This was posted on the Desiring God Blog recently and I think it is just amazing. Watch John Piper talk about adoption from Ephesians 1:
As I was watching the video, I was struck with how easily I forget the eternal symbolism of adoption. Just as marriage is deeper than two people's desire for companionship -- it is a witness to ourselves and to the world about the church's relationship to Christ -- adoption is more than just a couple's desire for a family (or an addition to their family); it is a testimony to ourselves, to the child, and to the world about what God has done for us through Christ.
If you'd like to explore the subject more, John Piper has a writing called Predestined for Adoption to the Praise of His Glory (I think it is a transcript of a sermon). Much of what he says in the video is said here, but it also goes more in depth.
He also has another writing called Adoption: The Heart of the Gospel that is worth your time. In it, he goes in depth about 8 similarities between what God did in adoption and what happens in a Christian adoption today:
I would just like to echo John Piper's words and sentiment and encourage every Christian couple to seriously pray and consider how God would like to make you a part of the ministry of adoption.
His closing encouragement:
I would suggest that you seriously consider not only supporting, but also doing adoption, both spiritually ... and also in terms of finding children who have no mom and dad who could be folded into a family—just like God planned from eternity to fold sinners like us, through Christ, into his everlasting family of joy.
May God bless you in all your dreaming, all your planning, all your praying, all your working in the cause of adoption.
As I was watching the video, I was struck with how easily I forget the eternal symbolism of adoption. Just as marriage is deeper than two people's desire for companionship -- it is a witness to ourselves and to the world about the church's relationship to Christ -- adoption is more than just a couple's desire for a family (or an addition to their family); it is a testimony to ourselves, to the child, and to the world about what God has done for us through Christ.
If you'd like to explore the subject more, John Piper has a writing called Predestined for Adoption to the Praise of His Glory (I think it is a transcript of a sermon). Much of what he says in the video is said here, but it also goes more in depth.
He also has another writing called Adoption: The Heart of the Gospel that is worth your time. In it, he goes in depth about 8 similarities between what God did in adoption and what happens in a Christian adoption today:
1. Adoption was (for God) and is (for us) costly.
2. Adoption did (for God) and does (for us) involve the legal status of the child.
3. Adoption was blessed and is blessed with God’s pouring out a Spirit of sonship.
4. Adoption was (for God) and is (for us) marked by moral transformation through the Spirit.
5. Adoption brought us, and brings our children, the rights of being heirs of the Father.
6. Adoption was (for God) and is (for us) seriously planned.
7. Adoption was (for God) and often is now (for us) from very bad situations.
8. Adoption meant (for all Christians) and means (for Christian parents) that we suffer now and experience glory later.
I would just like to echo John Piper's words and sentiment and encourage every Christian couple to seriously pray and consider how God would like to make you a part of the ministry of adoption.
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