We're Not Born Into God's Family

In two days we will celebrate National Adoption Day 2013. This is a joyous time for my family as all three of adoption.

my children are adopted and we finalized those adoptions on National Adoption Day in their respective years. It goes without saying that the blessing of adoption - the adding to our forever family a new life that will forever change and enhance our family in wondrous and unknown ways – is near and dear to my heart. And yet, I cannot escape the spiritual significance of adoption for the believer. Every year, my heart is driven back to the Scriptures to ferret out exactly what God has to say about this awesome thing we call

No One Is God’s Child By Birth

Scripture makes it abundantly clear that no human being, at their natural birth, is a child of God. In fact, just the opposite is true; we are the children of God’s enemy, Satan. Jesus told the Pharisees, in John 8:44 that they, “belong to your father, the Devil”. Paul elucidates on this truth several times throughout his epistles; particularly Ephesians. He tells us in Ephesians 2:3, that “All of us also lived among them [those who are disobedient, v. 2] at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.” He goes on to say in Ephesians 5:6 that God’s wrath rests on “those that are disobedient” – literally, ἐπὶ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῆς ἀπειθείας “upon the sons of disobedience” – which he has already pointed out all men are before they are saved by grace (2:8-9). In fact, James says that we are not only not God’s children, but are, truthfully, his enemies before we experience saving grace (cf. James 4:4) because we are born into the unsaved world’s system.

The New Birth Is Required for Salvation

The concept of being “born again” isn’t mentioned much in the New Testament. We find it in that quintessential conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3, 1 Peter 1:3, 1 John 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18; and Revelation 2:17; 3:12, but that’s about it. Nowhere does the Bible elaborate on what the new birth is or on how one is born again; outside of Jesus’ statement in John 3:5 that the sinner must be born both of water [physical birth] and the Spirit [re-birth by the Holy Spirit]. Jesus is clear that this new birth comes about by faith specifically in him, the Son of God and savior, but beyond that he doesn’t explain the intricacies of the new birth comes about. For that matter, none of the New Testament writers take up the matter; it is merely assumed that a believer [one who exercises faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior] has been born again and now has new life. What we can say for certain is that the new birth is not just a generic spiritual birth, but a new birth effected or accomplished by the Holy Spirit (cf. John 3:5 – the Holy Spirit being the agent who effects the new birth]. In that way, the new birth is most truly a spiritual birth, not a rebirth. The new birth, or being born again, is not the reanimation of a formerly dead human spirit; rather it is the granting of new spiritual life in the absence of any spiritual life. This is why Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be born both physically and spiritually if he was going to see God’s kingdom. Therefore, we cannot escape the absolute necessity of the new birth; it’s how we become believers.

All Believers Are Placed Into God’s Family By Adoption

Adoption is the placing into a family a person who was formerly not part of that family, thus, creating a new family. We were not born into God’s family at our natural birth; we’ve seen that already. So, how does the unbeliever become part of God’s family? Simply, through the miracle of adoption. Adoption is mentioned, specifically, 5 times in the New Testament. Paul is the only New Testament writer to use adoption language to describe how we become part of God’s family; most likely because he was a Roman citizen and was acquainted with the common Roman practice of adoption – something not regularly practiced in Judaism. So, let’s take a brief look at what Paul says about it.

In Ephesians 1:5 we are told that God “predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” – that God always planned that the miracle of adoption be an integral part of redemption. Paul’s phrase, “adoption to sonship” is repeated every time he mentions adoption. Paul is reiterating that it is through adoption that sonship comes about; that it is adoption which results in sonship / being granted the status of God’s child / becoming part of God’s forever family. Paul goes on to tell us that it is through adoption [effected by the Holy Spirit] that our intimate relationship with the Father is established (Rom. 8:15). This relationship is so intimate that we cry out through the Holy Spirit “Abba, Father” [lit. Daddy!]. Our adoption, however, has not been finalized in a sense; our physical bodies have not yet been fully redeemed. This is something we wait for, so Paul tells us we are awaiting our finalized adoption in the redemption of our bodies (Rom. 8:23) which will happen in the coming resurrection.

The New Birth and Adoption are Inseparable

Follow my logic for a moment. If we are born into God’s family in the new birth, why would God have to include adoptive language to explain how we become part of his family? He wouldn’t. Why? Birth establishes a familial bond by its very nature and removes the need for adoption. How, then, do the new birth and adoption coexist in our salvation? Every time the new birth is mentioned in Scripture there is no mention of the creation of a new familial relationship, but of the granting of new life. The new birth is necessary for the unredeemed sinner so that he might gain spiritual life where he before had none. The new birth, being born again, is the granting by the Holy Spirit spiritual life to one who was spiritually dead. It does not, of itself, establish a familial relationship with the Father. This is why adoption is necessary. God cannot adopt into his family someone who is spiritually dead; thus the need for the new birth. But adoption is necessary because we were not naturally born into God’s family, but Satan’s. Part of the sinner’s redemption is the transference of a familial relationship out of Satan’s family and into God’s forever family. Therefore, while the new birth is necessary for spiritual life, adoption is necessary to establish the familial relationship with have with God through Christ. No one is born into God’s family. For that matter, no one is “born again” into God’s family. Rather, we are born again to spiritual life and adopted into God’s family.

Real Life Illustration

I know a host of families who have adopted, but let me use my own family to illustrate the beauty of this truth. All three of my children were born into someone else’s family. We do not share blood, DNA, our any measure of a genetic background. Yet, when their adoptions were finalized and the judges’ gavels fell, several noteworthy things happened. First, they were given new birth certificates. Their old certificates are sealed to everyone; no one can see their originals – they essentially do not exist. Their new birth certificates show all of the pertinent data of their birth, but show me as their father and my wife as their mother. Nowhere do they read “adopted” or carry any markers that they are not the original certificates. It’s as if my children were born all over again. Secondly, they received new names. The names they were granted at birth were expunged and the names their new parents chose for them were forever granted to them. We, by virtue of our new birth and adoption into the family of God await the granting of our new names by Jesus Christ himself (cf. Rev. 2:17; 3:12). Finally, this new familial relationship established by adoption is forever. A “natural born” child can be disinherited, but an adopted child cannot. For good or ill, my children are mine forever.  While my children were born and then later became part of our forever family, the new birth and our adoption into God’s family happen instantaneously when we, as sinners, exercise faith in Jesus Christ for redemption.

Adoption is a beautiful picture of God’s taking us, without life, granting us new life and then making us forever part of his family; so much so that we can call him “Daddy”. So, as you consider National Adoption Day this year, take time to praise God for his adopting you into his family. If you’ve never been born again, then you are still in your original family, Satan’s family. I urge you to come to Jesus Christ, be born again, and experience the beauty of being part of God’s forever family.