Yesterday we had a speaker from Gospel for Asia at our church, sharing stories of tragedy and triumph from their ministry in India. He repeatedly called us, “brother and sisters.” Here was a man who has spent half his life in India, calling us “brothers and sisters.” And it’s true! As different as our backgrounds and lives are, we are brothers and sisters.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Galatians 3:28,
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
The family of God exploded at Pentecost. Suddenly, it wasn’t just Jewish free men who were God’s chosen people, it was every person who confessed Jesus as Savoir, no matter their heritage, pedigree, or gender.
Paul goes on in Galatians, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were 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 our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir though God” (4:4-7).
It was Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross that opened the door wide for those of us born two thousand years later to be called sons of God. Not because of anything we have done, but because He loves us. I now have all the rights and privileges of a son. We are heirs of the promises God made to His people throughout Scripture—promises of His love, protection, guidance, and sanctification.
My family is in the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia. There’s a little boy right now halfway across the world who doesn’t even know that America exists. He doesn’t know there’s a daddy, mommy, and two big brothers waiting for him. But we have been working to get him home for almost two years. One day (pray it’s soon!), we’ll fly over the ocean, sign some papers, fly back, sign some more papers, and he will be ours. He will be my son. He will have two brothers. Our family will be a visible sign of the beautiful truth of Scripture. No matter who we are or where we come from, we are united as brothers and sisters, “for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God, through faith” (Gal. 3:26).
Praise God today that through Christ, we can become part of His family!
This is such a precious truth to me – I am awed that I am truly a daughter of our Holy God, and that in Christ I am sister to countless! And oh how I long for ALL to, like your son in Ethiopia, some day learn of their forever family, their Abba who loves them passionately and eternally.
What a treasure it is to be part of the family of God! God bless your adoption process. Pray all goes smoothly and according to God’s perfect timing. I am so excited for that boy in Ethiopia that he will get to grow up in a home of people that not only will love him, but a family that loves Jesus and will train up this little boy in the ways of the Lord. So beautiful!