Adopted Into God’s Family
The Jews were God’s chosen people. In Old Testament times only the children of Israel enjoyed the benefits of a covenant relationship with the one true God.
Gentiles were outside of the promises of God and without hope.
Then, through the redemptive blood of Jesus, the uncircumcised became part of God’s family.
This verse holds particular meaning for me, because I was adopted into my own family. I don’t know who my biological parents were, but I know that my adoptive parents loved me with all their hearts.
They loved me not because I was born of them but because I became a part of their family.
I enjoyed all the rights and privileges that their own biological children would have. They never discriminated against me because I was adopted.
The same is true for us. God loves us Gentiles as much as the children of Israel and he folded us into his family at the time of Christ.
It is difficult for us to fully appreciate what that adoption means since most of us have little experience with being foreigners and aliens.
I have tried, in the past, to imagine what it would have been like to be in an orphanage with no family who wanted me.
That was the fate of many children when I was growing up, but I can’t even fathom how painful that kind of estrangement would have been.
The closest that I’ve come to feeling outside the norm has been when traveling in countries where English is not the national language. I remember my first trip to Germany.
I was with several other people and we had rented a car to drive from Frankfurt to a small town near Dusseldorf.
Even with road maps, we had a challenging time following directions. We often took the wrong exit off the major highways when driving through a town.
Some people tried to be helpful but many just waved us away, unable to understand English. We certainly felt like the foreigners we were.
Much more consequential is the fact that we Gentiles were aliens to the family of God prior to the work of Jesus on the cross.
It’s one thing to be lost on a road in a foreign country and quite another to be a lost soul, without access to the Father.
How amazing that he chose to graft us into his family tree and bestow on us all the blessings of his children.
The power of the cross was for the forgiveness of sins for the Jew and Greek, male and female, all who believe in his name.
Father, we are so grateful that you chose to include all who believe in Jesus as part of your family.