Understanding Adoption

Purpose Media Productions

Understanding Adoption

And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Matt. 3:17.

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Romans 8:15

Jesus Christ is the beloved and begotten Son of God but we are adopted sons of God in Christ Jesus. In the early Roman culture, when a son is adopted, it gives him rights and privileges just as the biological son is and he too was entitled to the inheritance. This is why Romans says He has given us not the spirit of bondage again to fear but the spirit of adoption. It is by this Spirit we have “right” or access to God, that is our righteousness. But it didn’t just stop there. He further says we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. It brings us into privileges of enjoying the inheritance.

It must be clear that this is a mystery and it is not something we can fully comprehend. John says, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the sons of God. 1 John 3:1-2. It must be understood that “adoption” is a covenant of salvation and it is a great mystery. The writer to the Hebrews could not but wonder, the great mystery of salvation when he said, “How can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation. This includes our redemption by the atoning sacrifice and death of Christ on the cross of Calvary. Justification by faith in the death and resurrection of Christ and, adoption by the outpouring of the Spirit upon the church.

We would take a look at the Patriachial covenant to glean understanding into the mystery of our adoption. In Genesis 12, God called Abraham and he obeyed which began his walk of faith. In Genesis 15, the promise of the seed was reemphasized with Abraham. It was said that Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. Gen. 15:6. In Genesis 17, God seals the covenant with Abraham with the seal of circumcision. This covenant was transferred to Isaac and Jacob. The twelve sons of Jacob were the progenitors of the nation of Israel. It means when anyone is born into the family naturally enters into the covenant. They are born into the covenant and become beneficiaries or heirs of it. The covenant is not directed to them but they benefit from it. In their relationship with God, He reminds them of the covenant He made with their fathers. He is a faithful God. This means God relates with them in consistence primarily based on His covenant with their fathers and nothing more.

In the same sense, having been adopted into the family of God through faith by the covenant of redemption in Christ Jesus, God relates with us in consistence with the covenant in Christ and not for our own sake or works and it assures us we cannot lose our salvation because of the faithfulness of God, that is, the consistence of His nature. This is not determined by us but Christ.

What qualifies the Israelites to be in the covenant is to be born by any of the twelve progenitor. Thus an Israelite must be a Gadite, Judean, Benjamite, Levite or any other of the twelve tribes. What makes us to be in the covenant of adoption? Jesus says it clearly that except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. What does it mean by to be born again? Jesus further stated that except a man be born of water (gospel) and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. It shows in this case it is a spiritual rebirth. John tells us that unlike in the case of the first, it is not of human will not of flesh but born of God. How does God do that? We must be born on the foundation of the apostles, our spiritual progenitors. Anyone who does not take his/ her root in the gospel that the apostles preached is not of Him. He cannot be said to be a Christian. There is no other gospel that can bring spiritual rebirth except that which was preached by the apostles. It is that gospel the Holy Spirit blesses and then comes to indwell the believer. Those who believe the gospel (who are birthed on the foundations of the apostles) and indwelt by the Spirit, they are those who have experienced the regeneration power of God to be brought anew to a living hope, the hope of the gospel, and they have a new life, the life of Christ.

Finally, understanding our adoption is very important because it encourages us as we pilgrim through this world that we belong to God. It is no wonder that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of adoption. He seals us as an evidence that we belong to God. It also helps us to magnify the sovereignty of God and the magnanimous grace He has bestowed to us by His saving grace.

© Purpose Media Publications, 2020