Understanding The Doctrine of Adoption
In 1993, Alan Jackson released the song “We’re All God’s Children” in which he sings: “Here comes a Baptist, here comes a Jew. There goes a Mormon and a Muslim too. I see a Buddhist and a Hindu. I see a Catholic and I see you. We're all God's children…Why can't we be one big happy family?”
Despite the catchy tune, Jackson demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the doctrine of adoption and of the Gospel. And, sadly, many throughout the world affirm Jackson’s lyrics, either consciously or unconsciously doing the same. Only those redeemed by Jesus Christ are children of God.
So what does it mean to be adopted by God, and how does this impact the lens through which we view the Gospel? The doctrine of adoption is God’s gracious act of taking those who are children of wrath, alienated from Him, and making them children of God through belief in Jesus and His finished work (Ephesians 2:1-7). In this adoption of sinners, God takes those who are opposed to Him and makes them not only His friends, but His sons and heirs.
J.I. Packer once wrote, “Adoption is the highest privilege that the gospel offers: higher even that justification ... To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.” To misunderstand such a doctrine is to minimize the love of God for His people, for we understand the heart of God and experience the love of God more fully through the adoption He provides.
God’s Unifying, Eternal, Perfecting Love
On the night of Judas’s betrayal, Jesus spent the last moments before His arrest praying; specifically, He prayed for His disciples. However, He didn’t merely pray for those who were presently with Him but for all of those who would believe: for His immediate disciples, for those within the early church of Acts, for those throughout the coming generations, for you and for me, and for all who will believe upon Him through the proclamation of the Gospel.
In John 17:20-23, John records a portion of Jesus’ prayer: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” In this passage, we gain a glimpse of the love of God expressed towards us in adoption.
First, we see it is a unifying love (v. 21). God the Father and God the Son share a perfect, unbroken union. This union is lavished upon us in adoption as God takes broken-hearted sinners, and He unites us to Himself through His Son. This union, just like that of the union of the Trinity, is unbreakable. God yokes us to Himself, and that unifying love cannot be lost.
Second, we see it is an eternal love (v. 22). The Triune God is self-existent and self-sufficient. God existed eternally even before creation, and in His eternality, He has loved eternally. God is love (1 John 4:8), and the Father’s love for the Son had no beginning and has no end. Through adoption, we receive this eternal love. God chose His people and predestined them, in love, for adoption through Jesus Christ from before the foundation of the earth was laid (Ephesians 1:4-5).
God will, by this same eternal love, sustain those who belong to Him by adoption through the Son forever, for nothing shall “separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-39).
Lastly, we see it is a perfecting love (v. 23). We still struggle against sin. We are weighed down by sinful desires and acts, yet God’s love is a purifying love. Through adoption, God transforms the sinner from the inside out. Though we once walked in darkness, we now walk in light (Ephesians 5:8). Once set on earthly things, we are now set on heavenly things, putting off the deeds of the flesh and putting on the fruit of the Spirit (Colossians 3:1-13). Because of God’s love, those who belong to Him will be perfected.
The Blessed Assurance of Adoption
The love of God expressed in adoption is meant to be a double cure to alleviate fear and increase confidence in Christ. 1 John 4:18-19 says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.” Those who have received the adoption from God through faith in Jesus Christ have received the Spirit of God, which testifies to God being our Father (Galatians 4:6).
God, the Perfect Father, loves with a unifying, eternal, and perfecting love. As we contemplate our status as sons of God, we ought to trust that His love will never fail. Because of this unfailing love, we have confidence to come to our Father in all things, for all things, knowing He will never cast us out or disregard His children.
To learn more about what it means to be a child of God, check out this sermon on 1 John 3.