givpraz

I, like KathyK am having a little trouble with this question. However, I believe that the concept of adoption encourages us because God chose us. We haven't done anything to deserve Christ's adoption of us - but He chose us so that we could be adopted into His family. Much like a "traditional" adoption, He loves us and chooses to take care of us unconditionally. He adopted us simply because of His love for us. This is encouraging because sometimes children are adopted because no one cares or wants them. In our case, God wants us and He wants to have a relationship with us. He cares for us and there is nothing that we can do about it.

To be holy is to be like Christ. Being holy means we are set apart by God. Christ stood before His heavenly father blameless, therefore; we can stand before our Father because we are made in the image of Christ. In essence God already sees our perfection and flawlessness. He created us and He knows all about us. Our job is to get on one accord with Him so that we can see ourselves as Christ already sees us - holy and blameless.

The thing that is scary about predestination is that it is unknown to us. The unknown tends to frighten many people because it means we don't have control. I think Paul brings up predestination because he wants us to realize God's power. He is praising God for it because he realizes that God has everything in control. God knows exactly what the future holds and as His children we are predestined to be great men and women.

To me, to be "in Christ" means that Christ lives in me. I have a relationship with Him and I walk daily with Him. To be "in Christ" means that He is all I need. The implications of being in Christ for my life is that I will have peace. Christ will supply all of my needs as long as I allow Him to order my steps.