Biblical Adoption vs. The New Birth

So, What is The Problem With “Adoption?” (As Opposed to “Re-birth?”)

Adoption by human standards always involves taking legal and relational responsibility for someone who is not your child.

Obviously, adoption by human standards could never produce a new nature: birth provides a nature, and the New Birth produces a new nature.

Adoption by human standards can never produce an individual who carries God’s “genetic information.” 1^st Peter 1:3 says that “God has ‘begotten us again’… through the resurrection of Jesus.” He sired us…we are conceived as a new creature, and born again with a new nature which is “created in the likeness of God, in righteousness and true Holiness.” (Ephesians 4:24)

In John 3:3, Jesus told Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” (Not, “Except a man be adopted by God….”)

But, Ephesians 1:5 says that as believers, we are now “predestined to the adoption of sons” unto God, by Jesus Christ.

So, What is the Adoption all About?

We are told in five places in scripture about our adoption: Ephesians 1:5 is one such place. (Galatians 4:5, Romans 9:4, Romans 8:15, and Romans 8:23 are the others.) In fact, Ephesians 1:5 is also often misused to claim that we were predestined to become God’s Children. But the predestination is only for believers, and to become “Sons” of God (His publicly declared heirs) not just His offspring.

Unfortunately, there are several instances where a translation uses the word “sons” when “children” or “offspring” would have been correct.

In John 1:11-13, we see that as believers we were given the right (authority: “exousia”) to become (be generated as: “genesthe”) the Children (“teknoi”) of God. But many translations say, “He gave us the power to become the Sons of God.” On the other hand, everyone who was regenerated as a child of God (His offspring) is also guaranteed to become a Son: a full-grown heir of God.

This seems confusing to us, in Western culture. But in Greek or Roman culture, a rich man might have plural wives, thus numerous offspring, but only one would be named his heir…the one inheriting all his wealth and his authority.

In Genesis 24, Isaac was named the heir of Abraham, so that ALL the wealth Abraham had, now belonged to Isaac, and was under his authority. Interestingly, when the servant returned with the Bride, he reported to Isaac, not Abraham.

So, When Will Our “Adoption” Occur?

Romans 8:23 gives us the answer. Paul says that we (and the whole creation) are all waiting for the “Adoption of Sons” (“huiothesis”)…the redemption of our bodies.

Romans 8:14-17 says, we currently have the Spirit of Adoption, and that, positionally, we are His Sons. But the “Placement of Sons” (“Huiothesis”… always translated as “adoption”) will occur when we receive our newly redeemed bodies.)

What About the New Birth?

This is not a poetic way of saying “And, I started over, right then!”

It is not at all what  John Denver described, in his song, “Rocky Mountain High.” He said his first exposure to the Rocky mountains was a life-changing experience. He sang, “He was born in the summer of his 27^th year, coming home to a place he’d never been before…He left yesterday behind him, You might say he was born again…”

(Well, No! I wouldn’t!)

Rebirth requires a new parenting…a new Father. And it implies a familial relationship by rebirth, We did not “join a team,” or even “join a family.” We were sired by God, and born into His family.

In 1^st John 3:9, God says of His little children (teknoi…offspring) that we cannot continue in sin, because His seed (genetic information…DNA, essentially) remains in us so that we cannot continue in our old way of life.

That could not happen through our human understanding of adoption. It required the new birth, with God as our literal Father…. So that we are literally His offspring. You are his child by birth…the second birth!