THE CAUSES OF ADOPTION
John Gill (1697-1771
THE efficient cause [of adoption is] God. None can adopt any into the family of God but God Himself. None can put any among the children of God but He Himself. None but He can do it, Who says, “I will be his God, and he shall be my son” (Rev 21:7). God—Father, Son, and Spirit—are concerned in the affair of adoption.
1. God the Father: “What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us”—the Father of Christ, the one God and Father of us all— “that we should be called the sons of God” (1Jo 3:2). The God and Fa ther of Christ, Who blessed and chose His people in Him, predestinat ed them to the adoption of children by Him, both to the grace of adop tion and to the inheritance they are adopted to and [that they] obtain in Christ in virtue thereof (Eph 1:11). He also predestinated them to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom 8:29). He set up [Christ] as the pattern of their sonship, [so] that as He partook of their nature, they should be partakers of the divine nature; and that as He was a Son and Heir of all things, they should be likewise. [This] will more manifestly be seen when they shall appear to be what they are as sons and are like unto Him (Rom 8:29). Besides, God the Father has not only deter mined their adoption and all things relative to it, but He has provided this blessing in covenant for them and secured it there. This is one of the “all things” in which it is ordered and sure (2Sa 23:5); it is one of the spiritual blessings of the covenant, which He has blessed His peo ple with in Christ. This covenant runs thus: “
[1] will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2Co 6:18). Yes, the act of adoption itself, or putting among the chil dren, is His act. For though He says, “How shall I put thee among the children?” (Jer 3:19), there being no difference between them and others by nature, they are as bad and as black as others; yet He did do it.
2. The Son of God has a concern in adoption: There are several con nections and relations He stands in to His people, which serve greatly to illustrate and confirm it. There is a union between them, a very near and mysterious one (Joh 17:21); and from this union flow all the bless ings of grace to the saints. They are first of God in Christ, and then He is everything to them. They have everything through Him to make them comfortable and happy; and, particularly, He and they being one, His God is their God, and His Father is their Father. He is a Son, and they are sons. He is an heir, and they are joint-heirs with Him (Rom 8:17). There is a marriage-relation between Christ and His people: He has betrothed them to Himself in righteousness and that forever. He is their husband, and they are His spouse and bride. And as when a man marries a king’s daughter, he is his son-in-law—as David was to Saul— so one that marries a king’s son becomes his daughter. Thus, the church being married to Christ, the Son of God, becomes the King’s daughter (Psa 45:13). Through the incarnation of Christ, He not only became the Goel, the near kinsman, but even a brother to those whose flesh and blood He partook of. Because He and they are of one and the same nature, “He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb 2:11). And if [they are] His brethren, then, as He is the Son of God, they must be sons of God too. Through the redemption wrought out by Him, they come to receive the adoption of children, the blessing before prepared for them in the purpose and covenant of God. Yes, Christ bestows the actual donation of the blessing of adoption: “As many as received him, to them gave he po
wer to become the sons of God” (Joh 1:12). It is the Son Who makes free, that is, by making them children. For the chil dren only are free, not servants (Joh 8:36).
3. The Spirit of God has also a concern in adoption: He is the au thor of regeneration, which, though it is not adoption, is the evidence of it. The sons of God are described as born of God (Joh 1:13); and this spiritual birth, which makes men appear to be the sons of God, is owing to the Spirit of God. “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,” that is, of the grace of the Spirit compared to water, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (Joh 3:5). It is by faith in Christ that men receive the adoption of children; hence, believers are said to be “the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:26). This re ceives and claims the privilege and blessing, which faith is of the op eration of the Spirit of God...Moreover, it is the Spirit Who witnesses the truth of adoption. He bears witness to the spirits of believers that they are “the children of God” (Rom 8:15-16); they receive Him as the Spirit of adoption, Who is sent into their hearts for that purpose. For “because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal 4:6), all to which may be add ed that the several operations of the Spirit on the souls of men, such as His leadings and teachings, confirm unto them the truth of their sonship. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom 8:14). [They] are led out of themselves and off of themselves to Christ and His righteousness. [They] are led into all truth as it is in Jesus and to the fulness of Christ; [they] are led through Him, the Mediator, by the Spirit unto God as their Father. And [this] Spirit is given and abides as an earnest in their hearts, even the earnest of the inheritance they are adopted to, “until the re demption of the purchased possession” (Eph 1:14). The moving cause of adoption is the love, grace, free favor, and good will of God. There was nothing in the creature that could move Him to it—no agreeable disposition in them, no amiableness in their persons, nor anything engaging in their conduct and behavior. But all [was] the reverse as before observed: wherefore, considering these things, the apostle breaks forth in this [moving] expression: “What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God” (1Jo 3:1), in which he points out the source and spirit of this blessing of grace—the amazing love of God! The objects of adoption: They are such who are the objects of the love of God; for since adoption flows from the love of God, such who are the children of God must be interested in it. They are dear chil dren, strongly interested in His affections, like Ephraim, dear sons and pleasant children whom God loves dearly and loves with a love of com placency and delight. They are the chosen of God; for such that are chosen of God in Christ are predestinated to the adoption of children by Him (Eph 1:5); hence sons before calling.1 They are also redeemed from among men, out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation (Rev 5:9) being the children of God scattered abroad [that] Christ came to gather together (Joh 11:52); and who, through redemption by Him, receive the adoption of children, previously provided for them. Though, in their natural state, they are rebellious children, children that are corrupt and that are corrupters; children of wrath, by nature, as others, and in no wise better than others; but are only openly and manifestly the children of God when they [become] believers in Christ. Until then, they cannot be called the children of God by themselves or by others. Until then, they have no claim to the blessing nor have they the power, the privilege, the dignity, and honor to become the sons of God. These are the characters of the adopted ones, both secretly and openly. From A Complete Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity, Vol. 2, (Tegg & Company, 1839), 93-102, in the public domain.