What is Biblical Adoption?

Within biblical tradition and theological discourse, the concept of adoption holds a place of unparalleled significance within the framework of Christianity. Atonement, as it appears throughout the Bible, embodies a multifaceted, profound theological doctrine that has ignited centuries of theological discussion and spiritual reflection. Today, it stands as a cornerstone of Christian belief, invoking familial imagery while embodying the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, reconciling humanity with God in the process. As theology progresses, debates concerning the basics and underpinnings of adoption, Greco-Roman views, and our own cultural understanding remain ever-important. Through the biblical corpus, adoption remains a consistent theme that sees slight prominence in the Old Testament and heavy theological exhortations in the New Testament. The definition of adoption, as Wayne Grudem (2020) proposes, is an act of God where, through His redemptive work, he makes us members of his family (p. 232). The familial application uses John 1:12 (ESV), “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,” as a springboard to spur distinctions between the physical elements of family and the spiritual.

Further, Ephesians 2 contends the point that: “those who do not believe in Christ are not children of God or adopted into his family, instead called ‘children of wrath’ and ‘sons of disobedience’” (Grudem, 2020, p. 233). The most pressing example of adoption as applied in the New Testament epistles is Romans 8:15-17. Verses 16 and 17 in particular read, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” This term, “children of God,” is consistent within the New Testament and emphasizes not only the physicality of God’s creation, culminating in humanity, but also a spiritual acceptance into His body. Paul applies the Greek term υἱοθεσία to reference the spiritual adoption and acceptance into the body of Christ (Morris, 2016). As Romans 9 also considers, the “children of the flesh” are not the children of God, but rather the promise endowed by God counts His people as offspring. God’s family all partake in one body, even with the Jewish believers

of the Old Testament in mind (Grudem, 2020, p. 234).

Though Jew and Gentile, to which Paul is referring in this passage, are biologically linked through the lineage of Abraham, the stratification between their practices and theological principles presented a distance Paul needed to bridge. God, in his common grace, reconciles all people to Himself through this “sonship,” an implication of the Greek (Morris, 2016). Several scholars take this passage to reference a certain elected people, as Paul’s “we” may not literally refer to everyone (Walton, 2016, p. 106). However, this proposition stands in blatant opposition to 1 Timothy 4:10’s description of Christ as the savior of all men; spiritual provisions, thus, are given to all mankind (Enns, 2008, p. 347). Common grace and efficacious grace contribute an undeniable role to the interpretation of adoption in the Bible. While common grace argues for God’s movement in the sinful man’s direction to institute reconciliation, efficacious grace describes a phenomenon where all recipients “respond to it and become believers” (Enns, 2008, pp. 347-349). This adoption is a distinctive of atonement, through which the believer’s debts are removed, they are given a new name, and the rights of God’s heirs are conferred upon them.

Between varying schools of biblical thought exists a divide over the symbolization of the church and how it contributes to the adoption query. Dispensationalists hold that Israel merely denotes “the physical posterity of Jacob” and cannot be confused or conflated with the church as an institution (Enns, 2008, p. 561). Thus, distinct programs for Israel and the church are evidenced through commands stretching across the Old and New Testaments. As a primary example, God calls Israel to keep the Sabbath in Exodus 20:8-11, while the church keeps the Lord’s Day in 1 Corinthians 16:2. These comparisons are not merely arbitrary, instead serving to designate the church’s unique purpose. Meanwhile, covenant theology hinges on replacement, teaching that the church has assumed the role of Israel in God’s program. The proponents of this theology debate that God’s promises to Israel have been fulfilled through the church, and the disintegration of Israel along with the dispersal of the Jewish people contributes to this analysis (Enns, 2008, p. 543). According to Enns (2008), “Since the church has replaced Israel in God’s program, the promises made to Israel have been or will ultimately be fulfilled in the church” (p. 543). As an extension of the body of Christ, written in Colossians 1:18, adoption also relates to one’s physical presence and acceptance within the church. Thus, the method by which the “church” is understood by preeminent scholars imbibes the idea with preloaded meaning that must be carefully assessed through a biblical lens.

Keenly, New Testament passages such as John 19:26-27 and James 1:27, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world,” key in on the legal aspect of adoption. The legal dimension of adoption remains integral, especially within the concentration of Greco-Roman society. Instances in the Old Testament biblical narrative, such as Moses’s adoption into Pharaoh's family, reflect ancient Egyptian customs and “Mesopotamian adoption contracts” (Knobloch, 1992, p. 78). While the Old Testament features the absence of a specific term translated as “adoption,” the underlying concept still exists in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern society. Genesis 48:5-6 concerns the adoption of grandchildren to affirm the family line, Jephthah’s adoption took him from illegitimate to legitimate, and the manumission of slaves as described by Jarha in 1 Chronicles 2:34-35 possibly refers to an adoption (Knobloch, 1992, p. 78). Furthermore, Morris (2016) notes that “Ezekiel 16:1–7 uses much of the same legal terminology for adoption as the Babylonian code in its metaphor for God’s relationship to Israel.” However, adoption was not common in the Jewish world, and a person’s standing was based on his birth (Knobloch, 1992, p. 78). Some would interpret fatherhood as less real or powerful due to the nature of adoption, specifically in regard to a Jewish culture with no concrete process for adoption, but nothing could be further from the truth in the context of adoption’s theological principles. The representation of adoption in the Old Testament remains incredibly evident and colors the disposition of Greco-Roman culture in the New Testament.

In the Greco-Roman world, adoption was a legal act frequently practiced for several recognizable reasons. Ancient Greece saw adoption as a necessity in preserving the estate of a family if there were no likely heirs in the lineage. Additionally, social standing was a monumental contributing factor to who could adopt and under what circumstances (Morris, 2016). Women were frequently barred from both adopting and being adopted, restricting their inheritance rights. However, most interestingly, the Roman emperor regularly adopted heirs due to reproductive difficulties and “the reality that their heirs were frequent targets of enemies” (Morris, 2016). To a great degree, Paul employs the language of adoption as a polemic against the prevailing culture of Greco-Roman society. The community of believers, outlined in Galatians 4:4-6, is constructed upon the framework of brothers, sisters, and a father who are not biologically related to each other (Gathercole, 2008, p. 2252).

In fact, Paul’s adoption imagery is described to “pick up the OT concept of God calling Israel his “son” and combines this with the Roman notion of adopting a son” (Gathercole, 2008, pp. 2251-52). While a distinction arises from biological trees, the family does not, according to Paul. The social substrate of Paul’s time, as written by Morris (2016), featured “a series of laws referred to as the Lex Iulia et Papia Poppaea requiring Roman citizens to bear children to build up the Roman population.” In contrast to a society that only valued men who produced biological heirs, Paul’s theology widened God’s family and fostered a community unconcerned with the flesh (Morris, 2016). In the realm of biblical tradition and theological discussions, adoption plays a crucial role in Christianity.

Atonement represents a complex and profound theological idea that has sparked centuries of discussion and reflection among theologians and believers. In today's context, it remains a cornerstone of the Christian faith, symbolizing the idea of becoming part of a spiritual family through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, which brings humans closer to God. As the patterns of man in thought and action are totally depraved, adoption serves as a central testament against the Roman legal structure and continues to affirm God’s enduring faithfulness.

References:

Enns, P. P. (2008). The moody handbook of theology. Moody Publishers.

Gathercole, S. J. (2008). Notes on Galatians 4:4-6. pp. 2151-52 In ESV Study Bible. Crossway.

Grudem, W. A. (2020). Systematic theology: An introduction to biblical doctrine (Second edition).

Zondervan Academic.

Knobloch, F. W. (1992). Adoption. In D.N. Freedman (Eds.). The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary: A-Z (pp. 76-79). Doubleday: Yale University Press.

Morris, M. J. (2016). Adoption. In John D. Barry et al. (Eds.). The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Image by Pieter van Lint

Walton, J. H. (2015). Romans. NIVAC; Zondervan.

Thank you Garrett Fish for writing this article!