Material 1: The Catholic Talks: Article: Filial Adoption and Baptism

Filial Adoption is the term we use to describe the relationship Jesus bought for us with his death and
resurrection. Our original relationship with God was a filial one – meaning we are sons and
daughters of God. We can claim this because it is God who created mankind, both man and woman.
Since it was God who created Adam and Eve, we can say that God is literally their Father, and that
makes them literally his children.
This relationship was broken when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. The serpent told them that if
they ate the fruit which God forbade them to eat, they could determine what is good and bad for
themselves. Since that privilege belongs to God alone, they were in effect making themselves gods
without the need for God. So, just like the Parable of the Prodigal Son, our first parents separated
themselves from the Father.
Thankfully, through the obedience of Jesus in Gethsemane, and the passion as atonement,
Jesus “bought back” this relationship. Because Jesus is man, he represented all of us, and through
Baptism, we partake of this relationship he redeemed for us. Baptism makes us the adopted children
of God, and because of that, we inherit the divine nature of God.
The term of “adoption” in today’s society loses its effect on how we think of our relationship with
God. Today, we think of adoption as a legal term when someone takes someone else under his or
her care. In the case of God’s adoption, it isn’t a legal relationship, but a familial one. So when we
are adopted during Baptism, we become real children of God.
Let’s discover what this means. We have to wonder what the Angel Gabriel told Mary of her
son, during the Annunciation:
He will be great and will be called Son of the MostHigh, and the Lord God will give him the throne of
David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will
be no end.
Luke 1:32-33

The Angel Gabriel is, in fact, saying Jesus will inherit the throne of King David. But to inherit the
throne of David, one must be a part of that family. We know Jesus is the son of Mary, and St.
Joseph does not have any biological contribution in the conception of Jesus. However we also know
that it is St. Joseph who has King David as his ancestor. In fact, Saint Matthew starts his Gospel by
naming all the ancestors of Jesus so it can be traced back to David, and even to Abraham – but all
of this is through Saint Joseph. But how does Jesus become part of that family when he does not
have any of St. Joseph’s bloodline. The answer is through adoption.
When St. Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant, he wanted to divorce her quietly.
However, in a dream, an angel told him:
Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the
Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name
him Jesus …Matthew 1:20-21

The angel commanded St. Joseph to name Mary’s son. By giving Jesus a name, he makes
Jesus part of his lineage. In that culture, it is the privilege of a father to name his son. So we should
realize that when St. Joseph gave a name to Mary’s son, it wasn’t just to give him a name just for the
sake of having a name, but also because that would make St. Joseph his real father. It is a real
father and son relationship! We have to remember that St. Joseph wasn’t just acting as a father, but
he was a real father to Jesus. He had to work to buy food and clothes for Jesus and Mary. (Try to
look for him in the account of Luke when the Magi visited. Saint Joseph is not mentioned, and we
have to consider that he was out working.) He probably came home after work and taught Jesus
how to talk and walk. And when Jesus was older, it is most likely Jesus taught him his carpentry
skills.
Strangely, the angel starts with “Joseph, son of David…” as if telling St. Joseph that when he
names Jesus, that would make him a son of David too. So, it is by adopting Jesus that Joseph
allows Jesus to inherit his lineage. It is by giving Jesus a name that St. Joseph allows Jesus to
inherit the claim to the throne of King David.
Curiously, we are given our names during the sacrament of Baptism. The minister baptizes us
“in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” We are given a name in the name
of God. Another way of expressing this idea is that the minister is actually giving as a name in behalf
of God. So you see, it is God giving us our name, and so we become his children because he has
adopted us the same way St. Joseph adopted Jesus. Through Baptism, we inherit God’s lineage!
We inherit his divine nature.
This doesn’t bring us in competition with God. What it does is it allows God to “dwell” in us. This
means that whatever we do, we also have God’s divine nature doing whatever we do. This is why all
our good works have a “dash” of God in them allowing them to be meritorious in the eyes of God.
It is important to internalize that we are truly, really, children of God. More importantly, we
should act like children of God. And why not when we can describe our adoption by God as - in our
language today - simply divine.

Material 2 : The Liturgy and Divine Adoption

MAY 26, 2012 BY OWEN VYNER

God has predestined us to be adopted sons and daughters, an invitation made in and
through his Son, by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is pure gift,  completely and freely
bestowed upon man as a grace, and received in baptism.

Baptism of Christ by Carlo Maratta

Introduction
(Mng. Editor’s note: This article was submitted before the new translation of the Roman Missal
became the version presently being used.)
The great German scholar, Romano Guardini, stated that it is only the faith of Christianity that
reveals a correct understanding of the person.  1  Based upon the liturgical principle, lex orandi, lex
credendi, we can add that the prayer of the Church is the ultimate source of a proper anthropology. 
As such, the foundation for an authentic vision of the human person is the liturgy.
When we turn to the liturgy to understand who man is, we see that, on multiple occasions, the liturgy
employs the use of the word, adoption, and its derivatives, to refer to man’s relationship with
God.  However, the 1973 ICEL translation of the Missal translates adoptionis filiorum, more often
than not, as “children,” and at other times, the term is not even translated.  With the new translation
of the Roman Missal imminent, it will be very interesting to see how the Latin word, “adoption,” is
ultimately rendered.  If it is translated as “adopted sons,” as opposed to “children,” then the faithful
will hear that we are not children of God, in some sort of natural sense; but rather, we have been
gratuitously adopted in the Son.  This will have ramifications for an understanding of the human
person.
In order to explicate these potential anthropological ramifications, this article will examine a theology
of divine adoption in scripture, the teachings of the Church, and in the work of Blessed Columba
Marmion.  It will then discuss how this theology is made manifest in the Church’s liturgy.
Theology of Divine Adoption
The notion of divine adoption is a key concept in St. Paul’s theology.  In five separate passages, he
refers to Christians as having received the Spirit of adoption as sons (c.f. Rom 8:15, 23; 9:4; Gal 4:5;
Eph 1:5).  St. Paul explains that we have been predestined to be adopted sons in the Son, through
the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Through receiving  “the Spirit of adoption of sons,” a completely new life is
bestowed upon the Christian, fundamentally changing his existence.  As a consequence of this
filiation, the Christian is now able to address the Father as Abba, the same term of intimacy by which
the Son addresses his Father (cf. Mk 14:36).  Thus, through adoption, the Christian is drawn into the
Son’s own relationship with the Father.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church builds upon, and develops, the soteriological, Christological,
and pneumatological aspects of divine adoption.  In the first place, adoption is pure gift; it is free and
undeserved.  2   Adoption does not belong to man by nature, but through grace.  Secondly, there are
ecclesiological and sacramental/liturgical elements of this doctrine.  The adoption of the Christian
takes place through his incorporation into the Church at baptism.  The Catechism states: “We can
adore the Father because he has caused us to be reborn to his life, by adopting us as his children,
in his only Son: by Baptism, he incorporates us into the Body of his Christ; through the anointing of
his Spirit, who flows from the head to the members, he makes us other ‘Christs.’”  3   Regarding the
liturgy and adoption, we read in the Catechism: “In the liturgy of the Church, God the Father is
blessed and adored as the source of all the blessings of creation and salvation, with which he has
blessed us in his Son, in order to give us the Spirit of filial adoption.”  4
From the biblical witness, and the teachings of the Church, as contained in the Catechism, the
Church’s theology of adoption may be summarized in this way: God has predestined us to be
adopted sons and daughters (cf. Eph 1:1-5).  This invitation to become God’s adopted children, is
made in and through his Son, by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  This is pure gift; it is completely
and freely bestowed upon man as a grace.  The Christian receives this gift in baptism, deepening
through participation in the sacramental and liturgical life of the Church.  5  Finally, and most
importantly, the Spirit of adoption unites the Christian with Christ, the only Son, making the Christian
a sharer in Christ’s life.
In the last century, the Church has been blessed with a theologian whose entire corpus can be
described as an explication of the doctrine of divine adoption.  Blessed Columba Marmion (1858-
1923) was an Irish monk who wrote considerably on this topic in his principle works, Christ the Life
of the Soul, and Christ in His Mysteries.  He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000. Today,
many refer to him as the “Doctor of Divine Adoption.”
Dom Marmion made man’s divine adoption in the Son the center of his teaching.  He considered the
doctrine of supernatural adoption to be the summary of revelation.  As a summary of the Christian
faith, this doctrine encompasses the mystery of the blessed Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
Central to the doctrine of divine adoption is: God’s paternity, and man’s supernatural vocation, man’s
fall from the grace of sonship, the Incarnation, the Paschal Mystery and man’s restoration as a son
in the Son, and, finally, the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church.  6
Marmion’s thought on adoption could be summarized thus: the Divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity
have predestined man to participate in their divine life; to enter into their Communion.  God has
predestined that we participate in God’s own life, accomplished through the grace of divine
adoption.  The gift of supernatural adoption is made in and through the Son; in him, that this plan is
realized.  In the Incarnation, the Son shares in man’s nature so that man may share in the Son’s
divine nature, in his relationship with the Father in the Holy Spirit.  As Marmion writes: “By nature
God has only one Son.  By love, He will have a multitude of them, without number.  This is the grace
of supernatural adoption.”  7   Thus divine adoption, in the thought of Blessed Columba, is a
participation in Christ’s own life.  The Christological nature of divine adoption is a fundamental theme
in Marmion’s work.  In Christ the Life of the Soul, we read: “We are here at the central point of the
Divine plan: the Divine adoption.  It is from Jesus Christ, it is through Jesus Christ, that we receive
it.”  8
For Blessed Columba, the Eucharist, and, in particular, Eucharistic Communion, is essential to
man’s participation in the life of the Son.  Union with Christ through Holy Communion is an “abiding”
with him in whom the Father abides (c.f. Jn 14:10).  9   Eucharistic Communion is at the heart of the
human person’s participation in the life of Christ, and, therefore, in his life as Son.  At a 2006
Colloquium on the thought of Blessed Columba, Cardinal Justin Rigali wrote: “For Abbot Marmion, to
receive Christ in the Eucharist, to participate in the Eucharistic action, is indeed to make the most
elevated act of faith, and to participate in the greatest measure possible, in the divine filiation of
Jesus.”  10
A theme of Blessed Columba’s theology, that is particularly apposite to our day, is the notion of the
sheer gratuity of divine adoption.  For Blessed Columba, it is only possible to speak of the adoption
of one who is of the same nature as the one adopting.  As such, members of the human race can
only adopt other members of the human race, welcoming the adoptee into their family.  However,
with divine adoption, the Infinite God, who is wholly-Other, graciously deigns to adopt one of his
creatures, inviting this creature into God’s own Triune life.  The sheer gratuitousness of this is lost on
our culture, since we not only adopt pets, but even highways.  When divine filiation is no longer
understood as utterly gratuitous, and radically beyond human nature, then man’s adoption in the Son
will cease to be received as a gift.  11   The tendency in the present translation of the Roman Missal,
to refer to man as God’s “child,” only reinforces this problem.  This will be addressed later in the
discussion on the prayers of the liturgy and divine adoption.
In concluding reflections on a theology of divine adoption in scripture, the Catechism, and the work
of Blessed Columba Marmion, we can say that a theology of divine adoption is essentially:
Trinitarian, Christological, pneumatological, ecclesial-Marian  12 , and Eucharistic.  Put briefly, it
encompasses the entire Catholic faith.  It is no wonder, then, that the living Tradition of the Catholic
faith, as expressed in the Church’s liturgy, will speak on numerous occasions of the anthropological
truth of man’s divine adoption.
The Liturgy
In the liturgy, man’s divine adoption is communicated through Word and Sacrament.  In the Word—
both in the scriptural readings, and in Christ present and acting in the person of the priest praying
the presidential prayers—the reality of divine adoption is made present.  The Word of God is always
efficacious, communicating that which it intends (cf. Is 55:10-11).  Thus, when we hear of our
adoption in the propers of the Mass, this anthropological truth is being effected.
It is not insignificant that on several occasions, the Roman Missal speaks of man’s adoption.  In the
Easter Vigil Liturgy, which is referred to as the “greatest and most noble of all solemnities,” man’s
adoption is mentioned four times.  It is present in the prayers, after the second and fourth readings,
in the Collect, and in the Prayer after the Litany of the Saints.  We see the Latin phrases: adoptionis
gratia (grace of adoption), sacra adoptione (sacred adoption), and adoptionis spiritum (the spirit of
adoption).  The current translation of the Roman Missal, only translates these phrases as “adoption”
once and ignores them the other three times.
In the Preface for Pentecost Sunday, the salient elements of a theology of adoption are manifested. 
The so-called Gray Book draft of the third edition of the Roman Missal translates this preface thus:
“For you brought the Paschal Mystery to completion when, on this day, you bestowed the Holy Spirit
upon those you made your adopted children (fílios adoptionis) by uniting them to your Only-Begotten
Son.”  Compare this with the current ICEL translation: “Today you sent the Holy Spirit on those
marked out to be your children by sharing the life of your only Son, and so you brought the paschal
mystery to its completion.”
The prayers of the liturgy, in their fidelity to the Latin text, are meant to communicate the fullness of
the Catholic faith and, in reference to the truth about man, a proper Christian anthropology.  With a
faithful translation that communicates a true liturgical anthropology, the words of the liturgy become
sacramental; that is, these words make present the reality that they signify.  The General Instruction
of the Roman Missal confirms this when it speaks of the mystery of the Church being made present
through the words of the greeting, and the people’s response: “The priest…signifies the presence of
the Lord to the community gathered there by means of the Greeting.  By this Greeting, and the
people’s response, the mystery of the Church gathered together is made manifest.”  13  
Consequently, the propers of the Mass that speak of man’s adoption in the Son communicate this
reality.  However, when Latin phrases, such as fílios adoptionis, are translated as “children,” this
truth about man is blurred.
As already mentioned, this is a particular danger for our age as the concept of adoption has been so
expanded as to be almost meaningless.  There is a pressing need to recover the gratuity of divine
adoption.  Furthermore, when man is simply referred to as one of God’s children, this gives the
appearance that man is related to God through natural begetting.  This could not be further from the
truth.  Man is not, by nature, a child of God; he only enters God’s divine life through the grace of
adoption.  This distinction is critical in order to correctly understand man’s relationship with God.  It
is, therefore, essential that the texts of the Mass accurately translate the word, “adoption,” so that we
are able to recover a proper liturgical anthropology.
The manner by which the liturgy communicates the anthropological truth about man in Sacrament, is
through the Eucharist.  In a particular way it is effected through the reception of the Son’s life in Holy
Communion (cf. Jn 6:53-57).  As the eternally begotten Son, he is always in relation with the Father. 
Through the grace of baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist, we are drawn into communion with
the Son in the Holy Spirit, participating in the Son’s filial relationship with his Father.
With the advent of the “Theology of the Body,” there has been a shift in the minds of many Catholics
toward a nuptial understanding of the Mass, to the detriment of the filial understanding.  This spousal
image is correct when we understand the Mass as the re-presentation of Christ’s self-gift,as the
Bridegroom, on the Cross to the Church, his Bride (c.f. Eph 5:21-33).  There is also certainly a
nuptial imagery operative in the liturgy (e.g., invitation to the supper of the Lamb), but this nuptiality
must always be understood within the context of the Son’s relation to the Father.
This anthropological view of man, as an adopted son in the Son, is not contradictory to a spousal
understanding of the body.  The spousal nature and vocation of the human person is only possible
because he is made for union with the Son, who is also Bridegroom.  This is why original solitude
precedes man’s call to communion.  Pope John Paul II explains this priority thus: “Although in its
normal constitution, the human body carries within itself the signs of sex, and is by its nature, male
or female, the fact that man is a ‘body’ belongs more deeply to the structure of the personal subject
than the fact that, in his somatic constitution, he is also male or female.  For this reason, the
meaning of original solitude, which can be referred to “man,” is substantially prior to the meaning of
original unity.”  14
Then, Cardinal Ratzinger, commenting on the dignity of the human person, also confirms the priority
of man’s relationship with God, relative to a spousal understanding:
{T}he sexual differentiation of mankind into man and woman is much more than a purely biological
fact for the purpose of procreation, but unconnected with what is truly human in mankind. In it, there
is accomplished that intrinsic relation of the human being to a “Thou”which inherently constitutes him
or her as human…The likeness to God in sexuality is prior to sexuality, not identical with it. It is
because the human being is capable of the absolute “Thou” that he is an “I” who can become a
“Thou” for another “I.” The capacity for the absolute “Thou” is the ground of the possibility and
necessity of the human partner.  15

Finally, David L. Schindler explains the distinction between filiality and nuptiality within the context of
man’s creation in the image of God: “{T}he content of the doctrine of the imago Dei is, in the first
place, that man is capax Dei: it is the relation to God that originally constitutes each person, and this
relation immediately expresses itself in and as relation, also, to others.”  16
From the above, it can be argued that the basis for man’s spousal vocation is his original solitude
and, therefore, his filial relationship with God.  Again, this is not a contradiction of the Theology of
the Body.  When we speak of an anthropology of the Mass, the priority, therefore, is not so much
nuptial, but filial; as such, it is a participation in the Son’s prayer to the Father, in the Holy Spirit.
It is through the spiritual worship of the Eucharist that man enters into union with the Son.  He
encounters the Logos, made flesh, who has already spoken to man through the Liturgy of the Word. 
This Logos draws man to himself, in his total sacrifice on the Cross, made present in the Eucharistic
Prayer, and into his self-surrender to the Father, in the Holy Spirit.  Thus, in participating in the
Eucharist Prayer, and especially in receiving Communion, man receives and enters into the very life
of the Son, in his filial relationship with the Father.  Blessed Columba Marmion referred to the act of
Eucharistic Communion—the most perfect act of man’s divine adoption—in this prayer: “O Heavenly
Father, I abide in your Son Jesus, and your Son abides in me.  Your Son, proceeding from you,
receives communication of your Divine life, in its fullness…And since I share in his life, look at me in
him, through him, with him, as the Son in whom you are well pleased.”  17
Conclusion
The mystery of man’s vocation to adopted sonship in the Son is at the very heart of a liturgical
anthropology.  The propers of the Mass and the Eucharist both communicate this mystery, making it
present.  A more accurate rendering of the Latin term, “adoption,” will have paramount ramifications
for a proper liturgical understanding of the human person.  This is especially important since, in
contemporary culture, the concept of adoption has become meaningless.  An accurate translation of
the Latin text, with additional catechesis on a theology of adoption, will assist in recovering an
understanding of divine adoption as a gift.  Additionally, proper catechesis on a theology of divine
adoption will help the faithful understand that our dignity is not diminished, by virtue of the fact that
we are not children of God by nature.  Rather, through grace, we have been elevated by God in a
manner that far exceeds our nature.  The Son assumed our nature, so that we might share in his
nature; this is a sign of God’s inestimable love for us.  Finally, an authentic liturgical anthropology
also reveals the truth of man’s final destiny.  The maxim: “We become, by grace, what Christ is by
nature,” confirms that the Christian, as an adopted son in the Son, is a fellow heir with Christ, and as
such, is an heir to his eternal glory (cf. Rom 9:17).
Material 3: Divine Filiation

The Ascension Team

The concept of Divine filiation is at the heart of the Christian mystery. Dave “The
Power” VanVickle and I, explain the powerful reality that in Christ, we are sons and
daughters of the Father.  We provide you with a thorough understanding of this
theological concept that harmonizes all the doctrines of the Catholic faith and reminds
us of the goal of all our practices. 

Snippet from the Show

The moment we are baptized in Christ, we are brought back home to the Father as his
sons and daughters. This is the beginning of Heaven.

Shownotes

Understanding Divine Filiation

 It’s easy to go through the motions of the Catholic faith without understanding
the goal behind all the doctrines.

 We don’t know what we’ve lost and that’s why we don’t see the gravity of our
sin anymore. We must ask God to gives us the grace to not only see sin through
the background of Adam and Eve,  but to also see it through the background of
our own life. Only then, can we fully appreciate what Christ has done for us.

 Divine filiation is the concept that in Christ, we are all sons and daughters of God
the Father. This concept is all over Scripture. It’s the organizing principle that
unifies all the doctrines of the Catholic faith. It allows us to arrange and assemble
all the truths of the Catholic faith. It harmonizes the dogmas of the Catholic
church. Similarly, Covenant theology is often used as the center text that
harmonizes and assembles the hierarchy of Scripture in salvation history.
 Christianity can ultimately be summarized as “the union of man with God in
Christ Jesus.”- Frank Sheed

 In order to understand Divine filiation we must learn the following things:

o Who is God?
o Who is man?
o Who is Jesus? and
o What is the nature of the union between man and God?

 Jesus Christ establishes our family bond with God the Father as his sons and
daughters because Christ is the eternal Son of God. His life, death, and
resurrection brought us into Divine filiation with the Father. We are not only
saved from sin, but we are also saved for sonship (Dr. Scott Hahn)

 Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of God, which means that
they not only had free will and reason, but they were also sons and daughters of
God. They lived in a covenantal relationship with the Father as his beloved
children. As sons and daughters of God, Adam and Eve existed in perfect and
infinite union with God. They were the pinnacles of creation and had dominion
over all the earth.

“This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made
him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed
them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived a
hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, after
his image, and named him Seth.”- Genesis 5:1-3

  After the fall,  Adam and Eve break their covenant with God and lose their
sonship/daughterhood. In their rebellion against God, they disinherit everything
that belonged to them in the Garden of Eden. 

 Divine filiation is at the heart of the Christian mystery.In Christ, we have been
adopted by God. This adoption comes to fruition through prayer and the
sacraments throughout our lives as we learn to live as sons and daughters of God. 

 Baptism breaks us free from our sinful covenant in Adam and resurrects us in a
new covenant in Christ, restoring our identity as sons and daughters of God. 

 Understanding the Incarnation is key in order to understand the Divine exchange

that God wants to bring us into. Since Jesus shares our humanity, his sacrifice
makes us able to present ourselves as sons and daughters again before God the
 Father.

 Divine filiation is at the heart of morality. We can’t understand the morality of

Jesus if we don’t understand that he is the eternal Son of God and that he is
teaching us how to live this Divine Sonship. In our imitation of Jesus, we learn
what it means to be a child of God.

 God call us to holiness because he is trying to conform us into the image of

Christ.

 Heaven does not begin when we die, it begins the moment we are baptized and
born again in Christ and brought back home to the Father as his adopted
children. 

 We shouldn’t just stop with the knowledge that we are a sons and daughters of
God, that is just the beginning. The rest of our lives should be dedicated to
learning how live or sonship/ daughterhood. 

 Mortal sin destroys our relationship with the Father and it throws us into self-
exile. The mercy of Christ heals and restores us so that we can return home to the
Father. What is Christ’s by nature shall be ours by grace.

 Theosis is the concept that in his union with God, man becomes divinized. 

Material 4: Divine Filiation in the Catechism

Catechism #01 

God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely
created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time
and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him,
to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by
sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of
time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through
him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs
of his blessed life. 

Catechism #51 

“It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known
the mystery of his will. His will was that men should have access to the Father,
through Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in
the divine nature.” 

Catechism #52 

God, who “dwells in unapproachable light”, wants to communicate his own divine life
to the men he freely created, in order to adopt them as his sons in his only-begotten
Son. By revealing himself God wishes to make them capable of responding to him,
and of knowing him and of loving him far beyond their own natural capacity. 

Catechism #53 

The divine plan of Revelation is realized simultaneously “by deeds and words which
are intrinsically bound up with each other” and shed light on each another. It involves
a specific divine pedagogy: God communicates himself to man gradually. He prepares
him to welcome by stages the supernatural Revelation that is to culminate in the
person and mission of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. 

Catechism #151 

For a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he
sent, his “beloved Son”, in whom the Father is “well pleased”; God tells us to listen to
him. The Lord himself said to his disciples: “Believe in God, believe also in me.” We
can believe in Jesus Christ because he is himself God, the Word made flesh: “No one
has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him
known.” Because he “has seen the Father”, Jesus Christ is the only one who knows
him and can reveal him. 

Catechism #654 

The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his
Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is above all
justification that reinstates us in God’s grace, “so that as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Justification
consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation in grace.
It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ’s brethren, as Jesus himself
called his disciples after his Resurrection: “Go and tell my brethren.” We are brethren
not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real
share in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in his Resurrection. 

Catechism #1250 
Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of
the new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the
realm of the freedom of the children of God, to which all men are called. The sheer
gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant Baptism. The
Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of
God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth. 

Catechism #1996 

Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and
undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God,
adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life. 

Catechism #1997 

Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of

Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head
of his Body. As an “adopted son” he can henceforth call God “Father,” in union with
the only Son. He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity into him and who
forms the Church. 

Catechism #2003 

Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But
grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to
enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of
Christ, the Church. There are sacramental graces, gifts proper to the different
sacraments. There are furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek
term used by St. Paul and meaning “favor,” “gratuitous gift,” “benefit.” Whatever
their character – sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of
tongues – charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the
common good of the Church. They are at the service of charity which builds up the
Church. 

Catechism #2009 

Filial adoption, in making us partakers by grace in the divine nature, can bestow true
merit on us as a result of God’s gratuitous justice. This is our right by grace, the full
right of love, making us “co-heirs” with Christ and worthy of obtaining “the promised
inheritance of eternal life.” The merits of our good works are gifts of the divine
goodness. “Grace has gone before us; now we are given what is due… Our merits are
God’s gifts.” 
Catechism #2779 

Before we make our own this first exclamation of the Lord’s Prayer, we must humbly
cleanse our hearts of certain false images drawn “from this world.” Humility makes us
recognize that “no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father
except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him,” that is, “to little
children.” The purification of our hearts has to do with paternal or maternal images,
stemming from our personal and cultural history, and influencing our relationship
with God. God our Father transcends the categories of the created world. To impose
our own ideas in this area “upon him” would be to fabricate idols to adore or pull
down. To pray to the Father is to enter into his mystery as he is and as the Son has
revealed him to us. 

Material 5: Divine filiation (en-academic.com)

Basis
The very first point of the Catholic Catechism states that God's "plan of sheer goodness" is oriented t
owards man's divine filiation: "In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy S
pirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life." (CCC 1; italics added)
The Gospel of John also begins by pointing to what Jesus brought: "to all who received him, who beli
eved in his name, he gave power to become children of God." (John 1:11-13)

Words uttered by God the Father at the Transfiguration of Christ: Hic est filius meus dilectus (Behol
d my beloved son)
Benedict XVI explained that "The Fathers of the Church say that when God created man 'in his imag
e' he looked toward the Christ who was to come, and created man, according to the image of the 'ne
w Adam,' the man who is the criterion of the human... Jesus is 'the Son' in the strict sense - he is of o
ne substance with the Father. He wants to draw all of us into his humanity and so into this Sonship, i
nto his total belonging to God."[5]
The Fathers of the Church describe Jesus's work of salvation as a restoration of humanity's original 
dignity—man made in the image of Christ, as children of God.
Divine filiation, said John Paul II, constitutes the essence of the Good News.[6] This is the purpose of 
Christ's redemption and through baptism, each Christian's fundamental state is being a child of God, 
according to Catholic doctrine.
According to John Paul II, Christians are supposed to "be always aware of the dignity of the divine a
doption," so as to give meaning to what they do.[7] Thus, the Christian relates to God as a Father who 
is loving and provident, and becomes confident and daring as a Christian and apostle. Each Christia
n, whether a priest or a layperson, is called to a life of holiness, consistent with his membership to th
e family of God. The ordinary Christians are fully responsible for continuing the redeeming mission of 
Christ in the ordinary circumstances of their life.
According to John Paul II in Redemptor hominis, his first encyclical, at the deepest root of the redem
ption of the world is the fullness of justice in the heart of Jesus Christ "in order that it may become ju
stice in the hearts of many human beings, predestined from eternity in the Firstborn Son to be childre
n of God and called to grace, called to love."[7]
Divine filiation, said John Paul II, constitutes the essence of the Good News.[6] "What is the Good Ne
ws for humanity?" is a question of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The re
ply to this question begins with Jesus Christ and ends with Galatians 4:45: God sent his Son, born of 
a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive ad
option as sons.[8] Divine filiation is "the deepest mystery of the Christian vocation: in the divine plan, 
we are indeed called to become sons and daughters of God in Christ, through the Holy Spirit."[9]
Thus, the Catechism states: "By his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by His Resurrection, He open
s for us the way to a new life.
[Justification] brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ's brethren." (CCC 654)
Judaism's view of Divine filiation
Fundamentally, Judaism believes that God, as the creator of time, space, energy and matter, is beyo
nd them, and cannot be born or die, or beget a son. Judaism teaches that it is heretical for any man t
o claim to be God, part of God, or the literal son of God, see also Idolatry in Judaism. There is no Je
wish concept of something as a "divine filiation" or "god the son".The Jerusalem Talmud (Ta'anit 2:1) 
states explicitly: "if a man claims to be God, he is a liar." According to Jewish scholars, the Christian 
concept of Divine filiation has indirect reference to the prior Jewish phrase Son of God, which is foun
d in the Jewish Bible, referring to angels, or humans or even all mankind.
According to Judaism's view of Jesus, Jewish scholars note that though Jesus is said to have used t
he phrase "my Father in Heaven"
(cf. Lord's Prayer), this common poetic Jewish expression may have been misinterpreted as literal.[10]
Meaning and significance
Christians are said to be children of God because they have the same nature as God the Father. St. 
Peter referred to Christians as "partakers of the divine nature." (2 Peter 1:4)
Thus, the Fathers of the Church referred to the deification or divinization of the baptized. We are ma
de gods, said St. Augustine.
St. Thomas Aquinas explained the terminology of the Fathers that Christians are "sons in the Son." 
He said that Christians enter the trinity through the Son, and they "have a certain participation in the 
filiation of the Second Person."
Thus, John Paul II said that divine filiation is "the culminating point of the mystery of our Christian life
. In fact, the name 'Christian' indicates a new way of being, to be in the likeness of the Son of God. A
s sons in the Son, we share in salvation, which is not only the deliverance from evil, but is first of all t
he fullness of good: of the supreme good of the sonship of God."[4]
Divine filiation is at the core of Christianity.
"Our divine filiation is the centerpiece of the Gospel as Jesus preached it. It is the very meaning of th
e salvation He won for us. For he did not merely save us from our sins; He saved us for sonship." [3]
Thus the incarnation and the redemption is for this:
The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature": "For this is why the Wor
d became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into c
ommunion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God."[St. 
Irenaeus] "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."[St. Athanasius]
"The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our natu
re, so that he, made man, might make men gods."[St. Thomas Aquinas] (CCC 460)
The Christian then is another "Christ": "We can adore the Father because he has caused us to be re
born to his life by adopting us as his children in his only Son: .. through the anointing of his Spirit wh
o flows from the head to the members, he makes us other "Christs."
"...you who have become sharers in Christ are appropriately called "Christs." (CCC 2782)
The divinization of man through sonship is real and metaphysical. It is not metaphorical, i.e. a mere c
omparison with a real thing that is similar. In the Christian religion, God is really Father, and does not 
just act like human fathers. And God really made us share in his nature, and thus we are really childr
en. Not in the same level as the Only Begotten Son, but truly sharing in his filiation and his divinity.[3]

St. John the Evangelist: "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of 
God; and so we are!" (1 John 3:1)
And so St. John the Evangelist said with a tone of amazement,
"See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are!"
(1 John 3:1)
General consequences for Christian life
Since divine filiation is fundamental for the Christian life, a foundational point, then the various aspec
ts of the Christian life follow from it, as shown by the frequent allusions of the Catechism to divine fili
ation:
 Abandonment to God the Father's providence, since Jesus said that "your heavenly Father 
knows what you need." (Mt 6:31; CCC 305) Thus Benedict XVI said in Deus caritas est,
"Immersed like everyone else in the dramatic complexity of historical events,
[Christians] remain unshakably certain that God is our Father and loves us, even when his sil
ence remains incomprehensible."[11]
 Becoming child-like in piety, because it is a condition for entering the Kingdom. (Mt 18:3-
4; CCC 526)
 Confidence to call God "Father" and asking him for gifts. "Our Father: at this name love is a
roused in us . . . and the confidence of obtaining what we are about to ask.... What would he 
not give to his children who ask, since he has already granted them the gift of being his childr
en?"
  Viewing the liturgy as "a meeting of God's children with their Father, in Christ and the Hol
y Spirit." (CCC 736; 1153)
 Loving the Church, for God "gathers all his children into unity."
(CCC 845), and the Church is "the house of all God's children, open and welcoming".
(CCC 1186). And with this the Christian keeps the communion of the saints. (CCC1474)
 Giving importance to baptism, by which the Christian become a child of God.
(CCC 1243). The Christian should realize the "greatness of God's gift... by the sacraments of 
rebirth, Christians become children of God, partakers of the divine nature." (CCC 1692)
 Playing the role of the prodigal son. Because the "new life as a child of God can be weaken
ed and even lost by sin,"
(CCC 1420) the Christian has the sacrament of healing called the sacrament of Reconciliatio
n which "bring about restoration of the dignity and blessings of the life of the children of God, 
of which the most precious is friendship with God." (CCC 1468)
"The whole of the Christian life," says John Paul II in his first encyclical Redemptor hominis,
"is like a great pilgrimage to the house of the Father, whose unconditional love for every hum
an creature, especially for the "prodigal son", we discover anew each day."[7]
 Living in imitation of Christ: "Following Christ and united with him, Christians can strive to be 
"imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love" by conforming their thoughts, words 
and actions to the "mind . . . which is yours in Christ Jesus," and by following his example."
(CCC 1694)
 Loving freedom (CCC 1828)
 Practising obedience. "Although he was a Son,
[Jesus] learned obedience through what he suffered. How much more reason have we sinful 
creatures to learn obedience - we who in him have become children of adoption."
(CCC 2825)
Piety of children
An important consequence of divine filiation is the prayer of Christians as children of God. Prayer is 
at the center of the life of Christ, the Son of God. Benedict XVI says that the person of Jesus is praye
r. The "fundamental insight" of the Sermon of the Mount is, he says,
"that man can be understood only in the light of God, and that his life is made righteous only when h
e lives it in relation to God." Thus, Jesus, after praying and after being asked by the disciples how to 
pray, teaches the Our Father, a prayer which aims to "configure [man] to the image of the Son," and 
trains him in the "inner attitude of Jesus."[5]
"Contemplative prayer is the prayer of the child of God, of the forgiven sinner who agrees to welcom
e the love by which he is loved and who wants to respond to it by loving even more." (CCC 2712 )
Responsibility for the Christian mission
Since Christians are other "Christs", they are in a sense co-redeemers with him, and have, so to spe
ak, the same role as Jesus Christ—to save other men, and make them children of God.
"As members, they share a common dignity from their rebirth in Christ, they have the same filial grac
e and the same vocation to perfection... Because of the one dignity flowing from Baptism, each mem
ber of the lay faithful, together with ordained ministers and men and women religious, shares respon
sibility for the Church's mission."[12]
Because the laity—that is, ordinary Christians (not priests or consecrated religious)
-- are children of God, they have a specific role to play in the world: "By reason of their special vocati
on it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing th
em according to God's will. . . . It pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temp
oral things with which they are closely associated that these may always be effected and grow accor
ding to Christ and maybe to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer. The initiative of lay Christians is 
necessary especially when the matter involves discovering or inventing the means for permeating so
cial, political, and economic realities with the demands of Christian doctrine and life. This initiative is 
a normal element of the life of the Church: Lay believers are in the front line of Church life; for them t
he Church is the animating principle of human society. Therefore, they in particular ought to have an 
ever-clearer consciousness not only of belonging to the Church, but of being the Church."
(CCC 898-99)
Theologians on divine filiation
The Fathers of the Church have emphasized the meaning of salvation in terms of divinization and div
ine filiation.[citation  needed]
Writing in the early 20th century (circa 1917-1923), Blessed Columba Marmion gave great emphasis 
to this doctrine. One commentator has observed that although the doctrine had been addressed by 
many spiritual writers before him,
"it would be difficult to find another who had given the mystery such preeminence, making it, as he d
oes, the beginning and the end of the spiritual life. And with Dom Marmion it is not so much a theory 
or a system, as a living truth that acts directly on the soul."[13] Some believe the Catholic Church will 
one day formally declare Marmion the Doctor of Divine Adoption.[14]
Among contemporary authors, Scott Hahn, an American theologian and convert from Calvinism to R
oman Catholicism has written much about filiation in the context of the theology of the covenant. He 
sees the covenant as a real family bond. He has also written about filiation in the context of his journ
ey as a member of Opus Dei, whose founder, St. Josemaria Escriva, is a leading writer on this topic. 
Escriva saw filiation as the "foundation of the Christian life," and had a mystical experience in early y
ears of Opus Dei (1931) that led him to emphasize this aspect of Christian life. Fernando Ocariz, wh
o wrote God as Father (1998) is another theologian who has several works on divine filiation.[citation  nee
ded]

Others share interesting views on the subject. There is a small sect of Christians, called Manifestatio
nists, that claim that since Jesus is essentially God (as stated in John), then the Son of God is yet to 
come. The Son of God is a corporate body, according to this sect, and is called "The Elect", who are 
identified with the 144,000 that stand with the Lamb on Judgment Day. Manifestationists profess, ho
wever, that since these Elect make up the Sons and Daughters of God under the Firstborn Son Jesu
s, who is God's image in this universe, they must die and resurrect in order to become other Christs. 
They also hold that the Firstborn will be reborn in them, and will be the Maitreya Buddha that rides th
e White Horse and defeats the Antichrist and the Devil, establishing the 1,000 years in which the Ele
ct will rule the world under God.[
Material 6: Divine Filiation: Doctrinal Homily Outline for the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time –
November 16, 2014 (Year A) - Doctrinal Homily Outlines

Doctrine: Children of God or Divine Filiation

 To be a child of the day or a child of the light are metaphors for being a child of God. The
technical term for this is divine filiation.
 Our final end, that is, the purpose for which God created us in the first place, is presented to us in
Sacred Scripture in images of blessings: “the vision of God, participation in the divine nature,
eternal life, filiation, rest in God” (CCC 1726).
 God made man “to make him share in his own blessed life. . . . In his Son and through him, he
invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life”
(CCC 1).
 What is this beatitude?
 It would probably seem enough to us if being adopted by God meant having all the
benefits of being taken care of by the greatest person we could ever conceive of—if
we were the beneficiaries of the greatest rags to riches story imaginable. Divine
filiation is that.
 If we thought about beatitude more we would probably want to add being healed and
rejuvenated physically, morally, and intellectually. Divine filiation is that too.
 But divine filiation is also divinization: God giving us a share in his own divine life!
 In one of his general audiences, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI spoke about the ninth
century Irish thinker John Scotus Erigena on “theosis” or divinization. Using the
ancient metaphor of the smelting of iron, John Scotus Erigena wrote: “just as all red-
hot iron is liquefied to the point that it seems nothing but fire and yet the substances
remain distinct from one another, so it must be accepted that after the end of this world
all nature, both the corporeal and the incorporeal, will show forth God alone and yet
remain integral so that God can in a certain way be com-prehended while remaining
in-comprehensible and that the creature itself may be transformed, with ineffable
wonder, and reunited with God.”
 That is the mountaintop, so to speak, of being a child of God, but what about now? What does God
ask of his children?
 “Jesus asks for childlike abandonment to the providence of our heavenly Father who
takes care of his children’s smallest needs: ‘Therefore do not be anxious, saying,
“What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” . . . Your heavenly Father knows that
you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
things shall be yours as well.’” (CCC 305)
 Jesus also asks for prayer. “Prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with
their Father who is good beyond measure, with his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy
Spirit. . . . The life of prayer is the habit of being in the presence of the thrice–holy
God and in communion with him,” made possible because “through Baptism, we have
already been united with Christ (CCC 2565). “Our Father knows what we need before
we ask him, but he awaits our petition because the dignity of his children lies in their
freedom (CCC 2736).
 Jesus asks that we cooperate in transforming our moral lives through the theological
virtues of faith, hope, and charity, which “are infused by God into the souls of the
faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life”
(CCC 1813).
 Jesus asks that we be led and transformed by the Holy Spirit. “This ‘Spirit of the Son’
teaches them to pray to the Father and, having become their life, prompts them to act
 so as to bear ‘the fruit of the Spirit’ by charity in action. Healing the wounds of sin, the
Holy Spirit renews us interiorly through a spiritual transformation. He enlightens and
strengthens us to live as ‘children of light’ through ‘all that is good and right and
true.’”(CCC 1695)

Practical application: A brief summary of some

of the consequences of divine filiation in the
Christian life[1]
 Because God the Father loves us and will always take care of us, we can abandon ourselves to God
the Father’s providence.
 Our piety can be like that of a little child.
 We can ask him for gifts.
 We can see the Mass as the place where we meet our Father.
 We can love the Church since it is the family home of God.
 We can value our baptism since that is how we joined God’s family.
 When we sin, we can play the prodigal son without shame and return to the Father through
repentance and the sacrament of Reconciliation.
 We can imitate Christ our brother because he is the perfect image of our Father.
 We can love freedom since we are not slaves or wage earners but sons.
 We can embrace obedience to the will of our Father just as Christ did.
 All of these consequences of divine filiation are both means by which we can bear good fruit and
they are in themselves rewards for fearing God, that is, putting him first in our lives and living
accordingly, with his grace.

Divine Adoption | The Biblical Christ Research Institute (wordpress.com)

The sound doctrine of adoption is found in the ordo salutis (order of salvation)

immediately after the sound doctrine of justification. The word “adoption” in Greek form
is υἱοθεσία (hyiothesía) and is a combination of two Greek words, namely hyiós, “son”
and τίθημι (títhēmi), “to place.” Therefore, the Greek word translated into the English
word adoption literally means “to place as a son” or “sonship.” This word “adoption” is
found five times in the NT (cf. Romans 8:15, 23, 9:4; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:5). In
systematically studying the sound doctrine of adoption, the best place to start first is
God’s adoption of the nation of Israel. Next, the soteriology of adoption as it relates to
the ordo salutis must be surveyed to study the meaning of adoption as well as its
components. Third, the implication of adoption must be examined in such a way that
one does not merely receive information about adoption but understands why adoption
is critical to the believer’s relationship to God. Finally, the application of adoption must
be demonstrated in the life of the believer in order for the sound doctrine of adoption to
be accurately represented by the one who claims to be a child of God.

To start, in Romans 9:4 the Apostle Paul identified the nation of Israel as recipients of
God’s adoption when he wrote, “who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as
sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service
and the promises.” In the OT, God told Moses to tell Pharaoh to let Israel go – God’s
first born son (cf. Exodus 4:22). It was from ethnic Israel, specifically the tribe of Judah
that the Messiah would come. The nation rejected the Lord Jesus Christ during His first
advent as their Messiah. Then God turned to the Gentiles. Yet, the adoption of Israel
has not been abrogated. Consider God’s grace to unfaithful Jerusalem – “’Thus I will
establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD, so that you
may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because of your
humiliation, when I have forgiven you for all that you have done,’ the Lord GOD
declares” (Ezekiel 16:62-63; cf. N.C. Jeremiah 31:31-34; 36:32). In the OT, God
identified Himself as the Father of the nation of Israel and they were the firstborn of God
(cf. Jeremiah 31:9).

When the fullness of the Gentiles comes in when the church age ends, God will
regenerate a massive amount of Israelites (cf. Zechariah 13:8-9; Revelation 7:4-8).
They will repent unto salvation and believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. To this
glorious effect, Romans 11:25-29 declares explicitly the repentance of Israel;

“For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not
be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until
the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is
written,

‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.’ ‘This is My
covenant with them, When I take away their sins.'”

From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the
standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and
the calling of God are irrevocable.

Between the Apostle Paul and Luke, the use of the word οἰκονομία [i.e. dispensation
(KJV) /administration, management, or stewardship (NASB)] was used on nine
occasions in the NT (cf. Luke 16:2, 3, 4; 1 Corinthians 9:17; Ephesians 1:10; 3:2, 9;
Colossians 1:25; 1 Timothy 1:4; ) The word Dispensation is a NT word.
Dispensationalism properly understood is from the NT (e.g. εἰς οἰκονομίαν τοῦ
πληρώματος τῶν καιρῶν – “toward the administration of the fullness of the times”
Ephesians 1:10a NASB).

One of the biggest disappointments with Covenant Theology is that the CT system
propagates that the church has replaced Israel. Covenant Theology proliferates with
tenacity that Israel has forfeited completely all the promises of God. Covenant Theology
teaches that the promises of God now only apply to the church. However, Romans
11:28b-29 teaches otherwise concerning Israel: “but from the standpoint of God’s
choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God
are irrevocable.”
Ethnic Israel is certainly an example of adoption and God will certainly keep His promise
concerning His elect from that nation. (Although today the majority of Israelites are
under divine judgment and there is a partial hardening, there have been many Israelites
who have come to saving faith in Christ throughout the church age and there will be a
national repentance in the future).

God’s grace has been extended to people who are elect from every tribe and tongue
and people and nation who have been, are being, and will be saved from the wrath of
God through the sinless vicarious life, satisfactory penal substitutionary death on the
cross and the resurrection from the dead of the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Revelation 5:9).
Abraham’s true children are those of faith in Christ no matter of their ethnicity because
the Apostle Paul wrote the following to the elect of God;

“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were
baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one
in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs
according to promise” (Galatians 3:26-29).

As a high infralapsarian, double predestinarian (not supralapsarian D.P. but limited

atonement/infralapsarian D.P.), five point Calvinist, reformed in soteriology, this writer
confidently affirms what the Word of God teaches concerning that there will be a future
national repentance of Israel. As a dispensationalist this writer boldly affirms that there
is only one way to salvation – that is a person either Israelite or Gentile is only saved
from the wrath of God by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, not
works. As a dispensationalist this writer shamelessly affirms that OT saints and NT
saints, Israelite saints and Church age saints are saved from the wrath of God the exact
same way. OT saints looked forward to the penal substitutionary atoning death of Christ
to save them from their sins. NT saints look back to the penal substitutionary atoning
death of Christ to save them from their sins (Romans 5:6-11; Galatians 4:4). OT saints
are saved the exact same way as NT saints, Christ’s personal righteousness (active
obedience) as well as the penal substitutionary atoning death of Christ and His
resurrection for their justification. Every individually elected Israelite that makes up
those who represent the LORD’s redeemed from the nation of Israel has been, is and
will be brought through the entire ordo salutis – namely, Predestination, Election,
Regeneration, Calling and Conversion, Faith and Repentance, Justification, Adoption,
Sanctification, Perseverance and Preservation, and Glorification. This is all to the Glory
of God – “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory
forever. Amen” (Romans 11:36).

Next, concerning the systematization of the Word of God in soteriology (e.g. the ordo
salutis) the Christian has union with the Lord Jesus Christ and is placed in the position
of adoption logically subsequent the grace of justification in which the Christian now
stands (i.e. the act of God in declaring His righteousness to the account of the believing
sinner; the believer’s standing before God is declared righteous before God by faith
because of the believer’s trust in the Personal righteousness of Christ – the great
exchange of the cross is the effect of the believer’s union with Christ in that there was
the imputation of all the sins of the elect to Christ’s account when He died for those
joined to Him in substitution on the cross and in turn Christ’s active and passive
obedience is imputed to the account of person who has genuine faith in Him – cf. 2
Corinthians 5:21).  Adoption is an eternal adoption predestined and decreed by God in
eternity because the Apostle Paul wrote the following; “He predestined us to adoption
as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will”
(Ephesians 1:5). At regeneration and conversion the believer becomes a child of God.
At adoption the believer is positionally in “sonship”, in hopeful anticipation of the
consummation of the believer’s inheritance in glory (cf. Romans 8:23). Being a child of
God and adopted into the position of “sonship” are inseparably constrained to one
another. The former is a new birth of a spiritual nature. The latter is a new position of
“sonship”. If the former is true of a person then by necessary consequence the latter will
absolutely be true of a person.  Regeneration, justification, adoption are distinct
doctrines and they are inseparably constrained to one another in the soteriological chain
of the ordo salutis. In other words, there cannot be one without the other.

It is the Third Member of the Triune God, namely God the Holy Spirit who is the Author
of the Christian’s Union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Also, God the Holy Spirit is referred
to in Scripture as the Spirit of Adoption. The Christian is given God the Holy Spirit who
leads the Christian into a life of full assurance of salvation without fear by assuring the
believer that they are truly saved. He testifies to the believer’s spirit that they are truly a
child of God. If one does not have the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit testifying to their
spirit that they are truly a child of God, then that person should be absolutely horrified
and should seek God earnestly day and night in prayer and studying His word to
examine why they are lacking the assurance that comes from the Holy Spirit. If the
reader does not believe this writer on this point then why does the Apostle Paul write
the following;

“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not
received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of
adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with
our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow
heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him”
(Romans 8:14-17).

If God the Holy Spirit is withholding the testimony of a person’s assurance at present it
could mean that that person is not a truly converted person or that person is converted
and living in unconfessed and unrepentant sin (e.g. OT Psalm 32:3-4; e.g. NT 2 Peter
1:9-10). Either way, if the person is one of the LORD’s elect who is at present
unregenerate or one of the LORD’s elect who is regenerated – then they will come to
either repentance unto salvation (i.e. regarding the former) or confession of the
particular sin and subsequent repentance of the particular sin (i.e. regarding the latter).
Only the LORD’s elect will truly come to repentance, be saved and live a life of
assurance of salvation. The Holy Spirit will cause the child of God to cry out “Abba!
Father!” For the believer, there is a crying out to God as their Father no matter what the
suffering. Suffering can either be because of our personal faults or the trials of suffering
and persecution that are not our personal faults but designed by God for our good –
either way God is always there for His children and will never leave them. Adoption has
with it the assurance of an inheritance in the future which should motivate the believer
to hope in Christ and wait for it which the Apostle Paul encouraged when he wrote the
following; “And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit,
even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the
redemption of our body.” In eternity believers will be forever in in the position of
adoption with resurrected bodies because of what God has accomplished through the
Lord Jesus Christ who is the unique and only Son of God, God the Second member of
the Trinity, the first born from the dead (Colossians 1:18; Revelation 1:5; 3:14). He loves
His elect and no one can bring a charge against His elect because He is higher than the
highest (cf. Romans 8:31-39).

There is an illumination from God the Holy Spirit to the children of God. Children of God
have a special insight to spiritual realities as well as a special inheritance. God does not
manifest these spiritual realities to arrogant persons who are wise in their own eyes with
the wisdom from below. In the gospel of Luke, God the Son full of God the Holy Spirit
prayed to God the Father the following;

“At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, ‘I praise You, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and
intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-
pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no
one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son,
and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.’” (Luke 10:21-22).

In the Epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesians saints the
following;

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the
hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints”
(Ephesians 1:18).

In Ephesians 1:18, the verbal “be enlightened” or “being enlightened” [πεφωτισμένους]

is in the perfect aspect and communicates a completed action in which the results are
continuous. Likewise, the verbal “will know” [εἰδέναι – from οἶδα] is an infinitive verb and
is in the perfect aspect which communicates a completed action in which the results are
continuous. Therefore, the Christian has no reason to doubt the reality of the inheritance
in saints. This will truly encourage God’s elect as they suffer in this world and have a
sure hope for what is in store for them when they die.

Concerning the application of adoption there is an English word, namely “filial” derived
from the old Latin word filialis which was derived from the old Greek word φίλιους which
carries the meaning of the honor that is given from a son or a daughter to their parents.
In other words, the maturity of the position of adoption will motivate the believer to live
their lives in respectful adoration and devotion to God their Father. Believers as adopted
sons and daughters represent their heavenly Father by living lives of obedience to
Christ because they respect and love their heavenly Father. Jesus said that the Father
loved the disciples because they loved Christ and believed that Christ came from the
Father (cf. John 16:27).

The true family of the disciple of Christ is composed of those who do the will of God
because Jesus said, “For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My
brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50) and He said, “If anyone comes to Me,
and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and
sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26).

Concerning adoption and how it is practiced by men and women today – there are good
motives and bad motives. It is this writers purpose to be clear as a crystal that adopting
an orphan and running a foster home for suffering infants and children is not bad in and
of itself, but rather a good work (cf. James 1:27). However, the practice of adoption and
foster homes have been abused because there is an anthropocentric manifestation of
adoption that must be addressed and we will go to the root of it now. It is possible for a
person to adopt an orphan as an attempt to display before others good works for the
purpose to be seen by men. However, such deception is a form of pretended
righteousness. What is more, it is possible for a person to adopt an orphan as a means
to recommend themselves to God by their own performance of righteousness as an
attempt to earn God’s favor in the form of works based salvation and expect God to
save them because of their own personal righteousness. At this point, this writer
reiterates – to adopt an orphan is not bad in and of itself and is philanthropic. In fact,
God rebuked Israel in the OT for their uncompassionate disposition toward the orphan
(cf. Isaiah 1:17) However, may the reader imagine for a moment a scenario of a pastor
who might go to great lengths for the purpose of motivating their congregation by guilt
motivated effort to give him great financial support so that the pastor can adopt an
orphan or orphans as a way of practicing their “righteousness” before other people in
order to be seen by them when all the while there are God’s elect at that congregation
who are homeless and hungry. However, the Lord Jesus Christ warns about practicing
one’s righteousness before other people to be seen by them when He said, “Beware of
practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no
reward with your Father who is in heaven. So when you give to the poor, do not sound a
trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that
they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when
you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so
that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will
reward you” (Matthew 6:1-4). Adoption is a form of giving to the poor orphan (e.g. food,
clothing, shelter, home and attention). In fact, visiting orphans in their distress is an
element of pure religion before God the Father (cf. James 1:27). At the same time, God
sees through all deceptions and knows if one adopts an orphan to justify and
recommend themselves to God by their own performance or even uses adoption as a
segue to teach the doctrine of divine adoption and thus not represent the doctrine of
adoption correctly. Physical adoption and the doctrine of divine adoption are not the
same. Physical families in this life (e.g. nuclear family) are not the same as being in the
family of God (cf. Matthew 12:47-50; 10:37). Members of a believer’s true family are
those in the family of God, which is those who have been saved by God’s grace alone,
through faith alone, in Christ alone, not by their own personal merit. To end, a person
knows whether or not their motives behind their activities are a desire to be noticed by
men or to earn an account of righteousness before God. Nevertheless, if a person is
deceiving others in this or is deceived themselves, know that God sees through all
deceptions and His word discerns and knows all secretes and motives of our hearts (cf.
Hebrews 4:12-13). Adoption of orphans and foster homes can be done in a good way in
love but it can also be done in an evil way in which many have taken advantage of the
system or have turn it into idolatry. We all know of horror stories concerning this matter.
On the one hand, in the end Christ will reject those who thought they earned their right
to heaven by their good works (cf. Matthew 7:21-23). Also, in the end Christ will reject
those who did not care for His elect (cf. Matthew 25:41-46).

In conclusion, the sound doctrine of adoption is about the believer’s position before God
as sons and daughters in the place of “sonship.” For Christian women this is not a
gender change but a position and carries the weight of being an adult heir (*cf.
Galatians 4:1-7). It was the purpose of this writer in this article to articulate the adoption
of Israel, the soteriology of adoption in the ordo salutis, the implication of adoption, and
the application of adoption. To end, this writer will be very disappointed if these four
objectives were not accomplished from the Biblical text.

I end with this encouraging doxology from scripture to God’s elect – “Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused
us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade
away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith
for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5). Amen.