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The lesson library / Lesson 31

Adoption

Explain the believer’s gracious reception into God’s family, filial access, inheritance, and family likeness.

The application of salvation

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Ephesians 1:3-23 · Galatians 4:1-20 · Romans 8:12-27 · 1 John 3:1-24

Forgiveness would already be astonishing. Adoption goes further. God does not merely dismiss a case and send the former defendant away. In Christ, He receives believers as children. The distinction matters because Christian assurance concerns a relationship as well as a verdict. The Father’s household is not an arrangement in which the child must continually earn permission to remain visible.

Read Ephesians 1:3-14

3 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,
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love,
5 having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire,
6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved.
7 In him we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace
8 which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him
10 to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him.
11 We were also assigned an inheritance in him, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will,
12 to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ.
13 In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
14 who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.

Paul locates adoption in God’s purpose and in Christ. It is not an accidental benefit discovered after the main business of salvation was finished. The Father intends to receive a people through His Son. That gives adoption a stability that personal performance could never provide. The response in the passage is praise. A person who understands the source of belonging has less reason to boast about being selected and more reason to marvel that such kindness was directed toward the undeserving.

Read Galatians 4:1-11

1 But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a bondservant, though he is lord of all,
2 but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed by the father.
3 So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world.
4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law,
5 that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as children.
6 And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”
7 So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
8 However at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods.
9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles, to which you desire to be in bondage all over again?
10 You observe days, months, seasons, and years.
11 I am afraid for you, that I might have wasted my labor for you.

The Son is sent to redeem, and the Spirit of the Son is sent into believers’ hearts. The family language is deeply Trinitarian. Paul’s concern about returning to bondage must be read within his argument against seeking covenant standing through a rival basis of justification. It should not be made into a general prohibition on every act of biblical obedience. The issue is whether the child treats the Father’s gift as insufficient and goes looking for another system that might finally establish acceptance.

Adoption helps distinguish correction from rejection. A good father corrects because the child belongs to him, not because every failure requires a new decision about whether the relationship should exist. God’s fatherly discipline is perfectly wise, although its particular purpose may not be obvious at the time. That should not be misused to explain every hardship as a direct response to a specific sin. The point is the security and purpose of the relationship. The child can receive correction without concluding that the Father has become an enemy, and can seek comfort without insisting that love must mean never being corrected.

Read Romans 8:14-27

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.
15 For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God;
17 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 with him.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us.
19 For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
20 For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.
23 Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.
24 For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees?
25 But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.
26 In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.
27 He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.

Paul calls believers heirs and then speaks of suffering with Christ. That prevents adoption from being turned into a promise of earthly privilege on demand. The inheritance is real, but its full enjoyment lies ahead. Meanwhile the Spirit helps weakness, including weakness in prayer. The Father does not require perfect fluency before He recognizes His children. There is considerable comfort in that for someone whose need is easier to feel than to express.

Read 1 John 3:1-18

1 See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God. It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him just as he is.
3 Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.
5 You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and no sin is in him.
6 Whoever remains in him doesn’t sin. Whoever sins hasn’t seen him and doesn’t know him.
7 Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil.
9 Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains in him, and he can’t sin, because he is born of God.
10 In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn’t do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn’t love his brother.
11 For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another—
12 unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
13 Don’t be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.
14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who doesn’t love his brother remains in death.
15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.
16 By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
17 But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, then closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him?
18 My little children, let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth.

John begins with the Father’s love and moves toward purity and love for other people. The family identity produces a direction. It is not a declaration that the child has already reached perfection. This distinction prevents both presumption and despair. A person should not use adoption to excuse comfortable rebellion, but neither should every failure be treated as proof that adoption never occurred. The proper response is repentance and growth in the likeness of the Son through whom the Father received the believer.

Approach God as a Father through Christ, and treat His other children as family rather than as competitors for limited affection. Adoption provides privileges and responsibilities. Neither should be detached from grace. The family likeness grows because the Father has received His children, not because they have finally made themselves worth adopting.

Consider your perspective

Adoption adds belonging, access, and inheritance to our understanding of forgiveness. Believers do not have to purchase a place in God's family, and that security should make room for generous treatment of other members.

Put it into practice

Approach the Father with a concern you have treated as too small or too shameful to bring. Then extend patient care to another believer as a family responsibility rather than a favor that earns recognition.

Reflect and respond

  • How does adoption add to your understanding of forgiveness?
  • Where do you act like a servant trying to buy a place?
  • What family resemblance should grow in your treatment of others?

Passages and further study

Scripture quotations are from the public-domain World English Bible (WEB). Historical confessions are study aids, subordinate to Scripture. This independent lesson is not an official denominational statement.