Church Series-Adoption
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday October 11, 2016
The Church Series: Adoption
Lesson # 4
Romans 8:15 teaches that the church age believer has been adopted “Romans style” into the royal family of God.
Romans 8:15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” (NASB95)
“Adoption” is the noun huiothesia, which means, “placing as a son.”
It is not so much a word of relationship but of position.
In regeneration a Christian receives the new nature as a child of God.
In adoption they receive the position of a son of God at the moment of conversion through the baptism of the Spirit.
Every Christian obtains the place of a child and the right to be called a son the moment he or she believes in Jesus Christ for salvation (Galatians 3:25-26; 4:6; 1 John 3:1-2).
The Scriptures teach that there two categories of believers who have been adopted by God: (1) Israel (Deuteronomy 7:6; Romans 9:1-5) (2) Church.
At the moment of conversion, the church age believer is adopted Roman style into the royal family of God through the baptism of the Spirit thus making him an heir of God and spiritual aristocracy.
Roman adoption was the process by which a person was transferred from his natural father’s power into that of his adoptive father.
Roman style adoption was the custom of selectivity, selecting some to fulfill or take over the family estates and guarantee that the next generation will be as efficient as the last generation in Roman life.
Under Roman law the adopted son had the same status and privileges as the real son and the real Son is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Roman style adoption served a useful purpose both socially and politically, as a childless individual could adopt and ensure the continuation of the estates of the family, bequeathing not just property to the heir, but the family as well, for the new member accepted the name and rank of the adoptive father.
Politically, adoption could be used to great advantage as a means of improving one’s prospects by becoming adopted into a higher-class family moving from the Plebeian to the Patrician class.
An example of Roman style adoption was the Emperor Augustus who, as Octavius, was adopted by the testament of his uncle Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., taking the full name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus.
Adoption by testament, of course, was the naming of an heir through a will.
As the adopted son of Gaius Julius Caesar, Octavius received not only the name and property of Caesar when he was assassinated in 44 B.C. but he received all the other benefits or social considerations as Caesar’s adopted son.
In Greek and Roman society adoption was, at least among the upper classes, a relatively common practice.
Unlike the oriental cultures in which slaves were sometimes adopted, these people normally limited adoption to free citizens.
But, at least in Roman law, the citizen so adopted became a virtual slave, for he came under the paternal authority of his adoptive father.
Adoption conferred rights and privileges but it came with a list of duties as well.
For the believer, adoption is a gracious gift from God the Father that is totally undeserving on the believer’s part.
God the Holy Spirit performs the ceremony of adoption at the moment of conversion through regeneration (John 1:12), and the baptism of the Spirit (Galatians 3:26-28).
The New Testament teaches that the church has been adopted into the royal family of God as adult sons thus conferring upon them all the privileges and responsibilities that go along with this new relationship with God.
The apostle Paul used the Roman style adoption analogy in his epistles to communicate to members of the churches throughout the Roman Empire their new relationship with God the Father that was acquired at the moment of faith in Christ.
As a Roman citizen the apostle would naturally know of the Roman custom but in the cosmopolitan city of Tarsus and again on his travels, he would become equally familiar with the corresponding customs of other nations.
He employed the Roman style adoption analogy to teach the spiritual adoption of church age believers much in the same manner that our Lord did in His parables.
Paul utilized the Roman style adoption illustration to teach church age believers that God the Father’s grace policy places them into the relation of sons to Himself.
The act of adoption is the conclusion of any action by which any person, usually a son, is brought into a new family relationship where he now has new privileges and responsibilities as a member of the family, and at the same time loses all previous rights and is divested of the previous duties of his former family relationship.
The church age believer has been removed from the cosmic system as a child of the devil and has been placed as an adult son into the royal family of God, of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the Head (Colossians 1:13).
One of the purposes of the incarnation of the Son of God was that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. (NASB95)
Adoption means that the church age believer is spiritual aristocracy now and is intimately related to all three members of the Trinity.
The adoption of the church age believer means: (1) Privileges as an adult son of God (2) Responsibility to grow to spiritual maturity.
The indwelling of the Spirit gives the guarantee of the believer’s adoption (Galatians 4:6).
The filling of the Spirit enables the believer to experience his adoption.
The full manifestation of the believer’s sonship awaits the resurrection of the church or the rapture which is called the “redemption of the body” (Romans 8:23; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17; Ephesians 1:14; 1 John 3:2).
The believer’s adoption into the royal family of God makes him an heir of God (Romans 8:15-17).
The phrase “the Spirit of adoption” means that the Spirit effects or brings about this adoption as sons of God.
The expressions “a spirit of bondage” and “the Spirit of adoption” emphasize with Paul’s Christian readers in Rome that they have a familial and legal relationship with God so that they would be assured of their eternal salvation and that God is for them and not against them.
Paul uses the adoption metaphor and slavery metaphor together in order to appeal to the frame of reference of his readers since both were institutions in the Roman Empire in the first century when he penned this epistle.
The New Testament Scriptures teach that the church age believer has been adopted into the royal family of God as an adult son thus conferring upon them all the privileges and responsibilities that go along with this new relationship with God.
The apostle Paul used the Roman style adoption analogy in his epistles to communicate to members of the churches throughout the Roman Empire their new relationship with God the Father that was acquired at the moment of faith in Christ.
Paul utilized the Roman style adoption illustration to teach church age believers that God the Father’s grace policy places them into the relation of sons to Himself.
