Adopted as God’s Children

KEY VERSE: “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.” —Galatians 4:4,5

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Galatians 3:1-5, 23

ADAM WAS CREATED a son of God—an earthly, a human son, in the image and likeness of God. Adam lost his sonship through disobedience. With it he lost communion with God. His children did not have the blessing of being sons of God, nor did they have the fellowship of communion with God.

We were born children of Adam’s disobedience, children of God’s wrath, of God’s condemnation in Eden, born dead in trespasses and sins, or, as the Greek translation puts it, “Dead in the trespass”—dead in Adam’s trespass. However, we find a ray of hope in John 3:36: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath [the condemnation] of God abideth on him.” Until the Son here spoken of came into the world there was no hope of sonship for us.

Abraham was a great man, a consecrated man, but he was not a son of God. The record is that he was “a friend of God.” Moses was a great man, a consecrated man, but he was not a son of God. “Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, … but Christ as a Son over his own house; whose house are we.” (Heb. 3:5,6) Here we are introduced to the house of sons. But hove does one become a member of this household? How can someone change from being a child of disobedience, under divine condemnation, to become a son, or child, of God?

To appreciate this relationship of sonship, we must know how it is made possible. The ransom is the basis of it all. Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my Word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24) The apostle corroborates this in Romans 8:1,2: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

So that is the way we become sons of God—by coming through Christ Jesus and by exercising our faith in him as our Redeemer, we become his dedicated footstep followers. It is through the imputation of Christ’s merit to his followers that they are covered by the robe of his righteousness, and presented to the Father. Being made acceptable in the Beloved, the Father then sees us as righteous. Only in this way are we justified and made acceptable to God. Having been released from Adamic condemnation, God then begets us by his almighty power, and we become his sons. No longer considered children of Adam’s disobedience, we are now described by Peter as “obedient children.”—I Pet. 1:14

The Jewish followers of the Master were the first of the human race to become sons of God. This took place on the Day of Pentecost. John 1:11,12 reads: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” From the days of Cornelius, the Gentile centurion, this privilege of sonship is without restriction, and those called are from all peoples and nations and kindred and tongues.

Romans 8:14,15 reads: “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 pray, Abba, Father.” This expression, “Abba, Father,” is a beautiful expression of childlike affection: “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son.” (Gal. 4:6,7) The cry, or prayer, proceeds from our hearts through the vitalizing influence of the Holy Spirit.

The day will soon come when all the spiritual sons of God will have taken their place on the throne with Christ. Paul, enthused with the thought of what that glory would entail, tells us that the whole creation is waiting for the manifestation of these sons (Rom. 8:19), for then will come all mankind’s day of opportunity to be restored as earthly sons.

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