The Christian's Adoption, Part 1

Greetings, friends and new listeners and welcome to this program of the R.G.

Hardy Ministries. I'm Sharon Notts thanking you for joining us today because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's message by my father, Brother Hardy, is the Christian adoption. As the children of God, we have been begotten again by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. But do you know that we have also been adopted into the family of God? Adoption in Bible times was an ironclad legal process by which the adopted child became heirs to the wealth and privileges of the father's family. Find out what this means to us as children of God in the Christian adoption. All right, this morning we want to preach on the theme, the Christian's adoption.

The Christian's adoption. And if you have your Bibles, let's go to Romans the 8th chapter and about the 14th verse. And it says, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself or the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.

Hallelujah. That's a wonderful passage. The Christian's adoption. For you have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of adoption or sonship. And I want to first of all speak and explain the Roman metaphor of adoption that Paul is using here to show the new relationship of the Christian with God when he gets saved.

And when Paul used the metaphor of adoption to the Romans, the Romans really understood their relationship to God. To us in this modern day, we don't understand adoption like the Romans understood it. Usually adoption in our day is somebody didn't want you and just got rid of you.

And then you were underprivileged and mistreated. Usually like somebody would, maybe a couple who couldn't have children, so they adopt a child and then all of a sudden they start having children and the adopted child gets pushed in the back. And a lot of times when that new father of that adopted child died at the will, he was cut out. But not so in Roman adoption. First of all in Roman law, the father was what they call in Latin patria potestes. Patria potestes means the absolute power of the father. In Roman law, the father had absolute power over his household and especially his children.

If his wife had a child and he didn't like it, he would just simply throw it in the trash or give it a wave if he was merciful. This was a common practice in the Roman world. They would just give the children away and mostly they would give the daughters away or throw them in the trash.

Then unscrupulous people would pick them up, cripple them and then use them to get money by begging. Or they would give them if they were a poor father, give the daughters to the gods as a gift and then they would become, as in the case of Aphrodites, the goddess of reproduction, they would become the temple prostitutes so notorious in the Roman Empire's worship of their gods. That's why God was against these idolatrous worship because almost without fail it involved this illicit sex relationship with the worshiper, with the temple prostitutes. But the father was absolute power and the son or the child never got from under his power. It doesn't make any difference if the son would get married and have his own family, his father was his ruler. And the only way that the son could get free of his father's power was for the father to adopt him.

And this was a legal Roman custom. And it involved two things. Two phases happened when a person got adopted. First of all, the first page was called Mancipatio, which means he was emancipated.

We get our English word from that. He was liberated or free from the power of his father. The second phase was vindicatio or he was vindicated or legally recognized as the new father's son. And this was all done with a symbolic ritual. They would get scales, weighing scales, the father that was going to release his son to the other father that was going to buy the son and become a new father to him. The original father would get these weighing scales and weigh out the amount of money that the new father had to spend to purchase this son. There had to be seven witnesses.

And then they would act out a little scenario. The father would weigh out the amount of money and usually for a male it was 30 pieces of silver. Isn't it kind of strange that's what they gave Judas for Jesus? For the daughter, 20 pieces of silver. And the father that was going to be the new father would then put the amount of money agreed upon on the scale. And then the father would give the child to the new father. But then he would back away and then change his mind and grab the child and say, no, I want more money. But the new father would say, I have paid the price agreed.

The price is paid in full. You have to give me the child. And the father would reluctantly give the child back and then back away and then grab the child again and say, no, it's a part of me. I won't let him go. The new father would say, you have to let him go.

The price has been paid. And after the third time finally the father would give the child, go over and pick his money up and put it in his pocket and walk away. Then the second stage of adoption had to come into action, the vindicado, the vindication, which meant that the new father had to take the legal document witnessed by the seven witnesses down to the recorder, probably the keeper of records in America, the clerk, court clerk, and he would record this legal transaction in the courts of Rome. And at that moment that it was recorded, then that child was the legal son of this new father.

And all of the records of his old life was wiped out and remembered no more. So there was a consequence on becoming adopted into the Roman family. After they went through the emancipatio, the emancipation and the freeing, then the vindicatio, the vindication and proving and the recording of the adoption, three things happened to that Roman son. He had a new family with all the rights of that new father.

Second, all of his old life was wiped out as if he never existed until that moment. Third, he became the heir of his new father and everything his new father had belonged to him. It didn't make any difference if that father would have other children that were born to him. They could not affect this adopted son's heirship and standing in the family.

And like I've already alluded to, a lot of times when a child gets adopted because a parent thinks that he cannot have children and they adopt the child and then all of a sudden children come along and pretty soon they begin to treat him as a stepchild and then even at death he doesn't have a part in the will. It couldn't happen in Roman law. They could never, never infringe on his rights as a son because in Roman law he was just as if he was born to that father and he could not be disinherited and none of his rights could be impugned but he had to be treated as the very heir of his new father. In fact, a child that was born could be cut out of the will but not an adopted child by Roman law could not be cut out of the will.

He was always in the eyes of Rome, a son of that father and his legal heir and he had all the rights to his father's wealth, power, and fortunes. Now if you'll let your mind run you're going to see what a great truth this is, what God has done for you and I. Hallelujah. I believe we ought to give him a good clap often. Thank you Jesus. I'm glad, I'm glad I'm an adopted son of God. God has not only born me into his family and I have become a child of God but he has adopted me into his family and I have become his legal heir and from right now, from the moment that I've been adopted in the family, all of the wealth and all of the blessings and everything that pertains to my new father belongs to me and is at my disposal. Hallelujah.

Thank you Jesus. So the consequences of being adopted was you had a new father. Your old father had no more power over you. Secondly, your old life and all of its records was wiped out. All of your debts were canceled.

In fact your life was blotted out as though you never existed back there. That your life only started now since you have received the adoption into the new family. You have a new father. You have a new patria patestes. The new father is the only one that has the power over you. Hallelujah. You have a complete new beginning in a new family as the status of a son, this is the legal term, which means you are the heir of your new father and all his wealth and everything that pertains to him belongs to you and it's at your disposal now.

Now immediately when you're adopted. Hallelujah. So now we can understand what the Holy Ghost says in this little verse.

That you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but you have received the spirit of adoption or sonship and the Holy Ghost is the witness that witnesses to your heart that you are adopted son of God, that God Almighty is your patria patestes, the only one that has power over you and all of his wealth and all that pertains to him is at your disposal right now. Hallelujah. Thank you Jesus. Hallelujah.

The old life is eradicated. The old life of sin, the old life of the law and the old life that was dominated by the devil and sin and the law has been broken and no longer has sin and the law and the devil power over you. Hallelujah. Second, all your sins, all of your faults, all of your shortcomings, that debt of sin because what?

The wages of sin is what? All of that looking forward to the payoff of death, all the debts of sin, all of its consequences has been cancelled. Hallelujah. You don't have to reap anything that you showed under sin because that life has legally been wiped out as though you never lived it and no longer are you under the patria patestes, the power of Satan, of sin and the law for you are free for the son has made you free indeed.

Hallelujah. Now you can appreciate the verse that Jesus said, if the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Now we can understand that we are truly free, truly free of the devil, truly free of the broken law, truly free of sin, truly free of all the retributions of the old life and its consequences. We have been emancipated and set free into the liberty of the children of God.

Oh, I'm telling you, it's something to shout about. Hallelujah. The spirit right now is witnessing with my spirit that I am a son of God, that I have a new father and a new life. Hallelujah.

And all of the attributes and wealth of the blessings of my new father, see God belongs to me right now. Glory. Glory. Hallelujah. I'm sorry that I'm not sorry that I feel it this morning.

I feel my sonship this morning. Hallelujah. I don't have to worry about the devil.

I'm not under his patria placastes anymore. I'm under God's power. Hallelujah. That's why he said, you don't have the spirit of fear. You don't have to fear the devil. You don't have to fear demons and you don't have to fear retribution of a life that you never lived because in the eyes of the court of heaven, you never lived that life.

You are only now living as you have been placed in the family of God as his son. I'll give him a good praise often. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Somebody said, what are you shouting about? Now you can tell them.

I got something to shout about. I'm talking about being adopted into God's family, being transferred from the absolute power of the devil, the law and the sin into the absolute power of El Shaddai almighty God. I'm talking about my old life has been wiped out and all of the debts that belong to it have been eradicated from my record. Hallelujah. If the devil would ever go to God and say, Hardy sinned in 1930, God will look at the records and say, sorry, I don't have no record.

The only record I have is 1953. That's when I adopted him and made him my son. God will say, devil, because as far as I'm concerned, he never existed until I adopted him into my family.

Since I adopted him, he is my son and my heir and he is going to enjoy all of my wealth and my benefits and my power forever. Because no one can cut him out of the inheritance. The Roman law, you could not be cut out once you were made the heir and once you've been made the heir of God and a child of God, nothing can cut you out.

The only way that you won't get your inheritance is if you become a prodigal and leave it, but nothing can cut you out. The devil can't cut you out. Demons can't cut you out. The law can't cut you out. Sin can't cut you out unless you let it ring in your mortal body. The only way you won't inherit is if you willfully walk away from it.

And I'm not that dumb. How about you? I'm not going to go back under the power of Satan. I'm going to stay under the power of almighty God and God says, I give you my power. Behold, I give you power. I've got power over everything and now that you're my son, that's part of your inheritance.

I give you power over everything. And not only I'm not under the power of the devil and sin and the law, I've got power over the devil and sin and everything that pertains to that old life. That's how complete our adoption in the family of God is. The courts of heaven look on us the same as it looks on Jesus, the actual son of God. You know, in the sense of having a son, Jesus is really only the father's real son because that's why he's called the only begotten son.

And he is the legal heir of almighty God, the heir of all the things of God. Oh, but by a greater law than the Roman law and a greater ritual than the Roman ritual of adoption, we have been mancipatio. We have been emancipated by the precious price. There had to be a price and this was the price of the blood of the son of God. And if 30 pieces of silver could buy them under the Roman covenant, how much more shall the blood of Christ for you were not redeemed with such corruptible things as silver and gold. Doesn't so many scriptures take on a new meaning now? Redeeming is bought and purchased.