Over the years, I have officiated at more than a few weddings. A big part of weddings is family gathering together. It is one of the times when a large number of people related to each other will gather for a happy event, a celebration. Many times at such events I will hear someone say, “We should get together more often.”

I remember one wedding I attended over twenty years ago. Both the bride and the groom came from large families. Throughout the service and the reception, family was mentioned quite a bit. The bride was welcomed into the groom’s family and the groom was welcomed into the bride’s family. They talked about being part of the same family.

As I considered all of this, I was thinking about how a person becomes part of a family. The natural way is to be born into a family. But how do you become part of a family if you were not born into it? There are two ways: you marry into the family, or you are adopted into the family. And it hit me: the Bible uses both of those images to speak of how we become part of God’s family. We marry into it, since the church is called the bride of Christ. And we are adopted into it, God graciously choosing us to be His own.

 

Due to the problem of sin, we are not rightfully a part of God’s family. In fact, the Bible tells us that we are by nature “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). But God wanted to get us into His family where we belong, so He did everything necessary to make that happen. He promised to do it and He kept that promise.

Romans 9:8 In other words, it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.

Galatians 3:7 Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.

1 John 3:1-2 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Ephesians 1:4-5 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 to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—

The Father promised to make us His children and did it by sending His only begotten Son to be the one to pay for sin and conquer death. When we hear and believe His promise, we get the benefit of everything Jesus did. We have forgiveness. We have life now and forever. We have the certainty of God with us now and us with God forever.

What a great family. We should get together and celebrate more often.