Inter-Varsity Press

CONTENTS

1 Adoption: A misinterpreted metaphor?

2 Adoption: Another soteriological metaphor for Paul

3 The origin and background of Paul’s adoption metaphor

4 ‘Abba, Father’ and his family of adopted sons

5 God the Son and the adopted sons of God

6 Adoption and the Spirit

7 Adoption and honour

8 Adoption and living between the ‘now’ and ‘not yet’

Summary

Appendix: Some alleged cases of adoption in the Old Testament

New Studies in Biblical Theology is a series of monographs that address key issues in the discipline of biblical theology. Contributions to the series focus on one or more of three areas: 1. the nature and status of biblical theology, including its relations with other disciplines (e.g. historical theology, exegesis, systematic theology, historical criticism, narrative theology); 2. the articulation and exposition of the structure of thought of a particular biblical writer or corpus; and 3. the delineation of a biblical theme across all or part of the biblical corpora.

Above all, these monographs are creative attempts to help thinking Christians understand their Bibles better. The series aims simultaneously to instruct and to edify, to interact with the current literature, and to point the way ahead. In God’s universe, mind and heart should not be divorced: in this series we shall try not to separate what God has joined. While the notes interact with the best of scholarly literature, the text is uncluttered with untransliterated Greek and Hebrew, and tries to avoid too much technical jargon. The volumes are written within the framework of confessional evangelicalism, but there is always an attempt at thoughtful engagement with the sweep of the relevant literature.

While some of the volumes in this series have offered fresh insight into biblical themes commonly studied in almost every generation, this contribution from Dr Burke offers a fresh and probing look at a strand often overlooked and sometimes misunderstood. Christians who read the writings of Paul soon become familiar with terms such as justification, sanctification, reconciliation, redemption, and election. They soon learn, too, that they are children of God – or ‘sons of God’, as a more pedantic rendering puts it. But what additional theological weight is carried by the five passages where Paul tells believers that they have been adopted as sons? Or even, as one passage puts it, that they will be adopted as sons at the last day? Such questions must be addressed not only by understanding the sociolegal customs of Paul’s day (in other words, the questions have an historical dimension), but also by examining in some detail how this adoption terminology is carefully integrated into a variety of theological categories. Not only the importance of God’s family but also the enormous privilege of belonging to it are powerfully underscored by Paul’s understanding of what it means to be the adopted sons of God. With such themes in view, a wide array of pastoral implications soon springs to light. In other words, this volume not only probes a neglected theme – it also edifies.

D. A. Carson; Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

extract from Chapter One

Adoption: A misinterpreted metaphor?

Introduction

The relationship between God and his people has been variously described and understood by Old and New Testament authors. Of all the biblical writers it is arguably the apostle Paul who employs the richest vocabulary in describing how a person relates to God. For example, he speaks of election (Eph. 1:4), justification (Rom. 3:24), redemption (Gal. 3:14) and reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:19) to name a few forms of relationship. These weighty biblical expressions are rich in the social setting in which Paul lived and moved and deepen our appreciation of the saving significance of Christ and the Christian’s relationship to God.

In addition to the above theological terms, another Pauline expression has attracted less attention, the word huiothesia, ‘adoption’. The expression huiothesia comprises two Greek words: huios, ‘son’, and thesis, ‘placing’, and etymologically denotes either the process or act of being placed or ‘adopted as son(s)’. Huiothesia is unique to the writings of the apostle Paul, occurring five times in three of his letters (Rom. 8:15, 23; 9:4; Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5). No other author in the New Testament employs this expression. ...

Summary

Romans 8:18–27 has a thoroughly eschatological outlook about it, and is the locus where Paul depicts the shared experience of creation (the subhuman order) and Christians (the human order, here described as adopted sons, v. 23) as they await the future unveiling of God’s cosmic plans. Pervading Paul’s argument, however, is the note of hope. Creation, in the shape of the subhuman order, has been locked into the bondage of decay, a situation brought about by God. Believers too, described here as adopted sons of God and by virtue of their being a part of creation, experience suffering consistent with the suffering and sonship of Christ (Rom. 8:17). God’s children, however, have an advantage over the natural created order because of the presence of the first fruits of the Spirit, the Spirit who causes them to look forward with hope to the final adoption as sons, the redemption of their bodies. In their present condition, God’s adopted sons may be without honour in the eyes of the world, but one day this will give way to the honourable disclosure of who they really are when their huiothesia will be finally revealed. For believers this present era is also one of ‘weakness’, of not always knowing God’s mind and will as they pray, but God the Spirit (none other than the Spirit of adoption mentioned earlier, in v. 15) assists them in determining his will.

As well as having a distinctly eschatological complexion, Romans 8 makes a number of key Christological statements. Paul consciously inserts huiothesia (8:15, 23) between several references to God’s Son (e.g. 8:3, 29) to make the point that final adoption, coincident with the redemption of the body, will climax in the believer’s conformity to the image of God’s own Son.