LOOKING FOR BETTER DAYS
THE SPIRIT’S LEGACY: ADOPTION

Last Sunday, we observed Senior Adult Day at our church as we celebrated the legacy of faith being prepared by our older saints. Pole Creek has been so blessed down through the years by the heritage of faithfulness of those who have gone before us. Each year, more cross over to the other side. Yet, they are still with us—in the godly wisdom, walk and works which abide with us through their influence that remains. We’re grateful to God for them, but we only glory in the God who in grace saved them and equipped them to serve Him. Enduring legacies are rooted in the eternal!

In Romans 8:15-17, the Apostle Paul points to the Spirit’s legacy:

15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

There are two elements of this legacy that are presented in this text:

OUR GRACIOUS RELATIONSHIP—A TESTIMONY (v.15)
Death and judgment are fearful thoughts—horrifying—to the lost person. Those outside of Christ live for the temporal and are in bondage to fear concerning the time when this life is over. That isn’t the testimony of the saved. We have received adoption into the family of God--once an outcast, but now a child of the King! We cry out, “Abba, Father.” That is an Aramaic word—one that a Hebrew toddler would use as his or her first words of tender affection to Daddy. I loved to hear my babies when they said, “Da Da.” We may be sure, that God delights to hear from us. This is our testimony of a gracious relationship: adopted into the Father’s family.

OUR GLORIOUS RICHES—A TREASURE (v.16-17)
Coming into a royal family means we have all the rights and privileges of being a child of the King! One day, Christ will come into full possession of the kingdom and we will reign with Him! We fret about the economy, when our Father owns everything and someday you will inherit everything. If we take up the cross now, there will be the crown then: suffering and then glory! That is always the sequence. Jesus set the pattern and now we follow in the way of the cross, but it is the way of the cross that leads home—tears and trials that turn to treasure and triumph!