Adoption in our day is a matter of timing and much preparation. The prospective parents must retain an agency or an attorney. Often the state social service agency must have a home visit or receive a home visit report from a recognized or certified social worker. Legal documents must be obtained, copied, forwarded to the various offices. Sometimes financial arrangements must be arranged. Papers must be signed. Often the prospective parents must take classes. Background checks must be paid for, received, and then forwarded to the proper authorities. All of this and then a prospective child must be found. Perhaps the prospective parents will need to meet the birth mother. Travel may be involved. The wait for approval may be long. Proof of health insurance must be provided. The child’s room must be made ready. There are more papers to sign.
Even after the adoptive parents take their new child home, there are more home visits. Final approval from the birth mother and/or father may be necessary. Fees of all sorts must be paid. A court date must be set. Final papers must be signed. The parents must wait some more. There is a date set when everything will finally be ready. It is a long process but so worth it.
God began before creation the process of adopting children. He chose them in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:3-5). After creating humankind and seeing them fall into Satan’s trap, He made a promise to Eve that all would be made right (Genesis 3:15). He eventually made a covenant with a moon worshiper named Abram, promising that the promise made to Eve would be fulfilled through him and that he would be the father of a great nation (Genesis 12:1-3). That nation, Israel, became a great nation in Egypt and became His people at Mount Sinai. The family of their God-selected king David received God’s promise that one of their own would rule forever as the Messiah of all the nations. All of these pieces God put in place for the appointed day, the date when everything would finally be ready, the date of His Son’s death.
This is the foundation for the salvation that the apostles preached on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:22-24), as well as for other future events (Acts 17:30-31). This working of God through the death of Christ makes possible our redemption (ransom) from the slavery of the law. These events bring about our adoption as sons and make it possible for the Father to put the Spirit of His Son in our hearts. None of these things are possible apart from God’s working in history to bring about Christ’s death at exactly the right moment. This is the message that the Galatians gladly received and to which Paul wants to bring them back with the result that they would have:
- Freedom from the law in order to please God,
- A sense of what it means to be God’s child, and
- A sense that the Holy Spirit lives within them.
God made these things possible when He set a date for His Son to come into this world. It was part of His eternal purpose for the Galatians . . . and for us.
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