Li'l Orphan Annie began as a comic strip in 1924, serializing the adventures of Annie, who had grown up in an orphanage, her dog Sandy and her adoptive father, Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks. Warbucks had adopted Annie as his daughter despite her humble circumstances, brought her home to his fabulous mansion and bankrolled her many adventures. The Broadway musical and the film "Annie" popularized the story for yet another generation. What many don't recognize is the story's divine roots!
What would it be like if we were brought in from the cold and poverty by a multi-millionaire? Most of us can't imagine how great it would be. But Ephesians 1:5 says "God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure." God, the ultra-powerful, wealthy-beyond-imagining King of the universe, saw us in advance of our own existence, loved us in spite of our sins and has brought us, through Jesus, into his household as adopted children. Our adventures in life are now powered by the Holy Spirit, through whom we recognize and participate in that adopted life (see Romans 8:15-17).
But can you imagine Annie, in her new life in the mansion, choosing to live as though she were still an orphan? Hiding food in her room, in case there's none tomorrow; being suspicious of the motives of the household servants and of Daddy Warbucks himself; trashing the place in fits of anger when she doesn't get her way; refusing to wear her new clothes; and generally being hard to live with? That behavior would show she really didn't understand or accept her new reality. Conversely, all the good behavior she could muster wouldn't have paid back the cost of her adoption -- and really, by trying to repay Warbucks, she would have insulted his love!
Going back to Ephesians, Paul continues in his letter to lay out what it means to be children of the Father who has so graciously adopted us -- while never confusing grace (God's free exercise of his love, to love us and adopt us) with any sort of earning our place with God. Instead, he insists, good behavior is a response to that grace, not from a rulebook but from flowing with that love and grace we've been given. So he writes in chapter 5, "Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children...Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people...now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord..." And Paul goes on into more detail about what a life of response to the grace of God looks like.
These statements are not a new '10 Commandments for Christians,' a legalistic measure of obedience. That's not how Paul wrote, and that's not what life in Christ is about. It's a relationship of love, not a list of rules; adoption into new life, not substituting one orphanage for another. So, welcome to Daddy's mansion! Have a wonderful time exploring God's love!
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