I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Senior Pastor David Rose unpacks the New Testament meaning of spiritual adoption. He shares how God offers more than just forgiveness, He offers a permanent place in His family that can never be revoked. Christianity isn’t about what we do, but about what Christ has done. Listen in to learn how the baby in the manger makes it possible for slaves to become sons and for outsiders to become insiders in God’s forever family.
Key Takeaways
- God sent Jesus to provide the gift of salvation.
- God sent Jesus to make outsiders insiders.
- God sent Jesus to transform slaves into sons.
- God gives us help through His Son’s mission. We live with hope.
- God sent us a hero for our liberation. We live with joy.
- God has given His people a home through adoption. We live in love.
Further Study
- In Luke 2:10-11, the angel announces “good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” Consider how this truth challenges any tendency to view ourselves as “outsiders” in God’s family.
- In Galatians 4:7, Paul declares “you are no longer a slave, but a son.” Are there areas of your life that still reflect a “slave mentality” instead of walking in the confidence of your sonship in Christ?
- Pastor David reminded us that salvation is a gift to be received, not earned. How does this truth reshape your daily walk with Christ?
The Gospel
If you have questions about what it means to be a Christian, we would love to talk with you about it.
Reach outThe Gospel begins with our real condition—we are all slaves to sin and outsiders to God’s family. Without Christ, we are spiritually dead, under the wrath of God. This isn’t just about bad behavior; it’s a condition of spiritual death that requires divine intervention.
But “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). At the perfect time, God sent Jesus. As Galatians 4 explains, Jesus was “born of a woman, born under the law”—fully God yet fully human. Why? So He could accomplish what we never could: live the perfect life we should have lived and die the death we deserved. As Pastor David explained, Jesus became flesh so He could stand in our place as a human, and as God, He could take the place only He could fulfill.
The good news is that salvation isn’t something we earn—it’s a gift we receive. “Religion says you do. Christianity says Jesus did,” as Pastor David put it. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, He paid our sin debt in full and purchased our redemption.
When we receive this gift through faith—acknowledging our sin and believing in Jesus’ death and resurrection—God does something extraordinary. He doesn’t just forgive us; He adopts us. We’re transformed from slaves to sons, from outsiders to insiders, and from death to life. This adoption is permanent and complete, giving us “a past that’s been forgiven, a present that has purpose, and a future that is secure.”
Today, you can pray, “Jesus, I need You to bring me from death to life. I need You to take me out of my shame and clothe me with Your righteousness. I need Your gift.” This could be your moment to move from spiritual death to life in Christ, from being a slave to sin to being a son of God, and from being an outsider to becoming a beloved member of God’s family.
The Gospel isn’t just good advice—it’s good news. Jesus did what we could never do so that we could become what we could never be—children of God, adopted into His forever family.