You are adopted
Romans 8:12-17 So then, brothers, we do not owe it to the sinful flesh to live in harmony with it. 13For if you live in harmony with the sinful flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the actions of the body, you will live.
14Indeed, those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery so that you are afraid again, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we call out, “Abba, Father!” 16The Spirit himself joins our spirit in testifying that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, we are also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.
We heard the song of the seraphs singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3). Amen.
My dad’s mother died when he was 4 years old. His father then had to try to raise five children – of whom my dad was the youngest – all by himself. He died the next year after a nervous breakdown. Now, my dad was an orphan at age 5.
Back then, children often went to live with their godparents. My dad went to live with his godfather, Bill Miske, and his wife, Marie.
According to God’s plan, Bill and Marie weren’t able to have children of their own. But then my dad showed up at age 5. Now, the Miskes never adopted my dad. That’s why I’m a Zarling and not a Miske. But they treated this little orphan boy like their son.
St. Paul tells us today that we are adopted. “You received the Spirit of adoption” (Romans 8:15b). This is pretty amazing since we were in a much worse condition than being little orphan boys and girls. We were born enemies of God. Seed of Satan. Slaves of our sinful nature. Slaves to Satan’s tyranny.
We heard Jesus tell us today, “Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God! Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh. Whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:5,6). Paul explains, “We do not owe it to the sinful flesh to live in harmony with it. For if you live in harmony with the sinful flesh, you are going to die” (Romans 8:12,13).
God gives us the blessing of sexual happiness reserved for marriage. But people who are opposed to God’s will engage in all kinds of awful and abhorrent sexual acts. They are living in harmony with their sinful flesh.
One of the blessings of marriage and sexual happiness is the gift of children. Yet people who are opposed to God’s will put their own selfish needs over the needs of children, so they murder them in the womb. They are living in harmony with their sinful flesh.
God has given us the beauty of creation to enjoy. But people who are opposed to God’s will worship creation and at the same time are afraid of creation. They have fallen into the cult of Mother Earth. They are living in harmony with their sinful flesh.
But that’s not just them out there who are living in harmony with their flesh. So do we here inside the sanctuary of this church. God has given us mouths and tongues to speak our prayers and sing God’s praises. But we use our mouths and tongues for gossip, bullying, and deceit.
God has given us eyes and ears to focus on what is good and godly. But we let our eyes look upon filth and allow our ears to hear foul language.
God has given us the gift of time – time to spend in God’s house, to spend with our family, to spend nurturing relationships with others at work or in our neighborhood. But we waste so much of that valuable time scrolling on our phone.
We do all this because we, too, are living in harmony with our sinful flesh.
Paul reminds us, “If you live in harmony with the sinful flesh, you are going to die” (Romans 8:13a). Then Paul adds, “But if by the Spirit you put to death the actions of the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:13b). If we live in harmony with our sinful flesh, we will die. But we will live if we put to death the misdeeds of sinful flesh. We put our sinful flesh to death with daily contrition and repentance. Contrition is sorrow over sin and repentance is turning from sin. Our sinful flesh cannot be reformed. It must be killed. Crucified. Nailed to the cross. Drowning our Old Adam daily in the waters of Baptism. The problem is that our Old Adam is a good swimmer. He keeps coming back day after day. So, we keep returning to the baptismal font drowning the enemy of our sinful flesh again and again.
Paul informs us that we don’t have to live in harmony with our flesh. “We do not owe it to the sinful flesh to live in harmony with it” (Romans 8:12). We don’t owe our flesh anything. We used to be slaves to Satan, our selfish mind, and our sinful flesh. But we aren’t slaves anymore. Christ broke us free from our slavery when he crushed the Serpent’s head under his bruised heel. We can look up to Christ on the pole of the cross and live. Jesus defeated sin when he paid for sin with his bloody sacrifice. Jesus defeated death when he rose from the dark grave on Easter morning. Jesus’ death and resurrection is applied to us in the waters of baptism. It is at the baptismal font where we were reborn of water and the Spirit (John 3:5).
It is through conversion to faith and baptism with water that we are adopted into God’s family. “Indeed, those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery so that you are afraid again, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we call out, “Abba, Father!” (John 3:14-15).
When I think of adoption, I am reminded of my good friend Pastor Dave Rockhoff who served for many years at Friedens in Kenosha. Pastor Rockhoff and his wife Janice were not blessed with children, so they decided to adopt. They were blessed with Stephanie, a little black baby girl. Then when they were adopting Stephanie, God allowed Janice to also become pregnant with their son.
Years later, when Stephanie was in high school, Pastor Rockhoff was going through some serious issues with the veins in his legs. I was teasing Stephanie saying, “You know, what your dad has is hereditary. You should go get yourself checked out.” She replied, “Oh, thanks, Pastor! I will!”
I love that story! Even though she’s black and her parents are white, even though her brother is natural-born and she is adopted, Stephanie didn’t consider herself anything less than a true daughter of her parents. She is a Rockhoff.
That’s a beautiful illustration of what God does for us through adoption. At our conversion to the Christian faith or at the baptismal font, the Holy Spirit takes us away from Satan who despises us and gives us into the arms of our heavenly Father who loves us. When the pastor poured water over our heads and baptized us in the name of the Triune God, we were adopted into God’s holy family. The pastor made the sign of the cross on your head to your heart, marking you as a redeemed child of God.
That means we are brothers and sisters. We are all adopted into the same family. We have the very Son of God, Jesus Christ, as our Brother! God our Father does not treat us any differently as his adopted than he treats his only-begotten Son (John 3:16).
As God’s adopted children, we now live desire to live for our Father. The Holy Spirit has brought us into harmony with our sanctified spirit through water and the Word. We no longer have to live in harmony with our sinful flesh. We are no longer Satan’s flunkies. We don’t have to come when he whistles. We owe a debt to God, not to our sinful flesh. The sinful flesh never did anything for us but cause problems and lead to death. The Spirit of God in us gives power to resist that and truly live.
As God’s sanctified children, we use our tongues and mouths to praise the Triune God. We fill our eyes and ears with what is good and godly. We use our time to fulfill our vocations as parents, children, spouses, employers, employees, and citizens. As sanctified children, we listen to our Father’s instructions about marriage, we cherish his blessing of children, and then we take our children outside to enjoy the beautifies of God’s creation.
My Grandma Miske died before I was born. My Grandpa Miske died when I was in college. My dad had hoped he would receive the Miske farm as his inheritance. But my Grandpa Miske donated his farm in his will to Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School, where my sisters and I went to high school. My dad wasn’t too happy about that. But he bought his own farm and everything turned out fine.
As God’s children, we don’t have to be concerned about our inheritance. “Now if we are children, we are also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17). Since we are God’s children, we are also his heirs. We won’t be getting a farm as an inheritance. We will be receiving the mansions of heaven. Jesus ascended to heaven to prepare our rooms for us. We will have the green pastures and quiet waters of paradise to enjoy. We will be able to drink often from the water of life that flows from the river of life.
Receiving knickknacks, portraits, and family heirlooms from our parents and grandparents are important. Far more important is that when we arrive in heaven, we will have a crown of glory placed on our head, a palm branch of victory placed into our hand, and the white robe of Christ’s righteousness placed over our body.
As great as it is to sit around the family table at holidays, we know we will be seated at the Lamb’s High Feast for all eternity. God grants his heirs a foretaste of that banquet feast every Sunday in his Son’s Supper.
When our children were younger, we enjoyed having them call us Mommy and Daddy. As they get older, they call us Mom and Dad. When they’re teenagers, they don’t want to acknowledge knowing us. But when they mature, they like calling us Mom and Dad again.
Listen to what Paul says, “You received the Spirit of adoption by whom we call out, “Abba, Father!” (Romans 3:15). “Abba” is Aramaic for “Father” or “Daddy.” We are sinful. God is three-times holy like the seraphs sang in Isaiah 6:3. We are born as spawn of Satan. We often live in harmony with our sinful flesh and not in harmony with our sanctified spirit. We can be like rebellious teenagers and not want to acknowledge our divine Parent. We choose to hate what he loves and love what he hates.
And yet … because we are adopted, we can use a special title to call upon God. He is the Almighty God. The Creator of the Universe. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And we get to call him Abba, Daddy, Father.
Please pause when you pray the Lord’s Prayer today and every day. You get to pray the prayer God’s only-begotten Son taught you to pray. It is a prayer of children addressing their almighty God … whom they also get to call their Father. … Their Daddy.
All these blessings, all these gifts, all this inheritance is already yours. All because you are adopted. Amen.
As God’s adopted children, hear and believe this promise from your Divine Brother, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Amen.