Women's Summer Book Club | Week 5 | Stephanie Schwartz

Main message: The sermon unpacks J.I. Packer’s claim that adoption is the highest privilege of the gospel, arguing that being adopted as God’s children (not merely justified) is the defining, transformative reality for believers and shapes how we live as members of God’s family. It emphasizes Christ’s unique address of God as Father, the biblical teaching that sonship is by adoption through faith, and the ongoing lived experience and inheritance that adoption brings.

Key points:

• Jesus habitually addressed God as Father (except when quoting Psalm 22 on the cross), modeling an intimate father–child relationship that was radical in his Jewish context.
• The Bible does not teach a universal “everyone is God’s child” notion; sonship is conferred by adoption — those who receive Christ by faith are given the right/privilege to be called God’s children.
• Justification/new birth is the essential beginning; adoption is the further gift that establishes a filial relationship, ongoing experience, and full participation in Christ’s inheritance.
• Adoption makes believers “in Christ” corporately and individually, calling Christians to live as siblings in God’s household with duties of love and reconciliation.
• Packer’s reflections are deepened by his own adopted family experience and by other theologians (e.g., R.C. Sproul, Francis Schaeffer), who help show why adoption should be treasured and practiced as central to Christian identity.

Scriptures mentioned: Matthew 3, Matthew 11, Matthew 17, Matthew 26–27, Mark 14–15, Luke 22–23, John 3:16–18, John 11, John 14:1, John 17, 1 John 3:1, Romans 8:15, 1 Corinthians 12:12–13, Psalm 22