Focus: Spiritual Adoption

Text: Rom.8:23

"And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, WAITING FOR THE ADOPTION, to wit, the redemption of our body."

The believer is waiting for the glory of his adoption. Paul makes it clear, in Gal.4:5, that Christ died "to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." The believer is yet to enter into his full glory as God's adult son. He eagerly waits to realize his full status as a mature son of God.

The believer's sonship was predetermined by God before even the world existed. Paul declares, "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will" (Eph.1:5). It is something decided in the eternal mind of God. Paul says, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom.8:29). 

In the course of the believer's earthly journey, he is being conformed to the image of Christ, who is the firstborn among many brethren.

The believer's adoption was made possible by Christ. Also, the believer is a child of God in the first place, because of the love of God. John writes, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God…" (1Jh.3:1). The word for 'sons' here is 'teknos' in the Greek, and it refers to an offspring or one who is a child by birth, not by adoption. Adoption has to do with the placement or positioning of a grown or matured son in the family. It involves granting him the toga or the apparatus of sonship and putting him in his rightful position.

Paul tells us, "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Rom.8:15). 

The believer has already received in the present time the Spirit of adoption. The Spirit lives in him now, making certain in his personal experience the fact or reality of his sonship.

The yoke of bondage is forever broken, and he is now a free son. 

It is very shameful for a son to live like a slave. Moses says to Pharaoh, "Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn" (Ex.4:22). Israel, God's son, was enslaved by Egypt, and God would not tolerate that. God sent Moses to Egypt to redeem His enslaved son. Sonship and slavery are diametrically opposed to each other. God judged and punished Egypt severely for enslaving His own son, and He demonstrated His might by redeeming him from bondage. Jesus Christ said, "And ought not this woman, being a DAUGHTER of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?" (Lk.13:16). Abraham's daughter should not be bound by Satan. She ought to be set free. Jesus Christ said to Zachaeus, "This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a SON of Abraham" (Lk.19:6). Zachaeus was Abraham's son; he needed to be saved and set free.

As a believer in Jesus Christ, you are God's child, and as a child of God, freedom is your privilege.

You deserve to be free. Paul enjoins the believer to stand in the liberty made possible for him by Christ.

That day is fast approaching when the believer will be seen in his full regalia as God's own son. Paul writes, "For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God" (Rom.8:19). All of creation eagerly awaits the manifestation of God's fully grown sons. Christ will in due season bring many sons onto glory. John writes, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and 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" (1Jh.3:2). 

Yes, we are waiting for our adoption as sons! Our full glory as sons will soon manifest. Our vile body shall be redeemed. We shall be clothed in our resurrected bodies. Our salvation is drawing nearer than when we first believed.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter