Adoption Theology
In the West, we hear this term "adoption" and many Christian minds jump straight to certain biblical texts (mostly Pauline in origin) where Paul likens our relationship to God as being one "adopted into the family of God" or something along those lines. In the practical world, those with Western minds also think of adoption of foreign children and adopting children from orphanages, which is correct and perfectly applicable, accept that the Eastern view of adoption is much stronger.
“At the time a child was born, the father had to decide whether or not to adopt it into the household. In the world of the Bible, life began not with a viable birth, but only with adoption. Regardless of the status of the newborn at the moment of delivery, without adoption it was considered stillborn. If the father did not adopt the child, the midwife took it from the birthing room and left it in an open field to declare it eligible for adoption by another household.”
- Social World of Ancient Israel, Matthews and Benjamin, pg. 10-11
All of the New Testament pictures of adoption become much stronger in light of the knowledge of the practice of Old Testament adoption. Every child was adopted into its family, no matter its blood relation to the family, which I think speaks to the nature and origin of Paul’s sayings.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bondservant nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
All of the New Testament pictures of adoption become much stronger in light of the knowledge of the practice of Old Testament adoption. Every child was adopted into its family, no matter its blood relation to the family, which I think speaks to the nature and origin of Paul’s sayings.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bondservant nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
- Galatians 3.27-29 (ESV)
I could continue by quoting the whole chapters of Romans 9-11 but I’ll restrain myself and only quote some key verses.
But it is not as though the Word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
I could continue by quoting the whole chapters of Romans 9-11 but I’ll restrain myself and only quote some key verses.
But it is not as though the Word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
- Romans 9.6-8 (ESV)
…even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed it says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’” “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.'"
…even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed it says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’” “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.'"
- Romans 9.24-26 (ESV)
At this point I would urge all of you to read on and take in the following chapters and verses. It is clear, that with the knowledge of OT adoption, that since the time of the OT God is extending his salvation to Jews and Gentiles alike. Even the very language of calling Israel “God’s chosen people” is not correct if we are referring to Israel as a blood lineage or national state, rather it is a spiritual lineage of promise, which includes those of Gentile lineage as well. Not all Israel is “Israel”, only those who are children of promise are God’s chosen people, “Israel.”
Paul is by no means a replacement theologian, in that, he is a Jew who still desires for the ethnic people of Israel to become adopted by God as children of promise (as evidenced by Paul’s next chapter of Romans 10). And Paul continues in this vein of thought by providing the analogy of the grafted tree (Romans 11), in which both ethnic Israel and ethnic Gentiles will be included in the tree of spiritual Israel, the children of promise, the chosen people of God.
Paul is not a Calvinist, and since not a Calvinist he certainly isn’t a dispensationalist (as an esteemed professor of mine once tried to convince me), but rather he is a Jew and an adopted child of promise, a true Israelite, and we must read him as such with ancient culture in mind. Not to say that Calvin didn’t derive his thoughts and theories from the biblical text, but just to say that we must not interpret Calvin, a later author and fellow brother, back onto Paul’s biblical text which is earlier, primary and inspired. We must attempt to understand what is in the mind of Paul by studying the culture of the Bible and the practices of the Jews. If we fail to do so, then we run the high risk of interpreting the Bible through our own American lens: a hermeneutical atrocity to be sure.
Lift, Praise, Adore Him
Matt@
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