Topic: Adopted and New Citizenship
Leslie Lynch King, Jr. was born on Monday, July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents separated sixteen days after his birth and were divorced the following December. His father was abusive and had a drinking problem. His mother took her baby and moved back to her parents’ home in Grand Rapids, Michigan where she later married a man named Gerald Ford, a paint salesman. Ford later adopted young Leslie and gave him his own name. Later in his life, Leslie Lynch King became Gerald Ford, the 38th president of the United States. Born Leslie Lynch King, by adoption, Gerald Ford entered a new family and was given a new name. He became part of a new family all because he was adopted into a new family with a new father. When we were saved by faith in Jesus Christ, God the Father adopted us and placed us into His family. We were given a new name, written down in the Lamb's Book of Life in Heaven. We were placed into the royal line of believers from the beginning who follow Jesus Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. We have a new father, a new family, a new name, a new destiny and a new life!
Ephesians 2:19, “So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household.”
One of the great terms in Christian teaching is the concept of transformation. It recalls the illustration of the caterpillar, who transforms from the ugly worm to a beautiful butterfly.
That is what Paul is talking about here; what we once were is compared to what we have become.
In Verse 19 Paul uses two terms: strangers and foreigners. Both words describe people who live in another country, not their own, and have no rights compared to natural born citizens. In the previous verses Paul talked about the fact that these Gentiles were considered outsiders and people without hope by the Jews. But now in Christ, Paul tells them that they are no longer strangers and foreigners. They are in fact citizens with all of God’s people, once outsiders but now insiders. More importantly, they are now members of the family. They were now full members of the family, not servants, but sons and daughters with all the rights and privileges of natural born children.
Romans 8:15-16, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.”
Paul adds to this picture of citizenship of God’s household by adding the concept to the temple with a foundation of the apostles and prophets along with Christ as the cornerstone (vs. 20-22).
Once we were foreigners, strangers, outsiders and, worst of all, sinners. But God sent Jesus, His own son, to die on the cross for us. As a result, through repentance, Jesus adopts us into His family.
What’s the point? As believers in Christ, we are God’s family and God’s temple. Now, live with this new reality.
See you Sunday,
Dr. Scott Kallem