Adoption is an accomplishment of redemption. It is not an accomplishment of creation. The very act of adoption assumes we were previously in a state of alienation. Being born did not somehow put us in better standing with God. The scripture says: “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5); and, “we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph. 2:3).

Justification is not the gospel in its entirety. It was not enough for God to only justify us in Christ. He has also insisted on adopting us in Christ: “In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ,…” (Eph. 1:5). The final purpose of divine election has always been relational not merely judicial.
Think of it this way. In justification God comes to us as Judge. He removes our criminal status before Him by declaring us not guilty in Christ. But in adoption God comes to us not as Judge but as Father.
What then is adoption? “Adoption is an act of the free grace of God, in and for his only Son Jesus Christ, whereby all those that are justified are received into the number of his children, have his name put upon them, the Spirit of his Son given to them, are under his fatherly care and dispensations, admitted to all the liberties and privileges of the sons of God, made heirs of all the promises, and fellow-heirs with Christ in glory.” (Q. 74, Westminster Larger Catechism)
If justification is the act of God’s free grace which removes our condemnation, then adoption is the act of God’s free grace which removes our alienation.
In justification we receive the donation of righteousness. In adoption we receive the donation of family love: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 John 3:1).
As David Garner wisely said, a not guilty verdict by the Almighty Judge does not make a criminal a son. But adoption does. Adoption legally puts us in the bonds of the family where God obligates himself to be our forever Father. He will pity us, protect us, provide for us, even chasten us, indulge us, and keep a glorious inheritance for us, bringing us to it without fail.
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What will God in his goodness and wisdom and grace and power do with us in the new year? Watching for this is far more to God’s glory and to the enjoyment of God than the quest to get done what I want to get done.

In her rich fantasy novel, Piranesi, author Susanna Clarke has the main character, whose name is also the book’s title, keep a journal for each year he has been living in the Beautiful and Kind House.
As described on the back cover, the rooms of the House “are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls lined with thousands upon thousands of statues.” It is a place of stunning beauty and deep intrigue.
As extraordinary as the House is, the passing of time there is quite ordinary. Time, in fact, becomes a major feature of the story, especially as the whole book is a series of revealing journal entries.
Fully aware of time’s passage, Piranesi records the number of each day and the number of each month whenever he makes an entry. His dating technique, however, is not what you would expect: he has stopped counting the years by numbers.
At almost every entry, Piranesi records the year as “the year the albatross came to the south-western halls.” He observes time by its remarkable providences not by mere counting. It is a clever move by Clarke which lends helpful strategy to followers of Christ as we enter a new year ourselves.
If we applied Piranesi’s method, one wonders how much more restful and joyful the year ahead would be. What if we watched and waited for the providences of God to unfold far more than we brooded over our own accomplishments? What if we are blind to the albatross flying through the House because we are always hunched over our resolutions?
John Flavel (c. 1630-1691) liked to point to Asaph’s wisdom in Psalm 77:11-12 to drive home a similar point. “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.”
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Amos begins his preaching to the northern kingdom in a clever way. Not clever with deceit, but with a disarming cleverness. He first proclaims the judgments coming on the neighboring enemies of Israel: Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, the Ammonites, and Moab. He even declares he southern kingdom is targeted for judgment.

About one hundred years before the northern kingdom was carried into exile by Assyrian armies, and just two years before the earthquake, the Lion roared from Zion. Yahweh raised up and sent his prophet, Amos of Tekoa, into the northern kingdom to announce a coming inescapable judgment. Exile.
Amos, a rural sheep herder and dresser of sycamore figs, was an unlikely choice for the Lion’s roar. Not only was he a country farmer sent to preach against an urban decadence that was crushing the poor, he was also from the southern kingdom of Judah. With Amos the Lord was about to smuggle an outsider into the north because Israel had officially silenced their own prophets (2:12). Jeroboam would try to silence Amos too (7:10-17).
Amos begins his preaching to the northern kingdom in a clever way. Not clever with deceit, but with a disarming cleverness. He first proclaims the judgments coming on the neighboring enemies of Israel: Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, the Ammonites, and Moab. He even declares he southern kingdom is targeted for judgment.
All of this perfectly paced to get Israel listening. They might welcome a new prophet after all, if he speaks to their advantage. But then, cleverly mentioning them last, the northern kingdom becomes the chief concern of Amos’s word of doom.
What entrenched and multiplied transgressions brings the Lord to come against his own people? In a word, oppression. In more words, oppression of the poor by an unchecked appetite for luxury and leisure.
The wealthy and powerful of Israel – and those who wish to be – “sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals” (2:6). They “trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted” (2:7).
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When the children of God show the kindness of the true and living God, the God of all kindness is made known, is glorified, and is enjoyed. What did the world learn from Stephen’s kindness? They learned Stephen was not in the grip of cruelty and animus like they were: “Look how these Christians so desperately want us to be forgiven!” That is what they learned from Stephen. Whether they came to worship the Lord or not, they learned the God whom Stephen worshipped was full of kindness toward his enemies. Kindness is a fruit of the Spirit in the life of the believer because kindness is first of God.

A vivid lesson on kindness found throughout Old Testament scripture is how frequently kindness is expected as a matter of reciprocity.
Abimelech expected kindness from Abraham in return for having shown kindness to Abraham: “God is with you in all that you do. Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned” (Genesis 21:22-23).
Rahab, the prostitute of Jericho, expected kindness from the spies whom she had shown great kindness, hiding and protecting them in the roof. “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign” (Joshua 2:12).
Upon ascending his throne, King David was eager to express kindness to any descendent of Saul because Saul’s son, Jonathan, had shown David great kindness. Learning of Mephibosheth, David said to him: “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always” (2 Samuel 9:7). 
What do these scenes of reciprocating kindness have to do with kindness being a fruit of the Spirit? The Spirit of God creates kindness in the lives of all his redeemed children so the children may show others the kindness which God has shown to them.
This was beautifully displayed in the life of Stephen, an early deacon (Acts 7:60).
On the occasion of his grim death, being stoned by a violent and angry mob in Jerusalem, Stephen cried out: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” This was not the kindness of a worldling (Mt. 5:46).
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The Christian will struggle with sin his whole life. But the Christian struggles in Christ. Before regenerating grace appeared we did not struggle in Christ. Now we do because now, in union with Christ through the Holy Spirit, we are not totally depraved. 

Let us consider then how the doctrines of grace are good and necessary for the shepherding of souls in the churches of Jesus Christ. And let us begin with the doctrine of total depravity.
The expression total depravity summarizes scripture’s teaching on the spiritual condition of Adam and all his offspring after the fall into sin. In Adam’s fall we sinned all and none were lightly wounded.
By our revolt against God, we forfeited the excellent gifts which once belonged to creatures bearing the divine image. By one man’s disobedience, the race of man immediately incurred, as stated in the Canons of Dort (COD, III/IV.1), “blindness of mind, horrible darkness, vanity and perverseness of judgment, became wicked, rebellious, and obdurate in heart and will, and impure in his affections.”
Not by imitation did we come to possess this corruption, as Pelagians everywhere would have us believe, but by propagation, the propagation of a vicious nature: “A corrupt stock produced a corrupt offspring” (COD, III/IV.2).
Total depravity does not mean we are as sinful as we could be. It means, rather, that our nature is thoroughly defiled by sin. We are soaked through with it. God says so. He says it of man before the flood in Genesis 6:5 and he says it of man after the flood in Genesis 8:21: “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. … the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”
How then does this weighty doctrine become a help in the care of souls? Total depravity brilliantly helps manage expectations.
Consider first the expectations of Christian parents. We so easily expect children to be reformed by rules that we soon become hardened when they are not. But a wise man once said the doctrine of total depravity should stir deep compassion in parents, for after all the first thing we gave our children was their sin nature. “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps. 51:5).
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What then is the best way to fight idolatry in our own lives and keep the commandment? What is the best way to call unbelievers to the one true and living God? What is the best way to reclaim those who have turned away to serve gods of their own imaginings?

You shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:4, Deuteronomy 5:7).
Over half a century ago, the late Martyn Lloyd-Jones, minister at Westminster Chapel, London, aimed the penetrating light of the first commandment at modern idolatry, saying, “There are many people today who never darken the doors of a place of worship but who say they believe in the love of God. Yet they reject the gospel. They do not believe in a God who is wrathful against sin; a God who must punish sin; a God who sent his own Son….”
Refusing to believe in the God who made them, they believe in a god they have made.
One on hand, such people are the spiritual kin of all who bow down before gods carved of wood. They are idolaters, of the same seed as stone worshippers. They too adore a god of their own imagining, their own crafting, a counterfeit god making counterfeit promises to enslave their souls to the father of lies. Abraham was once of this stock. But God graciously visited him and heaven rejoiced (Josh. 24:2).
On the other hand, many of the people Jones identifies are the ones who should know better. Not all grew up in idolatry. As children, many of them heard of the true and living God: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. They heard of the God who judges sin and saves sinners. Many even received the sign of his covenant, but they “were not united by faith with those who listened” (Heb. 4:2).
In fact, the most frequent pastoral use of the first commandment throughout scripture is when prophets lay it down as a straight edge to expose the crooked idolatry of those who once had drawn near to God.
A foundational example of this is the Lord’s ministry to Israel while they were yet in Egypt. After four hundred years of bondage, God rose to answer their cries, but it was not their faithfulness that moved him. Through Ezekiel the Lord recalls their idolatrous condition even prior to the exodus:
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Meekness is a grace not a work. It is gifted to all who belong to the new creation of the Spirit through union with Christ. This means there is a great irony in the blessing of meekness: God freely gives the meek what they would not grasp for themselves: an inheritance. 

An ancient proverb says: “We must howl with the wolves, because the wolves will immediately devour everyone who makes himself a sheep.”
Such worldly wisdom tickles the ears of all who despise the meekness of Christ’s kingdom. It is despised because unbelievers fear the meek must always be devoured by the world. And therein lies the real problem. Meekness is despised because of an inordinate love or an inordinate fear of the world.
To the unregenerate meekness is of no value. They are persuaded it does not deliver what they really want – the keeping or gaining of the world. But in defense of his elect, our Lord’s third beatitude speaks directly to these fears: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5).
The meek are heirs. Co-heirs with Christ. “If children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8:17). This, we might say, is Paul’s exposition of “blessed are the meek.”
Wolves inherit nothing. The meek have title to everything, a title sealed by the royal blood of the beloved and victorious Son. Howl not then with the wolves. Be a sheep. It is always okay to be sheep when Christ is Shepherd. Nothing which rightly belongs to you will ever be devoured for it is kept by God in Christ who, seated at the right hand of the Most High, lives and reigns forevermore.
Here is an entry in the diary of the meek: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” The meek are without a rod. The meek are without a staff. But they are not without the Lord. He has both rod and staff and uses both to bring his flock to everything that is good forever.
In Numbers chapter 12, verse 3, it says: “Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.”
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The great goodness and compassion of God liberates us to say with Matthew Henry: “Firmly believing that my times are in God’s hand, I here submit myself and all my affairs for the ensuing year, to the wise and gracious disposal of God’s divine providence.”

In her rich fantasy novel, Piranesi, author Susanna Clarke has the main character, whose name is also the book’s title, keep a journal for each year he has been living in the Beautiful and Kind House.
As described on the back cover, the rooms of the House “are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls lined with thousands upon thousands of statues.” It is a place of stunning beauty and deep intrigue.
As extraordinary as the House is, the passing of time there is quite ordinary. Time, in fact, becomes a major feature of the story, especially as the whole book is a series of revealing journal entries.
Fully aware of time’s passage, Piranesi records the number of each day and the number of each month whenever he makes an entry. His dating technique, however, is not what you would expect: he has stopped counting the years by numbers.
At almost every entry, Piranesi records the year as “the year the albatross came to the south-western halls.” He observes time by its remarkable providences not by mere counting. It is a clever move by Clarke which lends helpful strategy to followers of Christ as we enter a new year ourselves.
If we applied Piranesi’s method, one wonders how much more restful and joyful the year ahead would be. What if we watched and waited for the providences of God to unfold far more than we brooded over our own accomplishments? What if we are blind to the albatross flying through the House because we are always hunched over our resolutions?
John Flavel (c. 1630-1691) liked to point to Asaph’s wisdom in Psalm 77:11-12 to drive home a similar point. “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.”
Read More

Nothing will prevent the Spirit of God from uniting all souls of God’s elect church to Christ by faith. Not even foreseen unbelief will prevent this. It too will necessarily give way and be overcome by grace. Having chosen men without regard to conditions, no condition will hinder Him in bringing those appointed to eternal life to saving faith.

Let us not take away half the love of God by saying he only started to love us at our baptism or only after we came to faith. Let us not take away half the love of God by saying he only loved us in a trickling, generally vague way until we ourselves harnessed and focused his love like a laser through our own reciprocation.
Leave God’s love wholly intact. Leave him be. Let his love for his elect church be as old and as particular as he wills it to be, for the scripture says: “…he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” (Eph. 1:3-4).
To take away half God’s love is to eclipse the glorious gospel of grace. Let the gospel shine fully without shadows. Where part of the gospel is darkened, part of the believer’s soul is darkened by doubts, fears, and many injurious introspections. Proclaim divine unconditional election.
God did. God does. Through Jeremiah he says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you” (Jer. 31:3). Here is the place of refuge and renewal for a sin-sick church who needs a foundation for her repentance that melts her heart and ignites her faith. As Geerhardus Vos said of this stunning text: “The best proof that He will never cease to love us lies in that He never began. What we are for Him and what He is for us belongs to the realm of eternal values. Without this we are nothing, in it we have all.”
It is popular, yet certainly wrong, to suggest God predestines individual men and women to salvation in Christ based upon the foreseen belief of different individuals and the foreseen fruitfulness of the same.
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