Adoption's Importance

Published October 4, 2025

I had not seen my father for several months, but I had steeled myself inside for what I might see. My mother kept me up to date on his decline due to dementia. I thought I was prepared for the sad moment of seeing him in the facility where she needed to move him for help. 

Sadness did hit me when I saw him, but something else hit me more immediately - his presence. I was in the presence of my father, and it was good. It's hard to describe, but I felt his strength. It was like it bounced off him and into my chest. 

A father is a powerful and important person, especially to sons. My father and I had an average relationship. There were things we shared in life and things we didn't. I have a friend who never knew his father. Another friend lost his father when he was young.  

The Bible teaches that when we place our faith in Jesus Christ, God adopts us into his family. He chooses to become our father, and because God is an eternal being who makes eternal promises, we become his children forever. In Christ, you always have a father who has chosen you and who keeps you in his family.     

Theologians call this the doctrine of adoption. One such theologian, Chad VanDixhoorn, calls adoption "the Cinderella of Christian theology" that has "only recently been recognized as the royal topic it is." VanDixhoorn goes on to explain why: 

In fact, 'God sent forth his Son', as Paul explains in Galatians 4, so that those who 'were under the law...might receive the adoption of sons' (Gal. 4:4-5). This grace comes to us only in Christ and for Christ, since it was 'the good pleasure' of God's eternal will (Eph 1:5) that our Savior should bring many sons to glory. 

Four hundred years ago, the English-speaking theologians of the Westminster Assembly wrote a beautiful and biblical question and answer about this whole subject. 

What is adoption?
Adoption is an act of the free grace of God, in and for his only Son Jesus Christ, whereby all those that are justified are received into the number of his children, have his name put upon them, the Spirit of his son given to them, are under his fatherly care and dispensations, admitted to all the liberties and privileges of the sons of God, made heirs of all the promises, and fellow heirs with Christ in glory. 

Can you think of someone who would benefit from this kind of truth? Do you know someone who longs to know that they have a father who has chosen them and who always keeps his children forever? What is your relationship to your father? Maybe this is a truth you long to know for yourself? 

My earthly father was an imperfect man, yet his presence gave me strength even in the midst of his greatest weakness. How much more does my heavenly Father strengthen me by his eternal presence and eternal promise that I will always be his child? He can do the same for you.