The Doctrine of Adoption

November 2023: National Adoption Month

Message One

Galatians 3:27-4:7.

ETS: God adopted humans as His children through Jesus Christ.

ESS: Humans are received as adopted children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

OSS: [Devotional and Evangelistic] {I want the hearers to consider the great benefits that they have become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.}

PQ:

What exhilarating benefits are present for the believer in this text?

UW: Benefits

Intro.: [AGS]: Do you know the joy of calling on God as Father? The inner longing of such a cry and groaning deep within that is only filled when one truly has this relationship? Maybe you are here today, and you have a desire to be a good person, to do good things, to abstain from bad things, and to at minimum be a person of good morale and character, a likable individual. However, do you have a desire to know God as Father? It is possible to have a desire to do good things, be a good person, and all of the others described above and yet have no desire to really know God as Father. Let’s think about one who is popular in Christian history: “[John] Wesley was an honor graduate of Oxford University, an ordained clergyman in the Church of England, and orthodox in his theology. He was active in practical good works, regularly visiting the inmates of prisons and workhouses in London and helping distribute food and clothing to slum children and orphans. He studied the Bible diligently and attended numerous Sunday services as well as various other services during the week. He generously gave offerings to the church and alms to the poor. He prayed and fasted and lived an exemplary moral life. He even spent several years as a missionary to American Indians in what was then the British colony of Georgia. Yet upon returning to England he confessed in his journal, “I who went to America to convert others was never myself converted to God.” Later reflecting on his preconversion condition, he said, “I had even then the faith of a servant, though not that of a son” (Stott, Message of Galatians, 109).” [1]

November is national adoption month. As such, It is important that you are aware of adoption. Adoption is important, as we know, for many families. It is the process by which many children find their forever families. However, adoption is more than just some legal process we know about that happens when orphans and needy children are permanently paired with a family who will love them, care for them, nourish them, and give them security as long as they live. Adoption is a divine process whereby “God declares regenerated believers to be his beloved sons and daughters and welcomes them into his eternal family.” [2] Thus, adoption in the Bible is a legal process, but it is not only legal. It is legal, familial, and divine (theological or doctrinal in nature). In fact, in the coming weeks, we will acquaint ourselves with the reality that adoption, from a legal standpoint, is actually a reflection of adoption in a theological or doctrinal sense. [TS]: The text we are studying today establishes that God adopted believers as His children through Jesus Christ. [RS]: Each human has the opportunity to become a child of God in this sense. It is through faith in Jesus that we become adopted as children of God. This is exciting, thrilling, and exhilarating.

TS: Let us examine together a few exhilarating benefits now:

Believers have community and purpose. [vv. 27-28]

Those in Christ are one, resembling Christ.

There is no longer the separation of individuals by such things as “ethnic and racial barriers...social barriers...gender barriers…oh, this is the beauty of the church summed up in one verse: a people united not by their ethnicity, their socioeconomic status or gender, not by this or that artificial distinction set up in a particular culture or society, but a people from all ethnicities, socioeconomic statuses, and genders united together as one i nChrist. We all stand before God the same, needing Christ, dependent on Christ, not one of us better or worse. All of us need grace, and we find it in Christ alone, through whom we have all become sons of God!” [3]

Distinctly, though, Platt and Merida clarified, “Paul is not saying that when you come to Christ you lose these distinctions, that you’re no longer a Jew or a Greek, slave or free, male or female. Instead, he’s saying that these barriers no longer divide because we are all one in Christ Jesus.” [4]

Believers have belonging and inheritance. [vv. 29-5]

Those in Christ are heirs of God, adopted as children of God.

It is important to note that in ancient near eastern times, a child who had an inheritance had no rights to the inheritance until he reached a certain age determined by his father. Until then, he was practically a slave. [5] One suggested, then, that this text benefits from that understanding.

Notice, then, that the text reads, “When the time came to completion...”

This is of such great importance because it details that all things that were pointing to this great, climatical moment in history had aligned, thus making the timing perfect for God’s perfect plan to send His perfect Son into this imperfect world.

Platt and Merida commented to suggests the following regarding timing:

It was right theologically: the promises of Abraham given, the law of Moses had done its work, and more than 300 prophesies had been given aiming towards this event

It was right religiously: the paganism of ancient Rome and the idolatry that pervaded the Roman empire had taken the culture of Jesus’ day to an all time low creating a spiritual hunger

It was right culturally: The koine Greek language had become common and was the practical universal language allowing for easy spread of the Gospel

it was right politically: The Pax Romana (Roman peace) prevailed creating a more peaceful atmosphere that was conducive to the spreading of the Gospel as well as roads that were built allowing for better, easier travel enabling an easier traveling route for the spreading of the Gospel. [6]

The word used for “adoption” is one that implies a child who was not once a natural born child, now being viewed as a natural born child having full inheritance rights to that of his/her parents. Hinging on the cultural background of a child having to be a certain age to have the rights to their inheritance, one commented that it was like, in Christ, the regenerated believer was viewed as an adult who had full inheritance rights.

Platt and Merida added that this guaranteed three things: an eternal Father, an eternal family, and an eternal home.

Believers have a relationship with God. [vv. 6-7]

Those in Christ have been given the Holy Spirit by whom they long for and cry out to God as Father.

The term Abba is a personal, intimate word communicating a deep sense of connection and groaning within the individual. Jesus is recorded in Mark 14:36 crying out to God using this title: “36 And he said, “Abba, Father! All things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.”

CONCLUSION:

[1] Do you have a desire to know God as Father? Is there a longing cry in your heart to know Him in an intimate, personal way?

[2] Have you experienced the beauty and joy of these benefits?

[3] If not, what hinders you today?

Bibliography:

[1] David Platt and Tony Merida, Exalting Jesus in Galatians (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2014), 81–82.

[2] Susanne Calhoun, “Adoption,” in Lexham Survey of Theology, ed. Mark Ward et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018).

[3] David Platt and Tony Merida, 79.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid., 73.

[6] Ibid., 74-75.

Consulted Resources:

[1] R. Alan Cole, Galatians: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 9, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1989).

[2]John R. W. Stott, The Message of Galatians: Only One Way, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986).

[3]Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, Second Edition. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2014).

[4]Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament: II Corinthians & Galatians, ed. Robert Frew (London: Blackie & Son, 1884–1885).