TERMS OF SALVATION – ADOPTION
ADOPTION is God’s act of grace whereby He saves sinners and gives to them now all
the rights and privileges of sonship and makes them heirs of heaven. Justification
makes them legally fit to be in God’s Kingdom; Regeneration (the new
birth) gives them the filial (family) being and character; Adoption
grants the filial (family) entitlements. Salvation would be meaningless without
the restoration of all the privileges forfeited by sin.
THREE MAJOR N.T. PASSAGES
ROMANS 8:15-17,19,23
“15For ye have not received the spirit of bondage
again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then
heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified together……19 For the earnest
expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God…..23
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the
Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our
body.”
(The Holy
Spirit works within believers giving boldness and a warm sense of identity with
Almighty God. He affirms our childhood. He assures our heirship and the future
glories thereof.)
GALATIANS 4:4-6
4 “But when the fulness of the time was come, God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”
6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”
(In
accordance with His over-arching redemptive plan, God sent His Son to not only
redeem us from the curses of the law and save us from our sins, but also to bestow all the entitlements of sonship,
and, again, the warmth of a relationship with the heavenly Father, Almighty and
Eternal God.)
EPHESIANS 1:3-6
3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ: 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in
love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the
good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his
grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
(Putting
together all the terms of salvation we’ve been learning, thinking them through
and adding them up, we then begin to understand just how much He has
“blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ” All these blessings were predestined (or
predetermined) for us, not because of us (“in my hands no price I bring”), but
“according to the good pleasure of His will.” Out of the goodness of His hearts
He has so blessed us! These truths are the very grounds of our worship. And so,
we ever praise Him for the “glory of His grace.”
-rdc
“In Rome adoption was
a familiar social phenomenon, and its initial ceremonies and incidents occupied
a large and important place in their laws. By adoption an entire stranger in
blood became a member of the family in a higher sense than some of the family
kin, emancipated sons, or descendants through females. Such a one assumed the
family name, engaged in its sacrificial rites, and became, not by sufferance or
at will, but to all intents and purposes, a member of the house of his
adoption. The tie thus formed could only be broken through the ceremony of
emancipation, and formed as complete a barrier to intermarriage as relationship
by blood.” - Unger’s Bible Dictionary
