CHAPTER XII. ADOPTION. THE next subject in the natural order, after justification, is adoption. The one prepares the way for the other. Adoption is an advance on justification. It brings us nearer to God. The one makes us accepted subjects of law, the other makes us sons. Justification, however important, is a cold, legal idea, compared with adoption. Those whom Christ has redeemed, he is not satisfied merely to acquit ;-he also makes them sons of God. This will more fully appear, as we proceed to show the nature and benefits of adoption. "'* im I. ITS NATURE. "The adoption of sons, plies, of course, that we are not the sons of God by nature. Men do not adopt their own natural children. We are declared to be, by nature, "children of the wicked one." Neither, if we were by nature the children of God, should we need to be born again. How perfectly does the idea of adoption comport with that of regeneration. Regeneration effects the spiritual change required; adoption owns and seals the work. Regeneration renews, justification acquits, and adoption welcomes the renewed and justified soul as an heir of God. History clearly developes the origin and meaning of adoption. It was a custom among the Jews, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, for childless parents of wealth to select favorite children from destitute families, take them to their own homes, place their affections upon them, educate them, treat them as their own children, make them such in law, and finally to bequeath to them their estates. This is adoption. It illustrates the nature of our adoption of God, although not the reasons for it. So far as the necessities of the adopted are concerned, our case is here represented; but in other respects the analogy fails. God was not without illustrious sons, that he needed to adopt any of earth's poor creatures. His heavens were filled with flaming spirits, and millions of brilliant stars stood burning around his throne. Nor were there any attractions in these children of the wicked one, that God was moved to think of adopting them. Mordecai adopted Esther, because she was exceeding fair; and Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses, because the tears and the smiles of the sweet boy won her heart. But there is nothing in us to win the heart of God, until regenerating grace begets his spiritual image in our souls. The motives of God in adopting us are therefore purely gracious. This is the more obvious, as God , anticipates the adoption of Christians, and regards them prospectively as children, even while they are yet in bondage. "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." That is the prospective heir and the servant, while infants together in the same family, are as yet personally poor alike, and alike subject to their guardians. "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." That isthe ceremonial rituals and the bondage of sin were upon them, although prospectively the children of God, until the appointed time for their deliverance and adoption by Jesus Christ. "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."* Having thus become the sons of God by regeneration and adoption, the spirit of adoption was given them, and they were henceforth to feel and act as heirs to the royal inheritance. Adoption, then, in the scriptural sense, is being graciously taken by God from the condition of aliens and heirs of perdition, into that of beloved children. * Gal. iv. II. ITS BENEFITS. These may be included under two heads the blessings of the filial spirit, and those of the filial relation. 1. The blessings of the filial spirit. "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."* Christians receive, then, on being adopted, the same filial spirit which dwelt in the heart of their incarnate Saviour. They feel towards God, as Christ felt, in his filial relation to him. They have the same freedom of access to him. They can come boldly to the throne of his grace. They are not afraid to call him their Father, to claim the privilege of children, and to ask of him the things they need. They have towards him the confiding feeling of children. They feel entire confidence in committing all their interests, for both worlds, into his hands. Like the boy in the tempest at sea, who reposed sweetly in his berth because his father was at the helm, so it is the privilege of Christians ever to feel perfectly safe under the protection of their heavenly Father. They can realize a Father's hand, and see a Father's care, in all the events of life. They have towards God the spirit of filial love. Their affections cling sweetly to him, as their Father in heaven. The filial Christian can truly say, " Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth I desire besides thee."t "Were I in heaven, without my God, 'T would be no joy to me; I long for none but thee." The spiritually adopted have thus a sensible delight in God, and all duties to him become a pleasure. They have the spirit of filial submission. They know who it is that appoints the rod, and feel assured that the heart of their heavenly Father cannot err. If it is sometimes in their heart to say, with Jesus Christ, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me," they can also say, with him, "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." They have the spirit of filial gratitude. In every gift, they see their heavenly Father's care. Every rain-drop, and every sun-beam, that causes the earth to yield her bounty, is to them a token of his paternal love. In the degree that their filial spirit is active, does the earth seem to put on a brighter green, the sun shines with a more golden lustre, and even the midnight star looks out upon them from its dark chamber with a sweeter eye. This filial spirit, that sees a father's hand in every thing, greatly augments their interest in all the operations of nature. Where the unregenerate see only the working of a lifeless law, they look beyond, and see the finger of the living God. The silvery stream, gliding with gentle murmurs down the landscape, and the boisterous cataract, plunging headlong with its deafening thunder; the placid waters of a summer's sea, and the terrific noise of angry billows, when the proud waves lift up their heads sky |