We were absolutely in the power of sin and of the world. We belonged to the family of Adam, lost and without hope. But God, through Jesus, took us out of that family and adopted us into His, and that adoption wipes out the past and makes us new. We know we are imperfect children. In spite of that, God chose us before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:5) to be His children. Knowing full well, ahead of time, every sin we would ever commit, He adopted us anyway, clearing our name of all the debts