Have you ever seen a child that was in the foster care system for years that was longing for a family to one day take them in and a loving couple or single parent brought them in their home to make them their own? This is exactly what God does when someone becomes a Christian, he adopts them into his very own family. The doctrine of adoption is simply when God makes us part of his family.

This is probably the greatest benefit to being a Christian because we inherit all of the benefits of being in God family. This blessing comes from placing your faith in Jesus, and is a separate act apart from regeneration or justification. John 1.12 says, “But to all who did receive him [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”.

Being a child of God brings a plethora of blessings in this life and in the one to come. One of them being that we can relate to God as a good and loving father. The apostle Paul writes, “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!” When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he even directed them to pray to God as their own Father. This means that God will take care of our needs and loves to give us good gifts including the Holy Spirit, who leads and guide us.

And like any good parent, this also means that God disciplines his children when they continually err into sin because he loves them and wants to see them live a joy filled life. This is not sadistic child abuse but a loving father correcting the children he loves.

Being adopted as sons and daughters also means that we receive the full inheritance of eternal life as well as being able to relate to fell Christians as brothers and sisters in God’s family who will all be reunited one day. And the amazing thing about being adopted into his family is once you are his you cannot be un-adopted and never have to worry about being kicked out of God’s family, no matter the sin.

Photo Credit