Adopted!
Minister's Letter: July 2025
Dear Grace Church,
Though today is 5th August, this is the July edition of the Minister’s Letter, as we were away last week.
We travelled down as a family to the Keswick Convention for the first time. It was a full week on a number of fronts. First, just the sheer number of people. A number of Convention veterans commented to me that it’s probably the busiest week they’ve ever had. There were 1,800 children and youth signed up for activities during the week, alongside thousands of adults. Second, it was also full of rich teaching from God’s word and rousing singing from the myriads attending.
A particular highlight for me was Ray Ortlund’s talk from the Sunday evening (from 59 minutes here). He reminded us all of God’s endless mercy for our neverending needs. It was so good for my own soul to be reminded of our Father’s care and love and comfort to us.
In a world that is changing every day, it is this unchanging love of our Heavenly Father we need above all else. And it’s available for us all through the Son. Keep coming to him church.
This past Sunday, we explored how as a community, we are a team striving together for the faith of the gospel; we are citizens of heaven serving together; and we are partners in the gospel working together.
These are some of the different images and metaphors used in Philippians to describe our relationships to each other in the church. They help us to imagine what it will look like to serve the Lord.
But there is other language that is used in the Bible that captures the most beautiful nature of being a Christian:
We are a family.
And this is because we have been adopted through Jesus Christ, and now can call on God as our own Heavenly Father. Adoption is the greatest reality and delight of the Christian.
We are children of the living God.
In the monthly Minister’s Letters this year, we are looking at the lives of saints from the past and sitting under their teaching. The hope is that in the retrieval of the wisdom of the historic church it will aid the renewal of the contemporary church’s worship, witness, and work.
Wilhelmus A Brakel wrote The Christian’s Reasonable Service not in some cloister away in the ivory tower of academia but in the furnace of local church ministry. A Brakel lived in the Netherlands (1635-1711), and ministered during the Dutch Further Reformation. He pastored five congregations over five decades, culminating in his service in Rotterdam. The book covers the mountain range of Christian theology, where he maps out the revelation of God in his word and God’s purposes for the world. When A Brakel arrives at the adoption all believers have in the gospel, he displays not just his usual rigour in searching the scriptures but also his rapturous delight in knowing God as his own Father, through Jesus Christ. He writes about the privileges of adoption into God’s family, outlining seven blessings in particular.
(1)
“God cherishes them as his children with a fatherly love.”
This is a vigorous, vehement, unyielding and unending love. This steadfast love the Father has for his children endures forever. A Brakel explains that this is because his love has nothing to do with our own desirability, but actually originates within the Father himself. He chose to love us in spite of who we are and what we have done. We are fleeting and fickle. Our own love drifts and wanes. But God is unchanging, and so his love was set upon us before the ages and will run on forever without end.
(2)
“God has his eye on them as a Father.”
God’s interest in us is not the cold supervision of a CCTV camera, but the intimate care of a Father. He watches us to care for us. He is the God of Psalm 121 who keeps and preserves his own beloved from ultimate harm. He is not a barrier protecting us from falling down the stairs but the loving arms who scoops us up and carries us home.
(3)
“He cares for them in all that they need body and soul.”
Here A Brakel roots himself in Christ’s teaching to the disciples. Jesus said to those anxious about finances and resources to consider the ravens and lilies. They are fed and clothed and Jesus tells us we are of so much greater value than them. Christ said “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12.32). Our Father is not miserly. He does not begrudgingly give us what we need because we have said the magic word. He delights in caring for us. Therefore, we can say with David, “I will not lack” (Psalm 23.1).
(4)
“God has compassion and pity with them in all their bodily and spiritual ailments.”
A Brakel sees the theme in Scripture of God remembering his people. God remembered Noah and his promises to him in the flood (Genesis 8.1). God remembered Israel and his promises to them in their slavery (Exodus 2.23-25). God remembers his promises to us, and they all find their yes in Christ Jesus. Yet that does not mean escape from suffering. We see this in the lives of all the saints throughout Scripture. God does not remove the cross from us, but he does help us to carry it. As Samuel Rutherford wrote, “the weightiest end of the cross of Christ that is laid upon you lies upon your strong Saviour.”
(5)
“God hears and answers them as their loving Father.”
When entering the Oval Office, politicians must toe the line before the President. There’s a beautiful picture of Caroline and John Kennedy Jr dancing in the Oval Office in front of JFK Jr, who is smiling in delight. He is still their president, like all the others coming in, but he is also their Father. They could address him in a way no one else could. And so, when we have been adopted into the family of God, we can address God as “Abba, Father!”
(6)
“Since they are children, they are free.”
To be adopted is to be freed. A Brakel writes that as children of the living God, we have been freed the demands of the covenant of works, freed from the dominion of Satan, freed from the power of sin, and freed from eternal condemnation. For we are united to the Son and in his resurrection he is freed from all these and so are we in him.
(7)
“Since they are children, they are also heirs of God.”
Through the Son, we have born again. In this new family into which we have born, we now step into the inheritance that is available to all the children of God. This inheritance is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1.4). There will be no solicitors or arbitration involved. There will be no last minute changes and deletions. It is settled and certain. And it is available to you through the resurrected Son!
In Christ,
Ciarán R. Kelleher
July Treat
Christopher Ash has spent decades in the Book of Job, seeking to mine its depths to speaks to the heart of sufferers. Enjoy this interview, as he talks through how this Old Testament book will lead us to delight in goodness of God.
And here’s a song which seeks to capture the message of Job: