indicate that St. Paul holds the sonship, of which he is speakini;, to he founded on the covenant promise of God, and not on the natural relation to God of all men as such. We must not therefore lower the meaning of a<loption, in his mind, to the confer- ring of the full privileges of sons on those who are children by birth. It is, as the whole context shows, a position bestowed by a disposition or covenant of God, and through a redemption by Christ. This probably led St. Paul to the u.se of the word ; for the Roman adoption was effected by a legal act. which involved a quasi buying-out. He also plainly regards it as like the adoption of Roman hiw in this, that it ^ives not merely paternal care, but the complete rights of sonship, the gift of the Spirit of God s Son, and the inheritance. No doubt this legal analogy may be pressed too far ; and St. Paul plainly indicates that what he means is really sometliing far deeper ; for it is founded upon a spiritual union to God's Son, which is described as ' putting on Christ ' (3") ; so that our adoption is not a mere formal or legal act, though it may be compared to such in respect of its authoritative and abiding nature.
Some theologians of difTerent schools (e.g. Turretin, Schleiermacher) have inferred from the connexion between redemption and adoption, in (ial 4', that adoption is tlie positive part of the complete blessing of justification, of which re- demption or forgiveness is the negative jiart. But this is a very precarious inference ; and the two terms are so different in their meaning, that it is far more probable that St. Paul meant by adoption a blessing distinct from our having peace with God and access into His favour, which he describes in Ro 5' as the positive fruits of our justification. These blessings, indeed, cannot be sejjarated in reality ; they are only different aspects of the one great gift of life in Christ ; but in order to understand clearly the evangelical doctrine of the NT, it is necessary to look at them separately.
The next place where St. Paul speaks about adoption is in Ro S'"-^. Here he is speaking of the believer's new walk of holiness, .and he has saiil, ' If by the spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live ' (8"). In proof of this he asserts that ' as many as are led by the Spirit of (iod are the sons of God ' (8") ; and then he proves this in turn by saj-ing, ' Ye received not the (or, a) spirit of bondage again unto fear, but ye received tlie spirit of atloption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.' The line of reasoning is the same a-s in Galatians, but put in the inverse order. The pro- mise of life is proved by the fact of our being sons of God ; and that, again, because the spirit that He has given us is that of adoption, enabling us to a<lilre3sGod as our Father, and so (8'") witnes.sing with our spirit that we are children of (Iod. In this possibly there may be some allusion to the witnesses wliich were necessary to the solemn act of adoption according to Roman law and custom. Then, as in the earlier Epistle, it is stated that this ado]ition carries with it all the rights of true son- ship, ' If children, then heirs,' etc. (8"). St. Paul next proceeds to contra.Ht this glorious prospect >dtli the present sufferings of the people of (ioil. These sullcrings are shared by all creation ; and the deliverance is to be at the revealing of the sons of God (8'"), when creation itself shall share tlu' liberty of the glory of the sons of God (8-'). So in 8^ he says, ' we wait for our adojition, the redemption of our body.' It is the resurrection of life at the coming of the Lord that is un- doubtedly meant; and that is called here the adoption, because it will be the full revelation of our sonship. Now are we sons of (loil, as St. .lolin puts it; but the world knoweth us not, and it doth not j'et appear what we shall be ; but « hen it shall
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ADOEA
ADOEATION
appear, we shall be like Him (1 Jn 3'''). Another striking parallel is to be found in our Lord's words, as recorded by St. Luke (20'*-'^), of those that are accounted worthy to attain to the resurrection from the dead, ' Neither can they die any more, for they are equal xinto the angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.' As salvation is sometimes spoken of as a thing perfect here and now, and sometimes as only to be completed at the last, so St. Paul speaks of adoption. It belongs to the believer really and certainly now, but perfectly only at the resurrection.
In Ro 9* St. Paul mentions 'the adoption' first among the privileges of Israel, which he there enumerates. 1 his is in accordance with tlie fact that the nation as a whole is called in the OT God's son, and individual members of it His children, sons and daughters. The term implies further, what is also taught in OT, that they had tills relation, not through physical descent or creation, but by an act of gracious love on God's part. And in 9''*, St. Paul teaches that not all the children of Abraham and Jacob are children of God, but they who are of the promise, i.e., as he put it before, they who accept the promise by faith. It is not necessary to suppose tliat St. Paul speaks here of another adoption, quite distinct from the Christian one ; it is, indeed, an earlier and less perfect phase of it, but he regards it as essentially the same ; since the gospel was preached before to Abraham, and justifacation, though founded on the actual redemption of Christ, was by anticipation applied to him and many others before Christ came.