(This is adapted from Kyle Worley’s new book Home with God: Our Union with Christ – available wherever you get your books. You can also subscribe to Kyle’s free monthly newsletter “Sacred Slang” here.)
A well wrapped gift creates curiosity doesn’t it? Sitting under a Christmas tree or a table next to a birthday cake. What’s in that box? What does it contain? Children can be driven crazy with the anticipation of unwrapping a gift, their minds racing with curiosity, “What goodness could this box possibly contain?!” All too often, for most of us, the unwrapped gift doesn’t live up to the hype.
But the exact opposite is true when we begin to unwrap all God has for us in Christ Jesus. We are told that “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:3) is in Christ Jesus and that “all the promises of God find their Yes in him.” (2 Cor. 1:20) All of God’s good things for His people are in Christ Jesus. All of them. But at the root of all of these gracious blessings is a foundational gift: the righteousness of God.
In Christ, we receive all the good things that God has for us. A gift that does not disappoint. And what we receive in Christ can never be lost, it can never be taken away, it can never be stripped away. God declares His people righteous in His beloved Son. To take back what He has given to His people in Christ would be to forsake His own Son. And that will never happen.
We are in Christ Jesus, by grace through faith. And it is here, in Christ, where we receive a new home with God. Where we are invited to dwell in God’s presence. For good. Forever.
Every gospel account in the New Testament records the baptism of Jesus. In Matthew 3, Mark 1, and Luke 3 at the baptism of Jesus it says that a voice from heaven declares “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Each of the baptism accounts presents this moment as one of the clearest pictures of the Triune God’s beloved fellowship: God the Father declaring, the Holy Spirit descending, and the Son of God receiving.
And yet: The baptism of Jesus comes before His public ministry. When Jesus received the declaration of “beloved,” His public ministry hadn’t begun. After the baptism of Jesus, he enters into the wilderness showdown with Satan. Why do I point this out? Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was beloved before the battle. In Jesus we too are beloved before the battle.
The gift of adoption is one of the great blessings of salvation. And it is in being received as a child of God that we find the love for which we long. The poet Raymond Carver captures this well when he asks: “And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.” (Carver, “Late Fragment”)
We are born longing to become beloved. When Christ receives the public declaration of “beloved Son,” he receives it on behalf of all who would be united to Him. “In Love,” God, “predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 1:5) We aren’t children of God because we are image bearers of God.
Who is the Christian before God? In Christ Jesus, they are a righteous and beloved child of God. And nothing can ever change that.
(This is adapted from Kyle Worley’s new book Home with God: Our Union with Christ – available wherever you get your books. You can also subscribe to Kyle’s free monthly newsletter “Sacred Slang” here.)