We'll write the verse in Ephesians
1 through 6. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to
the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you, and peace from
God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved. Flipping to 1 John chapter 3
verse 1 and 2, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not. Now are we the sons of God. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like
him, for we shall see him as he is. Now, we want to look at
the doctrine of adoption, being the sons and the daughters of
God. There are several ways in the
scripture that sonship is applied to this one or to that one. Some are called the son of God
in one respect and some in another. I would like to look very quickly
to get us on our way at some of the ways that people are referred
to as sons of God in the scripture. First of all, we know that in
places Adam is called a son of God. In Luke chapter 3 in verse
38, where the genealogy of our Lord is traced all the way back
unto Adam. His privileges were, he was made
in the likeness and in the image of God. He was created directly
by the hand of God. He was given a dominion over
the things that were upon the earth, so He was not then declared
to be a spiritual heir of God like some other. Secondly, we
notice in the Scripture that at times the angels themselves
are called the sons of God. You'll find that in Job 1, 6
and again in chapter 38 and verse 7. For they were created beings,
they were glorious, and yet these are not heirs of the kingdom
of God or of an inheritance in and with Jesus Christ. Thirdly,
we learn in the Scripture that the nation, or the people of
Israel, are called both God's son and the adoption. In Exodus 4 and 22, they are
God's firstborn, my firstborn. Then in Romans 9, And verse 4,
to them pertaineth the adoption. That is, collectively, as a people
or as a nation, they were called God's son. Though the earthly
ones inherited only an earthly land and not a heavenly inheritance. Then we also recognize that the
Lord Jesus Christ is very often called the Son of God. And He is the Son of God in a
unique way. He is the uncreated Son of God. He is a partaker in full of the
eternal divine essence or nature of God. And the Lord, who by
virtue of that eternal covenant that God made, is installed in
the office of a mediator, Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 2. And then of course, There is
spiritual adoption. Beside all of these other ways
that the Son of God is used in the Scripture, there is spiritual
adoption and sonship. For how shall we separate sonship
from adoption? It is those chosen, redeemed,
regenerate, and called in Jesus Christ. who are, by the work
of regeneration, then brought into favor and into communion
with God Almighty. But also, they are adopted. They have the adoption. They
are predestinated unto adoption. To the privilege of adoption
that brings with it the privilege of heirship full inheritance
rights in the Lord Jesus Christ. An old writer by the name of
Herman Witzius put it this way, quote, that they may enjoy the
benefit both of grace and of glory, not only by the favor
of friendship, but also by the right of inheritance." Thus,
adoption to full sonship gives the right also to full inheritance
privileges. They that are adopted are the
sons of God and they have an inheritance in and through Jesus
Christ. However, their sonship and adoption
is not because God created and preserves them and gives them
things that are needful to sustain them. nor are they only given
right to external privileges and worldly pleasure, nor is
it a natural, non-saving adoption as it was in the case of so many
in Israel, nor is it one and the same with a unique sonship
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is Son of God in a
way we never will be and never are. Their sonship, or adoption,
is the bringing them into what we call the family of God. Bringing them into that family
to have a father and a child relationship, who were once foreigners
and strangers by nature and by birth, and bestowing upon these
that are brought to adoption the complete and full privileges
and adoption of sonship. They have every privilege and
right of sonship, so that in addition, therefore, to their
spiritual adoption, or sonship, in addition to them being born
of God, or regenerate, they also, by adoption, are made unseparable
heirs with and in the Lord Jesus Christ. You have that in Romans
8 and verse 17. Now, if I mistake not, just to
illustrate and get a picture, there are several instances and
cases of adoption found in the Scripture, in both the Old Testament
and in the New Testament. I would like to just name some
very quickly that we might see the picture. A, look at the prodigal
son, who in addition to being owned as a son, was manifested
so by adoption, by full privilege and full heirship with the father. placed in the father's house,
at the father's table, and therefore treated not as a servant, as
he requested, but as a son. Then be we think of the man,
or the baby, Moses, who was brought into the house of Pharaoh's daughter. In Exodus 2 and 10, Acts 7 and
verse 21, Hebrews 11, And verse 24, he was born to a Hebrew mother,
but was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter and raised up in the
house of Pharaoh and his daughter. Then there is Esther, in the
book of Esther, who was adopted by her uncle Mordecai in Esther
chapter 2 and verse 7. having not father and mother,
but adopted. Then there's a great picture
of Mephibosheth, found way back in 2 Samuel chapter 9. Old crippled Mephibosheth, lame
on both of his feet, living down in a loaded bar in dry places. yet fetched by David, brought
into his house, fed at his table, treated as a son and a member
of the family. So all of these are cases of
adoption found in the scripture. However, it would be an error
on our part to make spiritual adoption to run along the exact
and same lines as civil adoption. To make them have the same form
in all things would be an error. For though in some things they
do resemble, in some things there are likenesses, such as these
following points. Number one, it puts one among
the children. It brings them into a new family. It makes them a legal child of
the parents and the family, who adopted them. Secondly, it gives
them full right and legal privileges to inheritance and rights in
the family. Thirdly, it makes them subject
to the parents who adopted them, gives them a duty to obey, to
be thankful. And finally, they assume the
name of the parents who adopt them. They put away their former
name and they become known by a new name in the new family. Still, in other ways, they are
differ and they differ greatly. And here are some ways that civil
and spiritual adoption differ one from the other. Number one,
they who are spiritually adopted are so because they were predestinated
to adoption before the world began. We read that in Ephesians
1 and verse 5. They are adopted, they are predestinated
unto the adoption of son. Now the second thing about spiritual
adoption is there is no cause for spiritual adoption except
the sovereign good pleasure of God. In civil adoption, it might
be another reason. In civil adoption, it might be
necessity. Your sister and her husband have
been killed in an awful accident. Out of necessity, you take in
their child. It might be out of pity. Here's
a poor little child who has no parents and no good or stable
life. Or it might be out of beauty. What a beautiful, wonderful child
is this. And your heart are fixed upon
him. And therefore, these reasons
might be in civil adoption. But in spiritual adoption, It
is nothing but the sovereign good pleasure of God. It is not
out of pity, not because of our low circumstances. It's the good
pleasure of God. Thirdly, civil adoption cannot
bestow a new or a different nature. It is impossible. One may adopt
one into their family who's an orphan or an illegitimate child. But they cannot give them a new,
a different nature. They cannot make them. They cannot
make the one adopted to have the nature or the disposition
or such like of the adopted family. Thus many who have reaped the
wind because of their adoption, because they bring with them
the nature and the gene, of their biological parent. But in spiritual
regeneration, adoption, and sonship is bestowed. There is a new nature
that is given, one supernaturally renewed by a sovereign work of
the Holy Spirit of Almighty God. A new nature, a new heart is
put into those that are adopted. Now, we dare not separate regeneration
and adoption completely, for they have a connection as their
overall aim or goal. Not that they are one in the
same thing, but that they are connected and that one is in
order to the manifestation of another. John Gill, the great
old Baptist theologian, said, Adoption gives the names of sons. Regeneration gives the nature
of son. Adoption gives title to an inheritance,
while regeneration provides a meekness for partaking of the inheritance
through and with the Lord Jesus Christ. John Gill is one of the
few that I've read on the subject of adoption that makes the distinction,
and he uses such text as Galatians chapter 4 and verse 6. It says this, Because ye are
sons of God, God has sent forth His Spirit into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father." Now this, he says, in pursuing the illustration
of how Israel was once like a minor child, then they became of age,
they were brought to adulthood, and they were given the privileges
of full sonship and standing. Thus, in turn, this carries us
back to verse 5, Christ died, Galatians 4 and 5, Christ died
to redeem them from out from under the law in order that they
might receive the adoption of son. Now that, in turn, carries
us back even further to verse 4, when the time was full God
sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law, that they might receive then
the adoption of son. Now that passage in Galatian
is especially and particularly suited to the situation of the
Jew and the case of the Jew. That carries them back into chapter
3 of Galatian. Once they were like heirs in
their minority. They were just as children. They were heirs, but they were
under governor and under tutor. They had a pedagogue over them
that restricted them and disciplined them and held them under. And
they were not allowed as children the full privileges of sons,
but were treated as servants. Then, in the appointed time,
God sent forth His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to free
them from the servitude of the law, bringing them into and under
the full privilege of their sonship. This Paul calls adoption in Galatians
4, that you might receive the adoption of son, either that
sonship might be fully experienced and fully enjoyed by the liberty
of the redemption of Christ. Now remember, one of the special
privileges which Paul ascribes to the Jew in Romans chapter
4 Nine, rather, is this. Adoption. To whom pertaineth
the adoption? That is, this nation of Israel
was adopted by God as a special and a peculiar people unto Him. Therefore, it becomes a type
of the spiritual adoption of the elect in Jesus Christ. Now, let's enter upon those scripture,
or enter rather other scripture, into evidence that we might build
an even stronger case for spiritual adoption. Here's Ephesians 1
and 5 again. having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children," and watch this, "...by Jesus Christ,"
and watch this, "...according to the good pleasure of His will."
It just keeps going on and on. The adoption of children. Now, Romans 8 and verse 15, Paul
mentions it again. You have received the spirit
of adoption. You've not received the spirit
of bondage, again the fear, but the spirit of adoption. Again in Romans 8 and verse 23. waiting for the adoption to wit
the redemption of our body. Now the word appears again as
we've already seen in Romans 9 and 4 and Galatians 4 and verse
5. Now the name describes the thing
signified by it. Adoption is Biblically, scripturally,
son-placing. When you talk about adoption,
it is son-placing. It is a placing, it is a bringing
and putting among the children of a particular family. Thus
listen to Jeremiah 3 and verse 19, I said, how shall I put them
among the children and give them the pleasant land, a goodly heritage
of the host of nations, Now here's the answer, quote, I said thou
shalt call me my father, unquote. How shall I put thee among the
children? Thou shalt call me father. Thus, adoption is the placing
of one as a son, as a child, among the children, among a family. It is bringing one into a family,
admitting one to a family, admitting one into that membership who
is not so by nature or by birth. They are outside of this family
but are brought in by adoption. It's most simple and yet truthful
explanation is simply to call adoption the placing of one as
a child or a son. In fact, the word adoption is
a combination of two other words and they mean, literally, son-placing. Not of natural born son, but
of such as were Not true sons by nature never would have been. Of course, they were somebody's
sons by nature. Somebody was their father. Someone
was by their mother. But they need that someone adopts
them. And the need for adoption usually
means, beyond question, that their case was not good. Their case by nature and by family
was not good. Either their parents were dead
and they were orphans, as was the case with Esther. Or they
were illegitimate, thrown in a dumpster somewhere, as we often
see in our society. Or they were like Israel in Ezekiel
16, a little infant girl thrown out into the field. filthy and
covered with blood in the day that they were born. Or they
were in an intolerable situation where they were badly neglected
and abused and perhaps badly mistreated. And if you think
about it, really think about it, those adopted almost always,
those adopted in almost every case went from a worse to a much
better situation. They went from having no parent
or neglectful parent to a loving family where their needs were
graciously met and they were loved as part of the family. Or having a very bleak and deprived
existence to a stable, loving family who gave them good things
and bless them with many privileges in this world. If you would allow
me a personal example, I never will forget this example in the
time and the first time that I heard it, but I always have
been touched by the testimony and experience of a dear friend
of ours and a dear brother in Christ, who was adopted as a
young boy. Some of his earliest recollections
were playing in and around beer joints and ice houses and honky-tonks,
while his mother sat on the barstool with a man and drank and laughed. And a being left with strangers
to keep him overnight or for days. But then this little boy
was adopted by a farmer family, a farmer and his wife, They owned
a large farm. They went to church regularly.
They were God-fearing people. They administered discipline
to him in love. They provided his needs. They
sent him to a very good college for an education. They brought
him under the Bible's influence in today. He is the heir of that
farm, and today he is the heir of all that his father and his
mother left. Today he is a Christian, and
he has convictions, and he has principle, and he lives well. Because that humble farmer and
his virtuous wife placed him among the family. They brought this pitiful little
boy who played around beer joints ice houses, one born outside
of them, and no physical kin under them at all. But they brought
him into their very own family, and they adopted him, and they
named him, and today he is blessed greatly because of that. How much more our spiritual adoption
by God predestinated to the adoption of Son. We are all adopted that
are Christians. Our natural birth was a sad and
worthless way of life had we been allowed to follow it. There
would have been no hope of eternal life by our own birth or by our
own works. Spiritually, we were poor. We
were sure of our destruction if left in our natural state
and under our natural being. Not by nature were we the sons
of God, but not by our birth in any fashion. for none are
naturally the sons of God by birth, none by natural birth
or ancestry or parentage or merit are the sons of God in the sense
of Ephesians 1 and verse 5. Now, the rim and idea of adoption
was a favorite one with the Apostle Paul. He uses the word in every
place that we have met with it. It is Paul that uses it in Ephesians
1.5, predestinated to adoption. And of course, as John Eady points
out, the sonship that is proclaimed here is not a natural sonship,
but it is one whose constitution rests on a special divine ordination
and the purpose of God. For the idea set out in Ephesians
1 is not just sonship, but that it is sonship acquired through
adoption, which we are predestinated unto, but which no doubt was
foreordained from before the foundation of the world. How then does one enter into
adoption? How is one adopted as a son or
a daughter of God and brought into the family of God? What
are the prerequisites for being adopted into the family of God? What condition is there that
must be met, that one become an adopted son or daughter of
God? The answer again is, It is the
absolute, sovereign, good pleasure of God only. You will notice
that Ephesians 1.5 ends with these words, according to the
good pleasure of His will. Who then are adopted? Those who are chosen in Christ,
that is the elect, before the foundation of the world. Notice, They were first chosen
in Christ, they were chosen to salvation, they were chosen to
believe, they were chosen to eternal life. Then they were
predestinated according to the good pleasure of God, to the
adoption of son, marked out, they were placed. in divine boundaries
as the sons of God, that such should partake of the riches
of the Father and the riches of His grace." And note the resemblance
of two statements in Ephesians 1 verse 5 predestinated to the
adoption of sons, then down in verse 11 in whom we have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated and to obtain it. With adoption
comes full sonship, with adoption comes full inheritance right. What does Paul say in Romans
8 and verse 17? If children, then heirs. Children, whether by natural
means or by adoption, become heirs, become heirs of the family. We receive special sonship through
adoption. And by sonship, we become also
rightful heirs of God. If children, then heirs, said
the apostle. Heirs of God, joint heirs with
Jesus Christ. Now again, as Paul had done in
Ephesians 1, the two go together. Sonship and heirship. Heirs of God is related directly
to their sonship. That through adoption, regenerate
and believing, have right and title to the father's estate
and property and inheritance. Now in the natural realm, the
inheritance divided sometime equally, sometime unequally among
the heirs according under their number, sometimes some only gets
a portion of the Father's good or estate. But in spiritual adoption,
they are heirs of God, each and every one receiving a full portion,
a complete portion, because Galatians 4 and verse 7, they are a servant
no longer, but a son, and if a son, then heir of God through
Christ." Again, Romans 8, 17, joint heirs with Christ. Their heirship is not only theirs,
But it is safe, for it is in Christ Jesus. It is incorruptible. It is imperishable. It is eternal
and immutable, the inheritance they have. Robert Haldane wrote
a good commentary on the book of Romans. He said this, quote,
They cannot be dispossessed of it, for the omnipotence of God
secures it against all opposition." Think of it. Christ is made heir
of all things. Hebrews 1 and 2. We are joint
heirs with Christ, Romans 8 and 17. They have the inheritance
forever. It is firm. It is secured by
reason of their union with the Lord Jesus Christ, because they
have the adoption of son with and through Christ. so that their
heirship, their adoption can never be revoked, never, no,
never. They will dwell with Him where
He is forever and forever. They shall be with Him, and they
shall be like Him, is the testimony of the Scripture. Now, the Ephesians
1 passage makes it very clear it is to God we are adopted. Notice, predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself. We are His sons and daughters. We are His, though it is by Jesus
Christ, yet it is unto Himself, that is, the Father. He is our
God. We are His children. Thus we
are heirs of God. One summed up the blessing of
adoption and sonship. that their adoption is like this,
quote, God Himself is our Father, His household we enter, His welcome
we are saluted with, His name and dignity we possess, His image
we wear, His discipline we receive, His home prepared for us we hope
to dwell in, unquote. There's the hope. of our adoption. All of this because unto Him
we are adopted. Now maybe or perhaps a question
would enter into the mind. Why Is it needful for both regeneration
and adoption? Are we not sons of God by regeneration
and by faith? All who are adopted are regenerate,
and all who are regenerate are also adopted. So let us ask the
question in this way. Are they adopted because they
are regenerate, or are they regenerate because they are adopted? Which is first, chicken or egg?
Do they need to be adopted because they are regenerate, or do they
need to be regenerate because they are adopted? Perhaps the best way to answer
the question is to say, which one of them comes first. Which one is first in the plan
and the purpose of Almighty God and of His covenant? Adoption
or regeneration? Which is first in the purpose
of God? I think that the key for us is
in Ephesians 1. predestinated unto the adoption
of children. Now this describes a thing done
before time. Notice verse 6 of Ephesians 1. I think most people misinterpret
this verse, verse 6, wherein He has made us accepted in the
Beloved. I agree with Thomas Goodwin. That was done in the eternal
purpose before the world. and not when we are converted
or when we believe, but that's another subject we don't have
time for now. Adoption, says Thomas Goodwin,
is right to heaven and all that it entails. So we must quit,
but here's the application. He has set apart him that is
godly for himself. Psalm 4 and verse 3. application. None are by nature,
or separate and apart from divine election, the spiritual children
of God. None are the children of God
because their parents were, or because their parents were believers,
or because they come from a long line of believers. None unregenerate
will experience sonship and none unregenerate will inherit, God
must move to bring them into his family, and that he does. Having been predestinated, they
are then regenerate, sonship is manifested to them, and they
know then they are become the sons of God, and what a blessing
indeed that is. The doctrine of adoption, a great
doctrine of Christianity and of the purpose and the saving
process of our God and of his Christ.