Chapter 20
Adoption Accomplished
"Now
I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child,
differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors
and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were
children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness
of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we
might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent
forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore
thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God
through Christ."
In the passage before us the Holy Spirit has given
us an inspired commentary on that statement made by the apostle John, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” Here
Paul is asserting the great truth of our adoption into God’s family and all the
privileges associated with our adoption. In the Old Testament, before Christ
came, God’s people were like minor children, under the law
of Moses as a schoolmaster. Now that Christ has come, fulfilled the law, and
given us his Spirit, the Spirit of adoption, the church in this gospel age is
as children who have come of age and entered into their maturity. We have
entered into “the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom.
There are
many who try to place a yoke of legal servitude upon the people of God, which
none of us can bear. The apostle Paul was anxious that we should serve God, but
not as fearful slaves. Rather, he would have us to serve God as loving sons.
Here he is showing us that we are no longer under the bondage of the law, but
in the liberty of the gospel. Let us then forsake the law and cling to Christ.
“No strength of nature can
suffice
To serve the Lord aright;
And what she has she
misapplies,
For want of clearer light.
How long beneath the law I
lay
In bondage and distress!
I toiled the precept to
obey,
But toiled without success.
Then, to abstain from
outward sin,
Was more than I could do;
Now if I feel its power
within,
I feel I hate it too.
Then all my servile works
were done
A righteousness to raise;
Now, freely chosen in the
Son,
I freely choose His ways.
What shall I do, was then
the word,
That I may worthier grow?
What shall I render to the
Lord?
Is my inquiry now.
To see the law by Christ
fulfilled,
And hear His pardoning
voice,
Changes a slave into a
child,
And duty into choice.”
Our
obedience to Christ should arise from a spirit of adoption within our hearts
causing us to love the Savior. The apostle clearly tells us that service done
out of legal constraint, grudgingly, is accounted as no service at all. If we
could but apprehend the privileges that are ours as a result of our being
adopted into the family of God, we would never cease to marvel and serve the
Lord with gladness. “Behold what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God!” If we are the sons of God we ought to
live in the liberty of sons, magnifying the grace of God. We ought never to
entangle ourselves with the yoke of bondage suitable only for servants.
God graciously adopted all his elect into his
family, taking us into union with Christ before the world began, and thus
declaring us to be his sons (Eph. 1:3-4). At
“Behold what wondrous grace
The Father hath bestowed;
On sinners of a mortal race,
To call them sons of God!
If in my Father’s love,
I share a filial part,
Send down Thy Spirit, like a
dove,
To rest upon my heart.”
Sons, Not
Servants
In verses 1 and 2 Paul tells us that we are no
longer under the law that was our schoolmaster. It was the schoolmaster’s work
to care for and instruct his master’s children until the time of their
maturity. Once the child came of age he would receive his inheritance. Until he
reached adulthood, the child was as a servant in his father’s house, under
complete subjection to the schoolmaster, though he was a child. The
schoolmaster would often punish the child because of disobedience.
The schoolmaster, as we have
seen, represents the law. The law deals with men as a schoolmaster. It is a
letter that kills (2 Cor. 3:6). It is the strength of sin (1 Cor.
Though the law was never
given to the Gentiles, the same is true of unbelieving men and women in this
gospel age, because the law (its moral commandments) is written upon the hearts
of all men by creation (Rom.
How long are men under the
bondage of the law? “Until
the time appointed of the Father.” The legal dispensation
continued until the time of God’s appointment ended it, with the coming of our
all-glorious Savior. When Christ comes to the hearts of his elect, by the power
of the Holy Spirit at the time appointed by the Father, the sons of God receive
the earnest of their inheritance (Gal. 1:15, 16; Ezek. 16:8, 9, 11, 12, 14;
Isa. 42:16).
Hope Revealed
In verses 3-5 Paul tells us that the incarnation of
Christ revealed the hope of liberty from the law for all the sons of God. Until
Christ came we were children, but children under bondage to the law. As long as the heir is a minor, he has no advantage
over a slave. Though, as a son, he owns the entire inheritance, he is subject
to tutors and governors until the time set by his father for his freedom. ― "Even so we, when we were children, were in
bondage under the elements of the world" (v. 3).
The church was in a state of
infancy from the coming up out of Egypt until the coming of the Messiah (Hos.
11:1, 3). The Old Testament church was in servile, fearful bondage to the law.
All that was revealed was revealed only in type and shadow and prophecy. There
was no way of free access to God. The church of the New Testament, or gospel
dispensation, is the church of mature age. We are no longer “in bondage under
the elements of the world.”
All of God’s elect, though
they are chosen sons of God, are also in bondage by nature (Eph. 2:1-3). When
Paul says, we were by nature “children of wrath, even as others,” he is
not suggesting that God’s elect were the objects of his wrath, but wrathful
children. That is to say, before we trusted Christ, we were under the sense of
guilt and of wrath, condemned by the law in our own consciences. We were
governed and controlled by the “elements of the world,” by the dread and
fear of the law (1 Tim. 1:9-10). We walked according to the course of this
world. In our rebellion and unbelief, we were by nature “children of wrath,”
“alienated and enemies in our minds by wicked works” (Col. 1:21).
Verses 4-5 ― "But when the fulness of
the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of
sons."
God adopted his elect in union with Christ before the world began. In the counsel of peace and the covenant of his grace it was agreed that Christ would reconcile them to the Father. So, at the appointed time, Christ came. When the time arrived that was fixed by God the Father in eternal predestination, God sent his Son into the world, made of a woman, made subject to the law, so that he might redeem God’s sons from the bondage of the law. Once the law was fulfilled and satisfied by Christ, the way was open for all God’s adopted children to experience and enjoy all their rightful heritage of grace.
Those words, “the fullness of time,” are full of instruction. The time was
fixed and set by God in eternal predestination. Indeed, there is a time set by
God in his eternal purpose for all things that come to pass in this world. And
everything is accomplished exactly according to God’s purpose, precisely at his
appointed time. Nothing comes to pass before its time; and nothing comes to
pass after its time. Our great God never gets in a hurry and never comes too
late. He works all things according to his own timetable. Christ came
into the world at the appointed time agreed upon in eternity (Gen. 49:10; Dan.
9:24; Mark 1:15; Eph. 1:10).
A brief
look at history will reveal the fact that God was sovereignly arranging all
things for the coming of his Son. The Jews had been carried into the Babylonian
captivity and delivered by the hand of God, just as he had promised. Afterward,
they were never again given over to open idolatry. Ezra and the scribes compiled
the Scriptures and taught them. Synagogues were established for teaching the
Scriptures throughout the known world. All these things prepared the way for
Christ’s entrance into the world.
Through
the conquests of Alexander the Great, Greek became the language of the world.
God raised up the Roman Empire and the Romans built roads everywhere. They
formed a strange system of taxation that required every man to return to his
hometown to pay taxes. Perhaps you ask, “What do these things have to do with
preparing the world for Christ’s incarnation at the precise time it came to
pass?” Compare just two passages of Scripture with one another, and you will
see (Mic. 5:2; Luke 2:1-7).
“God sent forth his Son.” ― The fact
that the Father sent forth the Son out of heaven implies the Son’s eternal
preexistence with the Father. Though he is One with and altogether equal with
the Father in his eternal deity, the Son of God voluntarily subjected himself
to the Father’s will as our Surety, that he might redeem and save his people
(Heb. 10:5-14). In infinite love for us our Father sent his Son to redeem us.
In that same infinite love the Son willingly came here to redeem us by the
sacrifice of himself (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8; 1 John 3:16; 4:9-10). In Philippians
2 the apostle Paul uses the example of Christ’s voluntary subjection to the
Father’s will as an inspiration for believers to willingly surrender themselves
to the will and glory of God (Phil. 2:5-11). The apostle Peter uses it to stir
our hearts to patience in suffering (1 Pet. 2:21-24).
“God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman.” ― Our Redeemer’s human body and
soul were made of a woman (Gen. 3:15; John 1:14; Rom. 1:3; Phil. 2:7; Heb.
2:14), without the aid of man. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit (Matt.
1:21-25). God the Holy Spirit formed and prepared a human body for the Son of
God in the womb of a virgin (Heb. 10:5), that he might perform all the work of
redemption for us as a perfect man who had no sin (2 Cor. 5:21). Being made of
a woman, the infinite God became our near kinsman, to whom the right of
redemption belongs (Lev. 25:24-32; Ruth 4:4; Jer. 32:7).
“God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.” ― He who
gave the law at Sinai made himself to be under the law that he might perfectly
fulfill the law for his people, thereby establishing the righteousness of God
and bringing in everlasting righteousness for us. He was made under and
perfectly obeyed all the law, civil, ceremonial, and moral. He would not allow
one jot or tittle of the law to fall to the ground,
but fulfilled it completely, establishing a righteousness for his people that
exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5:17-20).
From the beginning of his
incarnation until the end of his earthly life, the Lord Jesus was making for us
a perfect record, a record that stands opposite our names in the record books
of God in heaven as a reason why we should and must enter in. Christ kept the
commandments for us, which we could not keep. By his blood poured out unto
death under the wrath of God as our Substitute, our blessed Savior cancelled
the penalty of the law; and by his obedience, he fulfilled the law. In the
light of Christ’s accomplished life and death as our Substitute, the Holy
Spirit declares, “Christ is the end of the law” (Rom. 5:19; 2 Cor. 5:21;
Rom. 10:4; Acts 13:39).
We did
not send for Christ; but God sent Christ for us (Isa. 59:16; 63:5; 1 John
4:10). As it was in redemption, so it is in regeneration. It is God who comes
to us in grace that causes us to come to him in faith. It is not us coming to
God in faith that causes him to come to us in grace.
“God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.” ― The purpose
of Christ in coming into this world in human flesh was the redemption of his
people. This was the mission upon which he was sent by the Father as his
Righteous Servant (John 10:16-18). This was the work he came to perform (Matt.
1:21; 20:28; 1 Pet. 1:18; 1 Tim. 1:15). This was the thing the Father trusted
to his Son as our Surety (Eph. 1:12). Of him it was written, “He shall not
fail” (Isa. 42:4); and he did not fail. All his people were redeemed from
the curse of the law by his one great sacrifice for sin (Gal. 3:13; Eph. 1:7).
All this
was done “that we might receive the adoption of sons.” It was not
possible for chosen sinners, though loved of God with an everlasting love, to
enter into heaven as the sons of God and be accepted of him, except upon the
ground of righteousness established and justice satisfied by the blood of
Christ (Rom. 3:24-26). And now that Christ has redeemed them, it is impossible
for any of them to miss their predestined inheritance, not only because God’s
purpose is sure; but, also, because justice demands the salvation of all for
whom Christ died. All the redeemed shall be brought to receive the adoption of
sons at God’s appointed time. The death of Christ secured for the elect all the
blessings of grace (Rom. 8:32-39; 2 Cor. 8:9).
We did not become God’s
children by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Holy Spirit came to us
in grace and gave us faith to trust our Savior because we were adopted as the
children of God from eternity. At God’s appointed time, every chosen child
shall be made the recipient of God’s saving grace and given the Spirit of
adoption in the new birth. This is what Paul declares in verses 6-7 ― "And because ye are sons,
God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba,
Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an
heir of God through Christ."
Chosen sinners come to know
their election and adoption as the children of God, only as God sends his
Spirit into their hearts in the saving operations of his grace, giving them
faith in Christ. At the time of love, God sends his Spirit and causes his
adopted sons to gladly receive the adoption of sons. When he creates faith in
us, he gives us the right in our own consciences to be called the sons of God,
enabling us to lift our hearts to heaven and call God himself our Father. ― "Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God:
therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are
we the sons of God” (1 John 3:1-2).
“This is a privilege that
exceeds all others. It is better to be a son than to be a saint. Angels are
saints, but not sons. They are servants. It is better to be a child of God than
to be redeemed, pardoned, and justified. It is great grace to redeem from
slavery, to pardon criminals, and justify the ungodly; but it is another and a
higher act of grace to make them sons; and which makes them infinitely more
honorable, than to be the sons and daughters of the greatest potentate upon
earth; yea, gives them an honor which Adam had not in innocence, nor the angels
in heaven, who though sons by creation, yet not by adoption.” John Gill
To be called a son of God is
the most noble title in heaven or earth. If we are sons, we should not live
like slaves in bondage, under the terror of the law. Let every sinner who
believes on the Son of God constantly enjoy all the privileges of full-grown
sons in the family of God. Soon, we shall know fully and perfectly what Paul
meant when he spoke of “the glorious liberty of the children of God.”