Sunday 21 February 2010 Bible Readings Isaiah 26:11-19; Romans 8:14-30

Living as Adopted Children

On Sunday we return to the theme of adoption, giving particular attention to the time in which we now live as the Father's adopted children, but still waiting the full redemption that is to come. In this period of time we know our adoption by faith, and while it is not lacking in experience, we actually live in hope of the coming fulfilment of our destiny.

This time is a contested time. It is contested particularly in that we are tempted to disbelieve that the Lord's work is complete and full. There is much arrayed against the sons of God in this age which causes much travail of soul. However, we are the ‘first fruits' of the Spirit who groans within us, looking and longing for the great harvest to come. We do not belong to the realm of the world and the flesh (in its theological sense) any more (Rom. 8:9), but everything in the world and flesh will try to tell us that we do! No, we are God's adopted sons, who have the Spirit within us teaching us to cry "Abba" (Rom. 8:14-16 cf. Gal. 4:1-7), despite what the world (and even our experience) may say about us! Thus we experience travail of soul as we ‘wait' for the time of fulfilment.

In many places the Scriptures speak about this in the vocabulary of child birth. On the one hand we do not wish to downplay the ache and pain of this current state, but on the other we cannot over-emphasise the incredible weight of glory that is to be revealed to us, in us and through us. We live in hope that is sure and certain, and so the travail we experience is not futile or without end. Rather, we are drawn ever deeper into love and trust in God our Father.

In Isaiah 26:11-19 we hear of Israel having gone through birth pangs and exhausting labour, but only to bring forth ‘wind'. The context of this is that Israel had looked to other nations to rule over them, seeking to take refuge in alliances that they had constructed without the Lord's leading or command. These were all now crumbling, and the Assyrian army would soon be gathered outside the walls of Jerusalem itself. Thought there would be a gracious deliverance of God on this occasion, the northern tribes were to be dispersed by the Assyrians and eventually Judah and Jerusalem would fall to the Babylonians.

Where Israel's labour pains had been exhaustive and unproductive, God's work is sure and certain. God's people are unable to accomplish salvation (Is. 26:18), but God raises up the dead by his power (Is. 26:19). Where they have tried their hardest and come to nothing, God truly establishes peace for them, since ‘he has performed for us all our works' (Is. 26:12). Later in Isaiah's prophecy, he sees a time of great restoration. Where there has been deep mourning for Zion, this will be replaced with joyful songs, because her labour will be fully fruitful and its outcome miraculous (Is. 66:7-9). Those who have wept with and for the people/city of God (the Church) will find that in a moment all their longed for comfort will be granted (Is. 66:10-14).

Passages such as these are part of the background to Paul's comments in Romans. He sees these principles enlarged and expounds them in terms of the whole creation. We, as the people of God, share in the groaning and travail of the Spirit of God himself. It is not as though the outcome is in doubt. Indeed, it is a sure and certain hope, and Paul can speak of our glorification as though it has already happened (Rom. 8:30). But the travail is there, living in the hope of the promise to be fulfilled, and knowing that the whole of the creation is bound under a God ordained ‘futility' until the adoption of the sons of God...the redemption of our bodies.

This does not mean that God's children are not his adopted sons now. It does mean that the adoption is with a view to an even greater glory to follow. The adoption, though real, is in some sense ‘under wraps' until the time set by the Father. Then, in the great resurrection when this mortal puts on immortality (1 Cor. 15 should be read along side Rom. 8), the whole of the cosmos will be released into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God.

That this should be so is astounding. What it really means defies comprehension, belonging to that which the ‘eye has not seen nor has ear heard'. But we do already have intimations of the Spirit within us, telling us that it is so and leading us to understand the glory of it even in some measure. In the intercession of the Spirit, the Father hears the full hearted cry of his children. Luther has a beautiful description of this in his 1535 Commentary on Galatians (L.W. Vol. 26, pp. 380ff.) and also stresses the glorious intercession of the Son of God himself (Ibid, p. 378). One version of this text can be found here: http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/gal/web/gal4-01.html