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son, confessing your unworthiness, or like Paul, as the chief of sinners. Come to Him as
your Father-Creator if you cannot come to Him as your Father-Savior. Third, call him
Father in wish. If you cannot call Him Father with directness, do it with desire. Let us
pray ourselves into this relation, and groan after it, that we may have a clearer sense that
God is our Father in Christ, he counsels. Fourth, make use of Christ Jesus. Since
Christ`s name means so much in heaven, if you cannot come to God as your Father,
come to him as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 3:14). Let Christ bring
you into God`s presence. He is willing to change relations with us. Take him along with
you in your arms. Go to God in Christ`s name: `Whatsoever you ask in my name, shall be
given to you.`
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Finally, many believers experience the joy of knowing that they are sons and daughters
of God. That knowledge is grounded in objective truth--ultimately, in God`s election.
God`s will is the foundation in this building: Predestinated to the adoption of children,
according to the good pleasure of his will (Eph. 1:5). Election is executed via Christ`s
bloody atonement: Christ was made of a woman, made under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of children (Gal. 4:4-5). Christ purchased the adoption of His
brothers and sisters by His obedience and satisfaction. He also sends out His ministers, as
Boston says, to proclaim the offer of adoption unto them, that whosoever of them will
leave their father`s house and people [i.e., Satan and the unsaved] shall be adopted into
the family of heaven. Satan rages against this message, but unto the elect among them
God sends his Spirit, which opens their ears, awakens their conscience, and rouses them
so, that they can no longer live without a Savior.
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The Spirit then applies Christ`s
satisfying atonement in regeneration, which immediately enters the believer, by faith, into
the status of adoption: To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13).
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From the
moment of regeneration and faith, the believer is spiritually united with Christ as part of
the Son of God`s body and is thus judged by the Father to be one of His adopted children
(Eph. 1:23).
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Willard summarizes, Though we were appointed to it [adoption] from
Eternity, yet it is conferred upon us in Believing.
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