ADOPTION

Gordon H. Clark
Chapter XII of the Westminster Confession, on Adoption, is rather short, consisting of only one
section; yet it undoubtedly merits at least a short discussion. The section states that all those who
are justified are also made children of God by adoption and thereby enjoy certain liberties and
privileges.
During the past hundred years as modernism developed, the doctrine of adoption has been slighted
by those disloyal ministers who have rejected the infallibility of the Bible. In its place they have
preached a natural and universal Fatherhood of God and a natural and universal brotherhood of
man. Now, the Scriptures have considerable to say about the Fatherhood of God, but they have little
or nothing to say about a natural and universal Fatherhood.
One verse that might be so understood is Paul's use of a quotation from a Stoic poet, "for we are
also his offspring." Possibly the poet had some notion of a universal Fatherhood, but Paul used the
quotation only to stress that God is a Spirit and that men were created in God's image. Another
verse is Eph. 3:15, "Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." But this family is more
reasonably understood as the family of the redeemed than as the human race as a whole.
In contrast with these few and doubtful verses, the Scriptures speak many times and clearly of God's
Fatherhood in relation to a portion of mankind. If the Pharisees, Jesus said, "ye are of your father
the devil"; but he taught his disciples to pray, "Our Father." The most familiar figure of speech by
which entrance into the Christian life is described is that of a new birth. Not all men, but some only
are born again, not by their own will, but of God; and thus God gives them authority to become sons
of God. Quite evidently they were not natural born sons, otherwise they would not have needed to
be born again. If men must be born again, those who are not born again are not children of God.
The figure of a new birth is appropriate to the new life that then commences. So also is the figure
of the resurrection. Men who were dead in sin are raised with Christ to a life they did not previously
have. But the Scriptures also describe this change as adoption. Children of another father are
adopted by God and become a part of the Christian family. Here too the previous conclusion follows:
if a man becomes a child of God by adoption, he could not have been a child of God by nature. And
for the same reason it is clear that the Bible does not teach the universal Fatherhood of God nor the
universal brotherhood of man. It speaks about sheep and goats, and about a final and irremediable
division between them.
Adoption brings certain privileges that are denied to those not adopted. First, they receive God's
name, and as members of the family can now call God, Abba, Father. They are pitied, protected, and
provided for. They are sometimes even chastened by God as a Father, "yet never cast off, but sealed
to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises as heirs of salvation."
It is comforting to know that the act of adoption cannot be annulled; the new birth can never be
undone; the resurrection to newness of life can never be reversed. Later in the Confession this is
more fully stated in the chapters on the assurance of salvation and the perseverance of the saints.

1955. Adoption. The Southern Presbyterian Journal (January 5).