Weekly Devotional: April 15, 2026
GOD’S WORD
Ephesians 1:3-5
DEVOTIONAL BY
This eight-week series will be excerpts from the late Lt. Colonel Allen Satterlee's book “Heavenly Places Revealed"
“ADOPTED”
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in the Heavenly realms with every spiritual
blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the
world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us
for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with
His pleasure and will.“
Adopted
There are few subjects dearer to my heart than adoption. Before I was born, my mother surrendered a child for adoption, who, after more than seventy years, I only recently met. Later, my brothers and I were adopted by our then stepfather when my mother remarried. And still later, my wife and I adopted four children. And finally, because of some family situations, a generation later, we adopted five of our grandchildren. As significant as these are, they are but a shadow of what our adoption is as children of God.
After his brief introduction, Paul immediately launched into praise for what God through Christ has done for believers.
God Has Blessed Us
Not with random blessings here and there, but with every blessing. The Church Father Jerome remarked on this passage, "Spiritual blessings are in the heavens because earth is too small to circumscribe a spiritual blessing." It is not only the immensity of our blessing in Christ that is so notable, but also the certainty that the continuance of our blessing would wear out every clock that ever kept time. Our blessings can only be calculated by eternity. The blessing of our salvation is meant to carry us through, past the last beating of our hearts and the final breath in our lungs.
It is a mistake to think that these blessings are all material or that they will result in a change of status in this life. By receiving Christ, no poor man suddenly moved into a mansion nor did a slave suddenly find she was granted her freedom. It is just as much a mistake to think that people now living for the Lord have punched their tickets for an easy ride the rest of their lives through. We are not necessarily blessed with the paltry stuff of this life but rather with what cannot perish or waste away.
A Destiny for Us
Each person has a destiny that God intends for him or her. Those of the Calvinist camp see this as God foreordaining who will be saved and who will be lost; that His grace, while expansive enough for the whole world, is only meant for a select few. But the Bible indicates over and over that the salvation of God, and what that means in how we develop and grow, is freely accessed because the bloodied hands of Christ reach out to the whosoever. True, not everyone receives it and so they deny themselves their God-given destiny. But it is there, nonetheless.
When Paul said, "He chose us," he was not necessarily saying God chose us as individuals to be saved or lost, but He chose us as a race. As much as we might love our dog or cat, animals have not been chosen for an eternal destiny nor to develop a spiritual life of communion with and service to God. As much as God might enjoy the praises of the angels, Christ did not die to save the angels that fell. God, through Christ, brought the possibility of salvation solely for the human race. With our gift of free will, we kneel before Him, seeking Him and His forgiveness in that grand act of salvation that grants us access into His life and plan.
God Adopts Us
Harold W. Hoehner helps us understand how this concept would have been understood by the first-century Christians:
"In the Roman law the procedure of adoption had two steps. In the first step, the son had to be released from the control of the natural father.
This was done by a procedure whereby the father sold him as a slave three times to the adopter. The adopter would release him two times and he would automatically again come under his father's control. With the third sale, the adoptee was freed from his natural father. Regarding the second step, since the natural father no longer had any authority over him, the adopter became the new father with absolute control over him, and he retained this control until the adoptee dies or the adopter frees him. The son was not responsible to his natural father but only to his newly acquired father. The purpose of the adoption was so that the adoptee could take the position of a natural son in order to continue the family line and maintain property ownership. This son became patria potestas in the next generation.
The Church Father Chrysostom summarized the difference by saying it was like taking a poor, old, ill-clad, and famished leper and turning him into a rich, healthy, well-attired, and satisfied youth.
The Old Song Says
"I once was an outcast stranger on earth, a sinner by choice, and an alien by birth, but I've been adopted, my name's written down, an heir to a mansion, a robe, and a crown.
I'm the child of a king:
I'm the child of a king;
With Jesus, my Savior,
I'm the child of a king!"
-Harriett Eugenia Peck Buell
The Song Book of The Salvation Army
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1) What is God's chosen destiny for you? How might things change if you fail to live for Him? How might they turn out if you stay within His will?
2) Imagine the worst person you know and then imagine that person serving Christ. What does that say about what God intends for each individual?
3) How does the picture of adoption define your relationship with God?