Monday, October 21, 2013

Adoption was Not God’s ‘Plan B'

by Paul Tautges
Commenting on Ephesians 1:5, J. Stephen Yuille writes,

"Regrettably, many people tend to view the adoption of a child as an afterthought: “Oh, you couldn’t have your own children, so you decided to settle for adoption.” Having adopted, I would never describe it as ‘settling.’ I would never refer to it as an ‘afterthought.’ In terms of God’s adoption of us, he definitely wasn’t settling. God didn’t create the world in the hope that he would have natural children—only to discover that he had a bunch of little rebels on his hands. He didn’t throw his hands into the hair (anthropomorphism intended), crying, “Oh no, what will I do now? What are my options? I suppose I could always adopt!” No. God ‘predestined’ us for adoption. He did so before the foundation of the world. That necessarily means his adoption of us isn’t plan B, but plan A. Moreover, it means that his adoption of us is the revelation of his eternal will."


[From A Hope Deferred: Adoption and the Fatherhood of God]

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