Adoption

Adoption is one of the most glorious doctrines of Scripture, defining the believer’s relationship to God not merely as forgiven sinner or renewed creature, but as a son received into God’s own household through Jesus Christ; while by nature men are only creatures and there is only one natural Son of God, Christ alone, salvation brings more than pardon and regeneration it brings adoption, an irreversible act of God’s free grace whereby the justified are given God’s name, God’s Spirit, God’s care, God’s discipline, and God’s inheritance. Unlike a mere pardon, which removes guilt but leaves a man outside the family, adoption makes believers heirs of all God’s promises and fellow-heirs with Christ, enabling them to cry “Abba, Father,” and to live under the assurance that even suffering and chastening come from a wise and loving Father and work to their eternal good; thus adoption is the crowning privilege of salvation, the fullest expression of the liberty and glory of the children of God.