Spirit Of Adoption (3)

For the previous two entries in this series see (here and here). For the larger series "Waiting for the Huiothesia" see the archives for this blog and for the Baptist Gadfly blog (Aug-Oct. 2016 in the Old Baptist Test and the final posting here in the Gadfly)

"Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor (school master kjv)...Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child (nepios), does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we were children (nepios), were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." (Gal 3: 24-25; 4: 1-7 nkjv)

How long does a male offspring (son) live as "a child" (teknon or nepios)? How long is he deemed a "minor"? Answer "until the time appointed by the father." That "time" is not the time when the child is born a son but rather when he becomes a "man" and a "son" in the fullest sense, and this time will be marked by his "son placement" by his father, at the time when the father deems the child sufficiently grown and educated. The one who is born a son will begin his sonship education while a child. His father will teach him, sometimes directly, but most often by the medium of appointed teachers and guardians. His "adoption" or "son placement" will mark the end of this educational program, his maturation process, which is the time determined by his father, based no doubt on the speed of growth towards manhood, but always past puberty or adolescence.

This father ordained event (huiothesia) is for that one who is already a child, a birth son. But, though a son by birth, he has not yet become a "son," in the highest sense, where he fully imitates his father, is like his father in thinking, manners, and customs. He becomes "son" in full likeness to his father when he becomes a mature full grown perfect "man," conformed to the image and character of his father, when he is made perfect or complete. He is, by his huiothesian rite of passage, (the time appointed by the father) now declared to no longer be a child in custody, but liberated from the slavery of his childhood, being no longer under tutors and guardians, no longer in bondage to the elements of the world, no longer a student. After the son's adoption (growing up ceremony marking the end of his childhood) the child is no longer a minor, but an adult, free to govern himself, to do as he pleases, to enjoy all the privileges of adult status. 

Today we think of how excited adolescents become as they near certain ages. Those nearing sixteen look forward to being able to obtain a license to drive a car. Those nearing the drinking age get excited about being able to drink alcohol! So too do boys who are approaching "that time appointed by the Father" get excited for their graduation ceremony, of becoming men. 

What may we say about the time of childhood, the time before "the time appointed by the father"? A son at that time is a biological child of the father and therefore has "birth rights," or as Paul says, "he is heir of all things." He is the designated "heir" by this birth even though a child. Though named "heir" (because of being begotten by his father) yet he will not obtain possession and authority over his inheritance till that time that the father has ordained. The "time as a child" (or minor) is a time when the father oversees the maturation process of his son by means of "guardians and stewards," by "pedagogues," i.e. school masters, educators, disciplinarians, etc. He is "in bondage under the elements of the world," said Paul. By this phrase most commentators believe Paul is referring to the kind of instruction that children receive, learning their "ABCs," the basic principles or rudiments of secular knowledge, such as learning the alphabet, learning to read and write, to do math, to learn about the physical world, to learn about social life, about right and wrong, about the law, etc. I believe that is correct, and can be applied in any of the three scenarios for interpreting Paul's words. 

Who is the child and who is the full grown son, according to Paul? There are three applications of Paul's teaching.

1. OT believers are likened to children while NT believers are compared to mature sons. 

2. Unconverted sinners are likened to children while converted sinners are compared to mature sons.

3. Born again believers are likened to children in this life but as mature sons in the day of redemption.

I think all of these three are true, though one of them was no doubt foremost in the mind of the apostle.

When Paul says that the law is a school master for children (who are expected to become mature sons), he may allude to the Jews of the OT who had not yet come to maturity (#1), that maturity being evidenced by coming to know and believe in Christ post his coming, death, resurrection, and ascension. Many commentators think the child under tutelage is the lost sinner. I rather think #3 is in the apostle's mind although the metaphor is applicable to all three cases. One reason is because Paul always speaks of "the adoption," or "son placement" as a thing of the future. 

Said bible teacher Warren Wiersbe (as cited here), in support of view #2:

"Paul expands on the analogy of a child’s coming of age (3:24-26), contrasting believers’ lives before salvation (as children and servants), with their lives after salvation (as adults and sons). Both Paul’s Jewish and Gentile readers readily understood this imagery, since the Jews, Greeks, and Romans all had a ceremony to mark a child’s coming of age."

In this case the time spent under tutors and governors, under the school master of the law, learning the basic fundamentals of the world, would be a description of unregenerate sinners, ones not redeemed, ones who have not yet received the spirit of the Son. It is a time of slavery. But, those who receive the spirit are no longer under the tutelage of the world, but under the teaching of the Spirit, being reckoned and placed into the family of God as a son and heir. One still under the school master of the law is one who has not come to Christ, though it is the means thereunto. Wiersbe says further:

"Child (nepios from nê = negative + epos = not able to talk) means literally one that does not talk or not speaking and thus a small child above age of a helpless infant but probably not more than three or four years of age. Figuratively nepios refers to a person who lacks experience, is untried or ignorant or simple-minded. The writer to the Hebrews used it of one spiritually immature (Heb 5:13) as did Paul (1Co 3:1) for they cannot eat solid food (spiritually speaking). Robertson adds that nepios is "That is a minor, an infant, immature intellectually and morally in contrast with τελειοι [teleioi], full grown (1 Cor. 3:1; 14:20; Phil. 3:15; Eph. 4:13)" Wuest on nepios - The idea of immaturity is in the word, and according to the context in which it is found, it could refer to either mental or spiritual immaturity." (Ibid)

The same source cites Utley on nepios saying: 

"This was the Greek term for infant, used in the sense of: (1) spiritual babies; or (2) legal minors. In ancient Mediterranean cultures, the rite of passage from boyhood to manhood occurred at different ages and was a major cultural/religious event: (a) in Jewish culture, it was age 13; (b) in Greek culture, it was age 18; and (c) in Roman culture, it was usually at age 14."

We know the characteristics of being a "minor" in Hebrew culture and law. Paul says that he has no more rights than a slave. He is under tutors and governors, in "protective custody" by his masters and teachers. He is inexperienced, immature, unlearned, unwise. But, we also know what are the characteristics of those who are no longer "minors," who are now mature sons. They are no longer under tutors and guardians, no longer a child in understanding, no longer enjoying childish and youthful things. 

"Before faith came" are words that speak of two time periods, one before faith and one after. Coming to faith is the middle point of demarcation between the two periods. The other time period in the text is discerned by the words "until the time appointed by the father." There "the time" is a dividing point between the time before "the time" and the time after "the time." 

Being a "son" in the bible may simply mean a male offspring, but more often a "son" is one who has matured and grown more into the image and likeness of his father, especially in his thinking and habits. Many bible writers have written much on this and it is well established. One cannot help but see how Paul relates a believer's "sonship" to that of the Lord Jesus, who is in both his divine and human natures, the "Son of God." Paul says that the Father "sent forth his Son" and "sent forth the spirit of his Son," all for the purpose of making believers into the full likeness of their father (or full grown sons). 

Each believer as he lives his life for Christ will more and more become like his father. There is a likeness that comes from birth and there is a likeness that comes from being guided and taught by the father. The sonship of believers is derived from the Father's only begotten Son. Adoption is not, as many assume, son "making" but son "placing." This is a common error. They were sons or children by birth before they were "placed" in the position of full grown and perfected sons. 

The word “Son” used here reveals so much on how we can more fully experience the Father’s heart and be conformed more into his image. Looking at the life of Jesus there are three words used to describe Him in terms of him being a Son. At Jesus’ circumcision on the eighth day, the Greek word for child is paidion (Luke 2:17). When He appeared in the temple at age 12, the Greek word for child is teknon (Luke 2:48). At His baptism the Father called Him His beloved huios (Son).

Some might think that saying this about Christ and his being called "Son" (after he had matured) is what was taught by those anti Trinitarians who espoused what is called "Adoptionism." The New World Encyclopedia says this about it (See here):

"Adoptionism is a minority Christian belief that Jesus was born merely human and that he became divine—adopted as God's son—later in his life. By these accounts, Jesus earned the title Christ through his sinless devotion to the will of God, rather than by his pre-existent status as the eternally begotten Son of God. Adoptionists typically portray either Jesus' baptism or his resurrection, or both, as the key moment(s) in the process of his divinization. 

 

Adoptionism arose among early Christians seeking to reconcile the claims that Jesus was the Son of God with the radical monotheism of Judaism, in which the concept of a trinity of divine persons in one Godhead was unacceptable. Adoptionism was common before it was first declared heresy at the end of the second century, and persisted for several more centuries and re-emerged at several points in church history. 

 

Some scholars see Adoptionist concepts for example in the Gospel of Mark and in the writings of the Apostle Paul. Adoptionism, however, contradicts the identification of Jesus as the divine Logos, as put forth in the Gospel of John (1:1)."

Adoptionism is an error when it is applied to Christ's divinity, for it denies his being from eternity the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father. Christ is not an adopted divinity. He is Son by an eternal begetting, an eternal generation. Also, the term "begotten" is used to denote likeness of nature and attributes, and the idea of being produced is not entailed in his being begotten of the Father. Again, one cannot be both born and adopted. 

However, some of the features of Adoptionism may be applicable to Christ in his humanity, who in respect to his humanity, or human nature, was begotten by the Spirit and the Father via the virgin birth. Being Son of God in his humanity involved his birth and his adoption. However, by his "adoption" we are not to understand the common understanding of that word, but rather to Christ's experiencing his "son placement" when he had passed out of his state as a child or minor. Thus, the idea that Christ, in his human nature (which was divinely begotten) went from being a child to being an adult son is appropriate. Christ's adoption or son placement had respect to his status as a man.

When the Father, at Christ's baptism, said "This is my beloved Son," he was declaring that his Son had passed out of childhood to manhood and had now the authority as a man to speak for his Father. 

The term "Son of God" as applied to Jesus encompasses both his divinity and his humanity, but chiefly the former. Christ as human is called "Son of Man" like Ezekiel. As the divine Son of God he has always been the Son and his Father has always been the Father. There is no actual "begetting," nor the idea that one God begets another god (as in polytheistic thought). The idea of "begetting" is not a term to denote origin or beginning, but of status and relationship, and likeness of nature. All the similarities of this divine begetting to human begetting cannot be pressed beyond its intended meaning. 

Christ is in this way also called "the firstborn," not in respect to a literal procreation but as to status. The relationship of "The Word" to the divine being (God or theos) is illustrated in the father son relationship. In human begetting and birth a mother is required, but not so as respects the begetting of the Son of God in his divinity. Said Solomon about Wisdom:

"The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth...Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men." (Prov. 8: 22-25; 30-31)

Jesus is "the wisdom of God." (I Cor. 1: 24) Wisdom was "set up" and that "from everlasting." Here "set up," though it normally denotes an event in time, does not denote what occurred in time, but to what was true from eternity. Notice that "wisdom" is not only "set up" from eternity but also "brought forth," that is, was born or begotten. Also, wisdom says "then (in eternity) was I by him, as one brought up with him." That is the language of being begotten and being treated as a son. Notice also how the sonship of divine Wisdom is contrasted with "the sons of men." Christ, the Wisdom of God, was God's "firstborn" from eternity. He did not become the "firstborn," in his divinity, by his being begotten of the virgin, but only as respects his human nature. He has always been the firstborn in his divinity, but not so in his humanity. Notice these words:

"So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." (Heb. 5: 5-9)

These words speak of God the Father's declaration of the identity of Christ, that he is "my Son," who I have this day begotten. In respect to his divine nature, there is not an actual beginning to his status as Son. As the Father has always been "Father," so then has there been always the Son. But, the declaration, as at the baptism of Christ, had more to do with the Father's owning of his human Son, recognizing his attainment to full adulthood. His baptism was his Bar Mitzvah or rite of passage into adulthood. Up until adult status (to that state of "perfection" or full growth), Christ "grew in wisdom and in stature." (Luke 2: 52) He, while growing up, was a birth son, a male, an appointed heir, but he was not yet "Son" in the highest sense (speaking of his human sonship). That is what the writer above means when he speaks of the Son of God being "made perfect" following his obedience. His being made perfect respects his time as a child, as a minor, and alludes to the process of growth that the father (both Joseph and God the Father) has overseen. 

So too are believers now being perfected as they grow up in Christ. This growing up will be followed by a graduation ceremony at the second coming of Christ and the day of full redemption.

In the next posting we will finish our thoughts on this topic.