THE CHILDREN OF GOD ARE ADOPTED BY GOD INTO GOD’S FAMILY
Matthew 5:9 and Romans 8:15  Thomas Watson

In these words the glorious privilege of the saints is set down. Those who have made their peace with God and labour to make peace among brethren, this is the great honour conferred upon them, They shall be called the children of God'.

They shall be (called)', that is, they shall be so supposed and esteemed of God. God never miscalls anything. He does not call them children which are no children. Thou shalt be called the prophet of the Highest' (Luke 1:76), that is, thou shalt be so. They shall be called the children of God', that is, they shall be accounted and admitted for children.

The proposition resulting is this: that born again children are the children of the most High. God is said in Scripture to have many children:

1.     By eternal generation. So only Christ is the natural Son of his Father. Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten thee' (Psalm 2:7).

2.     By creation. So the angels are the sons of God. When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy' (Job 38:7).

3.     By participation of dignity. So king and rulers are said to be children of the high God. I have said, ye are gods, and all of you are children of the most High' (Psalm 82:6).

4.     By visible profession. So God has many children. Hypocrites forge a title of son-ship. The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair' (Genesis 6:2).

5.     By real sanctification. So all the faithful are peculiarly and eminently the children of God.

That I may illustrate and intensify this, and that believers may DRAW much sweetness out of this gospel-flower, I shall discuss and demonstrate these seven essentials:

1 That naturally we are not the children of God.

2 What it is to be the children of God.

3 How we come to be made children.

4 The signs of God's children.

5 The love of God in making us children.

6 The honour of God's children.

7 The privileges of God's children.

Naturally we are not the children of God. As Jerome says, we are not born God's children but made so. By nature we are strangers to God, swine not sons (2 Peter 2:22). Will a man settle his estate upon his swine? He will give them his acorns, not his jewels. By nature we have the devil for our father: Ye are of your father the devil (John 8:44). A wicked man may search the records of hell for his pedigree.

What it is to be the children of God. This child-ship consists in two things. Adoption; infusion of grace.

Child-ship consists in adoption: That we might receive the adoption of sons' (Galatians 4:5).

1  Wherein does the true nature of adoption consist?

In three things:

(i) A transition or translation from one family to another.

He that is adopted is taken out of the old family of the devil and hell (Ephesians 2:2, 3) to which he was heir apparent, and is made of the family of heaven, of a noble family (Ephesians 2:19). God is his Father, Christ is his elder-brother, the saints co-heir, the angels fellow-servants in that family.

(ii) Adoption consists in an immunity and unwilling to help somebody from all the laws of the former family.

Forget also thy father's house' (Psalm 45:10). He who is spiritually adopted has now no more to do with sin. Ephraim shall say, what have I to do any more with idols?' (Hosea 14:8). A child of God has indeed to do with sin as with an enemy to which he gives battle, but not as with a lord to which he yields obedience. He is freed from sin (Romans 6:7). I do not say he is freed from duty. Was it ever heard that a child should be freed from duty to his parents? This is such a freedom as rebels take.

(iii) Adoption consists in a legal  installing somebody in position into the rights and royalties of the family into which the person is to be adopted. These are chiefly two:

The first royalty is a new name. He who is divinely adopted assumes a new name; before, a slave; now, a son; of a sinner, a saint. This is a name of honour better than any title of prince or monarch. To him that overcometh I will give a white stone, and in the stone a new name written' (Revelation 2:17). The white stone signifies remission. The new name signifies adoption, and the new name is put in the white stone to show that our adoption is grounded upon our justification; and this new name is written to show that God has all the names of his children enrolled in the book of life.

The second royalty is a giving the party adopted an interest in the inheritance. The making one an heir implies a relation to an inheritance. A man does not adopt another to a title but to an estate. So God in adopting us for his children gives us a glorious inheritance: The inheritance of the saints in light' (Colossians 1:12).

1.     It is pleasant; it is an inheritance in light.

2.     It is safe; God keeps the inheritance for his children (1 Peter 1:4), and keeps them for the inheritance (1 Peter 1:5), so that they cannot be hindered from taking possession.

3.     There is no disinheriting, for the saints are co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). Nay, they are members of Christ (Colossians 1:18). The members cannot be disinherited but the head must.

4.     The heirs never die. Eternity is a jewel of their crown. They shall reign for ever and ever' (Revelation 22:5).

\

2  How do God's adopting and man's adopting differ?

1 Man adopts to supply a defect, because he has no children of his own, but God does not adopt upon this account.

`                                   He had a Son of his own, the Lord Jesus. He was his natural Son and the Son of his love, testified by a voice from heaven, This is my beloved Son' (Matthew 3:17). Never was there any Son so like the Father. He was his exact effigy, the express image of his person' (Hebrews 1:3). He was such a Son as was worth more than all the angels in heaven: Being made so much better than the angels' (Hebrews 1:4); so that God adopts not out of necessity, but pity.

2 When a man adopts, he adopts but one heir, but God adopts many:

In bringing many sons to glory' (Hebrews 2:10). Oh may a poor trembling Christian say, Why should I ever look for this privilege to be a child of God! It is true, if God did act as a man, if he adopted only one son, then you might despair. But he adopts millions. He brings many sons to glory'. Indeed this may be the reason why a man adopts but one, because he does not have enough estate for more. If he should adopt many his land would not hold out. But God has enough land to give to all his children. In my Father's house are many mansions' (John 14:2).

3 Man when he adopts does it with ease.

It is but sealing a deed and the thing is done. But when God adopts, it puts him to a far greater expense. It sets his wisdom on work to find out a way to adopt us. It was no easy thing to reconcile hell and heaven, to make the children of wrath the children of the promise; and when God in his infinite wisdom had found out a way, it was no easy way. It cost God the death of his natural Son, to make us his adopted sons. When God was about to constitute us sons and heirs, he could not seal the deed but by the blood of his own Son. It did not cost God so much to make us creatures as to make us sons. To make us creatures cost but the speaking of a word. To make us sons cost the effusion of blood.

4 Man, when he adopts, settles but earthly privileges upon his heir, but God settles heavenly privileges justification, glorification.

Men but entail their land upon the persons they adopt. God does more. He not only entails his land upon his children, but he entails himself upon them. I will be their God' (Hebrews 8:10). Not only heaven is their portion, but God is their portion.

God's filiating or making of children is by infusion of grace. When God makes any his children he stamps his image upon them. This is more than any man living can do. He may adopt another, but he cannot alter his disposition. If he be of a morose rugged nature, he cannot alter it; but God in making of children fits them for son-ship. He prepares and sanctifies them for this privilege. He changes their disposition. He files off the ruggedness of their nature. He makes them not only sons, but saints. They are of another spirit (Numbers 14:24). They become meek and humble. They are partakers of the divine nature' (2 Peter 1:4).

3 How we come to be the children of God.

There is a double cause of our  child-ship.

The impulsive cause is God's free grace.

THAT IS THE DEFINITION AND ACTION OF SANCTIFICATION?

Have you ever asked yourself: "What is sanctification?" The Reformation Study Bible's theological article on "Sanctification" provides a clear and concise answer.

Having taught Romans now for the second time, Paul gives a great definition of sanctification. Too many people are like Jonathan Edwards said. "too many people have the tendency to seek Christ as the Great Physician of Souls (that is being saved) but not so readily shout "Hosanna" and enthrone Him as a Lord to be served and obeyed in all things."  (taking from the Digital Puritan Vol. one, No. one (by the way is a very good book, on my Kindle Fire.

According to the Westminster Shorter Catechism (Q. 35), sanctification is "the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness." It is a continuing change worked by God in us, freeing us from sinful habits and forming in us Christlike affections, dispositions, and virtues. It does not mean that sin is instantly eradicated, but it is also more than a counteraction, in which sin is merely restrained or repressed without being progressively destroyed. Sanctification is a real transformation, not just the appearance of one.

God calls His children to holiness, and graciously gives what He commands.

The basic meaning of "sanctify" is to set apart to God, for His use. But God works in those whom He claims as His own to conform them "to the image of his Son" (Rom. 8:29). This moral renovation, in which we are increasingly changed from what we once were, flows from the agency of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:13; 12:1, 2; 1 Cor. 6:11, 19, 20; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:22–24; 1 Thess. 5:23; 2 Thess. 2:13; Heb. 13:20, 21). God calls His children to holiness, and graciously gives what He commands (1 Thess. 4:4; 5:23).

Regeneration is birth; sanctification is growth. In regeneration, God implants desires that were not there before: desire for God, for holiness, and for glorifying God's name in the world; desire to pray and worship; desire to love and bring benefit to others. In sanctification, the Holy Spirit "works in you, both to will and to work" according to God's purpose, enabling His people to fulfill their new, godly desires (Phil. 2:12, 13). Christians become increasingly Christlike, as the moral profile of Jesus (the "fruit of the Spirit") is progressively formed in them (2 Cor. 3:18; Gal. 4:19; 5:22–25).

Regeneration is a momentary act, bringing a person from spiritual death to life. It is exclusively God's work. Sanctification is an ongoing process, dependent on God's continuing action in the believer, and consisting of the believer's continuous struggle against sin. God's method of sanctification is neither activism (self-reliant activity) nor apathy (God-reliant passivity), but human effort dependent on God (2 Cor. 7:1; Phil. 3:10–14; Heb. 12:14). Knowing that without Christ's enabling we cannot do good works, but also that He is ready to strengthen us for all we have to do (Phil. 4:13), we "abide" in Christ, asking for His help constantly— and we receive it (Col. 1:11; 1 Tim. 1:12; 2 Tim. 1:7; 2:1).

Regeneration is birth; sanctification is growth.

The standard to which God's work of sanctifying His saints is directed is His own revealed moral law, expounded and modeled by Christ Himself. Christ's love, humility, and patience are a supreme standard for Christians (Rom. 13:10; Eph. 5:2; Phil. 2:5–11; 1 Pet. 2:21).

Believers find within themselves contrary urgings. The Spirit sustains their regenerate desires and purposes, but their fallen instincts (the "flesh") obstruct their path and drag them back. The conflict of these two is sharp. Paul says he is unable to do what is right, and unable to restrain himself from doing what is wrong (Rom. 7:14–25). This conflict and frustration will be with Christians as long as they are in the body. Yet by watching and praying against temptation, and cultivating opposite virtues, they may through the Spirit's help "put to death" particular bad habits (Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5). They will experience many particular deliverances and victories in their battle with sin, while not being exposed to temptations that are impossible to resist (1 Cor. 10:13).

Adapted from The Reformation Study Bible's theological article on "Sanctification."