ADVENT FOR ADULTS #9
December 9th…. 16 NIGHTS TIL CHRISTMAS
How to know for sure you’ve been Adopted PART ONE
How then can you KNOW you’ve been accepted? How can you KNOW you’ve been adopted?
If, as I’ve said, you are eligible for “adoption” by God into His family— and if you feel that you are genuinely acceptable (because you are genuinely contrite, you really are ready to deal with God on his terms, not on your own terms) how can you actually know that you’ve become an adopted child of God?
The standard answer is that you can’t know. I was told this all of my life— “you can only know for sure after you die.” That’s a pretty lame answer. That would be like an orphan being so desperate to be adopted he’d be willing to sign up with anybody that comes to adopt him. What if he finds out afterward the man is cruel and the woman sadistic?
God doesn’t want you to sign up with just anybody. And God doesn’t expect you to check your brains at the door. God wants you to KNOW who it is you are dealing with, before you commit your soul into his hands.
Getting adopted by God is not a one-sided deal. It’s not like He chooses to adopt you and you have no choice in the matter. God is not going to twist your arm to get you to accept him.
In fact, if you are reading this, you may be a person who has participated in many Christmases already. Maybe your parents from when you were a little child made a fuss about this time of year— brought in a tree and decorated it in the front living room, dropped little hints about good boys and girls getting presents, filled the house with the smell of baking cookies, and filled your head with stories about Mary and Joseph and songs like Joy to the World, the Lord is come, let earth receive her king!”
But as you’ve grown older and put many Christmases behind you —you’ve come to realize you really don’t have anything substantial in the way of proof that all this real. What if it isn’t? What if you’ve been celebrating Christmas all of your life and then find out when you die there’s nothing?
Our atheist friends think we Christians are crazy. They think we have made up a little dream world of heaven and angels and that we’re hanging onto tinsel. They think that faith is something we make up and they think themselves brave enough to face the world without such fantasies.
So which is it? Is the Christianity that stimulated the celebration of Christmas just a childish fantasy? Like the rumour in an orphanage that there really are a lot of moms and pops out there that one day will come to take you home and make you part of their family? What a cruel rumour that would be— to give hope when there’s absolutely no reason for hope! What a cruel thing that would be— to celebrate Christmas, and yet know deep in your heart that all of it is a fantasy.
Well? What about you? Have you gone so far as to check out to see for yourself if all the rumours are true? Or false?
Because a forgotten factor in the economy of God is that he is actively trying to lead you to himself, but he needs your cooperation. He wants you to check things out for yourself. He wants you to be convinced by proofs that you yourself consider valid proofs! When you leave that orphanage you need to be SURE you’ve been safely and securely and permanently adopted!
God wants us to know for sure. About life, and the afterlife. So to lead us to proof positive that Heaven is for real, that eternal life is available for ALL, God has laid out a process so that we can be absolutely sure that he is real, and that his promised kingdom is real. One verse in the New Testament sums this up: “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” [1John 5:13]
Now I can’t explain this verse completely here in one page. (That will be next.) But I can illustrate the concept by going back to our familiar “Christmas story” here in Luke Chapter 2. The passage says “there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.” [Luke 2:8,9] Then a few verses later we read: “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” [Luke 2:13,14]
What happened is that an angel appeared— and then a whole host of angels— and they told the shepherds the Saviour was born that night, and that he was lying in a manger.
Here you have a supernatural occurrence. Sceptics say, “yeah, if angels appeared to me, then I would believe!” But these shepherds actually didn’t know for sure that these angels were telling them the truth— until they went and checked it out for themselves. “And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.” [Luke 2:15,16]
After they had CONFIRMED what the angels had told them, it says in verse 20 “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.” The “hint” the angels gave led them to PROOF.
The point is, God wants you to follow the light he gives you— because when that light leads you to Him, you’ll KNOW from your own experience— not just the say-so of other people.
NEXT: How to know for sure you’ve been Adopted : PART TWO
GO TO START: ADVENT FOR ADULTS #1