June 23, Evening
C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling
"Waiting for the adoption." — Romans 8:23 · KJV
Even in this world saints are God's children, but men cannot discover them to be so except by certain moral characteristics. The adoption is not yet manifested; the children are not yet openly declared. Among the Romans a man might adopt a child and keep the matter private for a long time; but there was a second, public adoption, when the child was brought before the constituted authorities, its former garments were taken off, and the father who took it as his child gave it clothing suited to its new condition of life. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be." We are not yet arrayed in the apparel that befits the royal family of heaven; we are wearing in this flesh and blood just what we wore as the sons of Adam. But we know that when He appears who is "the firstborn among many brethren," we shall be like Him; we shall see Him as He is. Can you not imagine that a child taken from the lowest ranks of society and adopted by a Roman senator would say to himself, "I long for the day when I shall be publicly adopted. Then I shall leave off these commoner's garments and be robed as becomes my senatorial rank"? Happy in what he has already received, for that very reason he groans to receive the fullness of what is promised him. So it is with us today. We are waiting until we shall put on our proper garments and be manifested as the children of God. We are young nobles who have not yet worn our coronets; we are young brides whose marriage day has not yet come, and by the love our Bridegroom bears us we are led to long and sigh for the bridal morning. Our very happiness makes us groan for more; our joy, like a swollen spring, longs to leap to the skies like a geyser, and it heaves and groans within our spirit for lack of room to show itself to men.