“Adoption as Sons” in the Pauline Epistles

by
Alex Swem

for
Dr. Simon Kistemaker

October 5, 2012
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Introduction

! “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should

be called the sons of God!” (1 John 3:1) For the past two thousand years men have

marveled with the Apostle John at the wondrous notion found throughout Scripture and

made manifest in the New Testament: that because of the work of Jesus Christ, fallen

humankind can be adopted into Godʼs eternal family as “joint heirs with Christ” (Romans

8:17). The term “adoption as sons” (Gk. huiothesia) occurs only five times in the New

Testament, all in Romans and the Pauline Epistles. It is a compound of the Greek words

huios (son) and tithemi (to place).1 In the first and second century A.D. Greco-Roman

world, huiothesia was a commonly understood legal term for the adoption of an heir into

oneʼs household.2 Though most scholars agree that Paul used huiothesia to help

Gentile believers understand the complex concept of justification and incorporation into

Godʼs family 3, it is important to note that for Paul, “the content of the term must not be

inferred from the various Roman or Greek legal systems ... but must rather be

considered against the Old Testament redemptive-historical background of the adoption

1Thayerʼs Greek Lexicon, Electronic Database, s.v. “huiothesia,” accessed September 28, 2012, http://
Biblesoft.com
2 J.L. Hope, in commenting on the use of huiothesia” in the book of Romans, writes: “Paul wants his
readers ... who are ... familiar with the Roman law principles of adoption, to understand the theological
concept of adoption” (J. L. Hope, “Exegetical Perspectives of Pauline Contextualization of Theological
Concepts with Selected Juridicial Imagery in Romans and its Contextual Application” Thesis in Biblical
Studies [New Testament], University of Johannesburg, 2007, p. 187). In http://
www.concernedbrothers.com/Truth/HUIOTHESIA.pdf (accessed September 30, 2012).

3See, as a representative example the following comments by Professor James Dunn: “Adoption was not
a characteristically Jewish practice ... (but) Paul found that Greco-Roman law and custom provided a
more immediately applicable image” James D. G. Dunn (The Theology of Paul the Apostle, [Grand
Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006] 436).
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of Israel as son of God.”4 This paper will compare and contrast the use of huiothesia in

Galatians 4:4, Ephesians 5:1, Romans 8:15, 23, and Romans 9:4 while also briefly

considering the implications that these passages of Scripture have in our understanding

of the roles that God the Son and God the Holy Spirit fulfill in the Divine plan of salvation

for the adopted sons of God.

FOUNDATIONAL TEXTS

Galatians 4:4-6

! Having made his apostolic defense in the first portion of his letter to the

Galatians, Paul directs a concentrated attack upon the false doctrine threatening the

church: works-righteousness. “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by

hearing with faith?” he asks (Gal 3:2). Paul wants the Galatians to clearly understand

that those who rely on the works of the law for righteousness are under a curse (Gal

3:10), and that the law has fulfilled its purpose of serving as our guardian because of

our transgressions (Gal 3:19) until Christ came (3:24.) The Apostle exposes the folly of

returning to a bygone era of captivity and bondage, when Christ is “the One to whom

the promise had been made” (Gal 3:19), and the One through Whom the promise by

faith in Him might be given to those who believe (Gal 3:22). It is in this context that Paul

speaks of God sending His son in the “the fulness of time” to bring redemption to those

born under the law, that they might receive adoption into His eternal family. Though

Jesus was born under the law, His coming inaugurates a new era. His work “has

brought believers into their majority: they have grown up, as it were, reached adulthood,

and can now function as sons rather than as minors still under the jurisdiction of

4Herman Ridderbos, Paul: An Outline of His Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997)
197.
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household slaves.”5 The adoption of sons “is therefore a gift of the great time of

redemption that has dawned with Christ. It is the fulfillment of the promise that was

given of old to the true people of God”6 following from the apex of redemptive history:

the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This fulfillment of Divine promise

comes with a special proof that His adopted child is “no longer a slave, but a son and an

heir” (Gal 4:7): the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 1:5-6

! In Ephesians 1:5, Paul includes the term “adoption as sons” at the beginning of

his letter, as part of one of “the longest and most grammatically (complex) sentences in

(the) entire New Testament.”7 Whereas Paulʼs use of huiothesia in Galatians 4:5 comes

as the apostle contrasts justification by faith over against works-righteousness in the

middle of his letter, in Ephesians 1:5 the term occurs at the beginning of the letter in the

context of a blessing directed in praise of God for the edification of the Ephesian church.

But just as Galatians 4:4-6 spoke of Christ coming in the Fatherʼs perfect timing to

redeem His people, so also Paul in Ephesians makes clear that God predestined the

timing and agency of His peopleʼs adoption into His family. “Their salvation did not take

place because they earned it, but because God planned it, a truth that is otherwise

expressed in terms of predestination that is linked with Godʼs will and pleasure (1:5) and

again with his plan (1:11).”8 Indeed, this passage has a greater emphasis on Godʼs work

5D. A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
2005), Kindle e-book, location 11639 of 21755.
6 Ridderbos, Paul, 198.
7Robert Cara, Pauline Epistles Study Guide, (Virtual Campus: Reformed Theological Seminary, 2012)
143.
8 Carson and Moo, Introduction, loc. 12535 of 21755.
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of predestination: the believersʼ “adoption as sons” (Eph 1:5) and their identity as heirs

(Eph 1:11) are linked together with the phrase “predestined according to the purpose (or

counsel) of His will.” To put it another way, in Ephesians the “adoption of sons” is held

up as a wondrous aspect of the mystery of Godʼs will (Eph 1:9): His plan to unite all

things in Christ Jesus. God has revealed His plan to reconcile both Jews and Gentiles

to Himself “in one body” through the cross (Eph 2:16), making Jews and Gentiles “fellow

heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus ...” (Gal

3:6).

Romans 8:15-17; Romans 8:23-25

! If the revelation of Godʼs plan to unify in Christ all believers (Jew and Gentile) is

the context for Paulʼs use of huiothesia in Ephesians, a detailed exposition of the Holy

Spiritʼs role in the new life of those believers is the context of the wordʼs use in Romans

chapter 8. “Thus the work of the ʻSpirit-of-Sonshipʼ (Romans 8:15) forms the

indispensable and unbreakable link in the whole of Godʼs plan of redemption. For to

them who love God as their Father, all things must work together for blessing.”9 The

Holy Spirit is the One who has set the believer free from the law of sin and death (Rom

8:2); He is the one who brings life and peace to the mind of the believer (Rom 8:6); He

allows the believer to live a life pleasing to God (Rom 8:8-9); it is the Holy Spirit who

makes possible the resurrection of the believersʼ physical body (Rom 8:11); He makes it

possible for the believer to put to death the (mis)deeds of the body (Rom 8:13); the Holy

Spirit bears witness with the spirit of believers that they are the children of God, and

9 Ridderbos, Paul, 202.

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fellow heirs10 with Christ (Rom 8:16-17.) Above all, He is the Comforter who brings

fulfillment to Christʼs promise that He would “be with His disciples always, even to the

end of the age (Matthew 28:30), giving the Christian a blessed foretaste of paradise:

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be

His people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3).

! It is only natural that the greater emphasis on the Holy Spirit in the Galatians 4

and Romans 8 passages should lead Paul to devote more time to speaking of “heirs”

and “inheritance” in connection to the “adoption as sons” there, for “when we are

adopted as children, we receive the Spirit who gives us assurance, and also become

co-heirs with Christ.”11 This is an inheritance that has very great rewards in the present,

chief among which is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, along with the

experience of bearing His fruit of love, joy, peace, etc. Rich as these present rewards

may be, however, they pale in comparison to the full inheritance that awaits the sons of

God when their adoption is fully consummated with the return of Christ and the

establishment of the new heavens and the new earth. As FF Bruce notes, “of this

consummation believers here and now possess the “first fruits” in the form of the

Spirit.”12 Our status as sons is a present reality verified by the testimony of the Holy

10Ridderbos further notes that “There is in the Pauline pronouncements a peculiar relationship of
reciprocity between the adoption of sons and the gift of the Spirit” (Ridderbos, Paul, 199).
11 Louis Berkoff, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997) 417.
12F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000)
429.
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Spirit13 (Rom 8:16), and Paul notes both in Romans 8 and Galatians 4 that it is by the

Holy Spirit that we may cry out to God, “Abba, Father!”

! Indeed, it seems that a key dimension of the adoption as sons in the Romans

texts is the “now/not yet”14 aspect of the inheritance that follows. In Romans 8:15 the

Roman believers are said to have “received” (past tense) not adoption itself, but “the

Spirit of adoption as sons”, that is, they have received the Holy Spirit. This is made all

the more clear by the following clause: “by whom we cry, ʻAbba, Father!ʼ” -- hence, the

“Spirit of adoption” here is a Person, already received by the Roman Christians as a

witness that they are children of God and fellow heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17). In

Romans 8:23-25, by contrast, the “adoption as sons,” paralleled with “the redemption of

our bodies” (Rom 8:23) is something that Paul and the Roman church (though already

having the “firstfruits of the Spirit”) wait for eagerly, groaning inwardly in anticipation all

the while.

Romans 9:4-5

This passage has the least in common with the others containing the term “adoption as

sons.” Paul here speaks of the “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” that he bears in

his heart due to the fact that, in contrast to Godʼs elect (8:33), the great majority of his

“kinsmen according to the flesh” are separated from the amazing love of God that is in

13Vern Poythress, “New Testament Worldview”, Revolutions in Worldview: Understanding the Flow of
Western Thought, (ed. W. Andrew Hoffecker; Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 2007) 88.
Articles, The Works of John Frame and Vernon Poythress Online (October 1, 2012).

14Regarding this, Ridderbos writes, “the adoption of sons represents the new state of salvation that has
come with Christ in its all-embracing and eternal destination ... the Holy Spirit in the meantime as gift of
the interim “helps us in our weakness (v.26) Where salvation cannot yet break through in its perfection,
where the sonship of believers awaits revelation in its all-embracing significance affecting the whole
cosmos, there the Spirit enters in as firstfruits, to keep alive in the hearts of believers the consciousness,
the certainty, the liberty of sonship” (Ridderbos, Paul, 200).
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Christ Jesus our Lord. Thus, these verses speak not of believers in Christ per se, but of

the nation of Israel in an ethnic sense.15 Berkhoff writes, “Paul even says of his wicked

kinsmen, ʻwhose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the

law, and the service of God, and the promises.ʼ ”16 Due to its uniqueness among the five

huiothesia passages, Ridderbos considers this instance especially useful for

understanding the Old Testament background of the adoption of Israel as son of God.17

While not denying the Greco-Roman implications of the term vis a vis the adoption of a

male heir into a prestigious family, Ridderbos finds a more compelling parallel in the

Genesis-Malachi narrative of Godʼs pursuit and adoption of the nation of Israel as His

chosen people, and the race from whom, “according to the flesh is the Christ who is

God over all, blessed forever” (Rom 9:5).

Conclusion
There is great mystery in how the Divine plan of salvation is orchestrated by the Trinity

and works its way out among the people of God. However, it is this writerʼs belief that

God inspired the Apostle Paulʼs use of the term “adoption as sons” in these five New

Testament passages to help us understand the roles that God the Son and God the

Holy Spirit fulfill in the Divine economy of salvation for the children of God.18

15“Paul explicitly refers to the nation of Israel as Godʼs adopted son and an proper understanding of the
Old Testament background (to Pauline adoption) needs to begin with this text” (Trevor Burke, “Pauline
Adoption: A Sociological Approach,” The Evangelical Quarterly 73:2 [2001] 120).
16 Berkoff, Systematic Theology, 289.
17 Ridderbos, Paul, 198 (cited above).
18Berkoff notes with prescience that “believers are first of all children of God by adoption. This implies, of
course, that they are not children of God by nature, as modern liberals would have us believe, for one
cannot well adopt his own children.” (Berkoff, Systematic Theology, 515).
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Christ in the “Adoption as Sons”

! Though there is nuanced meaning in Paulʼs usage of the term “adoption of sons”

throughout his epistles, the term first of all serves to illustrate the supremacy of Godʼs

one and only Son, Jesus Christ. Whereas the first Adam failed in his sacred charge 19 to

“cultivate and keep” the garden of Eden in accordance with Godʼs commands (Gen

2:15) and by his disobedience introduced suffering, sin, and death into the human race,

Jesusʼ perfect obedience to the will of His Father (Heb 10:7-12) “brought many sons to

glory” (Heb 2:10) and inaugurated the “reconciliation of all things” to God (Col 1:19).

There are also significant future implications in understanding Christʼs role in believersʼ

adoption as sons. The Father has ordained the most perfect of rewards for the second

Adamʼs obedience: He has bestowed upon Him the Name (LORD) that is above every

Name20; He has granted that “every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus

Christ is LORD” (Isa 45:23, Phil 2:10-11); He has promised that Christ will reign for ever

and ever (Ex 15:18, Lk 1:33) over a Kingdom of perpetual peace, the Heavenly City, the

New Jerusalem with His pure and spotless bride, the Church, at His side (Rev 21:2). In

the same way, Christ promises to bestow gifts of unimagined splendor upon His joint

heirs (Eph 4:8). They will be praised for their obedience (Matt 25:21); they will receive

physical treasures (store up for yourselves treasures in heaven); they will feast on the

finest food and wine (Isa 25:6); they will receive a new, immortal body that cannot feel

19Professor John Fesko suggests that the Garden of Eden be primarily regarded as the “archetypal
temple,” and Adam as the High Priest entrusted with its sacred upkeep ( J.V. Fesko, Protology: Genesis
1-3 In the Light of Christ, [Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2005] 173).
20As Dr. Robert Cara notes, “for a Jew, YHWH was the name above every name; the greatest honor God
the Father cold give Jesus was to give him His name (Robert Cara, Pauline Epistles Study Guide, [Virtual
Campus: Reformed Theological Seminary, 2012] 191).
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pain and will never die (Rev 21:4) and most of all, they will dwell with Him forever, for

He Himself is the greatest reward (Rev 21:3).

The Holy Spirit in the “Adoption as Sons”

! Just as adoption radically alters the course of an earthly adopteeʼs future, the

salvation brought by Jesus is radical in scope, reaching men, women and children from

“every tongue and tribe and nation,” and having implications for all of creation. The fact

that Paulʼs use of the term “adoption of sons” is nearly always accompanied by mention

of the Holy Spirit in connection to the inheritance discussed above is instructive: just as

an adoptee becomes the full, real child of their adopted parents with all the rights and

privileges of a biological heir, so also Godʼs adopted children are “joint heirs in Christ,”

bearing within them the very Spirit of the Living God as a sign and guarantee of the

future glory that awaits them. Although in their “adoption as sons” believers have

outgrown the former guardianship of the law (Gal 3:24-26), yet they have not yet

received their full inheritance, and the Holy Spirit comforts and guides them until that

day. Just as all of creation groans under the weight of sin (Rom 8:22), believers groan in

expectation of the consummating glory that awaits them (Rom 8:23, 2 Cor 5:2). In the

meantime, as they are confronted with their own sinfulness and imperfection21 (Phil

3:12, 1 Jn 1:8) and live daily in the midst of a fallen world that has yet to be fully

submitted to the Lordship of the Son (Heb 2:8), the Spirit helps them cry out “Abba,

Father!” in looking heavenward for strength (Acts 7:55) to live as a faithful witness of the

Gospel in the here and now (Dan 12:3, Phil 2:15.)

21Dr. Trevor Burke writes, “For believers this present era is also one of ʻweakness,ʼ of not always knowing
Godʼs mind and will as they pray, but God the Spirit (none other that the Spirit of adoption mentioned
earlier ... ) assists them in determining his will” (Trevor Burke, Pauline Adoption: Adopted Into Godʼs
Family, [Downers Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity Press, 2006] 194).
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