Predestined for Adoption

If you would, turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter one, Ephesians chapter one.
We have been going through this for the past few weeks, Ephesians one,
three through fourteen. For the past few weeks, I have the honor and privilege of
covering verses five through six. But before I jump into the text,
I want to talk about something here. Just dealing with my own story, my own
experience. When I think back to when I first became a Christian, my perception of
salvation is different from what it is now. Early on in my walk with Christ,
I viewed salvation a lot like this, if we can have that, yeah. And maybe perhaps
you did as well when you were first in the faith, when you were new in the faith.
We oftentimes limits our understanding of salvation by simply viewing it as a way
out of hell and a way in to heaven. And amen, the cross is our means to eternal
life with God. It gives us right standing before God. Sin separates us from a just
and holy God. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. I'm not saying that this
picture is incongruent with the Gospel. I'm just saying that it's not the most
complete picture we have of the Gospel.
Can I simply suggest to you that salvation is more than just a bridge? The Gospel
is more than just a means to an end. Again, there's nothing inherently wrong with
this picture. I just think that the Bible provides us with a more complete picture
with certain texts. We have brothers and sisters, a text before us this morning that
gives us a complete picture.
Read along with me in Ephesians 1, 3 through 14. I want to maintain the practice,
even though I've been given verses 5 through 6, I want to maintain the practice of
reading the text in its entirety so that we get this complete picture. Read along
with me.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in
Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in
him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before
him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ,
according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with
which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace,
which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery
of His will. According to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for
the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on
earth. In And we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to
the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so
that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation
and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee
of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory.
More than just a bridge, am I right? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, You have fully
mapped out and ordained the salvation of Your saints. Your plan of salvation is a
wonderful thing to behold and believe. The way in which you bless the believer and
lavish us with your grace is truly remarkable to behold.
Lord, may we rightly respond to your word this morning. May this sermon be an act
of worship. May the preaching of your word be edifying to your people. May the
hearing of it, result in the praise of your glory. Amen.
So to recap thus far, we have been given this typical formal greeting that Paul
extends to the Ephesians, extending grace and peace to the saints who are in
Ephesus. And what I find striking in this greeting, as Pastor Bob laid out for us
in this a couple weeks ago, is that first thing it includes both a play on word
of a typical Gentile greeting of grace and then a typical Jewish greeting of peace
or shalom and the second thing I find striking is that this greeting particularly or
perfectly summarizes the whole of the letter and the weeks to come you're going to
see just just how prominent the themes of grace and peace are in the letter to the
Ephesians. You're going to see that in this morning,
in the praising of God's glorious grace and what that means for the believer.
But after we get this greeting, we get this word of blessing. In question,
Does anyone know of another Pauline letter in which he begins with a word of
blessing? Second Corinthians, right? Second Corinthians 1, 3 through 7, "Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all mercies, and the
God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction." The main idea of that
blessing is that God has and always will comfort us in His mercy in the midst of
our afflictions. The main idea of this blessing here in Ephesians strikes a somewhat
different chord. Here in his effusive praise of the triune God,
Paul is doing his best to list out all the ways in which God has blessed us in
Christ. Do we see how it is the the triune God who is blessing us?
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
every spiritual that is of the Spirit.
We are chosen by the Father redeemed by the Son and sealed with the Spirit.
This one unified act of the, is one that the triune God achieves for our good in
his glory.
And in the cataloging of all these spiritual blessings, Paul is providing us with a
basis for why we should bless God, why we should praise him. So the basis of our
praise should be in what God has done for us in Christ.
Is that the basis of your praise this morning, or is it in something else?
If you are seeking to bless God with your life, what is the basis for which you
are doing so? Is it because he's given you a good job or a steady income?
Is it because you have everything that you need? What happens if those things in a
way.
All that to say, right, that we do not bless God on the basis of our
circumstances, but on the basis of what God has done for us in Christ.
So that's the main idea of verses 3 through 14. But what about our two verses for
us here this morning? What do verses 5 through 6 teach us? The main point is this,
that God predestines us so that we may belong to his family and
That his grace may be praised
God predestines us so that we may belong to his family and That his grace may be
praised That's the main idea this morning if you learn nothing else this morning
walk away with that.
And this main idea forms the outline I have for my sermon, right? These two points
of the reason for our predestination is adoption. The reason for our predestination
is adoption. And the result of our predestination is praise.
Two points this morning. The reason for our predestination is adoption, and the
result of our predestination is praise.
So let's first talk about the reason for our predestination,
the reason for our predestination. Two things are worth noting here about the Greek
word for "predestined" found in verse 5. First thing is this,
the Greek word for predestined is not the same verb in verse 4.
If you remember last week, the verb in verse 4 means to elect or to choose.
The verb here in verse 5 means to decide beforehand or predetermine or predestine.
The verb in verse 4 is meant to convey a choice being made. The verb here in
verse 5 this morning is meant to convey a destiny to be fulfilled. Those whom he
predestines will meet their final destiny. Why? Because it was decided beforehand by
the sovereign Creator of the universe.
The second thing that's worthy of note here is that the verb in verse 5 matches
grammatically and is dependent upon the verb in verse 4. This means that the two
actions are distinguishable from one another, but are not sequential to one another.
God does not elect and then predestined. No, he has predestined as he has elected.
Predestination and election are different from one another but they occur at the same
time when God initiates the salvation he has designed for his people.
This clues us in to what predestination is. It gives us a glimpse into the mind of
God and how he is sovereign over salvation.
This verse also clues us in to who specifically is doing the predestining.
The "he" in verse 5 needs to be traced back to the "who" in verse 3 and the
"who" in verse 3 is describing the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So, specifically speaking, it is God, the Father,
the first person of the Trinity who predestines and elects those who are in Christ.
And we not only know who specifically predestines, but the way in which,
the manner by which, he predestines. He says in love he predestines.
Predestination is not some cold, calculated decision that God makes.
It is also neither austere nor arbitrary. It's not as if, before the foundation of
the world, God was in heaven spinning some sort of wheel of fortune. Right? No,
predestination was done in love.
That's how we're to view predestination. It was done in love, the abounding, free,
gracious love of God, the Father. God, the Father in love predestines us.
And it's at this point, I want to share with you a very convicting, very
challenging John Owen quote that deals with the love of the Father. He says this,
"The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father.
The greatest unkindness you can do to Him is not believe that He loves you.
Brother and sister in Christ, you best believe the Father loves you.
He loves you infinitely and immensely. How can we know this?
He predestined us. "In love," he predestined us.
See what shape the Father's love takes? He loves you so much that even before you
were born, before the foundation of the earth, he decided beforehand that you would
be delivered from the gates of hell.
Not because of anything good found within yourself, but because of his gracious and
unconditional love,
though you still proved yourself to be a sinner. God's vast love and his sovereign
purposes in salvation deliver you from the power of sin.
But he doesn't stop there. He doesn't just predestine us. He predestines us for a
purpose. He predestines us for adoption.
Now, what was adoption in the ancient world like and why does Paul use it as a
metaphor for the spiritual condition of those who are in Christ? New Testament
scholar, Clinton Arnold, gets the ball rolling with this quote. I think it kind of
gives our juices flowing here about adoption. He says this, that under Roman law,
an adopted child acquired all the legal rights of a natural -born child and was
released from the control of his natural father. The child also received the adopting
parent's family name and a share in the status of the new family.
So, in the ancient world, certain legal entitlements and endowments came to the
adopted child by virtue of their adoption. A child goes from being in one family to
another by the act of adoption and all of the benefits and status of the new
family go with them when they are incorporated into the new family. But is this how
we're to fully understand spiritual adoption. In order for adoption to be seen as a
spiritual blessing, it should not be seen in purely legal terms.
It should also be seen in loving familial terms.
Adoption is not merely legal, it is also joyfully and deeply familial.
That is, the predestined adoption of a believer is an experience of familial love.
Joyful familiarity is what's bound up in the adoption of a believer.
God does not adopt us without having known us, and he knows that we were an
estranged and rebellious child of wrath that were described as in Ephesians 2.
When you would have nothing to do with God, he long ago determined to bring you
into his family. Oh, what a rich and profound blessing that he would do this.
It's not only familial from the perspective of God, but it's familial from our
perspective. He adopts us not as students, as employees,
colleagues, not even as a friend, but he adopts us as sons.
And as we know back in the ancient world, sons were typically privileged more than
daughters since the sons bore the responsibility of carrying on the family name.
What Paul is indicating here is that regardless of your gender, you are adopted as
a son so that you might be treated as a son when you are brought into the family
of God. Not only is your adoption familial, it is also personal.
and I say this for three reasons. Adoption is personal for three reasons.
First, notice the destination of our adoption. He adopts us to Himself.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are adopted so that we might arrive to the very
person who adopted us. And this may not seem like a very big deal,
but grieve with me for just one moment over the sad and unfortunate reality of
something called re -adoption. My research of adoption, of earthly adoption,
this is something that occurs more frequently than we hope.
This is when a child, a re -adoption is when a child gets adopted by one family
and then for various reasons they have to put the child up for adoption again.
Sadly, this does happen within the realm of earthly adoption, but not so with our
spiritual adoption. Those whom God determines to adopt, those whom He sets His heart
upon, He brings to Himself and never lets go.
This is how we know our adoption is personal to God. Our destination of our
adoption is God Himself.
Second, we know it's personal because of the means by which we are adopted.
We are adopted through His Son. Without Christ,
we have no hope of being adopted. Though God the Father predestines us for adoption,
He uses His Son to bring us into His family. It is through the person and work of
Christ that an adopted family of God is formed.
We'll talk more about what that looks like in verse 7 next week, but needless to
say that adoption is a personal act of God by which God the Father predestines us
through Jesus Christ the Son. Thirdly,
we know that adoption is personal for God because notice the manner in which we are
predestined for adoption according to the purpose of His will.
The will of God is never separated from the character of God. The Lord is good,
is good, and does good. This means that the God's will is good because He is good.
His will is a reflection of His character. So when God predestines His children for
adoption, He does it in accordance to and not contradiction to his will and
character. And try as we might. It is not our own good will that brings us into
the family of God. We do not adopt ourselves for how could we?
We do not possess the good will to do so. It is according to his good will and
purpose that we are adopted. This is the manner by which we are adopted.
God predestines us so that we may belong to his family. That is the purpose of our
predestination. But what does that mean for the life of a believer? What does that
mean for the Christian? How is it relevant to the Christian? Well, listen to this
quote from Packard. Strap yourselves in. What is a Christian?
The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a
Christian is one who has God as his father.
He goes on to explain. If you want to judge how well a person understands
Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and
having God as his father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his
worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means he does not understand
Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that
makes the New Testament new and better than the old, everything that that are
distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish is summed up in the knowledge of
the fatherhood of God. Father is the Christian name for God.
In other words, if you're a Christian here this morning, you are a son of God. He
is not just a father. He is your father, Your father in heaven who delights in
doing good to his children Adoption is I agree with Packer adoption is the highest
and richest metaphor the scripture Uses to describe our relationship with Christ Yes,
we are declared righteous and justified before the throne of God. Yes. We are called
saints and sins in heaven. Yes, we're even called the bride of Christ, but don't
you see what a blessing it is to call God Abba.
Galatians 4, "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born
of woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might
receive adoption as sons." And because you are sons,
God has sent the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, "Abba, Father." So you
are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Do we see how adoption is the deepest metaphor Paul can provide to describe the
experience of salvation? Adopted children cannot adopt themselves.
It takes the willingness of the parent to see it through.
And even when we hear stories of earthly adoption, we can't help but be touched by
the subsequent blessings it affords to the child who has been adopted. As I was
preparing the sermon, I was aware of several families in our church, several students
in our student ministry who have undergone the process of adoption. I asked the
parents to briefly describe the blessings wrapped up in earthly adoption so that we
may better understand and appreciate the glorious realities available to us in our
spiritual adoption. This is from the Burton family. Adopting Zari has been such an
abundant gift from God. Through her adoption we've caught a glimpse of the heart of
God's adoptive plan for us. We chose Zari, not out of obligation or or anything she
had done, but out of delight and love wanting her to be part of our family.
What a sweet blessing it is to share in the joy of belonging both in our family
and in God's. This is from the shots family Sight unseen Alexander Xander Lane was
a shots before the foundation of the world and we have been blessed by His adoption
we loved him and wanted him more we had wanted him more before we had seen him
Unpredicted and immediate love at an unexplainable depth This is from Xander himself.
They didn't know me, hadn't seen me, but chose to take me out of a bad situation.
The adoption spoken of here in Scripture, and the adoption that I hear of in
testimonials like this leads me to make several points of application. First one is
this.
Adoption is permanent.
"because God decreed that our adoption would take place, "there is nothing that can
revoke our adopted status." Isaiah 46, "Remember this and stand firm,
"recall it to mind, you transgressors, "remember the former things of old, "for I am
God and there is no other. "I am God and there is none like me, "declaring the
end from the beginning And from ancient times, things not yet done, saying my
counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose. I have spoken and I will
bring it to pass. I have purposed and I will do it.
Once God has brought you into his family, once he decreed that you would be in his
family, you remain in his family. Why? Because he has decreed it.
He has purposed it. Right? I get it. There may be seasons where you've lost your
way and you've perhaps given into temptation one too many times, but God remains
there waiting to welcome you back.
There may be seasons of profound suffering and grief that leads you to doubt if God
is really there, but will you not see that he's not only there but has invited you
to share all the rich and glorious blessings of being his adopted child.
Nothing prevents him from pursuing his children and nothing delights him more than
giving his children good gifts.
Second thing, adoption is a Joyful identity Adoption is a joyful identity.
This means it is something that we joyfully walk in and faithfully live out In
fact, this indicative reality that we are adopted children comes with a Yeah,
an imperative command. This is Ephesians 5 1 therefore be imitators of God as what
as beloved children. Because God has brought us into his family,
because we have a new identity as his adopted children, we will begin to look more
and more like him as we pursue him and imitate him in daily living.
Our identity is now found in being in the family of God. Our lives should reflect
that reality. Students with all this talk of identity in our generation,
remember one thing, you belong to the family of God. That is who you are,
more than anything else. And because you belong to this family, he calls you to
live in a certain way that bears resemblance to his family.
Third thing, Third thing, adoption is linked to an inheritance.
Adoption is linked to an inheritance. Make no mistake, the panorama of Scripture
makes it abundantly clear that those who are in Christ and adopted into His family
receive a glorious inheritance.
Now, what is the nature of this inheritance? Luckily, Ephesians 1 and 1 Peter 1
help us out tremendously. Ephesians 1 -11 says this, "In Him we have obtained an
inheritance having been predestined to the purpose of Him who works all things
according to the counsel of His will." 1 Peter 1 says this, "Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to His great mercy, He has caused us
to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for
you. So this leads me to believe that this inheritance is something to be
experienced in the present. We've obtained this inheritance and will be experienced in
the future. It is kept in heaven for us. And the imperishable,
undefiled, and unfading nature of it leads me to believe that this inheritance,
listen, this inheritance is nothing other than direct communion with God.
That's our inheritance. It's God Himself. We experience it here and now,
in part, but we'll also experience it later on to a greater degree in the future.
Tim Fries and Kelly Rackley have now received the full measure of their inheritance
as adopted children of God and will be enjoying it for eternity.
But oh brother and sister in Christ, you can enjoy this inheritance here and now.
Again, it may not be the same degree as those who have died in Christ, but you
have access to the Father through the Son.
I think about what this does to our prayer lives. We just confessed it, right? This
is another Packer quote. It is God's prerogative to give good things,
things that we have need of. And in our unwisdom, we ask for things that do not
come under these headings. God, like any good parent, Reserves the right to say,
no, not that, it wouldn't be good for you, but have this instead.
Good parents never simply ignore what their children are saying, nor simply disregard
their feelings of need. And neither does God. But often he gives us what we should
have asked for, rather than what we actually requested. Doesn't that change your
prayer life? what you asked for in your prayers? It did mine this week.
And I get it, I know I'm digressing a little bit, but brothers and sisters, you
have a glorious inheritance because of your adopted status. It may be,
it's meant to be enjoyed both in the here and now, but also in the future.
Fourth thing, adoption is not universal, but the invitation is.
What do I mean by that? This goes back to what we talked about last week, the
antinomy of God's sovereignty and human responsibility, that even though God does not
predestine everyone for adoption, the invitation to be adopted is extended to
everyone. God's family should be on the forefront of inviting other's to join the
family of God, recognizing that not all are predestined for it. Remember,
his decrees will come to pass, but that does not negate our responsibility to both
accept the invitation and to invite others.
God welcomes all people to belong to his family, but God's family will only be
occupied by those He has predestined.
So wonder that you'll find Jesus saying both, come to me all who are weary and
heavy laden. And it's the same Jesus who says, you did not choose me, but I chose
you.
So here again, we learn the reason for our predestination. The reason for our
predestination is adoption as son's. Adoption is our lot. Belonging to Him is our
chosen portion. A lot has indeed fallen on pleasant places.
We have a beautiful inheritance.
We are predestined for adoption of sons. Next we must look at the result of our
predestination, the result of our predestination. So, what does our predestination
result in? What does it lead to? Well, according to verse 6, our predestination
results in the praise of his glorious grace. The praise of his glorious grace.
In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ,
according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with
which He has blessed us in the beloved. What God has decreed in eternity past
results in the praise of His glorious grace. God undertakes the work of salvation so
that He may be exalted for His grace. This leads us to infer that God delights in
this undertaking, since it will lead to Him being magnified for His grace.
Verse 6 also indicates what is specifically to be praised. It is His grace.
A grace not couched in general categories. No, we are given specifics why His grace
is worth praising. His grace is worthy of praise because it is a glorious grace,
and it is a glorious grace when it comes to us from a glorious God.
Who would have thought that the Father of all glory would decide to show us his
grace?
His grace is worthy to be praised because he has blessed us with it in the act of
predestination and election. The next phrase in verse 6 can literally be read to the
praise of his glorious grace with which he has graced us within the beloved.
So as if Paul hasn't made it clear enough, the predestining work of the Father to
adopt you as a son was an act of pure grace, which he graced you with.
This is why grace and predestination is such a blessing. We did nothing to merit
this act. We did nothing to deserve our own adoption. It is simply by his gracious
pleasure that he decides to include us into his family.
And this should result in the humble adoration of the one who predestined us for
adoption.
Predestination and adoption are such a rich and powerful spiritual blessings that
should result in the resounding praise of God's glorious grace.
The Paul adds even further description as to why God's grace should be praised,
because he not only blesses us with his grace, but blesses us with his grace in
the beloved.
In other words, the beloved Son is the sphere in which we receive the spiritual
blessings of God. He is the space in which we occupy, in which we come to
apprehend the grace of God.
We need to recognize who we have been blessed in. We haven't been, I mean,
keeping track, I love what the prepositions do in this passage. We need to recognize
who we have been blessed in. He is the baptized, beloved Son who we find in the
Gospels who the Father is well -pleased in. It is His kingdom,
Colossians 1 says, the kingdom of the beloved son that we have been transferred
into." Listen to this quote from Jake Metters. "God's sovereign grace is lavished on
us in the beloved one. Every blessing we enjoy is because of Christ,
His accomplishments and His being the risen Son of God. The new in Christ -ness is
what defines us. Every fruit we bear, every sin we repent of, and every comfort we
feel is because of the Messiah. He's the chosen one,
from whom God gathers His chosen ones. And because of God's mercy,
we reap a harvest of blessings in our election for our connection to the beloved
Son.
Predestination ultimately leads to the magnification of God's glorious grace shown to
us in Christ. In Paul's mind, this is the final result,
the telos of God's sovereign initiative in predestination. It's what it ultimately
results in. But what about for us? What about for us? Does predestination drive you
to your knees and humble adoration and praise? Or does this weighty doctrine puff
you up with knowledge? Does it lead to adoration or arrogance for you?
Many of you who are familiar with my story know that for a while this doctrine led
to a prideful arrogance that began to creep into my heart and manifest itself in my
life. I can remember exactly where I was when I heard the five points of Calvinism.
I was with the guy who discipled me in high school. His name was Kevin. We were
at Chili's in Brandon, Florida after a church on Sunday. That's what, that was our
custom.
It was kind of early on in my relationship to Kevin and he figured out, he figured
it was time for me to hear about the doctrines of grace. And like Bob and his
experience with it, I initially abhorred what I heard. How can God be this way,
the way that Kevin is describing?
But unlike Bob, I became consumed with Calvinism once I determined it was right.
Not only was I convinced by what it taught, I began to see it as a gun that
should be shot at every Christian.
Every Christian should know this. Are they even a Christian if they don't know this?
Those were some of my thoughts at the time that landed me in what many refer to
as the cage stage of Calvinism, right?
But thank the Lord, Kevin sat me down and pointed me to 1 Corinthians 15 .3 where
Paul talks about the gospel being of first importance. Kevin graciously pointed out
to me that the gospel was no longer primary in my life. It was no longer of first
importance. Calvin had become a first importance. He said that I preached Calvin and
not Christ and that I knew his institutes more than I knew the scriptures.
Of course, I was very convicted by this and repented and began to see how I used
passages like Ephesians 1 to simply win an argument and stroke my ego.
And rather than it driving me to humble adoration, it puffed me up in prideful
arrogance.
And friends, I only relay this story to you so that you won't fall in the same
trap. Whether you consider yourself a Calvinist or not, do you not see how this
passage, how predestination itself, should drive you to your knees in humble
adoration? From start to finish, salvation is a work of the Lord.
It belongs to him and all the glory goes to him. If we think for a moment that
the doctrine of predestination somehow entitles us To some degree of boasting, we're
wrong.
God's sovereign initiative in salvation should drive us to humble adoration,
not prideful arrogance.
Our identity as adopted children is a humble one. Don't forget that.
Arrogance or adoration, pride or praise, haughtiness or humiliation.
It's your choice. I can only point you to what predestination should result in,
to the praise of His glorious grace. I can also remind you that this morning that
praise is not just encapsulated in Sunday morning singing. Praise encompasses your
life? How are you living your life to the praise of His glorious grace?
Does your life reflect the fact that God has graciously brought you into His family?
In other words, your identity as an adopted child of God should align the way you
worship God with your life.
Your identity shapes your praise. You see this all the time in the realms of sports
fandom, right? Whatever team you identify with Determines the way you root for them.
I could make a joke here about the razorbacks. I'm not going to Just not I'm gonna
leave that okay friends the same in the same way your identity is found and being
in a predestined and adopted child of God How much more does that affect the way
He prays him with our lives.
Maybe you're hearing this and you've come to the conclusion that for far too long,
you've let this doctrine create a state of prideful arrogance. Or maybe that you've
not been living your life to the praise of his glorious grace.
Can I encourage you? Can I encourage you to run back into the arms of the Father,
the one who predestined you for adoption. You certainly can. You can run back into
his arms. It's possible for you to do so through Jesus, the beloved. We become
beloved sons and daughters of God. That's how we go back to the Father. It's
through Jesus. Christ becomes our firstborn brother who receives,
who gives out the first fruits of our inheritance that we have received in part but
will receive in full in the future.
The reason for our predestination is adoption and the result of our predestination is
praise. So let us pray and continue to praise him in communion and worship.
Let's pray.
Father you are good and you do good. You are the one who elects us,
chooses us, predestines us for adoption. You do not do this coldly or from a
distance. You do it
all the more knowing us.
Father, let this humble us.
Let us see how unworthy we are of this blessing.
Father, may we See you as the Father of all glory, who dispenses your grace in a
glorious way.
God, help us to see the reason for our predestination.
Help us to see the result of it as well. We may cry out in never -ending praise
of the God who loves us and adopts us so that we may belong to his family. And
we praise things in your precious and holy name. Amen.