Lesson 10: Adopted as a “Son”
 
 In our last lesson, we saw we are born into God’s family when we accept His salvation. God also adopts us as His “sons.”

If we are born into God’s family, why would God also need to adopt us? To answer this we need to understand a very important part of the culture in which Jesus lived while on earth. The Jewish people were in a position of servitude to the Roman government, so there were many limitations on what they could or could not do in positions of authority. Many of them were slaves who, even if they could be set free, could never live with all the rights and privileges of Roman citizenship. The one exception to this rule was adoption. A Roman citizen could adopt a former slave and make them an equal to himself with all the rights and privileges he enjoyed. The important point here was even if a son by birth could be dis-owned or disinherited, an adopted child could never be disinherited. Women of that time could not own property; but if a woman was adopted by a family as a “son” she could inherit the same as any man.

When God said He adopted us as sons, He gave us the picture of an inheritance that can never be taken away and is not dependent in any way on who we were before. Please see Galatians 3:26-4:7 and Ephesians 1:4-5 for more on adoption.