Uncommon Calamities

I was reviewing John Chapter 9, the story of Jesus healing the blind man, and kept focusing on this portion of the passage:

 ¹As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. ²And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" ³Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

Now, at the risk of unrightly dividing the Word of God, I kept thinking of this "re-wording", as it applies to orphans in general, to "special needs" orphans, and specifically to Kathleen.  How would that read?

 ¹As he passed by, he saw <an orphan>. ²And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this <orphan> or his parents, that he <is an orphan>?" ³Jesus answered, "It was not that this <orphan> sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in <the orphan>.

or

 ¹As he passed by, he saw <Kathleen>. ²And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this <child> or <her> parents, that <she has Down Syndrome>?" ³Jesus answered, "It was not that <Kathleen> sinned, or <her> parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in <Kathleen>.

Again, I hope that I am not mis-applying Scripture, but that is how I found myself reading this portion of the passage...

I found what Matthew Henry had to say in his concise commentary on John 9:1-7 helpful:

Christ cured many who were blind by disease or accident; here he cured one born blind. Thus he showed his power to help in the most desperate cases, and the work of his grace upon the souls of sinners, which gives sight to those blind by nature. This poor man could not see Christ, but Christ saw him. And if we know or apprehend anything of Christ, it is because we were first known of him. Christ says of uncommon calamities, that they are not always to be looked on as special punishments of sin; sometimes they are for the glory of God, and to manifest his works. Our life is our day, in which it concerns us to do the work of the day. We must be busy, and not waste day-time; it will be time to rest when our day is done, for it is but a day. The approach of death should quicken us to improve all our opportunities of doing and getting good. What good we have an opportunity to do, we should do quickly. And he that will never do a good work till there is nothing to be objected against, will leave many a good work for ever undone, ( Ecclesiastes 11:4 ) . Christ magnified his power, in making a blind man to see, doing that which one would think more likely to make a seeing man blind. Human reason cannot judge of the Lord's methods; he uses means and instruments that men despise. Those that would be healed by Christ must be ruled by him. He came back from the pool wondering and wondered at; he came seeing. This represents the benefits in attending on ordinances of Christ's appointment; souls go weak, and come away strengthened; go doubting, and come away satisfied; go mourning, and come away rejoicing; go blind, and come away seeing.

The Wonder of Adoption

1 Corinthians 3:16-23

 ¹⁶ Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? ¹⁷If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
 ¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. ¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness," ²⁰and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." ²¹So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, ²²whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, ²³and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.


1 John 3:1-3

 ¹See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ²Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. ³And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

So, what does it mean that we have been adopted by God?  Do you have a hard time grasping just how much that means?  Make 4 minutes of time and click here and listen

Oh, how quickly I lose my eternal perspective and grumble over the events of this life!  Thank you Father for your forgiveness through the finished work of Your Son Jesus Christ!

Faith Like a Child

Matthew 11:25-30 (this is after Jesus denounced the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent)...

25 At that time Jesus declared, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

I came across this article during my morning news review. It stirred up a memory from when Stephanie was pregnant with our first son (Trevor). To put things in context, we were not Christians at the time...

The pregnancy included "Level 2" ultrasounds; the first of which resulted in the fetus possessing 2 of the 6 "indicators" for Down Syndrome. I recall the confusion and anxiety it caused initially. I also remember abortion NEVER being an option for us; to that I praise the Lord for the Grace He gave us during that time (with regard to not letting our desire for inner peace and affluence drive a decision regarding the termination of the pregnancy).

I commend the story told in this article to you all; may the Lord use it to teach, rebuke, correct, and encourage us all regarding our "worldly" attitudes...

Here is an excerpt:

Gabe's mother and Peter's wife, Tara King, was 18 weeks pregnant when test results confirmed she was carrying a child with Down syndrome, a chromosomal variation that causes mental and physical delays. She was standing in the foyer of their home at the time in Cleveland when the doctor called with the news.

Their eldest son, Nate, then 8, heard her burst into tears and asked what was wrong.

"Is it Grandma?"

"No, Grandma is fine."

"Is it Daddy?" Peter had thrown out his back and was upstairs in bed at the time.

"No, Daddy is fine."

Nate was aware of the test and finally asked: "Is it the baby? Does it have Down syndrome?"

When his mother nodded yes, he said, "Oh, good."

The Kings enjoy telling this story, recalling how Nate's relief brought perspective to what seeme like the end of the world.

"In that moment of absolute grief, that little piece of clarity and truth, it took my breath away," Tara recalled.

The couple met with a genetic counselor who laid out options. They could choose an abortion or early induced labor - which would result in the death of the fetus. Or Tara could carry the baby to term. Nine in 10 fetuses that test positive for Down syndrome are aborted.

"I remember being told to think about our other children and how this is going to affect them," said Tara, recalling conversations with friends and family members. "It was unspoken, but the message was, 'You really need to not have this baby because it's going to ruin everything for the kids.' Which in retrospect is just kind of funny, because if nothing, they've grown from the experience."

Adoption: The Heart of the Gospel

Galatians 4:4-8

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. 8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

Romans 8:14-17

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and 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.

The biblical foundation for the act of adopting children is primarily in the New Testament rather than the Old. There are only three adoptions in the Old Testament (Moses, Esther, and Genubath, 1 Kings 11:20). Israel is called God’s son (Exodus 4:22; Deuteronomy 14:1; 32:6; Jeremiah 31:9; Hosea 11:1) but not until the New Testament is this called adoption.

As I reflect on the Biblical Truths that the Triune God used to transform my mind with regard to adoption, I found the following teaching, which I commend to you and highly recommend you review, very effective in helping me understand the similarities between God’s adoption of us, through the life, death, and resuurection of our Lord Jesus Christ and our adoption of children.

Being a systematic thinker, I am drawn to "lists"; Brother John Piper centers his exegesis around the following foundation and then 8 points (with some highlights from each point):

The Foundation of Adoption

The deepest and strongest foundation of adoption is located not in the act of humans adopting humans, but in God adopting humans. And this act is not part of his ordinary providence in the world; it is at the heart of the gospel. Galatians 4:4-5 is as central a gospel statement as there is: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” God did not have to use the concept of adoption to explain how he saved us, or even how we become part of his family. He could have stayed with the language of new birth so that all his children were described as children by nature only (John 1:12-13, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”). But he chose to speak of us as adopted as well as being children by new birth. This is the most essential foundation of the practice of adoption.

1. Adoption was (for God) and is (for us) costly.

"To redeem means to obtain or to set free by paying a price. What was the price that God paid for our liberation and adoption? In the previous chapter, we heard the answer: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (Galatians 3:13). It cost God the price of his Son’s life.

There are huge costs in adopting children. Some are financial; some are emotional. There are costs in time and stress for the rest of your life. You never stop being a parent till you die. And the stresses of caring about adult children can be as great, or greater, than the stresses of caring for young children. There is something very deep and right about the embrace of this cost for the life of a child! "

2. Adoption did (for God) and does (for us) involve the legal status of the child.

"...the status of being a son legally preceded the experience of the Spirit coming to give us the affections of sons. We are legally sons before we experience the joy of sonship. The object work of our salvation (two thousand years ago at Calvary) precedes and grounds the subjective experience of our salvation by the Spirit today.

So it is with our adopting children today: The legal transactions precede and under gird the growth of family feelings. If the legal red tape seems long and hard, keep in mind that this tape is not yet red with your blood, but Jesus satisfied all the legal demands precisely by shedding his blood."

3. Adoption was blessed and is blessed with God’s pouring out a Spirit of sonship.

"God does not leave us in the condition of aliens when he adopts us. He does not leave us with no feelings of acceptance and love. Rather, he pours his Spirit into our hearts to give us the experience of being embraced in the family."

4. Adoption was (for God) and is (for us) marked by moral transformation through the Spirit.

"God does not leave his children without help to bear the moral image of the family. We may trust that his help will be there for our children as we bring them under the means of grace that God uses to awaken and transform his children. "

5. Adoption brought us, and brings our children, the rights of being heirs of the Father.

"in Romans 8:17, the context is that we, with Christ, are heirs of all that God has, namely, everything. “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:21).

Just before we left for England on sabbatical, Noël and I went to a lawyer and updated our wills. All the boys are married, and Talitha is the only legal “dependent.” A lot had changed since the last time we made wills. This was a reminder to us that she will inherit like the sons. She is not in a lesser adoptive class. All inherit together. That is the way God did it. That is the way we do it. "

6. Adoption was (for God) and is (for us) seriously planned.

"Adoption in God’s mind was not Plan B. He predestined us for adoption before the creation of the world. Plan A was not lots of children who never sin and never need to be redeemed. Plan A was creation, fall, redemption, adoption so that the full range of God’s glory and mercy and grace could be known by his adopted children. Adoption was not second best. It was planned from the beginning.

In our lives, there is something uniquely precious about having children by birth. That is a good plan. There is also something different, but also uniquely precious, about adopting children. Each has its own uniqueness. Your choice to adopt children may be sequentially second. But does not have to be secondary. It can be as precious and significant as having children by birth. God is able to make adoption and A+ plan in our lives. "

7. Adoption was (for God) and often is now (for us) from very bad situations.

"God did not find us like an abandoned foundling bundled on the front step and irresistibly cute. He found us ugly and evil and rebellious. We were not attractive. We would not be easy children to deal with. And, what’s worse, God himself was angry with us. He hates sin and rebellion. We were then doubly 'children of wrath'.

These are the ones God pursued in adoption. Therefore, all of God’s adoptions crossed a greater moral and cultural divide than any of our adoptions could. The distance between what we are, and what God is, is infinitely greater than any distance between us and a child we might adopt. God crossed the greatest cultural barrier to redeem and adopt us. "


8. Adoption meant (for all Christians) and means (for Christian parents) that we suffer now and experience glory later.

"There is much groaning in the path of adoption on the way to full salvation. But the outcome is glorious. It is worth it all. “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

This is especially relevant for parents of children with disabilities. They know the “groaning” of this life. All of us have children with some sort of disability, and some of us will live to get very old and watch our children age and die before we do. Others will see their children struck down in war or by accident or disease. Others will care for a disabled child till one of them dies. All of this groaning is groaning in hope because we are adopted by God and destined for a resurrection and an eternal future of health and wholeness and joy. It will be worth it all. "


Click here to read/listen to the full teaching