4. Adoption involves a permanent transfer of identity I get chills when I think of the monumental changes wrought in the lives of several Ch1nese orphans I met last summer, who have since been adopted. In just a short span of time, they have been given an entirely new identity; once orphans, they are now permanent sons and daughters, Bakers and McKinneys and countless others. In the same way, as Christians we have been given an entirely new personhood, which cannot ever be taken from us:
"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." ~John 6:37-401 Peter 2:10 elaborates on our remarkable identity transfer when it states that “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (emphases mine). Formerly dead in our sins, we have now become clothed with the righteousness of God Almighty as His children. Just like many of the precious orphans I encountered last summer, as Christians we are no longer who we once were....Christ has given us a radically new, permanent identity in Him!
*photo from Google Images*
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