Adoption
(VI)
Now we come to Galatians 3:23 – 4:7 in our consideration
of Biblical adoption. As with our reflections on Romans 8, we want to ask, “What
is the storyline? The trajectory?” If this were a play, how would we storyboard
it? If we were teaching children, how would we explain it? We also want to be
mindful of its context, for our passage does not stand alone anymore than
Romans 8 stands alone.
Let’s
note that in Galatians 3:1 – 22 we see a contrast between the Law and faith in which
“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law” (3:13), that “no one is justified
by the Law” (3:11), and that our inheritance is not based on law (3:18).
Then
in 3:22 we see that we’ve been “shut up under sin so that the promise by faith
in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe,” and in 3:23 that, “Before
faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith
which was later to be revealed.”
In
Romans these same elements appear. “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it
speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and
all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no
flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge
of sin” (Romans 3:19 – 20).
“For
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
In
Romans chapters 3, 4, and 7 we see that “Christ has redeemed us from the curse
of the Law” (Galatians 3:13) and in Romans 4 and 8 we see that our inheritance is
not based on law (Galatians 3:18) but on God’s grace and mercy.
In
other words, the building materials of Romans and Galatians are much the same, though
arranged somewhat differently; the unity of Scripture is one of its many
beauties, as is how Scripture dances with Scripture, refracting the glory of
God in Jesus Christ and drawing us to Him.
It
is in the context of the above trajectories of Romans and Galatians that we see
Biblical adoption in Romans Chapter 8 and Galatians Chapter 4. We cannot
appreciate Biblical adoption without seeing, in some measure, the storyline in
which it is placed. Folks who “see” the storyline but miss understanding some
of its details can have a fuller vision of adoption, can participate more fully
in adoption, that those who major on the details but who miss the storyline. (I
will return to this.)
The
story of Galatians 3:23 – 4:7 is that we were children under tutors, guardians,
and managers, that we were children held in bondage, but that the Son of God
came to redeem us from the Law so that we could “receive the adoption as sons,”
and no longer be in the functional position of a slave (though “heirs of all
things”) but rather “an heir through God." To receive the adoption as
sons, to be placed as sons, is to receive our inheritance. To receive our
inheritance is to live in our inheritance, to function as adults in the family
of our Father, to be conformed to the image of His Only Begotten so that He
might truly be the Firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29).
To
receive our Biblical adoption is to “be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect”
(Matthew 5:48), it is to grow up into the Head in all things as His Body (Ephesians
4:14 – 16). And let’s recall from Romans 8, that until we enter into the
fulness of our adoption in Jesus Christ, until we are fully manifested, the
creation will remain in bondage. Shame on us if we do not take seriously our
growth, individually and collectively, in Jesus Christ.
Infants
and children take their cues from news headlines; adults follow Jesus Christ. It
is not the image of Daniel Chapter Two that matters, it is the Stone cut
without hands.
The
story of Galatians 3:23 – 4:7 is that we were once children under guardians, but
we have matured and been placed as sons and daughters in our Father’s Family. Once
again, only those who are already children can be adopted. We are born
into the Family of God and then adopted, “placed,” as sons and daughters,
receiving our inheritance in Jesus Christ.
Academic commentators can come to the
conclusion that mirrors that of Ronald Y. K. Fung in his commentary on
Galatians (NICNT), “It is not certain whether Paul’s analogy about the state of
the minor lasting until the time fixed by his father is drawn from the practice
of Roman law or Hellenistic law or from some other legal procedure” (The
Epistle to the Galatians, page 180). Fung is honestly saying that we just
don’t know what specific cultural or legal practice Paul was drawing from in developing
the idea of “the placing of a son.”
However,
we can say that Paul was using a general Greco-Roman backdrop of adoption as
it relates to inheritance, and this is the important point in our passages.
My own sense is that we can also look to the Old Testament and God’s relationship
with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the People of Israel to see the God’s desire
for bringing His People into the fulness of sonship among the nations (see Romans
9:4 where Paul also uses the term “adoption,” the placing of sons).
The
critical point in all of this is how Paul uses the term, for how Paul uses the
term is how the Holy Spirit uses the term, and how the Holy Spirit uses the
term in the Word of God is how we ought to understand the term.
As
we previously considered, we become God’s children through new birth, by being
born from above, by having the very life of our Father placed within us, by
being raised from spiritual death, by being made new creations. The very DNA of
God lives in His children, His breath, His Spirit. We do ourselves, our people,
and the world a disservice if we use the term adoption to speak of coming into
the family of God, for unless a person is born again he or she cannot enter the
Kingdom of God – we must be clear that we need a New Nature, the Nature of God.
The
world’s concept of adoption is not the concept of the Bible.
However,
where the Biblical concept of adoption does share common ground with the Greco-Roman
(and I think ancient Biblical) concept of adoption is in the area of
inheritance, for a central purpose of adoption in Paul’s world was to bestow a
father’s (and family’s) inheritance on the one who was adopted, and that the
adoptee would carry the family name. This meant that the person adopted was
typically an adult.
Here
again we see a contrast between our contemporary concept of adoption and that
of Paul’s world. In our world children and infants are typically adopted, in
Paul’s world we learn of adults being adopted. When Lew Wallace wrote Ben
Hur, having done his research, he had an adult Ben Hur adopted by the Roman
Quintus Arrius.
Any
treatment of Biblical adoption, the placing of a son, that does not connect it
with our inheritance in God and in Christ, an inheritance which is
indivisible, fails to adequately portray Biblical adoption.
One
of the tragedies, and I do mean tragedy, of our failure to understand Biblical
adoption is that we fail to see that we have a destiny and purpose to fulfill
in this life by becoming mature sons and daughters, conformed to the image of
Jesus Christ. We fail to see that the people of the world and the very creation
need us to become who we are in Christ.
Instead
of growing up to adulthood, week after week, month after month, and year after
year, we go over the elemental teachings again and again and again (Hebrews
5:11 – 6:2), never questioning or wondering why we do these things.
Let
us not forget the Incarnational mystery that Jesus, “Although He was a son, He
learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made
perfect [mature, complete], He became to all those who obey Him the source of
eternal salvation” (Hebrews 5:8 – 9). The path of being made perfect with Jesus is the
path of adoption.
Biblical
adoption is a key element of the Gospel in Romans, it is the setup for the crescendo
of 8:31 – 39. It is the culmination of the trajectory of chapters 1 – 7, the
outcome of the Gospel working in those who believe in Christ Jesus. Biblical
adoption is our high calling in Jesus Christ and the Father, the fruit of which
is the deliverance of creation and the manifestation of the Father in His sons
and daughters, and the expression of Jesus Christ in His brothers and sisters…in
His Body.
Our
inheritance in Christ is indivisible, this means that all that Jesus Christ has,
we have in Him and in one another, we are “coheirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17)
and we will inherit all things, most especially the Father and the Son.
What
more could we desire?
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