From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The words to which I should like to call your attention this morning are to be found in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, in the first chapter and the fifth verse. The fifth verse in the first chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians: "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."

Now, we must have observed together already that it's very difficult to stop at any one particular point in this great statement, because here again, the opening word reminds us of the intimate connection of this with that which has gone before. So in order to have the setting, let us go back once more to the third verse.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."

But we this morning, I say, want to concentrate in particular on the first part of the statement in this fifth verse. And here we are again reminded that the Apostle goes on with this mighty exposition of his of the statement that he's made in the third verse, in which he tells us that God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

That is the fundamental theme. That indeed, of course, is the entire gospel. There is no gospel apart from that; that is the gospel. But in order that we may have a greater understanding, and in order that these particular people to whom he wrote might have a greater understanding, the Apostle divides it up so that we may see something of the component parts of this great and mighty and wondrous thing which God has done for us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

I'm suggesting that the best way to approach it is something like this: you start with man, if you like, in his sin and in his shame as the result of the fall. There he is—lost and helpless and hopeless, under the wrath of God, with no outlook at all save that of punishment and of despair. But God has looked upon him in grace and in mercy.

But how can these two things be linked together? And the answer is that God has done it all in Christ Jesus. But how does that bring it to us? asks someone. Well, the answer is, you see, that God hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. We become partakers of this salvation, we become participants in this great movement of God's grace, primarily because God has chosen us for that before the foundation of the world.

And then we saw that he has chosen us in a very special way, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. And we interpreted that as meaning this: that God in Christ has cancelled all the results and the consequences of the fall in those whom he has chosen to salvation.

But it doesn't stop at that; still we go on. And here, in this fifth verse, the Apostle leads us to something still more glorious, something still more wonderful. It's like climbing up some stairs or some steps to some wonderful high tower, and you think that you've arrived, that you've reached some kind of platform beyond which nothing is possible.

You would have thought at the end last Sunday morning that nothing could be added to that statement: that we miserable sinners should become holy within as well as without—holy, without blemish, standing in the presence of God and in communion with him, and the old enmity gone and a new relationship of love substituted for it. All the consequences of the fall seem to have been abolished and cancelled, and we are perfect and complete and entire, standing in the presence of God.

I say that one would have thought that nothing possibly could be added to that, but the Apostle does add to it. And he adds to it because salvation adds to it. Wonderful and glorious though that is, it isn't all that we have. He talks, and it's not surprising in the light of this, about the exceeding riches of his grace.

And here is something further. Well, what is it? Well, it is that we have been predestinated unto the adoption of sons. Not only do we stand before God, we stand before him as his sons, called unto the adoption of sons. Well now, surely we must realize together as we begin to look at this, that this is one of the mightiest and the most glorious statements of the gospel which can be found anywhere in the Scripture.

And how important it is that we should take these statements slowly and not merely rush over them in a superficial manner as is so often done. Every statement here has its own individual message and its own importance. And if we really are to appreciate it fully and to rejoice in it as we were meant to do, we've got to stop and to pause and to analyze and to look at each of the statements and look round it, and stand and gaze upon it, and allow its rich and its mighty message to come into our minds and into our hearts.

Which, I think, entitles me to say this: that what we all need is not a general superficial knowledge of the whole of the Bible so much as a detailed, thorough understanding of any one part of the Bible. The gravest danger, I think, confronting certain Christians is that they're content with a mere knowledge of the letter of the Scripture and have never really gone to its principles and to its doctrines.

A superficial analysis of the books of the Bible, finally, is useless unless we realize the rich content of these individual statements. In other words, I can put it like this: if we make a thorough study and analysis of any one of these New Testament Epistles, we shall really be dealing with the entire compass of the Christian truth. And that's what we need.

And if we discover that from any one Epistle, we can then go to any other and it'll open out before us because the correspondence of the message in these Epistles is really astonishing. Take, for instance, as has so often been pointed out, Galatians and Romans—it's the same message, more elaborated in Romans but essentially the same. And here, you come across all these cardinal primary doctrines of the Christian faith in the very introduction to this Epistle to the Ephesians.

How tragic it is that we sort of glide over them and fly over them and just walk through a great chapter like this without stopping to analyze its component parts. Now take this particular matter with which we are dealing this morning. This isn't merely a kind of repetition of what the Apostle has been saying; it's something new, it's something additional.

Well, very well, what does he say? First of all, let us note just two points in connection with the translation. I've read to you here from the Authorized Version like this: "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ." Now, this is one of those cases where the Authorized Version, unfortunately, is not as good as the Revised Version. It should be "having predestinated us unto the adoption of sons," not "children." The word here is "sons," and not as the Authorized has it, "children."

The Revised Version and the American Revised Version, Revised Standard Version, have got correctly "sons." But for some astounding reason, I noticed that the Revised Standard Version, which is so popular at the present time, leaves out the term "adoption" without any reason whatsoever for doing so. Because when it translates the precise same word in the eighth of Romans and the fourth of Galatians, it brings in the term "adoption."

But here, it leaves it out. It's impossible, I say, to understand why that should have happened at all. But it does show us how careful we have to be lest we regard any particular version as divinely inspired. And we need to be careful and to observe that the individual prejudices of translators do not obtrude themselves either by additions or by subtractions. Because what the Apostle here does say is that we've been predestinated unto the adoption of sons, and both the terms are of vital importance.

Well now, the next thing that obviously must engage our attention is this: why does the Apostle here introduce a new term? In the previous verse he has said, "according as he hath chosen us." But now he talks about having "predestinated" us. Why, why this other term? Is it the same thing?

Well, the answer is that it isn't. And the Apostle, as I've said, is not just repeating himself but using a slight variation. He really is saying something new and something different. It isn't accidental. He didn't just throw off these terms thoughtlessly. There is a fine point of distinction here which really is a very important point.

There is a difference between "choosing" and "predestinating." And the difference can be put in this form: to "predestinate" means to determine beforehand, to declare, to determine beforehand. And what the Apostle tells us here is that this was God's ultimate plan. Predestination refers to the plan itself. Choosing emphasizes the way or the means or the method or the mode by which that plan has been put into operation and has been accomplished. That is really the difference between the two terms.

The plan—the thing predetermined, thought out and purposed in the mind of God—then the execution of that: that's the choosing. Well then, we are confronted by this tremendous and staggering statement: that before the very foundation of the world, it was God's plan and purpose that certain members of the fallen race of Adam who had fallen right away from him and had become enemies and aliens in their minds and who were under his wrath and deserving nothing but perdition—God planned and purposed and decided and determined that certain members of that fallen, damned, doomed race should become his sons, predestinated them to become sons.

That, I say, is God's original purpose and plan in redemption. And how vital it is that we should realize that this is the first thing. We've had occasion already to see that the Apostle puts certain things in a certain order and that obviously the question of order is of great importance.

And whenever we think of salvation and of redemption, this is the thing that we should always keep in the forefront of our minds: that God's original decision was, God's original determination was, that certain members of that fallen race should stand before him as his sons—nothing less than that. Now, in order to do that, it was essential, of course, that God should choose and select certain people who were to be brought to that great and glorious and wonderful destiny.

And then obviously, in the light of that, certain things had to be done to those people to fit them and to prepare them for the destiny. And what was that? Well, what was necessary in order to that was that they should be holy and without blame and in a condition of love.

So you see the intimate connection, the logical connection between these things. There's the original purpose. And in order to bring that purpose to pass, certain people have got to be taken hold of and they've got to be made holy because without being holy, how can they possibly stand in the presence of God?

Now, we have a further insight, you see, in the light of this additional statement in the fifth verse, as to why it was that the Apostle says that we have been chosen unto holiness: that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. You remember that I raised the question last Sunday morning; I said if you were asked to say what is it God has chosen us for, we would have said at once he's chosen us for forgiveness and so on. It's perfectly true, but that isn't the thing that comes first with Paul. He puts first holiness. Why? Well, because he's already thinking of this sonship—the ultimate destiny, the final purpose.

Now, this is surely a very fascinating theme. We mustn't think of it so much in chronological terms. We mustn't think of it so much in terms of a time sequence or a chronological sequence, because obviously all these things were in the mind of God at one and the same time. God sees the end from the beginning. God doesn't have to take it in steps in that way; it isn't a time arrangement.

But it is very definitely a logical arrangement. And the logical arrangement is just that: the original predetermination, the original decision—sonship. Now, what is absolutely essential to that is holiness. Ultimate purpose, way of carrying out that purpose and bringing it to pass.

Well, very well then, says someone, if that is the logical order and arrangement, why does Paul put the choosing and the holiness before he puts the predestination? And the answer to that undoubtedly is this: that from the experimental standpoint, from our end and from our angle, the choosing and the holiness comes before the adoption as sons.

And the Apostle, after all, was writing a pastoral letter; he wasn't writing a theological treatise. He was writing to a number of Christian people, and we are reminded constantly in the New Testament that these people were many of them just slaves and serfs. They were not theological professors, they were not students even.

And yet the Apostle writes this sort of thing to them in order that he may strengthen and establish their faith. And he puts it in the way that would come most naturally to them: here you are in your sin; what has God done about you? Well, he's called you to holiness, but he doesn't stop. His ultimate purpose is that you may be sons. But what you need immediately is to be made holy, because you can't be made sons until you are holy. So he puts the choosing unto holiness before the predestination unto the adoption as sons. I pause for a moment just to say this: I don't know, my friends, what your reaction is to this kind of thing. But to me, it's very marvelous and very wonderful.

There is nothing I know of that so proves the divine and unique inspiration of Scripture as just this kind of argument, this order and arrangement. Shall I go a step further and suggest this: that if you would like to know exactly whether you are a child of God and whether you have a spiritual mind or not, there's a very simple way of deciding it.

Does all this seem to you an irrelevance and a waste of time? Or do you see in this one of the most marvelous and glorious things you've ever looked at in the whole of your life? Paul here, as I'm going to show you, is bringing us face-to-face with the most astounding thing that even Almighty God has done for us.

And as you look into the scheme and the plan, don't you delight in it? A child always delights in looking to his father's plans and purposes, and you and I are given the privilege through the Scriptures of being given a glimpse into the plan of God. Let every man examine himself: if this is dry as dust doctrine, well my friend, it means that you haven't got a heart for it. And if you haven't got a heart for it, it means you are yet in your sins. You're a natural man and not a spiritual man. Because what I'm told about the natural man is this: that the things of the spirit of God are foolishness unto him—sees nothing in it at all, is utterly bored by it.

What do these things mean to you? They're all practical. They were written, I say, to very simple people. We are meant to grasp them and to understand them and to rejoice in them. Now then, let's go on to his central statement: it's this term "adoption." "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children."

Now, what does this term "adoption" mean? Well, it's a very interesting term. The Apostle Paul is the only writer in the New Testament that uses it. Nobody else uses it at all. It's the special term that is used by the Apostle Paul, and there is no doubt at all that he borrowed it from Roman law and jurisprudence. It is a term and an idea that the Jews knew nothing about at all. It was no part of their legal system, quite foreign to the Jew. But it was a term with which any Roman—and the Apostle Paul had been born a free Roman citizen and had lived in that atmosphere, and he writes probably from Rome as he writes this Epistle—so he naturally uses the term. What does it mean?

Well, in Roman law, adoption secured for the adopted child a right to the name and to the property of the person by whom he had been adopted. The moment a child was adopted by a person, that child had a legal right to the name of that person and to the property of that person—an absolute legal right.

And on the other hand, Roman jurisprudence granted unto the person who adopted the child all the rights and privileges of a father. You see, it works both ways; there is an emphasis on the two sides. The child enters into certain rights and privileges; the person adopting the child also has complete right as a father of that child whom he has adopted. Now obviously, the Apostle uses the term in order to convey that particular idea.

So what it really means can be put like this: it means the placing as a son. That's the real meaning, technical meaning of the term "adoption"—to place as a son. Now, nothing is more important as we look at this great term than to realize that it is a purely forensic or legal or judicial term. Now let me expound what I mean by that. It's essential that I should do so, because we shan't really enter into the privilege unless we understand exactly what it means.

It's a term that emphasizes relationship. It's a term that emphasizes standing. Or if you like, it's a term that emphasizes rank and distinction. Now, we are familiar with that, aren't we? We're familiar with certain ranks of society, certain distinctions in society, which confer privileges because of the position of the rank of the status or the position. Now this term really confines its attention to that. It's a legal definition of standing and status and rank and privilege and position. It defines that, it proclaims that, it announces that, it defines that.

Now, it is very important that we should hold on to that and that we should realize that its emphasis is not upon the nature of the child as upon the rank of the child. Now, of course, the nature is very important. But the term "adoption" doesn't emphasize that; of necessity and by definition it doesn't.

If you say of such a person, "Oh yes, he's an adopted child," by saying that you're saying this: he hasn't a blood relationship, you're saying; he hasn't a connection of nature, but he has been legally adopted. He stands as a child, though he doesn't bear the nature of that particular person. Now, that is the distinction that the Apostle uses here, and obviously it is a very vital one.

The nature of the Christian as a new man in Christ is determined not by adoption but by regeneration. You see, we are children of God in two senses: we become the children of God because we are born again, because we become partakers of the divine nature, because the Holy Spirit enters into us, because we are born from above, because we are new creations. That's the giving of the new nature.

And receiving the nature of God, we become the children of God. But that isn't the thing that's emphasized by the term "adoption." The term "adoption" does not put its emphasis upon this common nature that we now have, but it puts it entirely, I say, upon the legal standing, upon the rank, the position, and all the privileges that follow from that position. In other words, it can be defined as the setting forth of the new creature in his new relationship to God as a son. By adoption then, we become the sons of God and are introduced into and given the privileges that belong to membership of God's family.

Well then, says someone, why did the Apostle ever introduce this term? What exactly is the difference between it and regeneration? Why did he ever differentiate and distinguish between them? Well, it seems to me the answer is provided by that fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians which we read together at the beginning. And perhaps that is the simplest way to understand this. You remember the Apostle's argument: he puts it like this.

He says, "Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be actually lord of all, but he's under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. Why? That we might receive the adoption of sons." You see the distinction? Yes, a child is a child. He's born of the parent; he has the nature of the parent within him. And because of that, he is in a sense lord of all.

But you see, while he's still a child, he differeth nothing from a servant. He's under tutors, who can correct him, who can punish him, who can teach him. They seem to be superior to him. And though he is the child, he may be afraid of that tutor, he may be afraid of that governor, he may be afraid of that particular servant. He's a child alright, he's got the nature; the blood proves it. Yes, but he's not of age yet.

But this adoption, you see, is something further, it's something bigger. The child comes of age and a declaration is made; there's a great ceremony: he's come of age. He's no more a son than he was before. No, but there is a difference all the same: he now has certain standing, a certain rank. His relationship to the governors and the teachers and the servants becomes entirely different. They now address him as a master. His relationship in a fundamental sense hasn't been changed as regards his blood and his nature; it remains exactly what it was. And yet you see, from the standpoint of rank and legal position, he is in a different position.

And now I think perhaps we see why it is that the Apostle uses this particular term "adoption." It is as if the Apostle was not content with saying that we've become children of God by the second birth, by the receiving of the Holy Spirit. "Oh yes," says Paul, "that's true. But go beyond that. Realize where you stand and your rank and your privilege."

It was a way of emphasizing this astounding thing that God has done for us in Christ: the adoption. And that is why I cannot understand whoever was responsible for that translation in the Revised Standard Version left out the term. He can't have understood its meaning. He couldn't have left it out if he had. It's the most wonderful thing, I say, of all: the distinction between the child and the adoption. This something further, this definition, this setting forth, this inalienable right, this legal definition of the thing, this placing in the position of a son in addition to being a son.

Well very well, my friends, let us now move on to consider something of the privileges. We've been trying to define it. Shall we now come to a realization of the privileges that God has appointed for us in that way? It's something easier for the intellect, but it's not greater. And it is only as we realize all I've been trying to say, I think, that we can fully enter into what I'm now about to say on the experimental level.

What is this privilege? Well, let me put it like this: it's the final aim and the ultimate end of redemption. There's nothing higher than this. Do you know what adoption means? It means this: it is the highest expression even of God's love. I speak carefully, I speak with reverence. I assert on the authority of this statement and the parallel statements in the eighth of Romans and in the fourth of Galatians that even the love of Almighty God can do no more for us than this.

Listen to John say it: "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us." What is it? Well, here it is: "that we should be called the sons of God." That's the manner of love. And when you try to think of God's love and to define God's love and to praise it and to extol it and to say great things about it, you'll never say anything greater than this: "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us." That's it: "that we should be called the children, the sons of God."

That's the privilege. This world has nothing like this. The world is very interested in greatness and in praise. It's interested in great men, and it praises great men and it extols their greatness. It showers its honors upon them, it talks about their privileged position. But all that the world knows about in that line is fading and evanescent.

"Change and decay in all around I see." Verily, I say unto you, such people have their reward, and it's the only reward they'll have. The world showers its honors upon itself and upon its peoples, but they're decaying honors. They only last while you're in this life and in this world. You don't take them with you through death and the grave; they're left behind.

The fashion of this world is passing away. And what our Lord himself said about such things and such people was, "Verily I say unto you, they have their reward." And it's the only reward they'll ever have. Let them make the most of it in this world. Look at Dives and Lazarus. Dives has everything that the world can give: food and drink and honor and position. But he found that after death he'd got nothing, and that the poor man, the beggar who was lying in his sores at his gate, had everything. And what he's told is, "You had your good things in that other world, that other life. You've had them, and that's all you will have."

The world, I say, knows nothing about this. It doesn't understand it, it doesn't appreciate it either. And to tell the man of the world that he can be a child, a son of God, means nothing to him. "A bird in hand," he says, "is worth two in the bush." He's not interested in what he calls "pie in the sky." He wants what he can have and hold onto, and he's not interested in this kind of thing.

No, no, he doesn't understand it. He didn't understand the son of God when he was here. He dismissed him as a carpenter. He saw no glory in him. But there were some who did, who said, "We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." They saw through the incognito; they saw the glory shining forth though he was hiding it himself and had assumed the form of a servant. It was there, this regal, this divine glory. It kept on breaking through, and they saw it. They saw it on the mount of transfiguration, they saw it in his miracles, they saw it elsewhere.

And this glory which is given by adoption to the children is something similar to that. By this dark world, it's unknown. The world doesn't know its great men, it doesn't know its heroes. Read your history books and you'll see that the men whom it lords don't count in a spiritual and in an eternal sense. And the men who did count were despised and rejected and persecuted and laughed at and ridiculed so constantly in their own day and generation.

It's an unseen glory, but it's a real glory because it's given by God. What is it? Well, let me just mention some of its aspects to you. The privileges we are given by being adopted as sons of God is that we bear the name of God. We are the children of God. We are members of his family—Paul goes on to say it in the second chapter of this great Epistle—of the household of God.

Christian, are you feeling dejected this morning? Are you feeling ignored? Are you feeling that the world doesn't know about you? Are you feeling that you're not being given your meed of praise? Do you feel that you don't matter and that you don't count? Listen to this: it doesn't matter what men may do to you. Let them despise you and forsake you. Men praise thee, heed thee not. What's it matter? The Master knows. What are men? You are a child of God. God's name is upon you.

Christ's new name, as the Book of Revelation puts it in the letter to the church at Philadelphia—his new name is written upon you. And that is why the hymn writer puts up that prayer, "Write thy new name upon my heart, thy new best name of love." The name of God—the child is given it, he's a legal right to it. He can claim it; it is his, it's given to him by law. We are called the children of God.

"Children of the heavenly King, as ye journey sweetly sing." Hold up your heads. You stand apart. You have a glory that the world doesn't know of, a glory that'll never fade away. It's indestructible and undefiled. That's a part of the glory: the name that has been given you, that we should be called the sons of God.

The next thing, of course, is that we are given the spirit of the son of God himself, the only begotten son. I don't enter into this distinction this morning; I hope to do so again. But listen to this: "When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons." Listen: "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying, Abba Father."

What a statement! Because you're sons, you have this privilege: that God has sent forth into your heart the very self-same spirit that was in his only begotten son. Do you realize what that means? It means this: the Lord Jesus Christ was here in this world as a man. He was given the Holy Spirit; we are told the spirit was not given by measure unto him. He was enabled to do what he did and to be what he was by the spirit. And now we are told here that because we are sons, God puts into us the same spirit that was in his only begotten son.

What a privilege! We are in the same world, meeting the same contradiction of sinners. Look at the life he had to live: misunderstood, tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. Misunderstood by people, persecuted by people—all that you and I have to go through, he went through it all. And he went through triumphantly.

Why? The spirit enabled him. And that is the spirit that is given unto us. He had to pray like we pray. He was dependent upon this power as we were, as we are. He determined to live like that; he needn't have, but he determined to do so, and he did so in that way.

Then not only that, of course, because we are sons, we are heirs and joint heirs with Christ. Are you interested in honors? Are you interested in possessions? My friend, it means this: because you're a child of God, you're an heir of God. Didn't I say that Roman jurisprudence conferred the legal right to the property of the person who'd adopted him? Yes, we are heirs of God because children, therefore heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." The whole cosmos becomes yours and mine because we are children. What else? Well, we have a definite, certain hope of the final completion of our redemption. Listen to Paul putting it like this. He says in Romans 8:23, "We ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."

In other words, his argument is this: it is because I am a son of God that I can be certain that a day is coming when even my body shall be redeemed. My body is not yet redeemed; my body is still the body of sin. It's because of that we still fall into sin. My spirit, my soul, is saved, it's redeemed; my body isn't yet. It's going to be, and I know it will be because I'm a son, waiting for the redemption—the final redemption—to wit, the redemption of our body.

It's an absolute guarantee of that. And that in turn, of course, guarantees the coming of a day when we shall be enjoying unmixed what is called the glorious liberty of the children of God, when we shall be free from sin and all that defiles in a new heaven and in a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And it's all absolutely secure because God is my Father and I'm his child.

It is because he is my Father and I'm his son that I know that the very hairs of my head are all numbered, that nothing can happen to me apart from God. I know that neither hell nor any other power shall ever separate me from his love in Christ. I'm his son; he'll never forsake me. He can't. The father never forsakes the child. I've a guarantee that though everything be opposed to me in this life and in this world, I'm going on, he'll take me on because I am his child, his son.

And ultimately beyond it all, I have this privilege. This same Apostle Paul in writing to the Corinthians says one of the most amazing things he ever said. "Know ye not," he says, "that ye shall judge the world?" He adds to it. He says, "Know ye not"—I'm referring to the first Epistle to the Corinthians, the sixth chapter at the beginning—"know ye not," he says, "that ye shall judge angels?"

You and I, we're going to judge angels. Why? Well, because we are sons, and children are higher than the angels. They are but ministering spirits. There is a day coming when you and I will be judging the angels of God in all their brightness and their purity. We shall judge the world, we shall judge even angels. We shall be raised to a level because we are sons which is higher than that of the angels.

That's the great argument, isn't it, of the second chapter of Hebrews: Christ was made a little lower than the angels to raise us up to a level above the angels. Well, there are some of the privileges. Do you realize these things, my friend? If you and I do, we would never be guilty again of the spirit of bondage and of fear. Have we got the spirit of adoption in us? Do we cry, "Abba Father"? Do we realize these things and rejoice in them?

There's a very good way of testing it: are we being led by the spirit? "For as many as are led by the spirit of God," says Paul, "they are the sons of God." Oh, beloved friends, let's pause, let's contemplate these things, let's sit before them, let's spend a week with them. Let's give this next week to the consideration of adoption, sonship, the things that follow out of it.

Spend a little less time with your newspaper and all its talk about worldly honors. Face these—they belong to you. You have been predestinated to the adoption of children, sons, by Jesus Christ unto God himself. Praise be unto God for having looked upon us, miserable, damned sinners, and having raised us to such an indescribable height of glory and of privilege. Amen.