According to Romans 8:22, the whole creation is groaning and travailing, waiting with expectancy for the manifestation of the sons of God. WHEN WILL THAT MANIFESTATION OF THOSE SONS TAKE PLACE? God has a special preordained plan and season for that deliverance. The creature was made subject to vanity (meaning, God subjected man and animal life to this environmental condition of decay and futility), “not willingly”, not because we chose it that way. None of us willed or desired it to be this way. Not one of us (animal life included) had anything to do with our even being here in this life. Long ago you were nothing more than a gene in your
father’s loins waiting to be introduced into this world. You did not ask to come by the route you came; you never asked to enter this world bearing the effects of a fallen depraved nature as you did which was handed down through heredity from your ancestors. God himself suffered it to be that in so doing He would accomplish His will and purpose. The scripture says, not willingly but by reason of Him who has subjected the same hope, meaning there was this hope that all creation (including
everything) would one day be set free, that is, delivered from bondage and corruption, slavery and decay and share in that glorious freedom enjoyed by the children of God, however, remember they cannot enjoy their freedom until redeemed man through the change of his natural body has enjoyed his glorious liberty. God’s order of redemption is first MAN, second THE ANIMAL KINGDOM, third NATURE ITSELF.
Paul is showing in Romans 8:21, that natural creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption (death and decay) unto the glorious liberty of the freedom of God; showing first man himself shall be set free from this bondage through the resurrection of rapture of church where the hope for the balance of creation is soon to follow. Here is the first thing taking place through the glorious redemptive work of the manifested sons of God, which verse 19 testifies creation is waiting for. Once God sets in motion the process for that season of redeeming the entire creation, His whole creation restored back unto Himself, what will happen according to verse 22, “For we know that the whole creation (animal life, nature) groaneth and travaileth together until now.” “UNTIL NOW” does not refer to our day, it refers to Paul’s day as he is writing to the church. Almost two thousand years have passed since then and things have gotten much worse, haven’t they? Sin and sickness are worse; evil is one every hand, yet out of it all God has somewhere promised He would redeem the entire thing, there is a process used to accomplish all this!
Romans 8:23 clarifies who Paul spake of in verse 22 by saying not only they, but we ourselves, we Christians groan and travail waiting for our deliverance who have the first fruits of the Spirit.
Romans 8:24, “For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope, for what a man seeth why does he yet hope for, but if we hope for that which we see not, then we with patience wait for it.” Therefore having received the Spirit (first phase of ADOPTION) Paul says, we wait patiently for the second phase of ADOPTION, the adoption of the body to become manifested sons of God. (Here Paul ends his thought on works of manifested sons).
We must know of a certainty that God will not redeem or change the physical, natural body until first He had done something to alter the course or change the inner spirit man dwelling within that corrupt body. If the inner man, which is made in the image of God, is never changed to know or love God, never living for Him and being a true son talking and walking in harmony and fellowship with God, what advantage would there be to change his vile, sinful body that could exist eternally only to continue going a million miles farther away from God? The first thing in God’s plan of redemption is, something must be done to get that inner man straightened out. To accomplish this required the new birth. Yes, the inner man must be born again (John 3:3) or he can never enter or see the kingdom of God. He must be reinstated into a relationship and fellowship with God and nothing short of the new birth would accomplish this. (I Peter 1:18-20)
“Not only they, Paul said, but ourselves also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the ADOPTION.” What adoption does Paul speak of here? We recall in verse 15, how God has given unto us the first-fruits of the spirit of ADOPTION whereby we call Abba, Father, but here for the second time Paul, in verse 23 again speaks of ADOPTION. What could it mean? This time the adoption is the redemption of the human body and not the spirit. We now have two thoughts concerning ADOPTION with which to deal. Realizing now there are two positions in this entire process of ADOPTION (spirit and body) one placing you in the family(Romans 8:15) while the other places you in line for your position as to what your inheritance is as an heir, which is determined much upon how we have lived for God while here upon earth.
CHRIST’S LIFE REVEALS ADOPTION IN TWO PHASES
Twice also within the life of Christ do we hear a voice speaking unto Him from above. Recall, first was when a voice spoke to him saying, “THIS IS MY BELOVED SON IN WHOM I AM (WELL) PLEASED TO DWELL IN!” (Matthew 3:16-17) The second time the voice said, “THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, HEAR YE HIM.” (Matthew 17:5) It was all of the same process. The first time was when the Spirit came on Him, representing Romans 8:15, in the believer and next in Matthew 17. The disciples saw Him in that glorified, manifested body representing Romans 8:23, in the full adoption of the believer when He receives His new glorified body.
FALL OF FIRST MANIFESTED SON (ADAM)
It is through His only created manifested son (the first Adam) that God commissioned with authority to rule over the earth, saying subdue and replenish it, dress it, and take care of it. However, we all are all familiar with the sad story of that first created son’s failure in his great commission. It was never carried out! Instead he brought a fall and curse upon the entire human race. God already had seen in his mind all this disappointment brought on by the first Adam because of that, therefore, he predestinated us unto the ADOPTION of children or sons by Jesus Christ, the manifested Word. Predestinated simply means before the world was destined, God saw the end, also God was fully aware of all that would transpire from beginning to end, (pre - is before, destination - is the end). God, who is sovereign is omnipresent, omniscient, knowing all that will transpire because God doesn’t live in time. Everything that lives and exists had to first exist in His mind. Since it existed first in Him, naturally He knows all that goes on here. Seeing all that would be, He knew exactly how to choose to set things in motion to fulfill the plan according to what He had already counseled with His own self to be, that we would be adopted sons, adopted back to himself through Jesus Christ the manifested Word. Yes, according to the good pleasure of His own will. We will have to illustrate THE ADOPTION OF A BELIEVER for better balance.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL ADOPTION
Receiving the family name is as far as anyone can go into natural adoption. Never could there be any
physical tie such as the man placing his own spirit in the lad, he can only give him his name. These ties according to law are sufficient enough to make him a legal heir. Once he becomes legally adopted as a son into that family it is sufficient to place the child in line for heirship and inheritance, isn’t it? However, never could there be any spirit transmitted from the father to the adopted son, only the fathers name could be applied to the son’s life causing the sons on this basis to become legal heir to everything that the father has, but PRAISE GOD, when God adopted us He was able to go a step farther, wasn’t he?
Adoption with Him was much closer and personal once He saved us bringing us into His relationship, cleansed us through His blood, bringing us through the watery grave (water baptism), washed our bodies up from the sins that had been committed and gave us the Holy Ghost which was His own life imparted unto us (Acts 2:38), that made the adoption so much more personal. It was as though we had actually become, in reality, His son.
SPIRITUAL ADOPTION - ACTS 2:38
On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached and 3000 interested, inquisitive, devout Jews responded by
asking, “Men and brethren what must we do”, to become heirs of this? To be adopted into God’s
family? Peter simply told them to repent and take unto themselves God’s family name of heaven and
earth.
But what is the family name of heaven and earth? (Ephesians 3:14-15) Paul instructed the Ephesians
this family name was none other than the name of Jesus. Jesus is the family name of heaven and earth, right? Certainly, that is God’s family name. CHRIST TESTIFIED. He came in his Father’s name. (John 5:34) Beloved, you can’t be adopted even in a natural family until you take on that family name. “Repent everyone of you, turn from your evil ways and be baptized in the family name and according to Peter you will not only receive the family name, but as an added bonus over a natural adoption, you shall receive the Spirit of the family, which is the Holy Ghost who also is the spirit of adoption. God’s very own life, giving to you a full-fledged life cycle with the father Himself. Now you have the father’s life implanted in you, the one thing natural adoption could never provide. You are now of the real family itself, not simply because of
the name, but you have received the spirit of the father Himself into your life. In spiritual adoption we have the spirit of the father dwelling in us because we took on His family name, Jesus. He has also given us of His spirit. The eternal father can look upon us and say, This is my son,
while in turn we can look up and say this is my father. Through natural adoption, an adopted orphan boy also can say, yes, he is my father, however, he can only say this from an adopted standpoint because he only carries the family name. Certainly he could never say it from a more personal standpoint because he carries the spirit of the father in his bosom, but in this heavenly adoption we have the spirit of our daddy in us.
Through this heavenly adoption, or receiving of his spirit, are we able according to Paul to cry, “Abba Father, he is my God”. He is my daddy because I have His life in me. We now have our daddy’s spirit in us. It is none other than the spirit of
adoption that places us in the family or body. (For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body) (I
Corinthians 12:13). Being placed into the family by His spirit simply means we are born into the family of God. We have not only the family’s name, but also the family’s spirit.
There are three notable things concerning this spirit of adoption in us, (Romans 8:9&14, Colossians 1:27). (1) “Without the Spirit of Christ we are none of His (2) They that are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God, (3) Christ in you, your hope of glory.” Through the Apostle Paul’s stimulating revelation we have learned how God has chosen and adopted us through Christ that we might have access to this heir-ship or inheritance which deals with our position as manifested sons of God. Again through Paul’s revelation recorded in Romans 8, God had chosen and purposed that He is going to redeem all this fallen creation by His manifested sons. Let us turn back into Genesis and refresh our memory upon God’s natural creation. God started out with only one son and one daughter. The first Adam and Eve were placed in the garden and commissioned to replenish the earth, dress it, be fruitful and multiply, Genesis 1:28. Notice the entire commission and promise of God lay invested there in those two, so because of what happened in the garden every child born unto their union after the fall was born into this world without eternal life, God life as His original plan had called for (from the tree of Life).
Genesis 6:1-2. Eventually as men began to multiply on the face of the earth (Cain’s life crossing over
into the Sons of God line, Genesis 6:1-6). As Cain’s line also began to be crossed over into the family
tree of the sons of God line through the human genes, they began to lust, steal, lie, thinking all manner of evil imaginations etc., until the father we proceed down through the history of humanity past Genesis 6:1-2, the more corrupt the earth became through the evilness of man, man in his plurality has multiplied on the face of the earth and corrupted the face of the earth with his evil until God sent judgment through a flood. Did this correct everything, it did not! Sin and disobedience all started with one man and onewoman. If the fall of the first Adam and one woman has brought this whole thing down through 6000 years without that commission of the first Adam being fulfilled, is it forever lost? Will man born of the first Adam ever rise back up to that exalted place in this life?
Watch something here in God’s mind shown in Paul’s revelation concerning that long awaited
commission. Christ, who was the last Adam, who is none other than the Lord of Glory Himself, was made a quickening spirit solely for one purpose, to give life back to something which had been lost
through the natural creation process. Notice just as the first Adam was given a help-mate to reproduce
himself manifested sons and daughters by which to re-populate and rule this world, thus fulfilling that
great commission had there been no son, so also shall the second Adam be given a helpmate (bride
church) to undo this terrible curse and fulfill the commission.
father’s loins waiting to be introduced into this world. You did not ask to come by the route you came; you never asked to enter this world bearing the effects of a fallen depraved nature as you did which was handed down through heredity from your ancestors. God himself suffered it to be that in so doing He would accomplish His will and purpose. The scripture says, not willingly but by reason of Him who has subjected the same hope, meaning there was this hope that all creation (including
everything) would one day be set free, that is, delivered from bondage and corruption, slavery and decay and share in that glorious freedom enjoyed by the children of God, however, remember they cannot enjoy their freedom until redeemed man through the change of his natural body has enjoyed his glorious liberty. God’s order of redemption is first MAN, second THE ANIMAL KINGDOM, third NATURE ITSELF.
Paul is showing in Romans 8:21, that natural creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption (death and decay) unto the glorious liberty of the freedom of God; showing first man himself shall be set free from this bondage through the resurrection of rapture of church where the hope for the balance of creation is soon to follow. Here is the first thing taking place through the glorious redemptive work of the manifested sons of God, which verse 19 testifies creation is waiting for. Once God sets in motion the process for that season of redeeming the entire creation, His whole creation restored back unto Himself, what will happen according to verse 22, “For we know that the whole creation (animal life, nature) groaneth and travaileth together until now.” “UNTIL NOW” does not refer to our day, it refers to Paul’s day as he is writing to the church. Almost two thousand years have passed since then and things have gotten much worse, haven’t they? Sin and sickness are worse; evil is one every hand, yet out of it all God has somewhere promised He would redeem the entire thing, there is a process used to accomplish all this!
Romans 8:23 clarifies who Paul spake of in verse 22 by saying not only they, but we ourselves, we Christians groan and travail waiting for our deliverance who have the first fruits of the Spirit.
Romans 8:24, “For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope, for what a man seeth why does he yet hope for, but if we hope for that which we see not, then we with patience wait for it.” Therefore having received the Spirit (first phase of ADOPTION) Paul says, we wait patiently for the second phase of ADOPTION, the adoption of the body to become manifested sons of God. (Here Paul ends his thought on works of manifested sons).
We must know of a certainty that God will not redeem or change the physical, natural body until first He had done something to alter the course or change the inner spirit man dwelling within that corrupt body. If the inner man, which is made in the image of God, is never changed to know or love God, never living for Him and being a true son talking and walking in harmony and fellowship with God, what advantage would there be to change his vile, sinful body that could exist eternally only to continue going a million miles farther away from God? The first thing in God’s plan of redemption is, something must be done to get that inner man straightened out. To accomplish this required the new birth. Yes, the inner man must be born again (John 3:3) or he can never enter or see the kingdom of God. He must be reinstated into a relationship and fellowship with God and nothing short of the new birth would accomplish this. (I Peter 1:18-20)
“Not only they, Paul said, but ourselves also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the ADOPTION.” What adoption does Paul speak of here? We recall in verse 15, how God has given unto us the first-fruits of the spirit of ADOPTION whereby we call Abba, Father, but here for the second time Paul, in verse 23 again speaks of ADOPTION. What could it mean? This time the adoption is the redemption of the human body and not the spirit. We now have two thoughts concerning ADOPTION with which to deal. Realizing now there are two positions in this entire process of ADOPTION (spirit and body) one placing you in the family(Romans 8:15) while the other places you in line for your position as to what your inheritance is as an heir, which is determined much upon how we have lived for God while here upon earth.
CHRIST’S LIFE REVEALS ADOPTION IN TWO PHASES
Twice also within the life of Christ do we hear a voice speaking unto Him from above. Recall, first was when a voice spoke to him saying, “THIS IS MY BELOVED SON IN WHOM I AM (WELL) PLEASED TO DWELL IN!” (Matthew 3:16-17) The second time the voice said, “THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, HEAR YE HIM.” (Matthew 17:5) It was all of the same process. The first time was when the Spirit came on Him, representing Romans 8:15, in the believer and next in Matthew 17. The disciples saw Him in that glorified, manifested body representing Romans 8:23, in the full adoption of the believer when He receives His new glorified body.
FALL OF FIRST MANIFESTED SON (ADAM)
It is through His only created manifested son (the first Adam) that God commissioned with authority to rule over the earth, saying subdue and replenish it, dress it, and take care of it. However, we all are all familiar with the sad story of that first created son’s failure in his great commission. It was never carried out! Instead he brought a fall and curse upon the entire human race. God already had seen in his mind all this disappointment brought on by the first Adam because of that, therefore, he predestinated us unto the ADOPTION of children or sons by Jesus Christ, the manifested Word. Predestinated simply means before the world was destined, God saw the end, also God was fully aware of all that would transpire from beginning to end, (pre - is before, destination - is the end). God, who is sovereign is omnipresent, omniscient, knowing all that will transpire because God doesn’t live in time. Everything that lives and exists had to first exist in His mind. Since it existed first in Him, naturally He knows all that goes on here. Seeing all that would be, He knew exactly how to choose to set things in motion to fulfill the plan according to what He had already counseled with His own self to be, that we would be adopted sons, adopted back to himself through Jesus Christ the manifested Word. Yes, according to the good pleasure of His own will. We will have to illustrate THE ADOPTION OF A BELIEVER for better balance.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL ADOPTION
Receiving the family name is as far as anyone can go into natural adoption. Never could there be any
physical tie such as the man placing his own spirit in the lad, he can only give him his name. These ties according to law are sufficient enough to make him a legal heir. Once he becomes legally adopted as a son into that family it is sufficient to place the child in line for heirship and inheritance, isn’t it? However, never could there be any spirit transmitted from the father to the adopted son, only the fathers name could be applied to the son’s life causing the sons on this basis to become legal heir to everything that the father has, but PRAISE GOD, when God adopted us He was able to go a step farther, wasn’t he?
Adoption with Him was much closer and personal once He saved us bringing us into His relationship, cleansed us through His blood, bringing us through the watery grave (water baptism), washed our bodies up from the sins that had been committed and gave us the Holy Ghost which was His own life imparted unto us (Acts 2:38), that made the adoption so much more personal. It was as though we had actually become, in reality, His son.
SPIRITUAL ADOPTION - ACTS 2:38
On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached and 3000 interested, inquisitive, devout Jews responded by
asking, “Men and brethren what must we do”, to become heirs of this? To be adopted into God’s
family? Peter simply told them to repent and take unto themselves God’s family name of heaven and
earth.
But what is the family name of heaven and earth? (Ephesians 3:14-15) Paul instructed the Ephesians
this family name was none other than the name of Jesus. Jesus is the family name of heaven and earth, right? Certainly, that is God’s family name. CHRIST TESTIFIED. He came in his Father’s name. (John 5:34) Beloved, you can’t be adopted even in a natural family until you take on that family name. “Repent everyone of you, turn from your evil ways and be baptized in the family name and according to Peter you will not only receive the family name, but as an added bonus over a natural adoption, you shall receive the Spirit of the family, which is the Holy Ghost who also is the spirit of adoption. God’s very own life, giving to you a full-fledged life cycle with the father Himself. Now you have the father’s life implanted in you, the one thing natural adoption could never provide. You are now of the real family itself, not simply because of
the name, but you have received the spirit of the father Himself into your life. In spiritual adoption we have the spirit of the father dwelling in us because we took on His family name, Jesus. He has also given us of His spirit. The eternal father can look upon us and say, This is my son,
while in turn we can look up and say this is my father. Through natural adoption, an adopted orphan boy also can say, yes, he is my father, however, he can only say this from an adopted standpoint because he only carries the family name. Certainly he could never say it from a more personal standpoint because he carries the spirit of the father in his bosom, but in this heavenly adoption we have the spirit of our daddy in us.
Through this heavenly adoption, or receiving of his spirit, are we able according to Paul to cry, “Abba Father, he is my God”. He is my daddy because I have His life in me. We now have our daddy’s spirit in us. It is none other than the spirit of
adoption that places us in the family or body. (For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body) (I
Corinthians 12:13). Being placed into the family by His spirit simply means we are born into the family of God. We have not only the family’s name, but also the family’s spirit.
There are three notable things concerning this spirit of adoption in us, (Romans 8:9&14, Colossians 1:27). (1) “Without the Spirit of Christ we are none of His (2) They that are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God, (3) Christ in you, your hope of glory.” Through the Apostle Paul’s stimulating revelation we have learned how God has chosen and adopted us through Christ that we might have access to this heir-ship or inheritance which deals with our position as manifested sons of God. Again through Paul’s revelation recorded in Romans 8, God had chosen and purposed that He is going to redeem all this fallen creation by His manifested sons. Let us turn back into Genesis and refresh our memory upon God’s natural creation. God started out with only one son and one daughter. The first Adam and Eve were placed in the garden and commissioned to replenish the earth, dress it, be fruitful and multiply, Genesis 1:28. Notice the entire commission and promise of God lay invested there in those two, so because of what happened in the garden every child born unto their union after the fall was born into this world without eternal life, God life as His original plan had called for (from the tree of Life).
Genesis 6:1-2. Eventually as men began to multiply on the face of the earth (Cain’s life crossing over
into the Sons of God line, Genesis 6:1-6). As Cain’s line also began to be crossed over into the family
tree of the sons of God line through the human genes, they began to lust, steal, lie, thinking all manner of evil imaginations etc., until the father we proceed down through the history of humanity past Genesis 6:1-2, the more corrupt the earth became through the evilness of man, man in his plurality has multiplied on the face of the earth and corrupted the face of the earth with his evil until God sent judgment through a flood. Did this correct everything, it did not! Sin and disobedience all started with one man and onewoman. If the fall of the first Adam and one woman has brought this whole thing down through 6000 years without that commission of the first Adam being fulfilled, is it forever lost? Will man born of the first Adam ever rise back up to that exalted place in this life?
Watch something here in God’s mind shown in Paul’s revelation concerning that long awaited
commission. Christ, who was the last Adam, who is none other than the Lord of Glory Himself, was made a quickening spirit solely for one purpose, to give life back to something which had been lost
through the natural creation process. Notice just as the first Adam was given a help-mate to reproduce
himself manifested sons and daughters by which to re-populate and rule this world, thus fulfilling that
great commission had there been no son, so also shall the second Adam be given a helpmate (bride
church) to undo this terrible curse and fulfill the commission.
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