Adopted By Grace Series

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BLESSING UPON BLESSING

In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved (1:5-6).

In 1:3, the apostle Paul writes that God has blessed the believer “with every spiritual blessing.” In 1:5-6, he praises God for the blessing of adoption.

Often, adoption results in a child going from a bad situation to a good situation (e.g., Michael Oher, adopted by a wealthy couple and now an NFL football player). Certainly that is true of the believer’s adoption.

Believers have been WELCOMED INTO GOD’S FAMILY.

Paul’s concept of adoption probably comes from the Roman law and practice of his day. “Under Roman law the procedure of adoption had two steps. In the first step, the son had to be released from the control of his natural father. This was done by a procedure whereby the father sold him as a slave three times to the adopter. The adopter would release him two times and he would automatically again come under his father’s control. With the third sale, the adoptee was freed from his natural father. Regarding the second step, since the natural father no longer had any authority over him, the adopter became the new father with absolute control over him, and he retained this control until the adoptee died or the adopter freed him. The son was not responsible to his natural father but only to his newly acquired father. The purpose of this adoption was so that the adoptee could take the position of a natural son in order to continue the family line and maintain property ownership. This son became the [head of the family] in the next generation” (Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary, p. 196).

CHILDREN OF GOD

In 1:5-6, we find five truths about the believer’s adoption.

1. Our adoption was PREDETERMINED.

“In love [God] predestined us for adoption.” To “predestine” means “to determine in advance.” The Greek word for “predestined” (proorizo) is found six times in the NT (Acts 4:28; Rom. 8:29, 30; 1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 1:5, 11).

2. Our adoption makes God our FATHER and us God’s HEIRS.

We were adopted “as sons.” Paul refers to all believers—both male and female—as “sons” of God. Why? Again, Paul was thinking of Roman adoption, which was “a legal practice by which the father of a family accepted as his heir a male child who was not his own” (Frank Thielman, Ephesians, p. 52). So Paul calls us all “sons” because we all-whether we are male or female—have been given the same privileged position in God’s family.

In chapter 2, Paul writes that we were once “the sons of disobedience” (v. 2) and “were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (v. 3). We who were slaves to sin are now sons of God! “All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ 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” (Rom. 8:14-17; cf. Gal. 4:4-7). We went from having nothing to being an heir to everything (cf. Eph. 1:11, 14)!

3. Our adoption was possible only because of CHRIST.

We were adopted “through Christ.” “To all who did receive [Christ], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12). “In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Gal. 3:26). Without the cross, there could be no adoption.

4. Our adoption brought God great JOY.

We were adopted “according to the purpose of [God’s] will.” The KJV says, “according to the good pleasure of his will.” As adoption brings human parents great joy, so too with God. In eternity past, God had a plan for those whom he had chosen to save (and who would believe). “Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 8:29). (Of course, there is an important distinction between the Son of God and sons of God.)

5. Our adoption reveals that God deserves our PRAISE.

We were adopted “to the praise of [God’s] glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” Our adoption proves that God is full of love for us. Scholars are divided as to whether “in love” qualifies “before him” or “he predestined.” But certainly we were adopted by God because he loved us.