Ephesians 1.5b-The Adoption as Sons Was the Purpose of the Father Predestinated the Church Age Believer
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday March 7, 2023
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 1:5b-The Adoption as Sons Was the Purpose of the Father Predestinated the Church Age Believer
Lesson # 19
Ephesians 1:3 The God, namely the Father of the Lord ruling over us, who is Jesus Christ, is worthy of praise. Namely, because He is the one who has blessed each and every one of us by means of each and every kind of Spirit appropriated blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. 4 For He chose each and every one of us for His own purpose because of Him alone before creation in order that each and every one of us would be holy as well as uncensurable in His judgment. 5 He did this by predestinating each and every one of us for the purpose of adoption as sons because of His love through Jesus Christ for Himself according to the pleasure of His will. (Lecturer’s translation)
In Ephesians 1:5, the prepositional phrase eis huiothesian (εἰς υἱοθεσίαν), “for the purpose of adoption as sons” presents the purpose for which the Father predestinated each and every church age believer through Jesus Christ.
Therefore, it is expressing the idea that the Father predestinated each and every church age believer because of His love through Jesus Christ “for the purpose of adoption as sons.”
Every church age believer was adopted by God the Father at the moment of their justification.
In other words, the moment the church age believer was declared justified by the Father through faith in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, they were adopted Roman style into the royal family of God through the baptism of the Spirit thus making them an heir of God and spiritual aristocracy.
Roman adoption was the process by which a person was transferred from his natural father’s power into that of his adoptive father.
Roman style adoption was the custom of selectivity, selecting some to fulfill or take over the family estates and guarantee that the next generation will be as efficient as the last generation in Roman life.
Under Roman law the adopted son had the same status and privileges as the real son and the real Son is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Roman style adoption served a useful purpose both socially and politically.
For example, a childless individual could adopt and ensure the continuation of the estates of the family, bequeathing not just property to the heir, but the family as well, for the new member accepted the name and rank of the adoptive father.
Politically, adoption could be used to great advantage as a means of improving one’s prospects by becoming adopted into a higher-class family moving from the Plebeian to the Patrician class.
An example of Roman style adoption was the Emperor Augustus who, as Octavius, was adopted by the testament of his uncle Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., taking the full name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus.
Adoption by testament, of course, was the naming of an heir through a will.
As the adopted son of Gaius Julius Caesar, Octavius received not only the name and property of Caesar when he was assassinated in 44 B.C. but he received all the other benefits or social considerations as Caesar’s adopted son.
The New Testament Scriptures teach that the church has been adopted into the royal family of God as adult sons thus conferring upon them all the privileges and responsibilities that go along with this new relationship with God.
The apostle Paul used the Roman style adoption analogy in his epistles to communicate to members of the churches throughout the Roman Empire their new relationship with God the Father that was acquired at the moment of faith in Christ.
Paul utilized the Roman style adoption illustration to teach church age believers that God the Father’s grace policy places them into the relation of sons to Himself.
The church age believer has been removed from the cosmic system as a child of the devil and has been placed as an adult son into the royal family of God, of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the Head (Col. 1:1-13).
One of the purposes of the incarnation of the Son of God was that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Galatians 4:4 But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 4:5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. 4:6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who calls “Abba! Father!” 4:7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you are a son, then you are also an heir through God. (NET)
In this passage, “sons” is the noun huios, which is used in relation to the Christian’s adoption.
Adoption means that the church age believer is spiritual aristocracy now and is intimately related to all three members of the Trinity.
In Ephesians 1:5, the noun huiothesia, “adoption as his sons” emphasizes that the believer receives the “position” of being a son of God, the moment he was declared justified through faith alone in Christ alone (Gal. 3:26-28; 4:6; 1 Jn. 3:1-2).
The Spirit makes this adoption real to the Christian’s experience (Gal. 4:6).
The indwelling of the Spirit gives the guarantee of the believer’s adoption (Gal. 4:6).
Romans 8:11 However, if, and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument the Spirit, proceeding from the One (the Father) who raised the unique Person of Jesus from the dead ones, does dwell in all of you. Of course, He does! Then, the One (the Father) who raised Christ from the dead ones, will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who does permanently dwell in all of you. (Lecturer’s translation)
The filling of the Spirit enables the believer to experience their adoption.
Ephesians 5:18 And do not permit yourselves to get into the habit of being drunk with wine because that is non-sensical behavior, but rather permit yourselves on a habitual basis to be influenced by means of the Spirit. (Lecturer’s translation)
The full manifestation of this adoption takes place at the rapture of the church (Rom. 8:23; Eph. 1:14; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 Jn. 3:2).
The adoption of the church age believer means: (1) Privileges as an adult son of God (2) Responsibility to grow to spiritual maturity.
Robert Haldane writes, “Adoption is not a work of grace in us, but an act of God’s grace without us. According to the original word, it signifies putting among children. It is taking those who were by nature children of wrath from the family of Satan, to which they originally belonged, into the family of God. By union with Jesus Christ, being joined with Him, we are one body, and we enter into the communion of His righteousness and of His title as the Son of God, so that, as we are righteous in Him, we are also in Him, as His members, the sons of God who, in the moment that the Holy Spirit unites us to Jesus Christ, receives us as His children. All this shows us how great is the benefit which we obtain when we receive the Spirit of adoption and communion with the Son of God. We are thus made children of God, the sons of the Father of lights-a title permanent and a nature immortal and Divine. Our adoption reminds us of our original state as children of wrath and rebellion and strangers to the covenant of God. It discovers to us the honor to which God has called us, in becoming our Father and making us His children-including so many advantages, rights, and privileges and at the same time imposing on us so many duties. These may be comprised under four heads. The first regards the privilege and glory of having God for our Father and being His children. The second includes the rights which this adoption confers, as of free access to God, the knowledge of His ways and the assurance of His protection. The third implies God’s love for us, His jealousy for our interest and His care to defend us. The fourth, all the duties which the title or relation of children engages us to perform towards our Father and our God. The term adoption is borrowed from the ancient custom, especially prevalent among the Romans, of a man who had no children of his own adopting into his family the child of another. The father and the adopted child appeared before the praetor when the adopting father said to the child, ‘Wilt thou be my son?’ and the child answered, ‘I will.’ The allusion to this custom reminds believers that they are not the children of God otherwise than by His free and voluntary election; and that thus they are under far more powerful obligations to serve Him than are their own children to obey them, since it is entirely by His love and free good pleasure that they have been elevated to this dignity. We should also remark the difference between the adoption of man and the adoption of God. In choosing a son by adoption, the adopting party has regard to certain real or supposed qualities which appear meritorious or agreeable; but God, in adopting His people, Himself produces the qualities in those whom He thus chooses. Man can impart his goods and give his name to those whom he adopts, but he cannot change their descent nor transfer them into his own image; but God renders those whom He adopts not only partakers of His name and of His blessings but of His nature itself, changing and transforming them into His own blessed resemblance. This adoption, then, is accompanied with a real change and so great a change, that it bears the name of that which is the real ground of sonship, and is called regeneration.”