Most people have heard that Jesus went to the cross to save them from their sins. This is a very confusing statement and can be insulting. Let’s expand this one liner with the meaning of salvation, and how salvation is spiritual adoption in Christ.

God shared a physical walking, talking daily life with humans, until they decided to partake in the knowledge of good and evil. The knowledge of evil brought what is called carnality. This is labeled as our sinful nature, the part of a human that knows evil, acting in destructive and harmful patterns verses loving oneself and others. Truly, all the desires that do harm is considered carnality, a state of mind that knows evil, referred to as the fall of humanity. We partook in evil desires and separated ourselves from God’s person and ways, and still do today (Genesis 2-3). 

We all have a mind that rejects the idea of a God. Our minds are focused on our own thoughts and ambitions; yet, created for fellowship with God (Romans 8:7). Love, communication, workmanship is all a part of having a relationship with our creator. We are sometimes rebellious, destructive, uncooperative, self-willed children, who God created and loved just like any parent loves their child. This was the atonement of Christ, he bridged the gap between our separation with God by loving us enough to give us His Spirit and forgiveness.

We have always had a path to choose, to be givers or takers, lairs or truth tellers, loving or hateful. We compare these extremes all the time no matter how intertwined they exist in our lives. We are people of conflict, contradiction, and duality. We often separate ourselves from the concept, or the reality of God. God, being love, does not coincide in ways that divide and destroy humanity, but will always be present and ready to coincide with our desire to be in God. 

Of course, the Christian faith doesn’t sound practical to the intelligent person. The things of God are foolishness to humanity (1 Corinthians 1: 8 & Isaiah 55:8,9). Often, it is the encounter and the knowledge of the circumstance that creates a memory. In the same way, understanding Christ is in the spirit, the mind calculates the experience so to speak. There is something inside that people feel when they know God. there is a greeting, a handshake. Romans 8:16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

Being close with God is accepting that we have tendencies to cause harm, and knowing that we cannot abstain or conquer all negativity in ourselves, nor try, we can understand the battle. If we were able to attain perfection, the Jewish law would have been sufficient, and no atonement necessary to bridge the gap between our carnality and God. Suffering is a part of life. God sent his Son Jesus, who became human, and then gave us the Holy Spirit as God’s agent on earth to help us, suffered the same embodiment as humanity.

Just as Jesus though was also God, not only a man, as we have the Holy Spirit and not only our own. God lives in us. God in us gives a new heart and mind, a heart of flesh instead of stone, a new life and outlook, a new experience. This is a re-birthing (the being washed in is blood, being cleansed) because accepting Jesus into our lives changes the way we feel,simply because we feel and know God.

The Holy Spirit leads us into understanding God’s reasoning and persona. When we have the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are living in Christ, as adopted children of God. Ephesians 2:19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household. 

1 John 3:1 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 is did not know him.

Accepting Jesus is like a written adoption paper that reads, this human being has accepted my Son and Spirit, and is my own family. This is because Jesus went to the cross taking on the consequences of  humanity’s sins. The wage of sin is death because sin brings death. When Jesus died, His life paid for the wages because took on the loan, he took on the debt, and he paid what was due.

Life was given in the blood shed to cover sin and bring forgiveness for each individual, because it was a sacrifice of love that God gave his creation for redemption. When we accept God in our lives it really does make us a little more loving and real, and willing to help. When we fellowship with the Spirit of God, we are in unity with God and not separated. Through the resurrection, being stronger than death and harm, we experience the power to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. God made a way to escape the condemnation of death by living a life surrendered in God.

The sacrifice of love Jesus made for us vouched for us as a race of spiritual creatures, as citizens, as members, and heirs in heaven willing and able to share in God’s person. Being God is god, holy and pure, spiritual adoption in Christ is believing in Jesus’s sacrifice for our sins, the great adoption from death to life, into fellowship and unison with the Holy Trinity. When we believe in Christ, there are internal attitudes and beliefs that change because we are a part of a new spirit, a new family (Ephesians 1 & Hebrews 9:12). This is adaption on Christ.

A Christian still has carnality after believing. No one magically becomes good or perfect. This is not the goal of Christianity. Everyone is self serving. This is why it is written to let both the weeds and the wheat grow together until the harvest. We do not aim for perfection as Christians, we aim to live inside of God, and go through the process of sanctification, which is the process of finding our authentic selves. By living in God’s spirit, we are being transformed by knowing and having a relationship with God.

Galatians 4:6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”

God loves each one of us equally. God reaches out every moment to connect and provide love, life, and restoration. This was God’s promise to us throughout humanity’s history, that nothing will ever separate us from the love the Creator has for creation. Our souls are protected, loved, and safe. Spiritual adoption is salvation through believing in Jesus and living in the Christian faith as a member of God’s household and kingdom.  Ephesians 3: 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and shares together in the promise in Christ Jesus.