What is a Christian? (cont)

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Adoption is not as common as it once was, and today we use it casually to speak of adopting things like pets and books. But in reality it is quite profound. It is the permanent placement of a person into a new family with all its rights and privileges.  
This is what God has done for us. When God adopts us as children he draws us into a new family – his family. Being adopted moves beyond being forgiven for our sins and accepted by God, and takes us right into the heart of relationship. Here we enjoy the fullness, breadth and depth of love, affection, generosity, intimacy and fellowship. We are part of a new family, children of the living God with all the status, inheritance and future that it entails.
Before his death and resurrection Jesus said to his disciples, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15). But following the resurrection Paul writes, “So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir” (Galatians 4:7). Jesus came to open the way to the Father’s heart (John 14:6).
Packer also wrote, “If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much they make of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls their worship and prayers and their whole outlook on life, it means that they do not understand Christianity very well at all.”
I trust learning about the Father Heart of God has helped you appreciate how much God loves you and what a wonderful thing it is to be a child of God. My prayer is that this knowledge will penetrate deep into your being and change the way you worship, pray and live life.
Stephen L Baxter
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