The Blessing of Adoption – Part 1

Today we want to look at the subject of adoption as taught in the Holy Scriptures. You have heard the complaint leveled against pro-life people by pro-abortion people that abortion is the way to go because pro-life people are not compassionate enough to adopt unwanted children. Of course that is not true. Even in this church we know a number of people who have adopted children, and who are giving these children a great future – giving them love and affection, and a great opportunity to live a proper life.

Now, in the Jewish culture of the Old Testament, people did not practice adoption, generally speaking. Why? Because they had other ways of dealing with this problem. One way was called levirate marriage. This meant a brother was to marry his brother’s widow and raise children for his brother. Another alternative was polygamy. In 1 Samuel Elkanah’s first wife, Hannah, was “without child” – that is, not able to bear children – and so Elkanah married another wife in order to have children. The third alternative used sometimes was easy divorce. So, generally speaking, levirate marriage, polygamy and easy divorce solved the problem of adoption in the Old Testament Jewish culture.

Now in the Roman and Greek cultures adoption was widely practiced. Normally it meant the adoption of young males, not females. The adoptee, usually a young male, was taken out of his previous state and installed, or placed, in a new relationship with his new father. In a Roman household the father was the potentate, the person of great power, who could even kill members of his own family, although this was not often practiced. So the Greek word for adoption is huiothesia – huios means son and thesia means placement. It means installation of a person as a son. All his old debts were canceled, and in effect the adopted child started a new life with new privileges and responsibilities under the rule of the new father.

Now adoption today as well as then is a judicial act. It is a legal act. The adopted child is granted full rights and privileges of sonship in a family in which he had no rights of his own previously. Essentially, then, adoption is the bestowal of a new relationship.

Of course, we know that no one adopts anyone unless their action is based on love. The father loves this boy and it is understood that this boy will sever all his previous relationships and thus secures a new set of relationships. This is true even in modern times. The adopting parents see to it that the child severs all previous relationships so that his natural father and mother will not claim anything later on.

We are interested in this doctrine as it is taught in the Holy Scriptures because of our spiritual adoption into God’s family. We have spoken before about the order of salvation, which is calling, regeneration, repentance and faith, pardon of sins, and justification. Now all these steps of salvation logically must precede adoption, even though we understand all these things take place simultaneously. But logically you must first be effectually called and regenerated. You must repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are justified by faith. All these steps are preconditions for this blessing of adoption to take place in our lives.

According to Professor John Murray, “Adoption is the apex of redemptive blessing.” In other words, it is the highest possible blessing you can experience in redemption. This point is made by St. Paul in Ephesians 1:5 where we read, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world” – he is speaking about unconditional election of us by God from all eternity – “to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.” God’s predestination of us is for this specific blessing, that we be adopted as sons of God.

Regeneration relates us to God as God the Creator, who creates in us new life and a new nature, and justification relates us to God as our Judge. But adoption relates us to God as our heavenly Father. This is a very important point you should keep in mind. Also, regeneration places us into the kingdom of God. Without regeneration no one can see or enter into the God’s kingdom, Jesus Christ said in John 3. However, adoption places us in the family of God.

Let’s look at some scriptures to study this doctrine of adoption, by which God relates us to himself as our Father. John 1:12-13 says, “Yet to all who received him [Jesus Christ], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right” – right, exousia, authority – “to become the children of God – children born not of natural descent nor of human decision nor a husband’s will, but born of God.” So notice in that scripture, first we see regeneration. Verse 13 speaks about regeneration, which is a precondition for the blessing of adoption. Then it speaks about receiving Christ (believing in his name.) And we know, according to our theology, that no one can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ or repent of his sins unless God causes him to be born again. So here is the order: first, there is regeneration; second, there is receiving Christ by believing in him; and third, God gave the right. So that is why this is the highest blessing imaginable for a Christian. There is a bestowal, a giving of authority, a giving of right to this child who is adopted by God the Father into God’s family. He gave the right.

Fourthly, what is this right for? To become children of God. That is speaking about adoption. So there is regeneration and there is faith in Christ. There is bestowment of exousia – authority – right, so that you can come to the presence of God without fear and without shame, without embarrassment. You know that you have the right to come to his presence because God has given you the right to come. And then – this is what adoption is all about – you are children of God.

Now John also talks about this in 1 John. Turn to chapter 3, and let’s read the first couple of verses: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us” – here he is speaking about adoption. Now, the agent of adoption is not God the Son or God the Holy Spirit. The one who adopts us is specifically God the Father. And the basis of all this is love. It says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us…” So the agent of this adoptive activity is God the Father. And God the Father lavishes or bestows something upon us. What is it? The blessing of adoption. And so it says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called” – what? Children of God. That is the adoption we are speaking about, which John already made reference to in his gospel in chapter 1, verse 12. And not only that, but here he adds, “And that is what we are.” In other words, this adoption is a blessing that we as believers experience even now, right now. That is what we are! In other words, we who are believers come to God the Father as his adopted sons.

In John 8, Jesus spoke about the unbelieving Jews as children, not of God, but of the devil. That was our relationship also. We were children of the devil. We were children of Adam. It is from that family, by God’s redemption, that we are taken out and installed – that is huiothesia – we are installed legally as sons in the family of God, entitled to all privileges and status and dignity. That is our present position.

However, as adopted children we are going to enjoy the fullness of the blessings of adoption only when we are glorified. That happens when we receive the resurrection body and when all sin is removed from us. Then we can come and see God, our heavenly Father, face to face. That is what John says in 1 John 3:2. “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know this, that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” This is the beatific vision. The highest possible blessing any human being can experience is the blessing of fellowship with God face to face – to be embraced by God, loved by God. We will see him face to face. And we have to wait for that simply because of sin that is still in our bodies.

St. Paul makes reference to this in Romans 8:19: “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God” – notice, they are sons by adoption – “to be revealed.” The revelation of the sons of God is something that we are still waiting for. That revelation will be a revelation of the sons of God without sin in all glory. So Paul speaks again in Romans 8:23. He makes this statement: “Not only so, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we” – what? “wait eagerly for our adoption as sons” – that is, the future installment of our adoption, which is what? “the redemption of our bodies.” That is the resurrection of our bodies. When that happens, sin will totally be done away with.

Look at verse 29 of Romans 8: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” When God reveals the sons of God, they will be made conformable to the image of Jesus Christ our older brother. It is at that time we will see God as he is. At that time we will enjoy the fullness of the blessing that is ours as adopted sons.

So we understood that God the Father is the agent of this activity, but the Holy Spirit also has something to do in this act of adoption. What does the Holy Spirit do? The Holy Spirit creates within our subjectivity filial affection for our new heavenly Father. He creates within us confidence and affection for God, so that we deliberately and consciously know that we are God’s sons by adoption, and we therefore cry, “Abba, Father,” like a little child. The Talmud says that when a child is weaned, the child will say, “Abba” and “Imma” – “Abba” means “Daddy” and “Imma” means “Mother.” And that is something we also do, because the Holy Spirit creates within us this bond of relationship with God. He creates within us love for the Father. He creates within us great confidence before the Father, so that we also cry by the Holy Spirit, “Abba, Father.” That is the Holy Spirit’s activity.

We are told about this in several places, in Galatians 4:5-7, and also in Romans, chapter 8, verse 15: “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption” – the Spirit of sonship – “and by him” – that is, by the Holy Spirit – “we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” Now this is a very sure proof that you are a child of God. Is there a Spirit-produced cry to God the Father? The Holy Spirit is the one who produces that kind of inner state and confidence and affection. It is not just theoretical. It is not just believing a certain way, and therefore you are a Christian. That itself is one way of proving that we are children of God, but this is the highest form of proof that we can have. It is not just a theoretical and intellectual deduction, but it is based on this subjective reality created within us by the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

And I know for sure that I am a child of God, because I cry to God the Father. I pray to him. I speak to him. That is the sure sign of our being adopted into the family of God, of being taken out of the devil’s family, out of Adam’s family, and of having been made sons and daughters of God, entitled to all the blessings that accrue to us on the basis of this legal placement and installation in the family of God. May we rejoice as we more fully understand this glorious doctrine of adoption!