Adoption, in

Christian theology Christian theology is the theology of Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theologians use biblical exeg ...

, is the reception of a believer into the family of

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

. In the Reformed ''

ordo salutis ''Ordo salutis'' (Latin: "order of salvation") refers to a series of conceptual steps within the Christian doctrine of salvation. Definition Ordo salutis has been defined as, "a technical term of Protestant dogmatics to designate the consecuti ...

'' ("order of

salvation Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its ...

"), adoption is usually regarded as a step immediately subsequent to justification. As a theological word, adoption has similar connotations to the act of parents who legally take responsibility for a child who was not originally born to them. There are three references in the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...

to God "adopting" () Christians as his own children ( Galatians 4:5,

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

8:15 and

Ephesians The Epistle to the Ephesians is the tenth book of the New Testament. Its authorship has traditionally been attributed to Paul the Apostle but starting in 1792, this has been challenged as Deutero-Pauline, that is, pseudepigrapha written in Pau ...

1:5) and one reference to God adopting "people of Israel" (Romans 9:4). Adoption as a theological term introduces a relational dimension to the consequences of salvation. Adoption as a theological concept is also another consequence of the 'legal' act of justification, alongside redemption and

reconciliation Reconciliation or reconcile may refer to: Accounting * Reconciliation (accounting) Arts, entertainment, and media Sculpture * ''Reconciliation'' (Josefina de Vasconcellos sculpture), a sculpture by Josefina de Vasconcellos in Coventry Cathedra ...

. The

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

precedent for this term comes from the story of

Mephibosheth Mephibosheth (Biblical Hebrew: , ''Məfīḇōšeṯ'', also called Meribaal, , ''Mərīḇ-Baʻal'') was the son of Jonathan—and, thus, a grandson of Saul—mentioned in the Biblical Books of Samuel and Chronicles. Mephibosheth was five yea ...

, who despite not being part of Davidic family was included in the Royal inheritance (2 Samuel 9:7-13). Adoption is an important feature of Reformation theology as demonstrated by article 12 of the

Westminster Confession of Faith The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith. Drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the Church of England, it became and remains the "subordinate standard" o ...

:'The Westminster Confession of Faith' ''Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics'', http://www.reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/ Retrieved 15 June 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adoption (Theology) Christian soteriology Christian terminology Adoption and religion

See also

References