Galatians 4: 4-5
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Just at the right time (God is never early or late), Jesus was born into our human family. As He placed Himself under the Law, He fulfilled all of the letter of the Law, including all the sacrificial rites associated with it.
He became our Kinsman-Redeemer. He became our human Brother, our Kinsman, and His death in our place paid off our entire, eternal debt we owed to God for sin. That way, in taking our death upon Himself, He can give us His life (substitutionary atonement). He has saved us from the power sin has over us today, and He will complete our redemption in our very bodies when He returns (the Rapture) and our bodies are changed into the spiritual, radiant, resurrection bodies (I Corinthians 15, esp. vs 51-52). Then we will be "adopted" as God's adult sons and daughters, with all the rights and responsibilities of running His family business, the Kingdom.
We think of adoption today as a parent taking a child not born to them into their family as though born into it. This is appropriate, as we are all born into this family of humankind, defective spiritually with dead spirits.
That's why Jesus told Nicodemus of the necessity of being "born again," or "born from above." He then explained it to him as the first birth being physical, the water breaking and the baby being born; then the second birth being a spiritual event in receiving spiritual life (John 3:3-6): God's Holy Spirit entering into our dead spirit makes it alive, and able to communicate with God (Ephesians 2:3).
This Holy Spirit is also the Seal (Ephesians 1:13-14), that guarantees that we can never again be separated from God's Love (Romans 8:38-39), and that He will complete everything He started in us when He saved us (Philippians 1:6). We will, with no shadow of any doubt, eventually be fully redeemed. This hope is not a wish, but a secure anticipation of what God is doing in our future, which is all "now" in God's view.
O Father, thank You so much for sending Your own Son to be one of us and to save us and redeem us and make us Your own children, Your princes and princesses, to one day be kings and queens, ruling with our King Jesus in Your great Kingdom! This is who I am. Help me to remember who I am in all the turmoils and upsets and stresses in this life.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
