Why Adoption? Pt. 2

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” ~ Romans 8:15

WE ARE ADOPTED

The Apostle Paul’s writings in books like Romans, Galatians and Ephesians make it clear that adoption is an essential aspect of the redemption we find through Jesus Christ. Paul’s readers, especially those in the church in Rome, would have thought of a very specific picture when he wrote of adoption.

In Roman society a concept existed called the “patria potestas”. This was the father’s power over his family, a power that was absolute and, at various times in history, the power of life and death. In relation to his father, a son in Roman culture never came of age. He was always under the patria potestas. So, as you can imagine, this made adoption into another family a serious undertaking and difficult to accomplish. In order to be adopted, a child had to pass from one patria potestas to another. Here’s how this went down.

There were basically two steps. The first was known as “mancipatio”. In this step there was a symbolic sale. There would be a set of scales that were present. Twice the father symbolically sold his child and then bought him back. Then, on a third time, the father would not buy back his child, thus resulting in the severing of the patria potestas. After this symbolic sale the second step followed. It was called “vindicatio”. The adopting father would go to the Roman magistrate and present a legal case for why the child should be adopted into his patria potestas. Once these two steps were done, the adoption was complete.

There were four major consequences that resulted from a Roman adoption. First, the adopted child lost all rights in his or her old family and gained all the rights of a legitimate child in his or her new one. Second, if the child was a son, he became an heir of his new father’s estate. Even if there were other children born after him, it didn’t affect his status as an heir. He was a co-heir with them. Third, legally the adopted child’s past life was completely wiped clean. He was regarded as a new person entering into a new life. Fourth, in the eyes of the law he or she was absolutely and completely the child of his or her new father.

Read Romans 8 (and the New Testament in general) with this understanding and you immediately realize this is exactly what God has done for us. Now, it doesn’t follow, therefore, that anyone adopted by God should now adopt a child. However, what better picture exists in the world of what God has done for us? I can’t find one. Again, that alone is not reason to adopt, but it provides an incredible motivation for doing so.