Adoption gives us the privilege of sons, regeneration the nature of sons.
Properly understood, adoption is one of the most precious, heartwarming, and practical of all our theological beliefs… [It] focuses our attention on a relational image and points us to the joy and assurance that comes from receiving a father who loves us and a family with whom we can enjoy our new freedom in Christ.
The Family of God, Tabletalk, March 2007, p. 8. Used by Permission of Ligonier Ministries.
Our adoption as sons of God…comes through union with Christ and cannot be experienced apart from it. In Christ, and in Him alone, we receive the adoption that gives us an undeserved share in the promises that were made to Him and the privileges that He has earned as God’s Son (Gal. 3:29). Indeed, the reason that Christ came to this earth was so that He might give us adoption as God’s sons (Gal. 4:5).
The Family of God, Tabletalk, March 2007, p. 10. Used by Permission of Ligonier Ministries.
God’s Holy Spirit confirms the validity of our adoption, not by some inner, mystical voice, but by the fruit He produces (Gal. 5:22-23) and the power He provides for spiritual service (Ac. 1:8).
Study Bible Notes, Romans 8:16.
As God’s dear children, we, who are by grace adopted, are called into the fellowship of suffering, soon enough to be followed by stupendous glory, with the only begotten Son. The suffering precedes the glory; the cross precedes the crown, both in the order of experience of the eternal Son of God and also in that of adopted sons and daughters of God (Douglas Kelly).
Partakers of Holiness, Tabletalk, Oct. 2004, p. 38, Used by Permission.
The Word of God is clear, it is not that we have accepted God; rather He has accepted us… [Yet many Christians] actually think that they accepted God, and therefore it is only natural for them to think that they need to keep accepting God every hour of every day in order to make it as a Christian… In the cross of Christ, the bride of Christ has been made acceptable to God, and such acceptance is the foundation of our assurance.
Assured by God, ed. Burk Parsons, P&R, 2006, p. 27, 28, 29. Used by Permission. Get this book!
Nobody is born into this world a child of the family of God. We are born as children of wrath. The only way we enter into the family of God is by adoption, and that adoption occurs when we are united to God’s only begotten Son by faith. When by faith we are united with Christ, we are then adopted into that family of whom Christ is the firstborn.
The New Birth, Tabletalk, March 2007, p. 7. Used by Permission of Ligonier Ministries.
Who is to have authority in the matter of gracious adoption? The children of wrath? Surely not; and yet all men are such! No, it stands to reason, to common sense, that none but the parent can have the discretion to adopt.
Sermons, 10.488.
Leading implies following; and those who are enabled to follow the guidance of the Divine Spirit are most assuredly children of God, for the Lord ever leads His own children. If, then, you are following the lead of God’s Spirit, you have one of the evidences of Sonship.
A man adopts one for his son and heir that does not at all resemble him; but whosoever God adopts for His child is like Him; he not only bears His heavenly Father’s name, but His image (Col. 3:10).
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 11.
Since God has a Son of his own, and such a Son, how wonderful God’s love in adopting us! We needed a Father, but He did not need sons.
We are people who have received a new name through adoption. Furthermore, the adoption, no matter how much it makes us feel good, was not intended primarily for that purpose. In the New Testament, adoptions brought glory to the person who adopts, not the one who is adopted. Adoption brings glory to God.
When People are Big and God is Small, P&R Publishing, 1997, p. 161. Used by Permission. Get this book!
