Adoption and Regeneration
QUESTION
What is the relationship between adoption and regeneration?
ANSWER
There are covenantal, transactional, vital, and final aspects of our adoption, even as there are of our salvation. Regeneration is the vital component of adoption. It is the time when our sonship becomes a living truth in our lives via newly imparted spiritual capacities such as faith (Galatians 5:22) and the fear of God (Proverbs 1:7, Romans 3:18) The relationship between adoption and regeneration is clarified by the following questions:
Do God’s people come into being as sheep or are they made sheep during their natural lives by spiritual birth or subsequent belief? God’s people were chosen in election before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4-6). They enter the world as SHEEP not as GOATS. The Lord Jesus Christ gives eternal life to SHEEP (John 10:11,26).
Is sheephood the same as sonship? Yes. The concepts of “sheephood” and “sonship” are the same in scripture (Luke 15:4,11)
Are we sons of God by nature or by covenantal adoption? We are not SONS of God by nature. All men enter the world in a fallen, unregenerate state (Ephesians 2:3) It follows that sonship is not the result of our behavior, but in spite of it - it is by grace. We receive the blessing of regeneration as a result of being sheep and sons already.
From those answers we conclude that God’s elect are SONS of God covenantally from before the foundation of the world. Consider this: if all of God's human SONS are ADOPTED, and we are regenerated "because we are SONS" (Galatians 4:6), it follows that adoption precedes regeneration. I believe this is true from a covenantal standpoint. This covenant also has provisions that attend adoption which include redemption, regeneration, and glorification that occur at different points in time. Our regeneration is the moment wherein we "receive the Spirit of adoption" in that it is the time when our adoption becomes a vital reality in our lives - the beginning of spiritual life.
We observe in natural adoption that the SON is established by covenant (selection), redeemed when the adoption fee is paid, made alive to this reality upon uniting with the family, brought into the fullness thereof when finally taken home to be with them. The adopting father might say to his SON, "Now that you are finally home with us, you are TRULY my son," but this does not negate that this child was a SON in some sense from the moment he was selected in the mind and purpose of the father. Rather, the father’s words express the certainty the father's loving intent and fidelity to the covenantal obligations he willingly made toward this chosen son, all of which was established before arriving home with him.
- Elder Daniel Samons