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Abundant Life in the Son: A Study of Salvation

as sons and daughters with all the accompanying rights and privileges.
The wonder of this act of adoption is that knowing our awful, sinful, lost,
and rebellious condition, He expended heaven’s resources for us. None
of us can ever doubt that He could redeem us; the wonder will always be
that He would. He is our heavenly Father, and we are His children! Is He
not, therefore, worthy of our unending praise and devotion?

The Nature of Adoption

Adoption, like regeneration and justification, is a work of God in the
person who turns to Christ. It deals with a person’s position in the family
of God and concerns his privileges as one of God’s children. As we have
seen, God’s purpose for the one who turns to Him is more than just
freeing that person from slavery. His aim is to make sons and daughters.
Paul asserted: “He chose us in him before the creation of the world…. In
love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ”
(Ephesians 1:4–5).

The Meaning of Adoption

The word adoption literally means “to place a child.” It refers to a
place and condition given to one who has no natural claim to it. Most of
us are familiar with the act of adoption, in which a child (usually an
orphan) is taken into a new family where he or she is treated as a
natural son or daughter and given all the rights and privileges that
belong to this relationship. However, the apostle Paul dealt with the
idea of adoption in a spiritual sense. He used the term adoption to
indicate the act of God’s grace by which the one who receives Christ
becomes a son or daughter of God. The believer’s relation to God as His
child is made possible by the new birth (John 1:12–13). However, God
places the adopted believer in
the rank or position of adult
offspring (Galatians 4:1–7).
Adoption is the act of The adopted one thus has all

God’s grace by which the the privileges of being an heir
and is regarded as a true heir.
new believer becomes a

son or daughter of God. Now that we have introduced
the concept of adoption, let’s
review briefly. In regeneration

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