God predestined us to be adopted as his sons<\/strong>.<\/p>\nNow, most people think of adoption the way adoption occurs today.<\/p>\n
In the modern concept of adoption, only orphans are adopted. No one ever adopts their own children. But at the time of Paul, adoption was something altogether different.<\/p>\n
In the Roman world, fathers had what was known as\u00a0patria potestas<\/em>, or the father\u2019s power. It meant that a father had absolute power over his children as long as he lived and as long as they lived. If he was in financial need, he could sell his children into slavery. If he was angered by his children, he could legally kill them, imprison them, or make them his slaves. The father maintained this right even when his son became old enough to have a family of his own, even if the son held political office, and even if he was honored by all men. There are instances in Roman history of all of these things happening.[4]<\/p>\nIt was also Roman law that a child could never possess anything, no matter how old they became. If you were a father, and your son was the age of 30 years old, and became very rich, all that the son owned was considered to be the property of the father until the father died.<\/p>\n
It is also true that most fathers had many children by many different women. They were not polygamists; for the most part, they only had one wife. But many households also had slave women with whom the father often conceived children. These children were his children, they were not orphans, but\u2014and this is the key\u2014they were not heirs.<\/p>\n
So imagine the scene. A father could have multiple sons. He could have multiple sons by his wife, and he could have multiple sons by slave women. By default, the oldest son of the wife was considered the heir. But if the father didn\u2019t like the oldest son, and he liked a younger son of his wife, or even a son of one of the slave women, the father could adopt one of his own sons as his heir, thereby disinheriting the eldest son. It was even a common practice for a father to adopt the son of some other family as his heir. This was a way to form alliance between rich and powerful families.<\/p>\n
One of the most famous examples of Roman adoption is when Julius Caesar named his grand-nephew, Octavian (who became Caesar Augustus), to be his heir. Some believe Julius Caesar already had a biological son with Cleopatra, named Caesarion, but who was never named as Caesar\u2019s heir. But Caesar Augustus was not the only one who was adopted this way. Almost every Roman family used adoption as a way to create political ties with other rich and powerful Roman families. During the Roman Empire\u2019s first 200 years, this adoption tradition became quite common, with Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Lucius Verus all becoming Emperor through adoption.<\/p>\n
So in biblical times, adoption had nothing to do with welcoming an orphan into your family and making them your son or daughter. Instead, it was a way to declare one of your sons as an heir, or even the son of someone else as your heir. It had nothing to do with becoming a son in the family, and everything to do with being named the heir of the family wealth, power, and position. The adopt a son was to legally give them the right to the family inheritance. The legal ceremony of adoption was quite impressive and it gave the adopted the child the title of \u201cheir.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul, of course, was a Roman citizen, and the letters in which he mentions adoption were written to other Roman citizens, so it makes sense that Paul\u2019s language about adoption matches the way it was practiced in Roman culture at that time.<\/p>\n
So when Paul says that God has predestined us to be adopted as sons, he is saying that God promises to make us His heirs. As long as the child remained unadopted, he was considered to be slave, even though he was a child born of the Father.<\/p>\n
Again, Paul talks about this exact idea over in Galatians 4:7: \u201cSo you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.\u201d<\/p>\n
We are sons by birth when we placed faith in Jesus Christ, yet, though sons, it is as if we were still slaves. But because of our Father\u2019s great love for us, He has decided that He will adopt us as heirs. We get into God\u2019s family by regeneration\u2014or the new birth, but we become heirs of God through adoption. And while we are adopted now, we don\u2019t receive the full inheritance of our adoption until we enter into the eternal kingdom after death.<\/p>\n
That is what Paul says God is promising to us here. God has named us heirs. We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus Christ. This promise of predestination is not about God deciding who gets to heaven and who goes to hell; it is about God decided that rather than just one son getting all of His inheritance, all of His children get to share in the inheritance of His family. What a wonderful promise and blessing for His children!<\/p>\n
3. Reasons for Predestination (Ephesians 1:5b-6)<\/h2>\n The rest of Ephesians 1:5 and on into Ephesians 1:6 tells us why God has decided to do this for us. We see it is because it pleases him. God does this out of His good pleasure.<\/p>\n
We see next he wants to adopts us because it is his will to do so. It is not our will. Romans 9:16 tells us that these things are not because of man\u2019s will, man\u2019s desire or man\u2019s effort. It is all due to God\u2019s will and God\u2019s mercy.<\/p>\n
In Ephesians 1:6, we see that God does this because it will be to the praise of his glorious grace. Everything that God does, He does for His own glory and for His own praise. And here, it is all because of his grace.<\/p>\n
This grace is not earned, it is not merited, it is not worked for. This grace is freely given us in the One he loves. It is freely given. There are no strings attached to this gift. It is freely given. It is not something we worked for, or else it would be given to us as pay.<\/p>\n
If you remember back to Ephesians 1:3, Paul wrote that he was going to tell us about all the riches and blessings we have in Jesus Christ. This theme of blessings and riches dominates the first three chapters of Ephesians, but so far, in Ephesians 1:4-6, we have already seen several of these blessings.<\/p>\n
\nWe have been chosen (elected) to be on God’s team for His plans and purposes in this world (Ephesians 1:4)<\/li>\n We have been predestined so that no matter what, we will be glorified with God in eternity (Ephesians 1:5a)<\/li>\n We have been adopted into God’s family so that we have all the rights and privileges of ruling with Him (Ephesians 1:5b)<\/li>\n And in all three, He has poured out His love and grace upon us, both of which are infinite and free (Ephesians 1:4, 6).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nWhat blessing will Paul talk about next? We will see when we consider Ephesians 1:7 next time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Do you know what it means to be adopted? Of course you do. We all know people who have adopted children. Maybe you have adopted a child, or maybe you yourself are adopted. But did you know what the modern form of adoption has almost no similarities with adoption in biblical times? If we don’t know how adoption worked in Bible times, we will misread and misunderstand Scripture. This study on Ephesians 1:5-6 explains how adoption worked 2000 years ago, so that we can better understand Ephesians 1:5-6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2297,2230,2231,2296],"tags":[3251,2619,3252,3249,1890,3248,1225,2030,1301,1889,3250],"class_list":{"0":"post-53536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-redeeming-god","8":"category-redeeming-scripture","9":"category-redeeming-theology","10":"category-z","11":"tag-acts-5","12":"tag-adoption","13":"tag-ananias-and-sapphira","14":"tag-critical-race-theory","15":"tag-election","16":"tag-ephesians-15-6","17":"tag-grace","18":"tag-inheritance","19":"tag-love","20":"tag-predestination","21":"tag-social-justice-movement","22":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n
What is the Adoption as Sons in Ephesians 1:5-6?<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n