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Course 10 · Lesson 5.3

Adoption: sons and daughters of God

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 10 outline

Module 1: Sin and Human Nature

  1. Human beings in the image of God
  2. The fall in Scripture: Genesis 3 and Romans 5
  3. Original sin in Augustine and the Western tradition
  4. Ancestral sin and mortality in the Eastern tradition

Module 2: Grace and Free Will

  1. Pelagius and Augustine
  2. The church responds: semi-Pelagianism and the Council of Orange
  3. Luther and Erasmus on the bondage of the will
  4. Monergism and synergism across the traditions

Module 3: Justification and Sanctification

  1. Justification in Paul and James
  2. Justification by faith alone in the Lutheran and Reformed traditions
  3. The Catholic teaching and the Council of Trent
  4. Sanctification, holiness and theosis
  5. Recent ecumenical discussion of justification

Module 4: Predestination and Election

  1. Election and predestination in Scripture
  2. Augustine, Aquinas and Calvin on predestination
  3. Arminius, Wesley and conditional election
  4. Eastern and Catholic views on election and foreknowledge

Module 5: Atonement, Redemption and Adoption

  1. Atonement and its extent: for whom did Christ die?
  2. Redemption: the images of ransom, freedom and return
  3. Adoption: sons and daughters of God
  4. The order of salvation across the traditions

Module 6: Death, Resurrection and Judgment

  1. Death and the intermediate state
  2. The resurrection of the dead in Scripture and the creeds
  3. The final judgment: Christ the judge
  4. Purgatory, the Orthodox practice of praying for the dead, and the Protestant objection

Module 7: Heaven, Hell and the New Creation

  1. Heaven and the vision of God
  2. Hell: eternal torment, annihilationism and universal hope
  3. The fate of those who have not heard the gospel
  4. The new heavens and the new earth

Module 8: The Millennium and Christian Eschatological Traditions

  1. Revelation and apocalyptic literature
  2. Premillennial views, historic and dispensational
  3. Amillennial and postmillennial views
  4. Preterist, historicist and futurist approaches
  5. What the traditions hold in common about the end

All courses

Program / Course 10: Salvation and Eschatology / Lesson 5.3

What you will learn

  • Explain the Greek word huiothesia and its setting in Roman family law.
  • Read Romans 8, Galatians 4 and Ephesians 1 on adoption.
  • Distinguish adoption from natural sonship, and from justification.
  • Compare how the five traditions place adoption in the life of salvation.

The big idea

Paul says that God sends the Spirit of his Son into believers’ hearts, crying ‘Abba, Father,’ and that they are no longer slaves but sons and heirs. The word he uses, huiothesia, means adoption as a son. It names the gift of belonging to God’s family and of inheriting what Christ inherits. Every tradition values the image. Some treat adoption as a distinct part of salvation, some as another description of justification, some as the beginning of theosis. All agree that the Christian is a child of God by grace and not by nature.

Key terms

Adoption (huiothesia)
A Greek term, found only in Paul’s letters, for placing someone as a son with the rights of a legitimate heir.
Abba
An Aramaic word meaning father, used by Jesus in Mark 14:36 and by believers in Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6.
Heir
A person who inherits. In Romans 8:17 believers are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.
Sonship by nature and by grace
Christ is Son of God by nature, from eternity. Believers become children of God by grace, through him.
Witness of the Spirit
The inward assurance, given by the Holy Spirit, that one is a child of God (Romans 8:16).
Regeneration
New birth. It is sometimes treated as distinct from adoption: one describes new life, the other new status.
Fatherhood of God
The teaching that God is Father, first of the Son and by grace of those joined to the Son. Christians differ on whether he is Father of all people in any sense.

Background

In the Roman world, adoption was a legal act by which a person, often an adult, was taken into a family and given the name and inheritance of the adopting father. Paul’s readers would have been familiar with it. The emperor Augustus was himself adopted by Julius Caesar. Scholars debate how closely Paul follows Roman law, since he also draws on Israel’s story: in Romans 9:4 adoption belongs to Israel, whom God called his son (Exodus 4:22, Hosea 11:1).

Adoption appears in a few passages, but it carries a lot of weight. It joins the themes of redemption (the last lesson), the Spirit, inheritance and the future hope. A word on language: the Greek huios means son, and Paul uses it to speak of all believers, women and men, as sons and heirs with Christ. Modern translations often say children, and the Bible also uses the image of daughters (2 Corinthians 6:18).

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Galatians 4

Paul writes: “But when the fulness 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” (Galatians 4:4-5). The sequence is redemption, then adoption, then the gift of the Spirit: “God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (4:6). The conclusion is: “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (4:7).

Step 2: Romans 8

In Romans 8:14-17, Paul says that as many as are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. They have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of adoption, by whom they cry Abba, Father. The Spirit bears witness with their spirit that they are 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.”

Two points stand out. First, adoption is linked with suffering as well as glory. Second, it has a future side. In Romans 8:23 believers wait for “the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” So adoption is both received now and completed at the resurrection.

Step 3: Ephesians 1 and John

Ephesians 1:5 says God predestinated believers “unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself.” Adoption is therefore the purpose of the choice, and Christ is the means. John does not use huiothesia but speaks in the same direction: “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God” (John 1:12), and, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God” (1 John 3:1). Many scholars note a difference of vocabulary but a shared meaning.

Step 4: Adoption and the Son by nature

Christians affirm that Jesus is the Son of God by nature, as the Creed says: begotten, not made. Believers are children of God by grace. They share in his sonship because they are joined to him. Athanasius and other fathers taught that the Son became what humans are, so that humans might become by grace what he is by nature. In the East this is closely tied with theosis.

Step 5: Where the traditions place it

The Westminster Confession (Chapter 12) treats adoption as a distinct benefit given to all who are justified: they are taken into the number of the children of God and enjoy their liberties and privileges. The Heidelberg Catechism, in Question 33, explains that Christ is the eternal Son, and believers are children of God by adoption through grace. Wesley preached on the Spirit of adoption and taught that the witness of the Spirit is a conscious assurance of sonship.

The Catholic Catechism teaches that through baptism, believers become adoptive children of the Father and members of Christ, and that the Our Father is the prayer of the adopted. Lutherans link adoption closely with baptism. Orthodox writers place adoption within the path of divine life shared with Christ.

  1. What does an adopted child gain that a servant does not?
  2. Why does Paul place the cry of ‘Abba, Father’ in the Spirit’s work?
  3. How is the ‘now and not yet’ of adoption like other themes in Paul?
  4. What does it mean that God’s children suffer with Christ?
  5. How would you explain the difference between Christ’s sonship and your own to someone new to the faith?
  6. Does the language of sons and heirs exclude anyone? How does Paul address this in Galatians 3:28?

Examples

A family adopts

A couple adopts a child from another country. In the courtroom, the judge declares that the child is now their son, with the family name and a place in the will. The change is legal and it is also the beginning of a relationship. Pastors use such pictures to illustrate how adoption in the Bible joins status and love. The comparison has limits, since God’s adoption also gives a new nature by the Spirit. (A constructed example.)

Praying the Our Father

In many churches the Lord’s Prayer is said at every service. Catholic and Orthodox liturgies introduce it with words that call it a boldness given by the Spirit, because only children dare to speak to God as Father. A newcomer who learns this may hear the prayer differently.

Different perspectives

Orthodox

Adoption describes the believer’s participation in the sonship of Christ by the Spirit. It is bound up with theosis, in which humans become by grace what Christ is by nature. Baptism is the entry into the family, and the Eucharist and prayer are its life.

Catholic

Through baptism the believer becomes an adoptive child of the Father, a member of Christ and a temple of the Spirit. Sanctifying grace is the sharing in this divine life. The Church is the family of God, and the sacraments are its means of nourishment.

Lutheran

Baptism gives the Holy Spirit and makes a person a child of God. Lutherans stress that sonship is received by faith and is secured in Christ alone, not in the believer’s performance. The doctrine is a comfort against fear and doubt.

Reformed

Adoption is one of the benefits that flow from union with Christ, together with justification and sanctification. It is the highest privilege of the believer. The Westminster Confession adds that the adopted have the Spirit of adoption, may come boldly to the throne of grace, and are never cast off.

Arminian and Wesleyan

Wesley taught that adoption is received with justification and that the witness of the Spirit gives assurance of it. Believers are children of God by faith and the Spirit’s testimony. Arminians hold that one can forfeit the status by turning away.

Why it matters

Adoption shows that salvation in the Bible is not only a verdict or a cure but a relationship: to be given a place in God’s household. It addresses a common fear that God is distant or only a judge. It also explains why Christians pray ‘Our Father’ and why baptism, in every tradition that practices it, is described as entry into a family.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Adoption means that Christians are sons of God in the same way Christ is.

Correction: The churches confess that Christ is Son by nature, eternally, and that believers are children by grace, through union with him.

Misunderstanding: All human beings are children of God in the sense of Paul’s adoption.

Correction: Christians differ here. Some hold that God is Creator and Father of all in a broad sense. Paul’s adoption language is addressed to those in Christ.

Misunderstanding: The language of sons excludes women.

Correction: Paul uses ‘sons’ to speak of all believers as heirs, and Galatians 3:28 says there is neither male nor female in Christ. Many translations say children.

Misunderstanding: Adoption is the same as justification in every tradition.

Correction: The Reformed treat it as a distinct benefit, others treat it as an aspect of justification or baptism, and the East places it in theosis.

Knowledge check

What does huiothesia mean, and where is it used?

It means adoption as a son, with the standing of an heir. The word appears only in Paul’s letters, in Romans 8:15 and 8:23, Romans 9:4, Galatians 4:5 and Ephesians 1:5. It draws on the practice of adoption in the Roman world and on Israel’s status as God’s son.

What is the sequence in Galatians 4:4-7?

God sends his Son, born of a woman and under the law, to redeem those under the law so that they receive adoption. Because they are sons, God sends the Spirit of his Son into their hearts, crying Abba, Father. They are no longer servants but sons and heirs of God through Christ.

How is adoption both present and future in Romans 8?

Believers have received the Spirit of adoption now and cry Abba, Father. Yet Paul says they wait for the adoption, the redemption of the body (Romans 8:23). The status is already given, and its full meaning will be revealed in the resurrection when believers share the glory of Christ.

What is the difference between Christ’s sonship and the believer’s?

Christ is the Son of God by nature, eternally begotten of the Father. Believers are children of God by grace, as they are joined to Christ and receive the Spirit. The creeds and fathers keep this distinction, and Eastern writers add that believers share by grace in what Christ has by nature.

Think it through

  1. How does it change prayer to think of oneself as an adopted child and heir?
  2. Which do you find harder to believe, that God forgives or that God welcomes as a child? Why?
  3. What responsibilities come with being in a family?

Independent assignment

A study of Romans 8:12-17

In your notebook, write 400 to 600 words. Read Romans 8:12-17 and Galatians 4:1-7 together. List every phrase that describes the believer’s old condition and every phrase that describes the new. Then write a paragraph describing the role of the Spirit in each passage. Finish with a paragraph in which you explain adoption to a friend in plain language.

Further study