One topic that came up was how we’ve been adopted by our heavenly Father. While I’ve discovered redemptive ways of describing ‘adoption’ through the years, it always still had that ring to it that we weren’t God’s until some point when we were. Yet that didn’t jive with what I know from Scripture, that we’ve always belonged to our Father, even before he created the earth (Ephesians 1:4; 2 Timothy 1:9) and that we were created in His image from the outset. This led me to go deeper into the Greek word for adoption, Tethemi. In doing so, God’s Spirit opened up for me a treasure trove of goodies, a few of which I’d like to share with you here.
First, here’s the scripture about our adoption from Romans 8:14-17 in the Passion Translation.
“The mature children of God are those who are moved by the impulses of the Holy Spirit. And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,” leading you back into the fear of never being good enough. But you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,” [this is how the Passion translated Tithemi instead of adoption] enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, “Beloved Father!” For the Holy Spirit makes God’s fatherhood real to us as he whispers into our innermost being, “You are God’s beloved child!” And since we are his true children, we qualify to share all his treasures, for indeed, we are heirs of God himself. And since we are joined to Christ, we also inherit all that he is and all that he has.”
Tithemi means:
· To set in place or establish.
· To touch, handle or form, akin to the potter fashioning us like clay (Isaiah 64:8).
· To transition to something being in right order. Fascinatingly, this is the word used when Jesus was baptized and God deposited his Spirit. Something was set and established in Jesus in that moment as the Spirit descended like a dove and this became the transition point in his life and ministry.
· This word is so profound and colossal in scope that scholars suspect the very word theos, meaning God, derives from this word. This would make perfect sense since it fits with our revealed genesis, that we are all created in the image of God and we share in the divine nature of the Trinity.
· Lastly, there is a homecoming quality of this verb, Tithemi. It reminds us of our ultimate destiny to come full circle back home where we belong to encounter the fullness of the love of the Trinity without any hindrance whatsoever!
I don’t know about you, but I will never look at this passage quite the same again. You’ve always belonged to God and Tethemi is the Spirit’s way of confirming you are a true and genuine son or daughter of Abba-Papa-Yahweh, fashioned in his likeness! Like Father, like son. Like Father, like daughter. The stunning goodness of our Father and how he sees us as one with himself is being unveiled before us one WOW at a time!
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