The Christian believer regards it as a most comforting Gospel revelation that in Christ Jesus God from eternity has adopted his chosen saints to be his dear children. It was definitely a manifestation of Christ’s sincere love for his disciples when he called them his “friends” (John 15:14); but the terms “sons and daughters,” which Scripture ascribes to Christian believers, imply far greater privileges than does that of friend. In his well-known monograph The Reformed Doctrine of Adoption, R. A. Webb writes of God’s gracious adoption of believers as his dear children: “When we approach Him in the intensity of worship, we gather up all the sweetness involved in Fatherhood and all the tenderness wrapped up in sonship; when calamities overcome us and troubles come in like a flood, we lift up our cry and stretch out our arms to God as a compassionate Father; when the angel of death climbs in at the window of our homes and bears away the object of our love, we find our dearest solace in reflecting upon the fatherly heart of God; when we look across the swelling flood, it is our Father’s House on the light-covered hills beyond the stars which cheers us amid the crumbling of the earthly tabernacle” (p. 19). It is from the viewpoint of its ineffable solace that the Christian believer gratefully considers the biblical doctrine of adoption.
Definition of Adoption. A. H. Strong briefly defines the doctrine of adoption under the general theme “Restoration to Favor” in connection with justification and reconciliation as follows: “This restoration to favor, viewed in its aspect as the renewal of a broken friendship, is denominated reconciliation; viewed in its aspect as a renewal of the son’s true relation to God as a father, it is denominated adoption” (Systematic Theology, Vol. III, p. 857). Similar is the definition given in the Cyclopaedia of McClintock and Strong: “Adoption in a theological sense is that act of God’s free grace by which, upon our being justified by faith in Christ, we are received into the family of God and entitled to the inheritance of heaven” (s.v.). According to these definitions adoption embraces both the renewal of the soul’s true relation to God as a father and the bestowal of the privileges of sonship in this life and that to come. Thus believers, who by nature were alienated from God and were under his righteous judgment, are received by him as his dear children and heirs of eternal life.
The Doctrine Taught in Scripture. The term huiothesia, literally “placing as a son,” is used only in the New Testament (cf. International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, s.v.). It never occurs in the Septuagint, and in the New Testament only in those epistles which primarily concerned Gentile believers, e. g., Galatians, Romans, Ephesians. Even here the apostle’s emphasis seems to rest not so much on God’s adopting act as rather on the state of sonship and its prerogatives. Among the Greeks and Romans at Paul’s time adoption, that is, “the legal process by which a man might bring into his family and endow with the status and privilege of a son one who was not by nature his son or his kindred” (JSBE, s.v.), was so well known that Paul could presuppose that his readers understood what he meant by God’s spiritual huiothesia. But the question, whether the apostle was guided in his use of the term by the prevalent custom, is quite another matter. The Old Testament mentions three cases of adoption (Exod. 2:10; 1 Kings 11:20; Esther 2:7, 15), though all of them took place outside Palestine. Paul, however, definitely ascribes to chosen Israel the huiothesia (Rom. 9:4), just as the Old Testament attributes to believing Israel the prerogative of sonship (Exod. 4:22; Deut. 14:1; 32:5; Jer. 31:9). In the New Testament the precious Gospel truth that believers in Christ are God’s dear children is, of course, stressed also in books not written by Paul (e.g., Luke 20:36; 1 John 3:1, 2, 10).
Adoption an Eternal Act of Divine Grace. Adoption, according to Scripture, is an eternal act of divine grace, for he “predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will” (Eph. 1:5). This eternal predestination to adoption, just as God’s eternal election to salvation, was, of course, “in him” (Eph. 1:4), that is, in Christ Jesus, and so embraced his Incarnation, Vicarious Atonement, and Resurrection—in short, the whole ordo salutis; for “when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. 4:4, 5). Therefore the adoption is an act of God’s free grace and excludes all human merit; it is absolutely sola gratia. As believers have been redeemed purely by grace, so also they have been adopted purely by grace. Thus God heaps grace upon grace in electing, redeeming, and adopting his elect saints.
While Scripture ascribes to the Father the adoption and to the Son the redemption, it ascribes to the Holy Spirit the sanctifying act by which we become believers in Christ and so God’s dear children. The apostle teaches this truth very clearly when he writes: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Rom. 8:14–17). In this life, of course, the believer’s assurance of his adoption is apprehended merely by faith; but on the day of the final resurrection he will be delivered “into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21).
The Relation of Adoption to Other Biblical Doctrines. The doctrine of adoption stands in close relation to those of justification, reconciliation, regeneration, conversion, and sanctification. The adoption exists objectively in foro Dei because of God’s eternal election of grace and Christ’s vicarious atonement. But subjectively the believer obtains it through faith in Christ or by becoming a believer in Christ, as the apostle writes: “Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26). This means that in the very moment of his conversion to Christ he is a child of God. But in that very moment he is also justified, or declared righteous before God for Christ’s sake, whose perfect righteousness, procured by his vicarious atonement, he receives by his personal faith in the Redeemer. This comforting Gospel truth the apostle stresses in Romans 5:1: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” But this verse declares also that the believer in the moment of his conversion is in possession of reconciliation with God, for by faith he has “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” According to Scripture, reconciliation is that very act of divine grace through which the believer is granted peace with God by his justification or the forgiveness of his sins.
But by faith in Christ the believer receives also regeneration or the new birth, as John writes: “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:1). This, moreover, means that then the believer is converted, since conversion in its proper sense is the “turning from darkness to light” by faith in Christ (Acts 26:18). The estranged sinner, who was turned away from God, is now turned toward his divine Lord with genuine trust and sincere love. In this sense the apostle writes: “God … hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). The regenerated believer is given the firm conviction that Christ is his personal Saviour who has redeemed him from sin, death, and hell. So also by faith in Christ the believer obtains the gift of sanctification or the gradual putting off of the old man, which is corrupt according to its deceitful lusts, and the gradual putting on of the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph. 4:22–24). Thus the believer’s faith in Christ accomplishes his entire renewal: his justification, reconciliation, regeneration, conversion, sanctification, and, last but not least, his adoption to sonship. Paul sums up this whole spiritual process of the believer’s turning from unbelief to faith, from sin to holiness, from death to life, when he writes: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8, 9); or: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). As Scripture ascribes the believer’s whole salvation to faith in Christ, so also it ascribes to faith in Christ the individual divine acts by which the Holy Spirit works salvation in the believer. It is therefore immaterial whether the adoption is linked with regeneration or justification or whether, under a separate head, it is considered as the final goal of man’s spiritual reclamation by the Holy Spirit. There is, however, always a note of triumphant rejoicing in the sweet Gospel proclamation that Christian believers are God’s dear children (cf. 1 John 3:2 and similar passages). Thus the adoption may be regarded as the crowning act of God’s saving love.
The Blessings of the Adoption. Scripture is very explicit in describing the ineffable blessings of the believer’s adoption. According to Romans 8:14–17, these are (1) the sanctifying leading by the Holy Spirit; (2) the removal of the servile spirit of fear; (3) the filial trust by which the believer calls God “Abba, Father,” the joining of the two words giving emphasis to his endeared relation to God; (4) the witnessing of the Holy Spirit with his spirit that he is a child of God; and (5) the assurance that he is an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. The blessing of the Spirit’s witnessing in the believer’s heart is stated with the same emphasis in Galatians 4:6; only here the joyous prayer “Abba, Father” is ascribed directly to the Spirit’s witnessing. Accordingly, the believer calls God “Abba, Father” as the immediate effect of the assuring testimony of the Holy Spirit. The spirit of adoption therefore assures the believer of God’s fatherly love toward him and of his sure salvation in everlasting glory. In times of trial the Christian, because of the weakness of his faith, may not always perceive the Spirit’s witness, but it is nevertheless there as long as faith in Christ prevails; for in the final analysis faith itself is nothing else than the Spirit’s persuasive witness in the believer’s heart.
The Application of the Doctrine. While all Christian theologians glory in the comforting Gospel truth that believers in Christ are God’s dear children, they vary greatly in their treatment of the doctrine of adoption. R. A. Webb in his monograph, referred to above, takes note of the fact that Calvin makes no allusion whatever to adoption, while Turretin identifies it as the second element of justification. So also the thorough dogmatical work of Charles Hodge is silent on the subject, while A. A. Hodge devotes to it a short chapter. None of the ecumenical creeds of Christendom contains a formal confession of adoption, but the Westminster Confession and the Westminster Catechisms set forth the doctrine as a separate head in theology. The old Dutch theologian Herman Witsius in his work The Economy of the Covenants between God and Man (trans. and rev. by William Crook-shank; London: Edward Dilly, 1763) gives 19 pages to the subject of adoption and 17 to “The Spirit of Adoption” (Vol. II, pp. 591 ff.).
Luther translated the term huiothesia with “filial spirit” (kindlicher Geist,Rom. 8:15) or “sonship” (Kindschaft,Rom. 8:23; 9:4; Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5). According to the classic Lutheran dog-maticians, adoption takes place at the same time as regeneration and justification. The certainty of the believer’s adoption, as also of the inheritance warranted by it, is counted by them as an attribute of the new birth. Pietism in its treatment of adoption came somewhat closer to the Reformed presentation. The Reformed theologians, however, do not always consider adoption from the same point of view. While some represent it as the fruit of justification, others regard it as coordinate, but subject to regeneration. Rationalism wholly discarded the biblical doctrine of adoption. Some of the early church fathers treated adoption as the effect of baptism, since the apostle in Galations 3:26, 27 traces the adoption both to faith in Christ and to baptism as the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost (Tit. 3:5, 6). This doctrine was retained by Luther who regarded baptism as a means of grace that works not ex opere operato, or by the mere act, but by the Word of God which is in and with the water (cf. McClintock and Strong, s.v.).
The conviction of Christian believers that in Christ Jesus they are God’s dear children is deeply rooted in the hearts of all who “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2).
Bibliography: The International Standand Bible Encyclopaedia, J. Orr, ed.; J. McClintock and J. Strong, Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature; The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge; R. A. Webb, The Reformed Doctrine of Adoption; H. Witsius, The Economy of the Covenants; W. A. Jarrel, “Adoption Not in the Bible Salvation,” The Review and Expositor, XV (October, 1918), pp. 459–469; T. Whaling, “Adoption,” The Princeton Theological Review, XXI (April, 1923), pp. 223–235.
Professor of Systematic Theology
Concordia Theological Seminary
St. Louis, Missouri
