We are vindicated!

God adopted YOU & ME … we didn’t adopt Him. Romans 9:8 reveals we are the “Children of the promise.”

When Paul uses the imagery of adoption he’s talking about how the Romans practiced it. In ancient Rome (just like today) the Roman family chose the child they wanted to adopt. As part of the adoption, there was a special ceremony where the adopting father went to one of the Roman judges and presented a legal case to justify his right to adopt the child into his own household.

This ceremony was called the “vindicatio”.

William Barclay says that when this ceremony was complete, In the eyes of the law he or she was a new person. So new… “that even all debts and obligations connected with his previous family were abolished as if they had never existed.”

In other words, once a person went thru this vindicatio ceremony - every debt he ever had was erased as if it never existed. Now look at that word – “vindicatio”.

Does it look kind of like an English word you know? What about “vindicate”, or “vindication”?

One of my dictionaries defines vindicate as “to clear of accusation… to absolve… to justify”

That is what God did for us when we became Christians…he adopted us…He vindicated us.?

* He cleared us of any accusation of our guilt and shame

* And He absolved us/ forgave us all of our iniquities and failures.

* He justified us so that it was “just as if we’d never sinned”

WE WERE VINDICATED by God who chose us to be adopted as His children.

Now, that includes our future in heaven… but it also blessings on this earth right now.

I like this saying: “Faith isn’t just pie in the sky when we die, but is also steak on the plate while we wait.”

Welcome to the family of the restored! You know I love ya, Don