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DOPTION is a beautiful thing. There is no room for the words "accidental” or “incidental” in the process of adoption. It is intentional and deliberate. Now, if a child (we'll say, a young man) is adopted at the age of 15. Let's suppose that before his adoption this young man had worked as an employee for the couple that adopts him. What if he works feverishly and constantly in order to please his new parents? That's sounds nice enough. But if, after his adoption, they were to discover that he was trying to work hard enough to impress them sufficiently in order to be accepted into their family and to become their son, surely his new parents would be disappointed and disturbed by the lack of simple trust. There is nothing wrong with hard work, but the reason (driving it) matters a great deal. If he works diligently because he is grateful and because he loves his parents, that is well and good. But, if he works with actual disbelief that he has really been accepted, or if he works in fear that he will be thrown out of the family, then the proper filial feelings are not present. He will be missing out on much of what he gained by being adopted.
Paul understood how marvelous our adoption into the family of God truly is. We are not just servants of the Highest God. We are His children (1st John 3:2 & Galatians 4:7). We are closer to God than we might have imagined possible (John 15:15). The price paid for our soul was far higher than the value of a mere slave. We have been purchased and set free. We are inheritors of righteousness. We have the very Spirit of the Son of God living in us. We have access to the Father, just as Christ possesses. This is special. We must not lose sight of it. We are children of the King.
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