In love, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
When you think of adoption, what’s your first thought? For me, it’s the movie Annie, about a cute, unfailingly optimistic redheaded orphan who gets adopted – on a trial basis – by the fabulously wealthy Oliver Warbucks. It’s the classic rags-to-riches story – and it makes a good backdrop for an even better rags-to-riches story here in the first few verses of Ephesians.
In the movie version of Annie, “Daddy” Warbucks ran his house with an iron fist. Everything happened just as he wished. This was even more true in the first century Roman family. The father alone legally owned all household property (and people), and could dispose of them as he saw fit. Because of this structure, adoption became pretty commonplace. Legally, you needed a male heir to pass this authority on to, so that your surviving family was cared for – so if you’d disposed of your heir (as many Caesars did, when the son became a rival), or just didn’t have any sons, you adopted a promising young man and made him your heir.
The process involved a ritual that went something like this: The natural father would sell his son as a slave three times to the adopting father. The adopting father would free the son back to his natural father twice, but on the third time, the deal would be done, and the son would have no further obligations to his natural father and only to his adopted father – who would have absolute authority over his adopted son.
This picture seems to be in Paul’s mind as he recounts to the Ephesians what God has done for them. In Ephesians 2:3, Paul paints a pretty stark picture: we “who were by nature children of wrath,” have now become children of God. We have been freed from our natural father – the devil (John 8:38, 44) and have been adopted by God the Father, who in love has chosen to make us heirs and citizens of heaven.
Paul makes it clear that this was intentional, and not arbitrary. It was done “in love” (v. 4), it was God’s choice (v.4), and its purpose was “to the praise of His glory” (v. 6). Even more to the point, it was planned out before the foundation of the world (v. 4). This isn’t much of a surprise: the “dictionary definition” is pretty straightforward and the Greek term means just what you’d expect – “to destine beforehand,” or “previously ordained.” But to what were we “destined beforehand?” Paul makes it easy on us: we were predestined to adoption.
Before the foundation of the world, God set out to not just to undo the effects of the Fall and restore us to our previous unfallen state (although that would have been pretty big in itself), but to make us members of His family. That’s shocking to me. After all, “children of wrath” doesn’t exactly make me think of cute, spunky, Little Orphan Annie! But before time began, God – knowing full well who we’d become – began an adoption process where He welcomed “children of wrath” like you and me into His royal household… as adopted children of the King. And unlike Daddy Warbucks, there’s no “trial period.” By grace, our adopted Father has blessed us in Christ as His children, for all time.
And that floors me.
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