It is quite soothing when we think about the fact that God adopted us into His family and that we are His children. Biblical adoption is the divine act of God whereby He makes believers members of His heavenly family and gives them all the spiritual privileges in Christ becoming joint heirs with Him. The Greek word for adoption (huiothesia) occurs only five times in the New Testament, all of which are in the Apostle Paul’s letters (Romans 8:15; 23; 9:4; Galatians 4:5 and Ephesians 1:5). In each of these instances the word gives us wonderous glimpses into the love of God for His people.
By the grace of God, when we repent and trust in Christ’s perfect work, believing in Him alone for salvation, God declares that we become part of His family. Galatians 4:5-6 teaches us that Christ came, 5 that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Romans 8:15 explains the joy this brings us, For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” These passages tell us two aspects of adoption. Galatians 4 focuses on the Spirit’s testimony in us, while Romans 8 focuses on the result of His inner testimony in our hearts, namely that we are able to freely verbalize God as our heavenly Father, something we could not be prior to salvation. Adoption is not something we feel, rather it is something that we know is true because Scripture tells us so. Spiritual blessings are mostly invisible on earth, but they have eternal realities. It was God’s predetermined will to bring His chosen people into His family by means of adoption, as Ephesians 1:5 tell us, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will. God’s people are thus spiritually part of God’s family and will be treated as such. Just like an earthly father provides gifts and training to his son or daughter, God gives us wonderful gifts (James 1:17) as well as necessary discipline when we do wrong (Hebrews 12:5-6).
Contrasting adoption with justification can help us understand adoption better. Though both are legal acts that God declares from His heavenly courtroom, they have a different perspective. We can think of justification coming from God’s criminal courtroom where His verdict is not guilty, whereas His declaration of our adoption comes from His family courtroom where He becomes our Father. Justification brings us into the company of the saints whereas adoption escorts us into the family of God. In justification, each of us are viewed as an innocent person, but in adoption we are seen as a special child under the Father’s care. In justification, God is the perfect judge; in adoption, God is the loving Father. The comfort of justification is acquittal from sin’s guilt; the comfort of adoption is that we have fellowship with the Father.
Another element of adoption can be seen in what we are delivered from. Before we were believers we were children of another father, namely the devil (John 8:44). The devil sinned from the beginning and so have we, making us like him in that sense (1 John 3:8). But in adoption, we are removed from the dominion of the devil’s “fatherhood,” and are freed from his grip. We now have a new Father, Who will protect us from Satan’s schemes and will love us eternally. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1).
Scripture Reference
For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises,
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the [b]kind intention of His will,
so that He might redeem those who were under [a]the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;
6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines,
And He scourges every son whom He receives.”
You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
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