(By: Chad Bennett)

“What is a Christian?” asks J.I. Packer in Knowing God (200); he answers, “The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father. But cannot this be said of every person, Christian or not? Emphatically no! The idea that all are children of God is not found in the Bible anywhere.”

John 1:12-13 reads, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Christians receive this great blessing not through a natural birth but through the sovereign act of adoption.

Adoption, for the Christian, is a change of status from slave to son, in which there is also a legal and forensic change of status. We become children of God by faith and by the new birth. Our adoption is related to predestination and election and is the result of God’s love for us. Adoption brings a number of privileges to those whom God adopts.

As children, we have the privilege of calling God “Abba, father,” and relating to Him as a father. We have Him as a perfect father who does not have the failings resulting from sin that are inherent in our earthly fathers. As a Father, we have the privilege of trusting that God will protect us and preserve us as a good father would protect his children.

Through adoption we have the privilege of God providing for us as is stated in Romans 8:32. 1 John 2 shows that God teaches us as his children. We have assurance of salvation as children. God has pity and compassion for us because we are His children.

The Holy Spirit is given only to children of God, which is a great benefit and blessing for believers. There is the brotherhood of all believers and with Christ as well, being heirs and co-heirs with Christ. Our adoption frees us and brings the love and concern of our brothers (Romans 14).

As Packer states, truly adoption “is the highest privilege that the gospel offers … because of the richer relationship with God that it involves” (Ibid. 206-7). We who were once enemies of God now have the privilege of relating to Him as Father.

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God” 1 John 3:1