Your Adoption is Signed and Sealed in Grace

Are you familiar with the curious case of Natalia Grace?

My wife and I recently finished watching the docuseries about her life – how she was born in Ukraine with a rare form of dwarfism, and subsequently surrendered by her mother for adoption. After spending the first few years of her life in a Ukrainian orphanage, Natalia was adopted by an American family. Sadly, they would give her up for adoption, too.

Finally, a family from Indiana, the Barnetts, adopted Natalia. But the relationship she had with Kristine and Michael Barnett – her foster parents – was anything but ideal: their relationship was abusive, manipulative, and dangerous.

Why? Depends on whom you ask.

Kristine and Michael Barnett depicted Natalia as a sociopathic con-artist who tried to harm them; Natalia, on the other hand, would tell you the actual crimes committed were by Kristine and Michael Barnett; they, according to Natalia, neglected her, abused her, abandoned her, and disowned her.

So, who’s telling the truth?

I feel like the creators of this docuseries cared a bit more about the drama of Natalia’s story than the actual truth; you’ll quickly notice that everyone’s credibility – including Natalia’s – is constantly questioned and qualified. Right when a particular side of the story sounds more plausible, the docuseries presents you with reason to discredit it. It’s as if the producers want you to be left constantly without any narrative clarity – starving for closure that will ultimately never come. You’re left feeling like Natalia’s belonging to a family that loves and cares for her is an ending to the story that is always out of reach – where adoption into that kind of family is too good to be true.

Our adoption can sound too good to be true, too – can’t it? Yes, I am talking about you – because you were adopted – adopted into the family of God. And when you and I would ask “Why?” of our adoptions, our God takes us to the waters of Christ’s baptism – and the waters of our baptism, too.

Why Would Jesus Ask to be Baptized?

We’re at the shore of the Jordan River – roughly 20 miles East of the city of Jerusalem. And yet, Mark tells us that distance didn’t stop the masses from Jerusalem and the entire Judean countryside from going to hear the message preached by the prophet named John.

John dressed the way the prophet Elijah did – as John was the second Elijah foretold to be the forerunner to the Messiah. John was the one Isaiah depicted as the one calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord.” John’s ministry is compared to that of an architect commissioned by a King to make a massive highway ready for him.

But the highway that John was called to make was not one of physical construction: the highway John was called to prepare was a spiritual highway – a highway not from a King to a city, but a highway from a King to human hearts. John’s job was to ready hearts to receive Jesus, the King of kings.

Now was the time that Jesus would dynamically appear as the Savior of the world to the world.

Now, at the banks of the Jordan River, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit would visibly endorse Jesus’ divinity and delineate him as God’s Anointed One.

Now was the time that he would set aside his identity as the “son of Joseph” and publicly receive praise as the Son of God.

Now was the time for Jesus to leave his days of carpentry behind, and publicly begin his three-year marathon to Mount Calvary.

But in order to fulfill all righteousness, Jesus would be baptized: for Jesus, the road to the cross ran right through the Jordan River.

Which leads us to ask the million-dollar question: why would Jesus ask to be baptized?

It wasn’t because this type of washing was prescribed in Jewish ceremonial law; sure, there were regular washings with water for ritual purification – but this was different. This was new.

In fact, the newness of this washing prompted religious leaders to ask John if he was the Messiah. Because the washing God had commanded John to administer wasn’t merely some symbolic ordinance for people to follow. God is at work in the waters of baptism. The promise of your adoption into God’s family is intimately tied to the waters of your baptism.

Baptism was – and is – a washing of rebirth and renewal – a washing of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The baptism John preached both conveyed and relayed the forgiveness of sins to those baptized.

The Real “Why” Behind Baptism

“Hang on a second, Pastor. Aren’t the waters of baptism simply symbolic of us being buried with Christ?”

To answer that, let’s look again at the words we heard from Romans 6. Notice how Paul intimately ties our baptism to the redemptive work of Christ. Will we, in reality, be united with Christ in a resurrection from the dead like his? Absolutely! But if that’s true – that we, in reality, will be raised from the dead as Jesus was – how can we say baptism only figuratively unites us with Christ in his death?

The waters of baptism aren’t something divorced or emancipated from the person and works of Jesus; no, Christ himself has connected these waters to his person in a very real way.

The life, death, and resurrection of Christ aren’t merely visibly presented in baptism: no, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are both personally presented and given to the recipient of baptism. This is why the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 3, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

“I hear you, pastor; but how can physical means, like water, convey spiritual blessings?”

Let’s think about that again for a minute.

Do we not hinge our hopes upon a flesh and blood Savior who is true God and true man? A Savior who physically died for you? Whose physical blood was shed for the spiritual remission of all of our sins?

All throughout Scripture God uses physical, material means to accomplish his saving work - and baptism is no different. After all, it isn’t the water that has the power to give what baptism promises: it’s God’s gospel word of promise connected to the water that gives baptism its power. Consider how the Apostle Peter echoes John the Baptist in Acts 2, when he says to a diverse crowd of thousands, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is for you and your children…”

Every time ‘baptism’ appears in Scripture, it’s always within a saving context - that through baptism, God works and strengthens saving faith. Through baptism, God gives the forgiveness of sins, newness of life, and salvation. Because baptism isn't just plain water: it is water connected to and applied with the Word of God.

Baptism isn’t your laying claim on God, as it is his laying claim on you! Baptism is the explicit proof that God has adopted you into his family. In baptism, he has adopted you to be his.

Why Would God Adopt Someone Like Me?

But maybe your hang-ups aren’t over the ‘how’ of baptism; maybe you’re hung up on the ‘why’:

Why would God both sign and seal himself over to me?

Why would God adopt someone like us ?

We’re self-righteous and proud. We’re selfish and unsympathetic. We’re users and abusers. We’re liars and cheaters. We’re hateful and hurtful. We’re not even worthy to stoop down and untie the straps Jesus’ sandals.

Why would God want to adopt me into his family?

It's when you and I would ask “Why?” of our adoptions that our God takes us to the waters of Christ’s baptism.

Think about it: why would Jesus need to be baptized? Why would the sinless Son of God need a washing of rebirth and renewal? Why would the blameless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world need to be baptized for repentance and the forgiveness of sins? Here we see your Savior standing in for you.

Here we find our God numbering himself with the transgressors.

He’s not being baptized for his own sake – but for yours.

It was fitting for Jesus to be baptized as us for us to fulfill all righteousness.

That word – righteous – refers to absolute, complete, total perfection and holiness. And if we had any hope of standing confidently before God, that righteousness is something we didn’t have and couldn’t give – but we desperately needed it.

We needed a Savior who would actively keep the entirety of God’s Word perfectly for us. We needed a Savior who would passively endure the divine justice of God and die in our place.

There at the Jordan River, we find the sinless Son of God emerging from the ranks of sinners to live and die for sinners like us. In Christ, all righteousness has been fulfilled.

Jesus actively kept his word to the letter – and not one stroke of the pen fell through his fingers. Jesus has passively suffered and died – clothed with our rags of sin and regret – so that we would be clothed with the robes of his righteousness. Your baptism is assurance Christ’s wardrobe is yours. Your baptism is God’s promise to you that you, in Christ, are completely and totally forgiven – that you have been washed – head to toe – by the cleansing tide of his grace – that you belong to him!

Some adoption stories of this world might resemble the story of Natalia Grace; but your adoption into God’s family is a completely different story.

No cliffhangers.

No lack of closure.

Your baptism is God’s pledge of undying devotion and fidelity to you! At the Baptism of Jesus, your Triune God visibly manifests his love and his presence and his power to save. God the Father puts his stamp of approval on God the Son.

And in Christ, those words of approval are spoken over you, too – as Christ is our righteousness.

At your baptism, the heavens were opened as well, and God sees you and says, “You are my daughter. You are my son. With you I am well pleased.” In Christ, your adoption into God’s family is signed and sealed.

Believe it.