting here that then this next

section, we won't go into it, but Paul

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talks about how God then uses everything.

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For the good of those who are

in this relationship with God.

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He doesn't say all things

are good, they're not.

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There are a lot of evil things in this

world, but that ultimately God is able

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by his power and wisdom to use even

those evil things, even those painful

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things for our good as his children.

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And so the challenge to

us then is to reinterpret.

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All the things that happened to us, not

as good and bad just on how they make

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us feel today, or whether they bring

about good feelings or suffering, but

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rather to interpret them in light of

who we are as God's children and in

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light of what God's promise to be doing.

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Yeah.

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I, I know your daughter's

grown now I've got little kids.

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Yeah.

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And.

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Sometimes they interrupt our sleep

crying and it's like, ah, I'm tired.

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And, and I think like what you're

describing is the perspective of either

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like waking up and grumbling that this

is tragic, that I don't get enough sleep.

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Mm-hmm.

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Or recognizing, okay.

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There is a way in which this is all

part, part of a good process, right?

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This is all part of their maturing

and our growing, and even the

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formation and growing in patience

and these kinds of things.

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It doesn't feel good in the moment yet.

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Somehow they're able

to be part of the good.

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It's not a perfect illustration

because, some things in this world

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just are just pure evil because

of the, sin and brokenness.

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And the decisions of, humans,

and the consequences of sin.

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but yet that trust that our good

heavenly father can use them

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somehow to bring about good is a

beautiful thought worth, sitting in.

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Yeah.

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Let's, dwell on that.

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Sit in that a minute as you

put it, as we think about our

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application and reflection time.

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You are an adopted child of God.

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You are an heir with Christ.

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You are one whom Christ calls

his brother or sister, but it

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might not feel like that today.

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It might not feel like that

this week or year or month.

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So the challenge I would put

before you today is to spend a

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minute or longer if you want.

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you can always pause this.

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And just ask God to show you how

deeply he loves you and ask him

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to interpret your life, including

the parts that are stressful or

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difficult in light of his good plan.

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In light of the fact that we have to

wait for that adoption to be fulfilled,

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but it will happen and God will use

all things together for your good.

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Think about that.

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Pray through that, just for a few minutes.

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And we're gonna end with the prayer

that Jesus taught us to pray to.

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Our Father, our Father in

heaven, hallowed be your name.

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Your kingdom come, your will be

done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us today our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts as we

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also have forgiven our debtors.

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And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.

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Amen.