In his book Knowing God, J. I. Packer famously wrote, “If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.” Packer was saying that vital Christianity and an understanding of adoption are really coterminous.
So, what is the doctrine of adoption? Many excellent definitions have been written in the past. One early reformed theologian (Johann Heidegger) defined adoption in this way: “Adoption is the gracious sentence of God whereby He adopts those justified and reconciled to God by faith through and on account of Christ…and as sons and heirs, coheirs with Christ.” In this definition there are four main emphases. First, adoption is by grace. Second, adoption is only a blessing for those who have been justified. Third, the blessing of adoption comes through Christ the mediator. And fourth, adoption brings Christians into the position of being coheirs with Christ.
Robert Shaw (who wrote a very fine commentary on the Westminster Confession that I would recommend to everyone) wrote that, “Spiritual adoption is that act by which God receives sinners into his family, and gives them a right to all the privileges of his children.” Here the emphasis is on adoption as a onetime legal action with lasting familial ramifications.
But perhaps the most basic definition is found in the the Westminster Shorter Catechism which defines the doctrine of adoption in this way: “Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God.” When a person receives Christ by faith, they come into possession of a plethora of rights and privileges they did not have before by nature—and they receive these spiritual privileges according to God’s free grace manifested in Christ.
As we survey the Bible, it is easy to let the language of adoption become the seldom heard “white noise” in passages relating to our salvation. But for those with eyes to see, the doctrine of adoption dots the landscape of the New Testament like wildflowers in spring. The biblical writers speak of adoption with a sense of wonder. Consider 1 John 3:1, “Behold what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” The reality of adoption is meant to be a perpetual fountain of joy for those in Christ. Not only will the believer taste the full realities of their adoption in the age to come (c.f. Matthew 5:9, Romans 8:23; Revelation 21:7), but even now by faith they are a child of God, an inheritor of the new creation!
Why is the doctrine of adoption so vital for the Christian life? In the next two blog posts (part 2 and part 3), we will focus on how the doctrine of adoption is connected with the various aspects of the order of salvation in Scripture, from election to glorification. In part 4, we will highlight several privileges the child of God receives in Christ—privileges that they have by gracious right. In part 5, we will highlight the duties or obligations that attend those who are God’s children—duties that can be performed only because of the condescending grace of God in Jesus, who died to bring “many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10).
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