Adoption: Rich Imagery for Our Relationship with God

The image of adoption is a particularly well-chosen one because it illustrates, in a way that nothing else can, the nature of our relationship with God in Christ. An adopted child is not the natural offspring of his adoptive parents, but neither is his presence in the household an accident. His parents have deliberately chosen him and made him a member of their family by an act of will that is sealed in love and self-sacrifice.

There is nothing in the child that puts these parents under an obligation to accept him, and there may be any number of considerations that would advise against it. For example, the child might be handicapped, which would make caring for him more difficult. He might be of a different race, which would draw attention to the fact that he is adopted and could cause problems in later life. His birth parents might not be reconciled to losing their child, and might try to reclaim him at some future point. The child himself might rebel against his adoption when he finds out about it, and actively seek out his birth parents, with serious consequences for the families involved.

One way or another, all these factors play into our adoption as children by God. There is nothing in us that would oblige him to take us under his wing. Our sins have handicapped us and make us more difficult to deal with because their consequences are still with us and have to be overcome. We are quite different from God, and when other people hear that we are claiming to be his children, they may point this out and dismiss our claims as wishful thinking on our part. Finally, Satan, the rule from whom we have been rescued, is not happy about this and does all he can to win us back. We may even be tempted to seek him out in times of spiritual discouragement or depression, wondering whether our old life was really as bad as it is made out to be. In short, adoption does not come naturally, and it is only by the witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts that it takes root and becomes a kind of second nature to us.

If adoption is not a natural entitlement, however, its rewards are nonetheless very great. Adopted children are heirs just as much as the natural children are, which in spiritual terms means that we who have been grafted into Christ share in all the privileges and blessings that have been bestowed on him in his glorified human nature.

Gerald Bray, God Is Love (pp. 643-44)