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Scripture focus
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Romans 8:15 KJV
At a glance
Is being justified — declared not guilty — the highest privilege the gospel offers a believer?
Packer argues it is not: adoption into God's own family is a still greater gift than justification, because it moves a believer from acquittal in a courtroom into the warmth and inheritance of belonging as a child in God's own household.
Summary of the chapter
Packer distinguishes sonship from mere creaturehood: Scripture does not treat every person as automatically a child of God by birth, but as becoming one through faith in Christ, a supernatural gift rather than a universal status. Where the Old Testament speaks of God as Father chiefly of the nation Israel, the New Testament opens that fatherhood, through Christ, to all who believe.
He draws on the Roman practice of adult adoption to explain the legal and relational weight of the term: a person once outside the family is given, by deliberate legal act, full status as an heir, with the accompanying authority, affection, fellowship and honor Jesus himself describes as belonging to God's children. Packer argues this makes adoption, not justification, the New Testament's highest privilege, since justification is a legal declaration while adoption is a relationship.
The chapter closes on assurance and hope: the Holy Spirit himself confirms, alongside the believer's own spirit, that this sonship is real, while adoption guarantees an inheritance shared with Christ and anticipates what Packer pictures as heaven's ultimate family reunion. He adds that a person's own flawed experience of an earthly father does not diminish this divine fatherhood, which is perfect regardless of any human failure it might otherwise be measured against.
Key points
- Sonship in Scripture is not universal by birth but a gift received through faith in Christ.
- The Roman legal practice of adult adoption illuminates the weight of the New Testament term: full, deliberate inclusion as an heir.
- Adoption is presented as a greater privilege than justification, since it establishes relationship, not merely legal acquittal.
- The Holy Spirit himself confirms a believer's adoption, producing assurance alongside the hope of a shared inheritance with Christ.
- A flawed experience of human fatherhood does not diminish God's fatherhood, which is not measured by human failure.
Related Scripture
- Galatians 4:4-6
- Romans 8:16-17
- John 1:12
- Ephesians 1:5
For reflection and discussion
- How does thinking of yourself as adopted, rather than merely forgiven, change your sense of belonging to God?
- Where has a difficult experience of human fatherhood shaped — rightly or wrongly — your picture of God as Father?
- What difference does it make to know the Holy Spirit himself confirms your adoption, rather than leaving it to feeling alone?
These notes are an original UECF.NET study companion and are not a reproduction of the book. Read the full chapter — chapter 19, “Sons of God” — in Knowing God by J. I. Packer (InterVarsity Press / Hodder & Stoughton, 1973).