Adoption is the act of God by which He considers us to be members of His eternal family. We are deemed His children by faith. Adoption is a legal term. It is a figure of speech used to describe a change in our standing before Him. Like the instance of justification, it is an undeserved, unmerited favor of God.
The doctrine of adoption tacitly assumes that man in his natural state of being is lost by virtue of his sin. Thus, not everyone is a child of God by birth. People need a redeemer who can free them from the curse of sin. It takes a supernatural act of God to make us members of His family. It is not a status that we are naturally endowed with.
It is not by physical descent or by human efforts that one becomes a child of God, but by faith (John 1:12-13). He took action to save us by sending God the Son into this world to atone for our sins. It is the greatest privilege that one can have. We obtain an inheritance in heaven that cannot perish or fade away.
The Apostle Paul used adoption as a metaphor to communicate that we as believers partake of the inheritance that belongs to Jesus Christ:
"and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him." (Romans 8:17)
"But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons." (Galatians 4:4-5)
Christ has possession over everything. We shall partake in His glory and riches as we have been included as members of the kingdom of heaven (John 17:22; 2 Corinthians 8:9). We are adopted as children of God in Christ:
"He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will." (Ephesians 1:5)
His shed blood brings about both our justification and adoption by God the Father. We belong to Him and He belongs to us.
Forensic justification causes things which are not forensic in nature to happen. We obtain peace with God by faith, which includes assurance of salvation and the freedom to pursue holiness in gratitude for what God has done for us. These blessings have a consequential relationship to justification by faith alone. The relationship of God to the unbelieving world is that of a judge to a convict, whereas our relationship to Him is that of a father to a son.
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