Adopted for Life

A few months back I was fortunate enough to win a package of books from Crossway Publishers. I recently began reading one of them, Russell Moore's Adopted for Life. Dr. Moore is the dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. In addition to this, he is also a wise and gifted pastor and author. I had heard many good things about this book and so far I have not been disappointed. Whether or not you have any interest in adopting a child, Moore shows in this passage (from pp. 29-30) how adoption is at the very heart of the gospel:

Imagine for a moment that you're adopting a child. As you meet with the social worker in the last stage of the process, you're told that this twelve-year-old has been in and out of psychotherapy since he was three. He persists in burning things and attempting repeatedly to skin kittens alive. He "acts out sexually," the social worker says, although she doesn't really fill you in on what that means. She continues with a little family history. The boy's father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather all had histories of violence, ranging from spousal abuse to serial murder. Each of them ended life the same way, death by suicide--each found hanging from a rope of blankets in his respective prison cell.

Think for a minute. Would you want this child? If you did adopt him, wouldn't you keep your eye on him as he played with your other children? Would you watch him nervously as he looks at the butcher knife on the kitchen table? Would you leave the room as he watched a movie on television with your daughter, with the lights out?

Well he's you. And he's me. That's what the gospel is telling us. Our birth father has fangs. And left to ourselves, we'll show ourselves to be as serpentine as he is...But the New Testament addresses former Satan-imagers with good news. It's not just that we have a stay of execution, a suspension of doom. It's not simply that those who trust in Christ have found a refuge, a safe place, or a foster home. All those in Christ, Paul argues, have received sonship. We are now "Abraham's offspring" (Gal. 3:29).

It is only when we come to grips with the heinousness of our sin, that we can truly realize the enormity of God's grace. Thanks to Dr. Moore for his blunt and vivid portrayal of this fact. I look forward to reading the rest of the book.