I. Introduction
A. Adoption in America
1. According to the National Council for Adoption, there are over 100,000 children in the US foster care system who are awaiting adoption.
2. The total adoptions in the US in 2022 were 80,598 children, 53,579 of whom were adopted out of foster care.
B. Adoption In Scripture
1. On three occasions, Paul uses the image of the church as the adopted people of God. (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:5)
2. Why did Paul use this imagery?
C. Adoption During the Roman Empire
1. For a while, most scholars have believed that Paul was writing about adoption from the standpoint of Roman law, not Jewish law. Why?
a. Every letter containing this image is sent to a place subject to Roman law.
b. There were no clear adoption laws in the Law of Moses.
2. What did adoption look like?
a. “Adoption was an issue for inheritance in Roman society, but also implied that an adoptee was emancipated from his father’s power and he entered under the power of another father.”
b. Under Roman law, a family could adopt a child in place of an already existing heir, but this was rare. There was also the possibility of joint inheritance, something foreign to Jewish practice (Romans 8:17).
c. Adoption was commonly used in the case of a family that could not biologically have children of their own. This was often done with friends’ or relatives’ children. There is little evidence that it was common to adopt complete strangers.
d. It is also interesting that adopted children did not have the same status as biological children in the family unless specifically stated as such.
e. If a slave was adopted, they were not to usurp the natural privileges of the natural children, and their rights were greatly impacted negatively (marriage to freeborn Romans, inheritance, etc.).
3. With this background in mind, how does that help us to understand the significance of Paul’s use of this imagery in light of our salvation?
II. Implications for Passages on Adoption
A. , not Slaves
1. In contrast to the adoption of slaves of the day, God is communicating that we are His children.
2. In Romans 8:15, we see that we have the right to cry out to God in a more intimate way, as designated with the term . It is the Aramaic term a child would use for referring to their father.
3. We are more than slaves to God; we are His and daughters (Galatians 4:4-7).
B. Blessed
1. Furthermore, we are considered as – with the rightful heir, Jesus.
a. When preparing your will, you list the beneficiaries of your estate. These are the people who inherit your things. Being clear about who your beneficiaries are (and are not) is important for the legal process.
b. It would be against the norm of the day that adopted slaves or strangers could not be true heirs. This amplifies Romans 8:14-17, which says we are fully children of God and joint heirs with Christ, even though He is adopting us as strangers.
c. In Ephesians 1:3-6, we learn that God prepared a for us so that we could have an eternal legacy (Hebrews 9:15-17).
2. The early church struggled to understand who the true beneficiaries were of God’s eternal estate; that’s why we have these passages.
3. All who are God’s children through Christ will receive the eternal estate prepared.
III. Conclusion
A. Adopting a Killer
1. What if someone had killed your child, and then you were asked to adopt the killer?
2. This is exactly what happened in 2019 when Sharletta Evans figuratively adopted the man (Raymond Johnson) who killed her three-year-old son 24 years earlier.
3. Isn’t this really what God has asked of Himself when it comes to us?
B. Invitation
1. God wants us to be His children.
2. To become His child, one must be born again, as Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3.