However, the king does not simply give the beggar a meal and send him away. Instead, he says, "I want you to come home with me and from today you are my child." As the king’s adopted child, the beggar receives a new family, a new home, a place at the royal table, the king's protection, and a great inheritance.
We would be astounded at such grace, but that illustration captures only part of the truth of what God has done for every believer. We were spiritual orphans, but through Christ we have been adopted into God's household.
Adoption is one of the great blessings of salvation. It is the action by which believers in Christ become the sons of God and come into all the privileges of that relationship. Although it is similar to justification in that both are declarative acts of God regarding the believer’s status, it is distinct from it. Justification is God’s legal declaration that those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ are freed from the penalty of sin and are regarded as righteous in His sight. Adoption, by contrast, is a declaration that those who have been justified are placed as sons in the family of God. The Greek word translated adoption (huiothesia) means to place (thesis) as a son (huios). However, when Scripture calls believers “sons” it indicates that all who are “in Christ” – male and female alike – from the moment of entering the family receive the full rights and inheritance of God’s children.
If, as guilty sinners, all we received upon confession of faith in Jesus Christ was forgiveness of sins and freedom from sin’s penalty, the beginning of freedom from its power, and the prospect of freedom from its presence, we would be rightly amazed at the grace, mercy, and love of a holy God. But adoption means a legal placing as sons of God with all the privileges and rights of being in His eternal family .
Features of the adoption process in ancient Rome included:
- the child’s relationship with their natural family being completely terminated
- the child becoming a permanent member of the new family
- any previous financial debts against the child being eliminated
- the child coming under the care and authority of their new father
- the child sharing in all the privileges and riches of the new family
This physical adoption, though not a perfect picture, illustrates our spiritual adoption. As Christians, we were once “by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3) but that relationship has been terminated, our debt of sin has been dealt with, and we are now under the care and authority of our Father in heaven.
It is important to emphasise that all believers are sons of God but the relationship between the eternal Son of God and God the Father is unique and distinct. The Lord Jesus made this very clear in his words to Mary:
“Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, “I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God”’” (John 20:17).
“My Father and your Father . . . My God and your God” is deliberately designed to distinguish between what God the Father is to the Lord Jesus and what He is to the believer. God is Jesus’ Father by nature in a unique and eternal relationship. The Lord Jesus has always been, and always will be, the “Son of God” by nature, whereas we are sons by adoption.
Past
The Scriptures declare the glory of God’s grace and love in adopting believers:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:3-6).
Every believer, chosen by God, was destined to be adopted as His son. All of this was before the world was created and thus before the fall of mankind – it was in God’s eternal plan that those He had chosen to be “in Christ” would be adopted as His sons. As a result praise would be given to Him for His grace and His acceptance of all who are “in Christ”, His beloved Son.
Present
There are numerous blessings that adopted sons can presently enjoy; here are two to meditate on and rejoice in:
Intimacy with a holy God
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father" (Romans 8:14,15).
We can know God as our Father – not as One who is distant and disinterested but as One who is near and cares. I am sure we are all aware of children whose fathers took little or no interest in them, perhaps placing them in the care of others. Yet the reality of what our adoption means is very different – we can enjoy a close and personal relationship with our Father at all times. Paul states that we can cry, “Abba, Father”. Abba is an Aramaic word that could be translated as “daddy”. While we may be hesitant to use such a familiar term when addressing God, it encapsulates the intimacy of the relationship we can enjoy with Almighty God.
Discipline by a loving Father
“And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.’ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” (Hebrews 12:5-7 ESV).
Many people have had fathers who disciplined unfairly. Beatings inflicted in a fit of temper are not easily forgotten, so the thought of being chastened does not bring joy. Others have suffered from absent fathers who therefore failed to discipline their children. However, the writer of Hebrews speaks of a loving Father who wisely and perfectly disciplines His sons. Discipline refers to the training, correction, and warnings that a father gives to the son He loves. The call is for us to be submissive to the Lord’s discipline in our lives. It may come through the teaching of His Word, the counsel of godly friends, or providential circumstances. Our heavenly Father loves us too much to leave us without discipline.
Future
Usually, in human relationships, the children only obtain an inheritance when their parents die, and there is no guarantee as to what will eventually be received.
But, as Paul reminds the Roman Christians, every adopted son of God has a guaranteed inheritance that far exceeds anything this world can offer.
“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:16,17).
The Holy Spirit gives us assurance that we are children of God, and the Scripture takes this to its logical conclusion: we will share in the inheritance that belongs to Christ, the One whom God has appointed “heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2).
All that belongs to the Father belongs to Christ and in Him, as God’s children, we will share in that inheritance. By God’s grace, every child in the family will receive the full portion that Christ receives by divine right.
In Romans 8, having reminded his readers of the intimacy we can enjoy with a holy God and the prospect of sharing in Christ’s inheritance, Paul resumes the subject of adoption. He teaches that, despite all the beauty we observe, creation itself is marred and scarred by sin, and he attributes human characteristics to it, stating that it is “eagerly [waiting] for the revealing of the sons of God” (v.19). The setting at liberty of those in the family of God will herald the deliverance of creation itself (v.21). He then returns to the great and certain hope of every believer – the grand finale of the adoption process, the redemption of our bodies (v.23) – when we will be with Christ and like Christ forever. What a glorious prospect!
