Unfathomable Riches in Christ - Adoption of sons

A question Stan asked, and I wanted to address it, make sure we covered it, because Psalms and these things, I'm trying to hold it down to less than two pages or two pages max. Psalms, I still don't get to everything. So to address the question, Stan was asking a very good question. We talk in this handout about Roman Empire, and then we talk about a province. So we're going to run into that.

And the difference is it would be somewhat comparable to our, we have the United States, right? And we have a capital of the United States, which is Washington D.C. and then we have states within and that would be comparable to the provinces in Rome and they would have a governor, prefect, etc. different titles. But in our case, we call the ones who are heads of each of those states of the United States governor. Rome had a less uniform system of titles than we do, but a similar idea. In other words, the states are a subset or a portion of the United States. The Roman Empire would have areas within it that were smaller areas, and we have, for example, the letter of Galatians to the Galatians. to the churches that were in that particular sub-region of the Roman Empire.

It's one we're going to run into if we get that far in our study here. Last Sunday we addressed an aspect of our unfathomable riches. We called it related to God through propitiation. Propitiation, we said, was the satisfaction of God's character by Christ's death on the cross. Because God's character was satisfied by Christ's death on the cross, we are related to God through that propitiation. What did we say propitiation was? The satisfaction of God's character. Propitiation is a word we just, I would say, almost never use in our culture and practice and use of words. How many of you have heard that used outside of some church or Bible thing?

Probably not, right? And if you said to somebody, if you said to somebody, what would they think it is? Pardon? They wouldn't have a clue. Yeah, most people would not have a clue. They'd try to fit in with pitch. Does it have to do with softball? Is it sticky? They'd have some other association they might make, but probably not land on, here's the meaning that's intended.

So it's the satisfaction of God's character. That's the idea. And what did we say is his character? that is satisfied by Christ's death on the cross. His righteousness and holiness and justice. So those were satisfied by Christ's death on the cross. So that's what we mean by the word propitiation. The ways in which the New Testament epistles, that's the letters, say that we are related to God through Propitiation, the satisfaction of God's character by Christ's death on the cross, will be taught according to this schedule. So last Sunday, we had Relay to God through Propitiation.

And we're going to have, for the rest of May, these three topics. One is Adoption of Sons. The next one is Children of God, Sons of God. And the one following that is Brethren. So we'll take a look at those. We'll start with those three today with Adoption of Sons. So the passages on adoption of sons, and we have three words that we use for that, adoption of sons.

In the original language, it was just one. So, Guthesia, if you want to memorize that, fine. If you don't, then that's okay, too. Relevant to the Church, the Body of Christ, the passages are, so there's Romans 8.15, and then just a few verses down in the same chapter, Romans 8.23, and then Galatians 4.1-7, and Ephesians 1.5. So let's walk through each of those. I've done some bolding in italics.

So, Romans 8.15, for you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, by which we cry out, Abba, Father. And so are we done seeing Abba, Father in this study? No, because we're going to see it down, as I would say, compared to the Galatians 4, 5, and 6. The Abba Father shows up again. Isn't it interesting? He's right in the church of Rome, quite a distance away, and the churches of Galatia, where he has been, and he actually goes there several more times, but he is that same Abba Father with both of them.

The next one is Romans 8.23, so it's just down some verses. in the same chapter. And not only this, but we ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption, that's a word we looked at previously, the redemption of our body.

So we compare that to Romans 3.24, which was in an earlier chapter. Now, here's Galatians 4, 1 through 7. So Galatians, remember we said that was one of the provinces, right? And it had actually a couple of Roman colonies, as we'll mention, within it.

So he writes to them, now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from the slave, although he is owner of everything. But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem." Remember we talked about some of these slave words? So this one is to OK, so let's kind of break this down. What's an agora in the New Testament terminology? Marketplace. So there's the marketplace. So any medium to smaller size, larger size, rather, city would have a marketplace. That would be the agora.

And so this x, what do you think of when you think of x? Exit. Think of exit, like out of. So, what this means is to buy out of the marketplace those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. Here's that word again. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of the Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So here it is the second time. Therefore you are no longer a slave. That's why you've been bought out of the market. But a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Of course, we're going to talk more about sons of God and what that term means here. But notice in verse 6, all three persons of the Trinity are in verse 6. See that? You are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of the Son into our hearts, crying, Abba Father.

So, you have that, and then Ephesians 1.5 is the last one of those verses. He, the Father, predestined us to adoption of sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His, that is, the Father's will. Alright, so those are the passages that use that Word, actually, and we have it in English as free. Yeah, Tim? The word is basically used five times in the New Testament.

The other place that it's used is Romans 9.4.

It talks about adoption. Yes, and why didn't I include this? Because it didn't have adoption in the senate. Actually, it's because it talks about Israel. Well, yes it is. Yeah, it talks about Israel. But you're correct. It does show up one more time, and I didn't quote it because it specifically applies to the nation of Israel. Right. Right? It's just saying that theirs is the adoption, and it is. That's very observant of you.

I didn't include it just because it applies to Israel and not to the church, but you're correct. There it is right there in the next chapter in Romans. So why did Paul include it in these letters? Is there a reason why he didn't include it in others?

Maybe the Roman background of the people. Okay, so what we see here is there is a Roman connection with every single one of them, and especially the letter to the king of Rome, which is where? That's the empire capital. Empire's capital. So when he wrote to them, does the empire's capital have a Roman connection? Yes, it's the capital, right?

Now the other two, here's Galatia, we said it was a province, right? Two of the cities in Galatia were Roman colonies. And so what does it mean to have a Roman colony? We've run into that in the Book of Acts, and we're not done. So what does it mean to have a Roman colony? Yes? Would that mean that it was a city where maybe a battalion of Roman soldiers lived or something? Yeah.

So for one thing, they would establish these Roman colonies. You would have a significant core of Roman soldiers or retired Roman soldiers who were there. And while it could happen other ways, Roman soldiers would often get their citizenship upon retirement, which is typically age 35 unless they wanted to stay in. So they would get their Roman citizenship. So there was a strong Roman connection, lots of Roman soldiers there, Roman soldiers moving in and out of the place along the Roman roads built by the Roman Soldiers, right? So you'd have all those connections there. And so then you have one more.

Ephesus was the capital of the Roman province. So here's to Stan's question. Ephesus was the capital of the Roman province. And what's the province named? Anybody remember? Which one? What's the name of the province that Ephesus was the capital of? Galatia? Galatia is farther to the east, so Ephesus, however, is the capital of Asia, they call it. So Ephesus was, because remember the letters or messages actually to the seven churches? in Revelation were the seven churches of Asia. Ephesus was the capital and the letter went to seven churches and what was the name of the first church? Ephesus. So it started with the capital and moved through the province of Asia.

So you had those three were the only letters that really used this adoption. And why? Because with a strong Roman connection, he would be able to take advantage of their understanding of adoption under Roman law, which had been established, we'll talk about that next year, established by five emperors in a row, being emperored by the adoption of sons process.

Yes. So, does all this kind of fit in with that statement, fullness of time? Because I've never really understood what that means, fullness of time. That's an excellent question. Any other part of the question? No, I just don't understand. So, in the fullness of time, God sends his son. By the way, that's in the message to the churches of Galatia. So how come the time was full, to answer Stan's question, how come the time was full when Christ came, when God sent his Son?

Everything was in place. Everything was in place. So let's talk about what was in place. For one thing, in terms of commonality for a large area, You had one overriding government, right? And that was Rome. And Rome had a system of roads that interconnected. By the end of the Roman Empire, they had built enough Roman roads, mostly the soldiers doing the work, they built enough Roman roads to go two times around the earth to put them end to end. About 50,000 miles of Roman roads all built by hand. And lasting so well that many of them are still drivable today. In other cases, the engineers looked at the Roman road in our modern era and said, well it happens, all I have to do is pave it. Because it's still good after almost 2,000 years.

So you have this connection, so that you had five emperors who became emperors during the New Testament era by this adoption of sons process. So here is Augustus. became a son through this newly engineered adoption of sons process, and then he adopted Tiberius, who was by the way not his direct son, but he adopted him. Then you had Caligula, Augustus and Tiberius you find mentioned in scripture. Caligula is like, hmm, so not so much. And then Claudius, who we're going to see in today's Acts passage, shows up there. And then finally Nero. That was the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, as it's sometimes called.

But they all became emperors through this adoption of sons process, so that by the time Paul wrote this, everybody had had lots of experience getting used to what does he mean by adoption of sons. Now it turns out that Nancy and I have four grandchildren that are adopted, I'll use that term, although the youngest three of those not officially adopted yet. But anyway, so we have four grandsons by the adoption of sons, not this one. What was different here was different by Roman law, and so we'll want to take a look at that. So the adoption of sons was done to provide an heir for the throne of the Empire. And a chosen heir.

I want to pick this one. Yes. So, was this process ever in any of the other previous cultures and nations like Egypt, and Persia, and Babylonia? Or is this something brand new? Okay, you asked a very good question. And that is, there were things somewhat like it earlier in other cultures.

Even we, we say adoption, and people will say, well, what on earth do you mean, Vern? We have some kind of adoption in place. It's not exactly the same as what they had. So yes, there was adoption. And it had various characteristics. There were even other kinds of adoption in the Roman Empire than this particular one. But Paul could write this, and they would understand among them what he meant. So this was to provide an heir to the throne of the empire. The adoption of the new heir to the throne was approved by the Roman Senate. The Roman Senate had to approve this adoption.

Yes? So this wasn't something the common family like Roy and I would do. This was limited to the ruling class? Yes. So this had to be approved at the highest levels. The average person would have no hope of even carrying this out. But you ask a very good question, because adoption is carried out in our culture real commonly. But it doesn't mean the same thing. It's much more throughout the various strata of society. This was at the highest levels, at the very highest levels. It was approved by the Roman Senate.

The adoption was publicly conducted in front of seven official witnesses, which you might have a large crowd attending. So we think of an adoption as something along the lines of paperwork you have to go through, right? Here, you would have an adoption typically in front of a very large number of people. It would be approved by the Roman Senate. You'd have seven official witnesses all witnessing in front of, frequently, a very large crowd of people. So this was a really, really, really big event. Adoption of sons had this set of outcomes in the Roman Empire. Here's one.

The adopted son lost all his rights in his old family, whatever that was, and gained more rights than a fully legitimate son in his new family. Fortunately, we don't have laws like they had in Rome. In the Roman Empire, it was legal for a father to kill or have killed or abandon any of his children. And he could leave orders with his wife to carry out that in his absence.

To us, that's pretty mind-boggling. It would be illegal, most certainly in our culture, but not in the Roman Empire. A man could say, for example, to his wife, it looks like you probably have the baby today. If it's a girl, kill it. He could say that. We have one record I can think of where a man slaughtered his son in front of his son's friends and nobody said a thing.

It was completely legal. It was also fairly common to just leave a child out in the bushes somewhere just outside the town and if the baby died It's okay. If somebody picked up the baby and decided to keep it, then that was okay too. And then you could also sell off children. So anyway, things that to us would just be shattering and causes to shudder were commonplace in those days.

An adopted son, however, you could not kill or abandon. There was no undoing of the process and nobody else was allowed to interfere with that, even at some later point in time. A natural born son, even born after the adoption of the son, could not displace the adopted son. The adopted son had a higher standing and status than a natural born son could have later. Yeah? We see commonly people adopt multiple children. Yes. Did they ever adopt more than one son? I don't know that I can answer that fully. Let's put it this way.

The emperors only adopted one son. The intent was to appoint an heir. That was the idea. So having multiple heirs would create confusion. So whether that actually ever happened, I don't know. But just looking at the intent, the intent being to appoint an heir, adoption of one would be what you would do. So then there was this next part.

So the protections of an adopted son were vastly superior to that of a natural born son. Yes. I hear that's true today in Maryland, that the adopted son is, you can't disinherit him if you adopt a child. And that may be. I haven't checked that out. Our pastor, Anne Montrose, adopted a son, even though he's Even though he's wayward and... He could not disinherit him? He could not disinherit him, you're saying?

Huh, very interesting. I didn't know that. As far as disinherit, you don't think about, in this country today, you don't have to leave any of your children, any of them. Yes, yeah. And so I don't know, probably, you know, it would be a In circumstance, I don't know what all the legals in and outs were, but at least in the Roman Empire, here's the circumstance that we have. OK, so he became an heir of his new father's estate even if the other sons were, even if other sons or another son was born afterwards.

The adopted son had primacy over all others. And that was one of the reasons, I think, for the Apostle Paul picking that term in that picture as he wrote into these letters to people who would understand that this is a relationship that's not to be set aside. It's not second class, and it's not commonplace. The next one, the old life and the adopted son was completely wiped out so that the adopted son was regarded as a new person entering into a new life.

Any prior family connections, past criminal history and or debts were eliminated entirely. So what if this adopted son had committed several crimes? Did that matter? They were all gone. The debts, however enormous, were just wiped out. Whatever number and whatever size, all the debts were wiped out. Any criminal history, all gone.

Yes. So that's, when you really think about it, that's similar to the ability of the President to pardon criminals. Yes, yes. The President can pardon. Now, what's interesting is the President can pardon How is this possibly even better than a presidential pardon? Well, they become part of the family or an heir. Yeah, in other words, the presidential pardon gets rid of the penalty, it doesn't necessarily erase the history, and it isn't with the idea that I'm going to take on this position of being an heir.

So while your example is a good one, this is even better. I mean this is just amazing. So any criminal history, any indebtedness, doesn't matter how many or how serious, or whether you got both of them, it is all completely wiped out as if it never even happened. Yes? So this was for, these men were adults, this was not an infant? So this is an excellent point. Whereas adoption, we can actually, in our culture, adopt at any age. We would often think of adoption as adopting a child, maybe even a baby, right? This was adoption of an adult.

As a matter of fact, just up in the page there, we have Augustus. Augustus was the sole choice of Julius, Caesar. And then Augustus actually had another first choice. But before he died, his first choice died. So that's why Tiberius came in as his second choice. Tiberius came in as his second choice.

So here it's as adults. So it's a different situation than we sometimes have, at least, where we're adopting babies or adopting a young person frequently. And so this looks at adopting an adult to be an heir. Yes? And you're saying the adopted son inherits the whole estate, or just half of it? So the firstborn child doesn't inherit anything. OK, so what was typical during biblical times is the firstborn child gets half the inheritance and the others split it up, right? Or a double portion is maybe a better way to put it. They get a double portion. This was set up for selecting an emperor. That's how it was set up and so this is Mary. This heir gets everything. This heir gets everything. Yes?

This is so interesting because adoption was a business transaction more than anything. It didn't have anything to do with relationship. We look at adoption as I want to have a child to love and to raise and as Christians to raise up in the love of the Lord, and had nothing to do with that. Yeah, so one of the things to look at here, because we're going to look at other ways in which we are related to God through propitiation, through Christ having paid the price that satisfied God's character entirely. So we are related, and adoption of sons is only one of the expressions of the ways in which we're related.

And what you see is a lot of this is very political and economic at a large scale, but the other expressions of it are not. And so we're going to see more what that means. And why would this get included? This is an outstanding illustration, but it's not the only relationship that it talks about. So you bring up a good point. It has a character that is sociopolitical. and civil, but in terms of being dear, that's a different thing.

Yes? When you really think about it, it's not a very good process because if the person who is in charge, like Nero for example, if he would have adopted a son, you can imagine what that son would have been like because Nero himself was a deranged individual, and a lot of the people in the Senate were probably, from what I read, very deranged as well. Several of these guys were just crazy. Several of them were. So in terms of an illustration, it illustrates some things. It's not perfect, and it certainly isn't looking at, you know, these guys were all of good character.

It got pretty bad. We hear bad things about Nero, but he wasn't the only lunatic. We're going to hear about Claudius here, just in the next service. He got into office and he was anti-Semitic. He got increasingly anti-Semitic. One of the first things he did, first year, he said the Jews can't go to the synagogues. And then he booted him out some years later, booted him out of Rome. So anyway, yeah, several of these guys were nuts. And they did things, not just Nero, but the others did things that were just kind of crazy.

So it's not that these guys are some sort of a character example, but Paul chose it as an example they would understand in terms of the great honor and privilege that we have, not as a reflection of character. And our security. Yes, our security. So what we look at is, am I forgiven of all trespasses? Yes, right? Am I forgiven of all debts? Yes. It's all gone. All that past history is gone as if it never happened. And I put into a place of great honor Put into place a great honor. So let's take a look at something here. Got some slides. We've got enough time, which is good. Got some slides here. Here is the Ephesian passage with just a little more context than we gave.

He predestined us to adoption of sons. Which, by the way, what's interesting is this predestined us to adoption of sons. So does that mean he predestines everything that we do? That's not the same statement as that, is it? So this tends to be one of the favorite places for Calvinists to point to, but this is predestining us. We are chosen in him who believe to adoption of sons.

And then, so here's this key word there, this adoption of sons, adoption of children is what it says in the King James often. It basically means son position. Son position. So it's a very positional term, isn't it? Next, if there ever was a statement of our position in Christ, this is it. So we give the other passages. So, by Roman law, the adoption son had a position better than a natural-born son. At full heir, irreversible, the adopted son was legally severed from any prior sonship.

What prior relationship did you have before you became a believer? Yeah, Ephesians 2, 1-3, we were sons of disobedience. And slaves to what? Sin. So slaves to sin, sons of disobedience, now were bought out of that slave market completely and made sons by the adoption of son process, which in the Roman Empire was approved at the highest levels. Is your being made a son, an adopted son, spiritually speaking, approved at the highest levels? Yep. In the halls of heaven, this is where this got approved. Yes? Could the father do any adopting in their culture? Could he change his mind later and undo that? That was irreversible. He couldn't undo it.

So this is probably another reason why the Apostle Paul would say this. to these believers. We looked at one at Ephesus. In Ephesus, we've got chapter 1. You've been blessed with every spiritual blessing and chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. You've been predestined for adoption of sons.

And he doesn't give any conditions for any of it. He waits until the middle of chapter 4 to say, OK, now that we've got that taken care of, let's talk about your stealing and lying and anger problem. So yeah, he wants them to understand this is absolutely secure. Absolutely secure.

So there's no loss of salvation? No. And that's one of the things, if you look at the various things in scripture, this would be one that said, sorry, you just can't lose salvation, you can't threaten people with it. I've had people call me up Even somebody said, do you mean to tell me that someone could sin and they'd still be saved? I said, well, yeah. And that's what you find in the Bible. Paul writes to the believers in Corinth. This will be looking at Corinth. That's where Paul goes next. And lo and behold, do the believers in Corinth have problems? Do they have lots of problems? Do they have big problems? They've got lots of big problems.

Is he saying, you guys are going to lose your salvation, watch out? No. He doesn't threaten that. He waits to chapter 15, he says, so you believed and you were saved. Locked it up. And who does the locking? Do I do the locking? No. God does. So this is why the Doctrine of Sodom was a good term to use for people to understand the security of their salvation. Can you imagine somebody, because we know that there were people in these churches who were at bare survival level, and here they were chosen by God before the foundation of the world in Christ to the highest level of authority and honor in the land. Can you imagine some of them just reading about their adoption of sons and saying, wait a minute, Let me soak that up. But you bring up a very good point. This adoption of sons process has no provision for loss of salvation.

Here is Augustus Caesar, who is the emperor from 31 BC to 14, and you'll see different numbers for the first date, because they had different stages at which they called him emperor and what not, who received the adoption of sons. To be assured of having heir of the throne is how this process got started.

So Augustus Caesar was the first, adopted by Julius. Here's Tiberius Caesar, the second. He was the one who was in power at the beginning of the early life of Christ, because Augustus Caesar died and then Tiberius took over in 14. So here is, and he was Caesar until several years after Christ was crucified, buried, raised, ascended and seated. And then he went on to adopt others.

In the classic movie Ben-Hur, based on the novel by Lew Wallace, anybody read that by the way? No, it's funny, here's this famous novel and you try to find somebody who read it. Anyway, you can probably download it for free because it's been written long ago and is in the public domain.

In the classic movie, based on the novel, here's a situation where you have a Jewish guy is rowing in the bottom of this slave ship. He's a slave at the lowest level, rowing in this slave ship, and a general is on board. And so Judah Ben-Hur, the Jewish slave, rescues Roman General Quintus Aureus. And as the story is written, the ship goes down. And so the slave saves the life of this general.

And so that's what you see there pictured. Later on, what you see is the famous chariot race in this Ben-Hur movie. You may recall that. A lot of times people may recall nothing else but the chariot race. It is quite a dramatic event. So here is Judah Ben-Hur driving the chariot that wins this chariot race. It is quite a thing to look at.

So the grateful Roman general Quintus Aureus later adopted Judah ben Hur as his son. So using this adoption of son process, and because he was this Roman general, he had a high standing and could get this through. You asked the question earlier, is this something that a common person could do? No, but this guy being a Roman general could conceivably do that.

So Judah Ben-Hur went from being a slave locked in chains and darkness to having unrivaled wealth, power and influence. So here they show all these legions of Rome and this big formation and this great big bunch of people there for the adoption of sons process. And so there would have been, of course this is a novel, so this didn't actually occur, but there would have been a great and substantial, in this case mostly soldiers, many of them soldiers, there to see this and to be guests to this, and then the adoption process in front of seven witnesses.

And then we say what we have there. So here would be the old life, the adopted son was completely wiped out. So here is a debt note. Here's a debt note on the left that they would scratch out. Because why? Because the debt is paid, or in this case, canceled. Your debts are canceled, so it's wiped out. And criminal record, gone.

So this would be the position of the adopted son. Next, the adopted son was literally and absolutely the son of his new father. So in this novel, then, Judah Ben-Hur would be the son of Quintus Arius and be his heir, and not to be displaced and not to be reversed. That's kind of a good example of predestined too. I mean, to overcome all those circumstances and become the son.

Yeah, so let's take a comparison. So here is General Quintessarius, right? Who is out there on his raft and he's thinking, I owe my life to this guy, right? So he's probably along the way thinking, hey, I think I'll adopt him. as my son. Maybe he needed an heir or something as well.

So this would be a way of settling the issue and it would be of course approved at the highest levels and done before a great crowd there and the head of the Roman soldiers and the empire and all that. Yes. But then again, that would be on worse when you think about it, whereas otherwise, inscriptionally. Yeah, so I think as you look at this, are there points of the illustration that fall apart? Yes.

But there's good reason for the Apostle Paul to have chosen this. And he's not looking to condone what the emperors did or didn't do. He was not looking to condone slavery. He was simply using the constructs and structures of the era to explain to people what they had in their position in Christ.

I can imagine most of the people there would be just stunned to read that they had the adoption of sons. That would be just wow! I never knew! They would be amazed And they would very quickly understand, oh, all my past crimes and all my debts are gone. And my history is gone. But I have a new history as an adopted son. Yeah. So as you just said, the analogy falls apart almost at some place. Sure. the adopted son under the Roman law would then be the next Caesar and would reign. He'd have authority.

We actually, we don't surpass Christ. He is still God, but we get to reign with him. We reign with him and that's the last sentences of the paper. And that is, why did God do this? So that we rule and reign with him. Because in the Roman Empire, the emperors died, didn't they? Sometimes they made them die. That's not going to happen with Christ. Rather than us replacing his reign, we will rule and reign with him. alongside him, which is, again, the illustration of adoption of sons only goes so far.

And so we can see the adoption of sons is better than just simply a natural born son relationship, and we even get better, far better, than the illustration which took place. It is really marvelous how secure and safe we are in the arms of the father, Abba Father. That's one of the reasons. Both of these, I mean, two instances where we see Abba Father is connected to adoption of sons. And that is we have a relationship of intimacy, we have a relationship of security that they didn't have.

But what a neat illustration it is for us to just be able to rest and what the Lord has done, and who He has made, and it doesn't depend on what I have done or continue to do. It all depends on Him, completely. So it's a great illustration when we see the upper end of what Paul was seeking to illustrate here. And it represents forgiveness of sins and debts, and it represents security. that we have, and it represents our ruling and reigning with him, all in one word. So it is really, really neat, and something as we look at several of Paul's letters, anytime he brought this up, it was with people who would understand what it was he was saying, and they would be awestruck by the magnitude of it. Imagine.

Here's what people get all wrapped around the axle about. Believe me, in these places, there are a lot of them. People get wrapped around the axle about what was done to me, what was not done to me. What I did and what I didn't do. Those are the things that really get people wrapped around the axle. He says, I'm taking care of it.

And imagine in a place like Rome, in a place like Ephesus, some of the horrible things that went on there, including both victims and perpetrators. And he wrote to both sets and said, you have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins, the adoption of sons. We've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places unconditionally. Further thoughts, questions?

Yes? The roads were built big. You said that there was a lot of road construction. Yes. So there was a lot of people. Was the adoption of sons, was that of all the people, or just through the top? Adoption of sons, as we're talking about here, was a very special thing. The Roman soldiers were the ones, usually it's the lowest level ones, who were involved in building these roads. So I would say that the only connection there would be that there was a strong Roman connection for those who understood this adoption of sons, but not necessarily any direct connection with the road building, which was a different process, different deal altogether.

Lord, thank you for this. forgiveness of past sins, of our trespasses, forgiveness of our debts. We thank you for that, Lord. We also pray, Lord, for your helping us to understand this and what it means and what this is intended to picture, and that we would take it to heart, Lord. What an astounding thing. that we would be brought to a place of great honor and not just forgiven, not just pardoned, as amazing as that is, but at your expense made heirs with the highest honors and the highest level of authority. and that we would indeed rule and reign with you. Thank you for that, Lord. What an astounding thing. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.