The gift of adoption.
The gift of adoption.
Martin Luther on the blessing of Christ’s merits.
It is borderline impossible to pinpoint the weightiest lines in Paul’s letter to the Galatians since approximately every line could bear that title well. However, the apostle’s affirmation of Jesus’s incarnation and redemption in Chapter 4 is certainly among the most formative statements of truth in all of Scripture. “When the fullness of time had come,” Paul attests, “God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4–5). God’s gracious initiative to rescue those oppressed by the law is on full display in the Son’s willful descent into mankind’s misery and death. Christ shoulders the weight of the world’s brokenness both to bring glory to the Father and to make a way for sinners to “receive adoption as sons.”
This status as adopted sinners and saints is one that is given to those who believe. This blessing cannot be earned or won through one’s grit and grime — nor even through one’s good works. Rather, this position can only be received through the merits of Christ alone. That great stalwart of the Reformation, Martin Luther, declares the same thing in his Commentary on Galatians, arguing for the preeminence of Christ’s accomplishments on the cross that make this free gift of adoption possible. Luther writes:
Through what merit have we received this blessing, this adoption and inheritance of eternal life? Absolutely through none of our own, for what merit could be earned by those who are tied up under sin, subject to the curse of the law, and worthy only of eternal death? We have received this blessing freely, totally unworthy of it, yet not without any merit at all. Whose merit could this be? Not ours but the merit of Jesus Christ the Son of God, who was born under the law, not for Himself but for us (as Paul had said before that “He was made a curse for us”) and redeemed us who were under the law. Therefore, we have received this adoption only through the redemption obtained for us by Jesus Christ the Son of God. He is our overabundant and eternal merit, without any consideration of our congruous or condign merits or whether they come before or after grace. And together with this free adoption, we have also received the Holy Spirit, who God has sent to our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father.” (328)
Rebels and scoundrels are welcomed into the family of God through nothing but the “overabundant and eternal merit” of Jesus Christ. It is his work, and his alone, that warrants our welcome as those who belong to the Father. The more we consider the great truths of Scripture the more we will find perpetual refreshment in the lavish blessings of Christ’s merits.
Grace and peace.
Works cited:
Martin Luther, Commentary on Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (1535): Lecture Notes Transcribed by Students & Presented in Today’s English, translated by Haroldo Camacho (Irvine, CA: 1517 Publishing, 2018).