The Spirit of God adopted you to be God’s child!

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. As a nation we have set aside tomorrow as a day to remember and give thanks for those who died to gain and preserve our country. Those who gave their lives while serving paid the highest price to give us what we have. You and I have not paid the highest price to have what we have as citizens in this country. It is not possible for a person to be one of those remembered and one of those celebrating Memorial Day. A person is either one or the other on Memorial Day, never both.

The prophet Isaiah faced life or death, and he was sure it would be death. Isaiah served as a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah. During his lifetime, the northern kingdom of Israel was overtaken by the nation of Assyria. Isaiah understood he lived at a time when God’s people were not acting like his children. Yet, God did not leave them without prophets to call out to them to turn back to God so that they would not be lost. In Isaiah 6, the prophet Isaiah shared the vision in which God revealed his desire to have someone speak to his people. In the vision, Isaiah saw the Lord powerful, seated on a throne with his robe filling the temple. There were seraphs, angels with six wings, singing praises to God that shook the temple. Isaiah cried out in fear, 5 “‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’” Isaiah’s guilt and fear as a sinner was fully exposed in the presence of God. He was sure he faced certain death. 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” God did not put him to death, but took away his guilt, sin, and fear, and allowed him to live. Then, God revealed why he had given Isaiah his vision, 8 “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” God chose Isaiah to be the one to speak to his people Israel. God’s message through Isaiah both filled the people with guilt and fear for their sin, and promised them their guilt, fear and sin would be removed.

As with Isaiah and the people of Israel, you were once unclean facing God filled with woe crying, “I am ruined!” Through the prophet Isaiah, God highlighted some of the sins that would make anyone shudder in fear before God. We read in Isaiah 59, 2 “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. 3 For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken falsely, and your tongue mutters wicked things… 12 For our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us. Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities: 13 rebellion and treachery against the Lord, turning our backs on our God, inciting revolt and oppression, uttering lies our hearts have conceived.” From these few verses it is clear why Isaiah was filled with fear before God. And it is not as if the sins highlighted in these verses are not also addressed in the New Testament. In 1 John 3, we read, 15 “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.” And again in 1 John 4, 20 “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar.” Murder, rebellion, lies, offenses and sin in your heart, thoughts, words, actions, etc. are exposed before God. You cannot hide from him. Yet, for the terror that our sins kept us in before God, we are not sentenced to punishment and separation from God in hell. Instead, we hear in Romans 8, 15 “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” The Holy Spirit adopted you to be a child of God, so that God is not an angry judge, but your loving Father.

You get to stand before God without fear because he adopted you. Paul continued in Romans 8 writing, 16 “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” The Holy Spirit is the witnesses who testifies before God, the world and in our own hearts that we are children of God. We do not rely on our own strength, will, hope or desire that God accepts us as his children. Instead, God himself testifies to our relationship with him as we hear in 1 Corinthians 12, 3 … “no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” Jesus shared this great truth with a man named Nicodemus in John 3, 5 “Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.’”

You are born again, a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, a new creation and a child of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is accomplished by hearing the Word of God as Paul wrote in Romans 10, 17 “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” And again, through baptism as Jesus told Nicodemus, “born of water and the Spirit.” And we understand this great power of baptism from Romans 6, 3 “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.” You are free from sin then as baptized children of God filled with the Spirit of God.

All the sins that caused you fear before God no longer stand between you and God because you are connected to Christ. And God explained how Christ was punished for the crushing weight of your sins in Isaiah 53, 5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” God spoke both law and gospel, punishment and peace, through Isaiah showing Israel their sin and God’s grace, which Jesus also made clear in John 3, 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” It was not God’s desire to condemn Isaiah or Israel, you or the world, but to condemn Jesus to death on the cross to save all people. You are a child of God through the adoption of the Holy Spirit who filled you with faith in Jesus.

As a child of God, you live without fear. Again, in Romans 8 we hear, 15 “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” You are no longer led aground in shackles chained to the will of the devil and your own sinful nature. You are a free child of God. Yet, you are not enjoying all the benefits of being a child of God. Paul continued in Romans 8, 17 “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” Since, you are a child of God, you are an heir of heaven. You will share in the riches, joy, and eternal life of heaven, but you are not there yet. You are still here in the world. You are still surrounded by people shackled and chained to sin, living in fear of God. You are still afflicted by your sinful nature that pulls you back into sin and works to destroy your faith, your connection to God and the work of the Holy Spirit in you. Thus, you will suffer for a time until you reach heaven. You will suffer with guilt for sinning, doing something God does not want you to do. You will suffer when you do something God does want you to do, but the unbelievers around you hate you for rejecting their way of life, pricking their conscience, and exposing their guilt for which they have no answer. As a child of God, you will suffer, but you will suffer without fear because you have future glory waiting for you. The life you live as a child of God here in this world is just the beginning. It is a struggle to live as a citizen of heaven in this world because your life in heaven will be far different from what your life is like now. God does not take you to heaven the moment you become one of his children by the power of the Holy Spirit. Instead, you remain here to serve him like Isaiah eager to share the message of God’s removal of sin and gift of life, like Jesus eager to live among sinners to be able to share with them the message of God’s forgiveness, healing and love, and like Paul to point all people to their true Father in heaven.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. It is a day we set aside to remember and give thanks for others who paid a price we could not. The effect of the sacrifice of those who gave their lives while on duty to this country goes beyond one day; we enjoy freedom as citizens in this country every day. You are also a citizen of heaven by the sacrifice of Jesus, a sacrifice none of us could make. We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ of the glories of heaven even as we must suffer in this world. Today we celebrate Holy Trinity Sunday, and we have seen how the Father’s love, the sacrifice of Jesus and the Spirit of God adopted you to be God’s child. May the Holy Spirit keep you as God’s child and always thankful. Amen.