The Spirit of Adoption - The Doctrinal Part

Introduction

Last week we considered the exegetical contours of these two verses, summarizing verses 1-13 and connecting them into this idea of spiritual sonship. We looked at what it means to be a son, and we looked at four things that characterize a son. This week we want to take all of that data and put it into categories so that we can understand the full scope of divine sonship as Paul sets it forth here.

I want to consider two categories this morning that Paul builds into with these two verses.

The Divine Sonship of the Scriptures

The Divine Sonship of Christ

Let’s begin with the sonship of the Scriptures.

The Divine Sonship of the Scriptures

Paul is not the only person to address this idea of divine sonship in the Bible. This is an incredibly important theme in the Old Testament, and one that bears great significance for our understanding of Paul’s teaching here.

The question I want to answer in this section is this: how do those people referred to in the Old Testament as sons of God help us understand what Paul is saying here?

To answer the question, we first must consider who in the Old Testament is referred to as a Son of God.

Adam

The first candidate for Old Testament divine sonship is Adam. Now Adam is not expressly referred to in the Old Testament as a Son of God. The best textual data we have comes from Genesis 5, in which Adam is referred to as created in God’s image, and then Adam has his own son, who is generated in Adam’s image. The implication then is that if you are generated in the image of someone, you are their son, and likewise, if you are a son of someone, you must necessarily be generated in their image.

I was texting in my family group chat last night, and we were discussing how myself and each of my three brothers all bear some level of uncanny resemblance to our dad. For me, it’s a love of reading and generally being a nerd. For Andrew, it’s a love of sports and movies. For Luke, it’s a love of the outdoors. For Matthew, it’s a love of being by himself, just thinking. All of us then are made, as it were, in our father’s image. This is what it means to be a son.

So the Old Testament is not explicit in it’s reference to Adam as a son of God, but the New Testament is.

We must go to Luke’s genealogy of Christ in Luke 3 to discover that Luke intended for his readers to understand Adam as the son of God. And Luke’s burden throughout the rest of his gospel is to lead his readers to consider what it means to truly be the Son of God, but we will talk more about that later. Right now, let’s consider Adam’s sonship within the framework of the characteristics of sonship that we saw last week.

In the Genesis narrative, we see a couple key things that distinguish Adam as a son of God.

First of all, he is generated, or created, or born, as it were, of God. He has no human mother or father.

Second, we can infer by the use of the breath of life imagery, along with the presence and power of the Spirit of God in the creation act, that Adam’s life was given to him specifically by the Spirit.

Thirdly, we can see the covenant responsibilities of sonship placed upon Adam. He is to rule the earth, fill the earth, subdue the earth, and he is to abstain from eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Fourth, we can see see that God and Adam had a personal relationship in which God spoke to Adam, and we know later in the narrative that Adam was able to hear or sense the presence of God, to the point where he could at least attempt to hide from his presence as he walked through the garden.

The Genesis narrative shows us that Adam was created to fulfill the role of God’s son. From the very beginning then, God through his word is establishing this motif of sonship, namely that his intent for his creation, and specifically for human beings, is that he would relate to them as a father relates to a son. God’s intent to covenant with mankind, and to dwell with mankind, is couched in his intent to adopt mankind as sons and daughters.

But that divine sonship comes with requirements, and the tragedy of Adam is that he failed the test. He couldn’t uphold the requirements. He succumbed to the temptation of the serpent, he ate the fruit, and the tragedy of the wayward son begins.

Israel

Israel picks up the mantle of son early on in the Old Testament narrative progression.

Israel is referred to as God’s son in Exodus 4:22-23 The context there is that God is speaking to Moses for the first time and instructing him on what he must do when he returns to Egypt to lead the people out to the Promised Land.

Exodus 4:22–23 NASB95

“Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Israel is My son, My firstborn. “So I said to you, ‘Let My son go that he may serve Me’; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.” ’ ”

This is really the first time in the Old Testament that Israel has been given a strong relational identity to Yahweh. Up to this point, we’ve seen them referred to as His people or His nation, with Abraham. But this declaration here of Israel as God’s Son really serves as the grid by which you must understand the identity of the nation. God views them as His offspring.

By logical extension then, we can apply some of the observations we made last week about the nature of divine sons to the nation of Israel as God’s Son in the Old Testament.

We can group those observations into a few categories:

The Nature of Sonship

It is intentional. Nothing happens to God. He orchestrates all things. Therefore, anyone who is his son, is so by God’s will. Therefore, we can safely infer that Israel’s relationship with God is adoptive in nature insofar as it is intentional.

It is pluralistic. God doesn’t adopt Israel individually, He adopts them collectively. Adoption is a group project, as it were.

It is certain. God doesn’t change, therefore who He adopts does not change. Israel is adopted for all time.

It it Spirit-wrought. The Holy Spirit is understood as the agent of adoption in no uncertain terms. Israel’s adoption then is understood as accomplished by the Holy Spirit.

The Attitudes of Sonship

Sons find their identity in their Father. Israel’s identity was intended to be so closely intertwined with the nature and character of Yahweh that they were to be functionally and theoretically inseparable. In other words, you can’t understand Israel apart from Yahweh, and you can’t understand Yahweh apart from Israel.

Sons have a personal relationship with the Father. The intent of God’s adoption of Israel was that they might have a personal relationship with Yahweh, as a son has with his father. A relationship of reverence and respect, but also of love and devotion.

Sons have a passionate relationship with their Father. Out of the personal nature of their relationship, there is an emotive reality to this relationship. It’s not based on pure logic and cold reason, but on a passionate outpouring of mutual love and joy. As Yahweh loved and delighted in Israel, so also Israel was to love and delight in Yahweh.

The Actions of Sonship

Obedience - A son is to obey his father, and so also Israel was to obey Yahweh.

Love - A son loves his father, and so the call of Israel was to love Yahweh.

Joy - A son rejoices in his relationship with his father, and so also Israel was to rejoice in Yahweh.

We have a clear picture then of Israel’s sonship. What was this pre-eminent relationship between Yahweh and Israel, analogized by the reality of sonship, to look like? It must take on this nature, these attitudes, and these actions.

The question becomes then: did Israel live as sons of God?

I will let Hosea answer that question.

Hosea 11:1–5 NASB95

When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son. The more they called them, The more they went from them; They kept sacrificing to the Baals And burning incense to idols. Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in My arms; But they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, And I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; And I bent down and fed them. They will not return to the land of Egypt; But Assyria—he will be their king Because they refused to return to Me.

Here we see Yahweh mourning over His wayward son. Anyone who has had a child walk away from their relationship with their parents understands the feeling here. You have poured your heart, your soul, your strength, your very life into this child, and they squander the investment. It is heartbreaking. And that is what Israel did to Yahweh.

The tragedy of Adam is repeated and developed in the tragedy of Israel. But there’s yet another son of God in the Old Testament that bears examining this morning.

Solomon

We have at least two biblical records indicating the divine sonship of Solomon. The first is in what theologians call the Davidic Covenant, though the covenant is actually much more about Solomon than it is about David.

We see that covenant in 2 Samuel 7:12-17

2 Samuel 7:12–17 NASB95

“When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” ’ ” In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.

Here God commits to David that, because of his faithfulness as a man after God’s own heart, that He will raise up his descendant after him to be His son.

We see David later on communicate the content of this covenant to all the people of Israel at the end of his life. This happens in 1 Chronicles 28:6-7

1 Chronicles 28:6–7 NASB95

“He said to me, ‘Your son Solomon is the one who shall build My house and My courts; for I have chosen him to be a son to Me, and I will be a father to him. ‘I will establish his kingdom forever if he resolutely performs My commandments and My ordinances, as is done now.’

and in the epilogue of David’s life, we see that God was faithful to this promise.

1 Chronicles 29:22–25 NASB95

So they ate and drank that day before the Lord with great gladness. And they made Solomon the son of David king a second time, and they anointed him as ruler for the Lord and Zadok as priest. Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king instead of David his father; and he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him. All the officials, the mighty men, and also all the sons of King David pledged allegiance to King Solomon. The Lord highly exalted Solomon in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed on him royal majesty which had not been on any king before him in Israel.

We see further evidence of that in the opening sections of 2 Chronicles. Verse 1 says that Yahweh was with Solomon and exalted him greatly. In verse 9, Solomon acknowledges that God has made him king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.

But then just 5 verses later, this turn sideways for Solomon.

2 Chronicles 1:14–17 NASB95

Solomon amassed chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem. The king made silver and gold as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedars as plentiful as sycamores in the lowland. Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from Kue; the king’s traders procured them from Kue for a price. They imported chariots from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver apiece and horses for 150 apiece, and by the same means they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.

Who can tell me why this is a problem?

Deuteronomy 17:14–17 NASB95

“When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. “Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ “He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

As Israel failed as God’s son, so Solomon failed as God’s son.

But nevertheless, we see the development of this motif, this sonship idea, that states so clearly that God’s endgame is relationship. God’s eschatological intent is to dwell with his people in filial relationship. It is no coincidence then that for Solomon, dwelling and sonship are so intricately and inextricably linked, in the motif of the temple and the motif of sonship coming to their apex together in the life of Solomon. Tragically, both failed. The temple was torn down. Solomon disobeyed. Israel was unfaithful and whored herself out to false, foreign gods.

But Yahweh is not unfaithful. Yahweh will not abandon, nor will he forsake his word to Abraham, a figure who might be inferred to be a son of God, even though the text of Genesis never states it explicitly. The tragedy of Israel and the tragedy of Solomon, as Isaiah says, serve as the cultivating destruction, the clearing of the vineyard, leaving only a stump of Jesse behind, a stump which sprouts a shoot, and that shoot grows into a branch, which grows into a tree, planted by streams of living water, which yields it’s fruit in it’s season, and it does not wither, but prospers in all that He does. The shoot that grows from the root of Jesse? That is the true and better Son of God, the Son that succeeded where Israel failed and where Solomon failed and ultimately where Adam, God’s first son, failed.

And his name is Jesus of Nazareth, and it is to Him, the true and better Son of God, that we turn our attention now.

The Divine Sonship of Christ

For Paul in Romans 8:14-15, the divine sonship of the Christian cannot be understood outside the context of the divine sonship of Christ, and divine sonship cannot be understood outside the active work of the Holy Spirit in the life of said son.

Jesus’ divine sonship is a theme that carries throughout the New Testament. 40 times he is mentioned in the New Testament as the Son of God, and each of the gospel accounts carry this theme in force. Paul and John in their epistles are also especially burdened to communicate to their readers that Jesus is the true and better Son of God.

However, I can think of no better place to establish the connection between the filling and leading of the Holy Spirit as the foundation of Jesus’ divine sonship than in the gospel of Luke.

We need to look at a large section of text in Luke’s gospel to get the picture clearly.

Jesus is a Son by Declaration

We need to start in Luke 3:21-22

Luke 3:21–22 NASB95

Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”

So here at the very outset of Jesus’ ministry, we see that the presence of the Holy Spirit and the reality of divine Sonship are intimately connected. In other words, without the Holy Spirit residing upon and within you, there is no divine sonship. A son of God is only a son of God truly if the Spirit of God makes him such, and subsequently then the Father declares the reality of that Sonship.

Jesus is a Son by Descent

But not only is Jesus the Son of God according to this declaration by God Himself, following the pattern of declaration that we saw for Israel and for Solomon, he is also the Son of God according to His natural or ordinary generation. We might say that he is a son by descent.

Directly following the dipping of the Son, the descent of the Spirit, and the declaration of the Father, (you like what I did there? I’ve got a whole sermon outline for these two verses right here), after these things Luke now inserts a genealogy to remind his readers that Jesus is not just the Son of God because he was declared to be so. His sonship is of like kind and quality to the Sonship of Adam because He is descended from Adam.

I won’t read the whole genealogy, but I will point you to the very of it in Luke 3:38

Luke 3:38 NASB95

the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

Luke labors to establish Jesus here as of the line of Adam, and the expectation then, in light of the declaration of 21-22, is that Jesus is the fulfillment of Adam’s purpose as God’s Son. That Jesus will be the one to fulfill the covenant of sonship established by God with Adam, and subsequently broken by Adam. The logical question to be asked is this: did Jesus break the covenant as Adam did?

Jesus is a Son by Duty

Let’s keep reading, and Luke will tell us:

Luke 4:1–13 NASB95

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’ ” And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’ ” And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning You to guard You,’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear You up, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’ ” And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

This is where the rubber meets the road. What does it mean to be a son, ultimately? It means that after you have been declared a son, and are found to be descended as a son, you must now prove that by fulfilling the duty of a son. Adam, Israel, and Solomon, all came close but they ultimately failed. They failed to completely uphold the duty of sonship and thus fulfill their purpose. In just a handful of verses here, Luke shows us that Jesus is the true and better Son of God because He fulfilled his duty.

The basic duty of the Son? Obedience.

For Adam: For Solomon, do not acquire for yourself

Genesis 2:16–17 NASB95

The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

For Israel:

Deuteronomy 26:16 NASB95

“This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.

For Solomon:

1 Chronicles 28:6–7 NASB95

“He said to me, ‘Your son Solomon is the one who shall build My house and My courts; for I have chosen him to be a son to Me, and I will be a father to him. ‘I will establish his kingdom forever if he resolutely performs My commandments and My ordinances, as is done now.’

The Son must obey.

Adam, Israel, and Solomon all fall short. But Jesus takes that failure and reverses it, and established himself over just the course of a few verses as the true and better Son of God.

Look at the reversals here:

Location - Adam was tempted in the garden of paradise. Israel was tempted in a good and fruitful land, flowing with milk and honey. Solomon was tempted as king of the most powerful and beautiful kingdom in the world at that time. Jesus was tempted in the dry, barren desert.

Physical state - Adam’s belly was full of the fruit of Eden. Israel’s belly was full of manna, milk, honey, and the good produce of the land. Solomon’s belly was full with the finest wines and cheeses and delicacies the civilized world had to offer. Jesus’ belly was empty, having fasted for 40 days.

The number of temptations - Adam had only one rule - do not eat. Israel had two: love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself. Solomon had three: Do not acquire much gold, do not acquire many wives, do not acquire many horses. Jesus faced four temptations.

The temptations themselves - Adam was tempted to eat. So was Jesus. Adam succumbed, Jesus succeeded. Israel was tempted to worship false gods. So was Jesus. Israel succumbed, Jesus succeeded. Solomon was tempted to rule over the whole world. So was Jesus. Solomon succumbed, Jesus succeeded. All three were tempted to put God and His Word to the test. To ask “Did God really say?” So was Jesus. Adam, Israel, and Solomon succumbed. Jesus succeeded.

Jesus thus proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he is the true and better Adam, He is the true and better Israel, He is the true and better Solomon, He is the true and better Son of God. By declaration, by descent, and by duty, Jesus is the Son of God. And the accomplishment of the duty of the Son was not accomplished under Jesus’ own power. Paul tells us that He divested Himself of His divine prerogatives. Rather, Jesus accomplished the duty of sonship because he was led by the Spirit of God. Look back at verse 1. The Spirit dwelled in Him and the Spirit led Him and the Spirit enabled Him to be the Son of God.

This is the foundation upon which Paul declares Jesus’ identity in Romans 1:1-4

Romans 1:1–4 NASB95

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,

Jesus, according to Paul, is born the Son of David but declared the Son of God, how? By the Spirit of Holiness.

Jesus’ sonship is predicated upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit as He filled Jesus and led Jesus.

And what happens next in Jesus’ life? Go back to Luke 4:14-21, one of the most incredible passages in the entire Bible.

Luke 4:14–21 NASB95

And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Luke is establishing Jesus’ ministry as Spirit-filled, Spirit-led, and Spirit-powered. His entire human life was built on this foundation, and Jesus’ identity as the true and better Son of God, the promised Messiah, the savior of Israel and of the world, is now fully realized in His mind, and He can walk with confidence to the speaking table in the synagogue, open the Scriptures, and declare to this synagogue and figuratively to the whole world: I am He of whom the prophets spoke. I am the seed of the woman. I am the blessing of Abraham. I am the sceptre of Judah. I am the prophet, priest and king of Israel. I am the root of Jesse. I am the Son of David. I am the covenant-keeping Servant-Son of Yahweh on high, and I am here to do all that was foretold, all that was required, so that I might release the captives, give sight to the blind, free the oppressed, and proclaim to you today that the covenant of works has been fulfilled, and I now offer you a new covenant: the covenant of grace.

And he closes the book.

As we close today, I want to direct your attention to a final aspect of Jesus’ sonship:

Jesus is a Son by Dividend

Jesus is not only a son because God the Father declared it, not only because he was of the line of sons, and not only because he fulfilled the duty of a son, but also because he receives the blessings, the benefits, the dividends of a son.

Let’s again turn to our three tragic sons. What was the blessing promised to Adam?

Genesis 1:26–30 NASB95

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.

The blessing given to Adam was a worldwide reign and offspring that fill the earth.

What was promised to Israel?

Deuteronomy 26:18–19 NASB95

“The Lord has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments; and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to the Lord your God, as He has spoken.”

The blessing for Israel was the love of God poured out upon them, exaltation, and holiness.

What was the blessing promised to Solomon?

2 Samuel 7:12–17 NASB95

“When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” ’ ” In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.

The blessing for Solomon was the building of a house for God and an eternal kingdom.

Adam didn’t rule over the whole earth. Israel wasn’t exalted. Solomon’s house was torn down and his kingdom split in two.

Jesus, on the other hand. Jesus rules over the whole earth and His offspring come from every tribe, every tongue, every nation. Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of God the Father, having been given the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. Jesus has built a house for God, and is still building it, in fact, we’re standing in it right now. And Jesus’ kingdom will last forever. As George Friedrich Handel says so simply: He will reign forever and ever, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

Conclusion

The theme of divine sonship traces itself throughout God’s Word, and finds it fulfillment in Jesus Christ, the true and better Son of God. But the story doesn’t end there for Paul, and it doesn’t end their for us. Because the same Spirit that filled Jesus and led Jesus fills us and leads us, and because we are in Him and He is in us, we also are sons of God. That identity is one of great encouragement and great motivation.

Next week we will turn our attention to the practical part of the Spirit of adoption and consider the Divine Sonship of the Christian.