Romans 8:15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! (NASB)

Ephesians 1:5   he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, (ESV)


As believers in Christ we know that we are children of God.  We know that we are born again.  


Christ's death, his payment for our sin, the propitiation required, allows us the opportunity to receive the "spirit of adoption as sons".  But what does that mean?  What does it mean to be adopted?


Adoption is a legal term.  It is the process by which a child born of one set of parents becomes the child of another set or individual parent by means of the court system, having a judge rule the adoption complete and lawful.  The judge signs the adoption certificate or decree and the new parents file for a new birth certificate that has the child's new name and the new parents are listed and the child is theirs in every way.  In the eyes of the law this child is now completely and utterly their child and the law will not differentiate between them and a biological child of the same parents.  The adopted child is now an heir among the children.


I know this because I have adopted children.  The process of adoption is a birthing process even as the biological process of birth.  There are distinct markers of "pregnancy", "labor", and "birth".  I can compare this relatively well as I also have biological children.  But I don't wish to share the details of our adoptions here and now.  What I want to look at is the spiritual correlation. 


My adopted children were born to other women.  My daughter belonged to that birth family until she was twelve.  My son was released for adoption at three days old by his biological mother.  They were both born to be my children though.  Born of another's body, but chosen by the Father to be my child.  My son came young and became a part of this family in a way that he knew no other family, no other way.  This is where he belonged.  My daughter came with memories of another time, other people, another life.  But she will quickly tell you that we are her family, I am her mother, and my husband is her "Daddy".  How can that be?  Just because some judge signed a paper?


No, but that marked a permanency that allowed the feelings of belonging and of safety to grow.  It was the fertile soil for those other things to be.  Without the legal process that said she was ours she would have continued to waver in a sense that "they" could take her away again, for she remembers being taken away.  She would have continued to fear that the birth family could come steal her away; something she was very much afraid of for several months, but months not years.  She no longer fears that.   The legal procedure of  adoption allowed our daughter and her new family to move toward the truth that she is ours, born to be ours, designed to be a child of God under our care.

In much the same way, our adoption as "sons" allows us to grow into our understanding of what it means to be God's child. It is the legal decree that declares to all who would hear that we are his.  We were born of another (in sin) but through the death of Christ our redemption was purchased, the requirements of God's law were fulfilled and thereby we have a legal claim to his family simply by the acceptance of Christ's work, of his being who he is.  When one professes Christ as their Savior the adoption decree is signed and that one has the all the legal rights of an heir.  The birth certificate is changed so that God is now listed as our parent.  In that moment the new believer has received "the spirit of adoption" and is completely and in every way a member of God's family.


Some of us come as little children and really know no other way.  Our memories are wrapped up in the family of God, surrounded by God's grace and love.  Some of us come later, with memories of old ways, an old life, and other relationships.  We may face fears that arise from things in the past. But those memories and fears, those old ways, those old relationships do not change the fact that the adoption decree was signed and a new birth took place and we were born to be a child of this Father.