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From Orphans to Heirs: Celebrating Our Spiritual Adoption
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Product Description
An exploration of what being adopted into God's family means. The author argues that the key to our liberation as Christians is the biblical image of spiritual adoption. So often we continue to live as spiritual orphans, forgetting that thanks to the saving work of Jesus we have been made sons and daughters of God. Mark Stibbe explores this image of adoption and shares his own story of growing up as an adopted child and the insights his experiences gave him into the heart of God. He shows how we can experience God's fatherly love, through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #313709 in Books
- Published on: 1999-07-23
- Original language: English
- Binding: Paperback
- 176 pages
Customer Reviews
An excellent insight into the doctrine of spiritual adoption
Having heard Mark Stibbe's preaching on the subject of spiritual adoption in 1998, I was excited to get into this printed version of his insights on this key Christian truth. Being an adopted child himself, Mark has many first-handpersonal experiences which enrich his coverage of the exciting truth that we are all adopted sons and daughters of God. His style is easy to read, while covering the subject in depth. I thoroughly recommend you read this and rediscover the wonderful Father who has taken us on board as his children.
Mark Stibbe has written what should become a classic!
I can thoroughly recommend this book. It is a timely call for Christians to rediscover the Fatherhood of God and to enter into our glorious inheritance of freedom and liberty as adopted sons and heirs.
Mark Stibbe deals masterfully with the doctrine of adoption, which he describes as a "lost coin" - a much neglected truth within the Christian church. The book is well researched, thoroughly grounded in scripture, soaked in the grace of God and movingly illustrated with Mark's own experiences as an adopted child.
My favorite quotation is... "Once we become believers in Jesus, all forms of spiritual slavery must go, for we are no longer slaves but sons, and since we are sons, God has also made us heirs. A true Christian is therefore not a person who is driven by whips but drawn by cords of love."
I also found his treatment of the thorny issue of predestination particularly helpful... "Far from seeing the Father's predestination as a negative thing we should see it in a positive light. This is the way the Father has always wanted to bless all the peoples of the earth - through chosen adopted people. It may be true that few are chosen, but it is also true that everyone on the face of the earth is invited..."
Much to commend, but ...
This book has much to commend it but I have a number of quibbles with it.
Commendable is the description of Roman adoption practices used to illuminate Paul's use of the metaphors of adoption and sonship in his letters, and some sensible comments on the psychological and pastoral implications of the metaphors. All this is done with a refreshing thoroughness.
I was, however, uncomfortable with some aspects of the book. Firstly, there is no real discussion of the nature and function of metaphor. Adoption is a metaphor, what are the limits to it? This is not adequately addressed.
Secondly, the book is by a conservative evangelical for conservative evangelicals and those unhappy with an uncritical approach to the texts he discusses will find his approach rather naïve on occasion. An example of this is the way he points to the parallel between the OT story of the exodus of Israel from Egypt with the NT story of the infant Jesus returning from Egypt with Joseph and Mary. He seems to see this as striking evidence to support a divinely intended parallelism between Israel and Jesus. Many would see the parallel as one instance among many where Matthew invents a story paralleling the OT in order to express his understanding of Jesus' significance, but this view is entirely overlooked though I don't doubt he is aware of it. Presumably he knows his audience will have an uncritical view of scripture and so he feels he can just ignore it even though the other perspective is potentially fatal to his point here.
Finally, sentimentality: the book has many stories and anecdotes in it (some original some borrowed), which are of varying merit. Some were, to my taste, excessively sentimental. This is not always merely a matter of taste. One example in particular is the tale whose punch line is about 'he who has the son has everything' and which involves a father who loses his son. The tale involves a portrait and an art collection and is quite involved. Many people find this tale very moving. Any story, which involves a parent whose child dies, is bound to touch us, but the tale as a whole is exceedingly baffling! Its details do not work as an allegory, nor as a parable, and as a metaphor it is hopeless! For all its pathos this tale is ill thought out and superficial.
