Our freedom from the past enables us to be adopted.
Galatians 4:5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.
Adoption is a legal process; all kinds of matters can be raised that will hinder or prevent the adoption of a child into a family. Sin in our lives – not just the individual acts of wrongdoing but the principle of sin ingrained into the fabric of our thinking and being – captures us and has made us slaves to law-keeping.
We are only adopted as this chain that binds us to the law-principle is broken and we become free. The NLT Bible footnote puts it like this ‘The Greek word for adoption to sonship is a legal term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture.’ Jesus, the Redeemer, died in our place and the chains of the sin-principle were broken, setting us free to be adopted into God’s family. We are given the full legal standing as adopted children of God with all the rights associated with family membership.
I have heard of the father of an adopted child who said to the child ‘Other parents just have to accept the baby that is born to them, but we had a choice and we chose you because you were special.’
Running right through this story of our adoption by God on the basis of his grace is the notion that God loved, chose, and adopted us simply because he wanted to.