According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Ephesians 1:4-7
Just two weeks after he was born in 1913, Leslie King, Jr.’s parents separated. When he was three, his mother remarried and gave her son the name of her new husband, Gerald Ford. It was not until he was seventeen that Gerald Ford, Jr., who would grow up and go into politics and later become the thirty-eighth President of the United States, found out that he had been adopted. Looking back on that experience later in his life, Ford told an interviewer, “I didn’t understand exactly what a stepfather was. Dad and I had the closest, most intimate relationship. My stepfather was a magnificent person and my mother equally wonderful. So I couldn’t have written a better prescription for a superb family upbringing.”
The grace of God that saves us also makes us part of His family. By His grace we exchange our past identity for a new one and become His children. The apostle John wrote, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not” (1 John 3:1). This is not a temporary designation but a permanent adoption. Because we did not earn this but instead received it by grace, we do not have to worry that it will be taken away from us.
God calls us to live in a way that reflects well on our new family, not for our glory but for His. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
