Having been an adopted child and having adopted a beautiful daughter, I’m just going to “go out on a limb” and say something that some of you may think is shocking.  You can’t go to heaven unless you are adopted!  You can’t have eternal life in heaven unless you forsake your old identity and take on a new identity.  Maybe you know what I’m talking about.  But, in case you don’t, please read on and don’t assume I’m talking about what you may think I’m referring to.

No, I’m not an angry or despondent adopted person who just started a blog so he could pontificate to everyone on the significance of his childhood adoption as though it is superior to those of you who weren’t adopted.  No, I’m not specifically referring to legally disowning your mother, father, siblings or other family members and being legally adopted into a new family.  In fact, I have faith, as some of you do, that I will spend eternity in heaven with some of them and hope that I would see all of them there, from both my adoptive and birth families.  The family of birth I’m referring to is a family we were all born into and can all trace our lineage to; the family of Adam – the human race.

The Bible state in Romans 5:12 (referring to Adam) “So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned” (NET).  Basically, we were all born through Adam and inherited a sin nature that has destined us for a physical death.  Not one of us is going to escape this fate.  The problem with this physical death is that it will not lead us to inherit God’s Kingdom, because while we are all part of God’s special creation whom He made in His image, we aren’t automatically God’s children for eternity.  Why – because we have Adam’s sin nature and don’t genetically have God’s Divine nature.  We don’t have God’s Divine genes and don’t naturally seek Him as Father, though we may try our best to live up to His standards.  The “sin” that lives inside us is a part of our nature.

So, what exactly is “sin”?  Sin means “missing the mark.”  It isn’t restricted to intentional decisions to rebel against or disobey God, but is anytime we either intentionally or unintentionally fail to meet God’s standard.  That’s why, in the Bible’s book of Leviticus, sacrifices were made for both intentional and unintentional sins.  Basically, it’s fair to say that we don’t just decide to sin, we are born that way and default to that behavior.  We are completely enslaved to this nature.  We sometimes sin when we don’t mean to or default to behavior that doesn’t meet God’s perfect standards.  That’s hard for many of us to believe because we want to see ourselves as basically good decent persons who are trying their best to be good.  We even want to believe that our children are born perfect.  But, it doesn’t take long before we see that, despite their beautiful innocence, they “surprise” us with not so innocent and downright selfish behavior that we spend our parenting years trying to correct.  We quickly wake up to the sobering fact that, no matter how skillful we think we are at parenting, our kids aren’t perfect.

So, basically, all of us fall into the same gene pool.  We need a solution beyond our own selves.  We can try to do good and follow the 10 commandments, but it ultimately will fail us as the commandments only show us how we “miss the mark” with God – they aren’t the solution.  Just the same, we can try to accomplish great works that solve many of the world’s problems and display acts of humanitarian love to each other.  However, we can’t escape our genetics no matter what great acts of kindness or good deeds we do.  We simply can’t get to heaven and spend eternity with God if we stay identified with this family (Adam’s children).  The problem is, we can’t physically change the DNA we inherited.  We can’t go back and be physically reborn with a different nature.  So, what’s the solution?  Adoption?  Yes!  That’s God’s solution for us.

So, what does adoption mean.  It means to be “chosen.”  That’s the solution God used throughout the Bible to save His people.  In the Hebrew (OT) scriptures, God used His “chosen” people, the Jews, to bring His message to the world.  The Jewish lineage wasn’t genetically connected to God, they were adopted – chosen by God (Romans 9:4).  Ironically, when God freed the Jews from Egyptian slavery, he also used adoption as He had baby Moses (a Jew) placed out of his Jewish family to Pharoah’s daughter so he could be raised by Egyptian royalty and be positioned to someday lead the Jews out of captivity.  But most the important placement was when God gave us the gift of Jesus Christ to save us from our sins.  God gave us His only begotten Son, Jesus, who wasn’t a creation of God (like we are), but was the Word that was God from the beginning.  John, speaking of Jesus, says in John 1:1-3 (NET)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. ² The Word was with God in the beginning. ³ All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. ⁵ And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it.

Matthew 1:18-25 (NET) describes the miraculous virgin birth of Jesus on earth and placement with Joseph (His adoptive earthly father) in this way:

Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Because Joseph, her husband to be, was a righteous man, and because he did not want to disgrace her, he intended to divorce her privately. ²⁰ When he had contemplated this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” ²² This all happened so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled: ²³ “Look! The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will name him Emmanuel,” which means “God with us.” ²⁴ When Joseph awoke from sleep he did what the angel of the Lord told him. He took his wife, ²⁵ but did not have marital relations with her until she gave birth to a son, whom he named Jesus.

God the Father placed His Son Jesus on this earth so He could save us from our sins by dying on a cross as a once and for all eternal sacrifice (unlike the OT sacrifices which had to be repeated over and over).  His virgin birth brought with it His Divine genes and did not carry with it the sin nature that we inherited under Adam, making Him the perfect sacrifice.  Jesus, being both fully human and fully God in nature, made it possible for us to be adopted into God’s Eternal family if we place our faith in Him.  By placing our faith in Jesus and His sacrificial death on the cross, we are no longer slaves and children of our genetically inherited sin nature, but we are adopted as His sons and daughters and can call God our true “Father.”  The Bible describes the adoption solution in Galatians 4:4-6 when it says…

 ⁴ But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. ⁶ And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who calls “Abba! Father!” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you are a son, then you are also an heir through God.

 When I was adopted, the State of Texas gave me a new identity.  While I still had the same birthdate and birth certificate number, they redacted my birth certificate and changed my name from “Baby Boy …” to the new family name of “Potts.”  While I am proud of that name, that adoption was just a new human identity.  No matter who my birth family or adoptive family are and no matter what I find out about my original birth family or my adopted family, I cannot escape who I am – a human being born with a sin nature under Adam.  I must be adopted by God.  The only way that happens is through faith in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son.  By believing in Christ and trusting in Him as the sacrifice for my sins, Ephesians 1:13-14 (NET) says that I am “marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.”  What is that inheritance?  It is eternal life for those who believe (John 3:16).  That’s the solution to my sin problem.

The Texas Family Code seems to mirror exactly what the Bible states about our adoption as children of God when it says the following:

Sec. 162.017. EFFECT OF ADOPTION. (a) An order of adoption creates the parent-child relationship between the adoptive parent and the child for all purposes.

(b) An adopted child is entitled to inherit from and through the child’s adoptive parents as though the child were the biological child of the parents.

If you are adopted by God in Christ, you get everything through His Son, Jesus Christ.  You no longer are condemned to receive the inheritance of your old sin nature when you die, which is to eternally perish in hell, apart from God.

So, the question is, are you adopted by God and promised His Eternal Inheritance?  If not, place your trust in Christ today as the sacrifice for your sins and ask for His forgiveness, and that Inheritance will be yours.