* Adoption in Christ

The idea of sons or sonship is a concept running deep throughout all of Scripture.

Cain is the first recorded son in the Bible. Other important sons in Scripture are Ishmael, Abraham and Hagar’s son, Isaac, Abraham and Sarah’s son, Jacob, Isaac and Rebekah’s son, Joseph, Jacob and Rachel’s favored son, David, Jesse’s son, Solomon, David’s son and Jesus Christ, Mary’s son. In addition to natural sonship, the Scriptures also speak of Israel as being God’s covenant son or sons.

Here God identifies the nation of Israel as his son, his firstborn. They are his chosen people through whom he will accomplish his redemptive plan.

The earliest promise of the gospel is in Genesis 3:15: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”

The Redeemer who will come from the line of Adam, though not be born by any man, as he will be the Seed of the woman. This promise was further exemplified in the Abrahamic covenant. (Gen 15:4-6)

Although God considered Israel as the natural children of the covenant in one sense as his “sons” it was never his intention to create an ethnic lineage of sons, but rather a spiritual lineage of sons by adoption into Christ Jesus.

Only believers are true members of God’s people and are called true sons of the living God, as well as sons of light, sons of God and sons of the resurrection.

The idea of spiritual adoption is presented clearly in the New Testament. (John 1:12) John is quite clear that being a child of God is not by natural descent (not of blood, nor of the will, nor of the flesh) but rather by receiving Christ by grace through faith (nor of the will of man, but of God).

Later, Paul himself will tell us in that all who are being led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, and believers have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but rather have received a spirit of adoption as sons. (Romans 8:14-15)

Israel always had waited (and is still waiting) for the promise to Abraham to be fulfilled via blood lineage, but that was not God’s purpose. The children of God are so named by their belief in the Messiah, Jesus Christ. (Romans 9:6-8)

In Galatians it is quite clear that the path to Spiritual Sonship begins with the seed of Abraham (3:16) and that the inheritance is not based on Law, but upon promise (3:18).

The Law was never given in order to create sons of God by strict adherence to it, but rather to be a tutor to lead the sons of Israel to faith in Christ.

Only those who are of faith are considered sons of God, and are adopted into the Israel of God made up of all believers, Jew and Gentile (3:26; 6:16; Eph 3:6).

Adoption is the highest privilege offered by God, even higher than justification. This is not a denial that justification is the primary blessing because it meets our primary spiritual need, but rather is to say that justification is not the highest blessing. Adoption is higher because of the richer relationship with God that it involves.

Justification is forensic and does not of itself imply any intimate or deep relationship with God the Judge. You can have the reality of justification without any close fellowship with God.

Contrasted to this is adoption, which is a family idea, conceived in terms of love and viewing God as Father.

Through adoption God draws us into his family,
and establishes us as desired children, and we
are recipients of his intimate love and generosity.

Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship. To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.

The benefits of adoption into Christ are many, and basic to these benefits is the fact of a new relationship with God the Father through adoption.

All believers are now declared sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:26), for all are baptized with Christ and all have clothed themselves with Christ (3:27).

As a protective father wraps his arms
around his precious child in a violent storm,
so does Christ wrap his children with himself
in eternal protection of them.

The believer in a very real sense no longer lives, not to self, but Christ lives through him, sanctifying him and bringing him closer to the image of the Son of God. The desire and need of the person to live by the flesh is now replaced with a need and desire to live by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ.

So adoption into the family of God requires a growing resemblance to the Divine Patriarch of the family as well as our brother, Jesus Christ. We as believers are to be conformed to the image of Christ as we grow in grace and spiritual maturity.

We have graciously been granted newness of life, and our old self has been put to death on the cross. Although our sinful nature remains, our duty is to live by, through, and for Jesus Christ, as inherited sons of God. Inheritance does not only bestow benefits on the heir but also responsibility of the riches willed to him.

As sons of God, believers are now incredibly able to petition God, not as God the Judge (which he assuredly remains) but rather as “Abba! Father!”

Jesus is trying to heal and bring wholeness to both men and women who have been wounded by their human fathers. Jesus is trying to help us know a Father who loves us and will not do us harm, a Father who will not slap us around, but will encircle us in his arms and let us feel his love, a Father who will not let you go.

Jesus wants to reintroduce us to His Father, to our Father, so that we might be whole -- spiritually and emotionally. Reclaim your birthright to know and enjoy and love Abba as your Father.

Fatherhood implies authority. The Father commands and disposes; the initiative which he calls his son to exercise is the initiative of resolute obedience to the Father’s will.

Second, fatherhood implies affection. “The Father loves the Son”.

Third, fatherhood implies fellowship.

Fourth, fatherhood implies honor. God wills to exalt his Son. All this extends to God’s adopted children. In, through and under Jesus Christ their Lord, they are ruled, loved companied with and honored by their heavenly Father.

Through spiritual adoption, the believer has passed from death to life, from darkness to light. In this new relationship, obedience secures the benefits of adoption (Matt 12:50), and barriers between sinner and God are broken down as strangers and aliens are changed into fellow citizens with the saints, as well as incorporation into God’s household (Eph 2:19). Christ is no longer ashamed to call us brothers (Heb 2:11) and we are now called brethren of his.

The sons and heirs of God are called and demanded to act and live as what they now are: adopted children of God.