Previously, we considered salvation in terms of conversion. Another of the ways the Bible speaks of salvation is in terms of adoption into God’s family.
The focus of salvation as adoption relates to our legal status in God’s family. We hear this emphasis in our reading about saving faith in Christ in John 1:12, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in His name.”
By adoption, we understand that a legal right has been granted us. As Christians we not only possess the renewed nature of a child of God but also legal standing as an heir. Being children of God by adoption is also found in Romans 8:16–17, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.”
Joint heirs
People living in the Roman world would likely have been familiar with Roman regulations concerning adopted sons. Since by adoption God has made believers His children with full legal standing, we are joint heirs with Christ. Ancient Roman adoption laws furnished a good illustration of the permanence of a believer’s place in God’s family.
If a Roman father did not have a biological son and chose to adopt a boy as his son, that adopted son had all the legal standing in the family as a natural born son would have. Quite often the adopted son was from a slave family. Adoption immediately lifted the adopted son out of the ranks of slavery and gave him social standing. More than that, Roman adoption law provided that an adopted son could not be disowned, having been freely screened and chosen by the adoptive parents. Furthermore, an adopted son not only had new status but also had full legal rights to the family inheritance.
Part of the family
The most complete statement of adoption is Galatians 4:4–7, “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, … therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
Membership in the family of God will be brought to completion when the spiritual membership also becomes a physical one upon being given a resurrection body like unto Christ’s resurrection body. Philippians 3:20–21a puts it like this: “Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body.”
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