I N D E X
9
and the `THREE GROUPS'.
ADOPTION
Whatever we may think or say, no one who believes that the Word of God is inspired, or who seeks to honour
`The Words which the Holy Ghost teacheth' can deny or avoid the testimony of Scripture that there are THREE
different `adoptions' related to THREE distinct callings in the N.T. which must be taken into account, whenever we
speak of membership of the One Body.
1. The Adoption.
Israel, according to the flesh
(Rom. 9:3-5).
2. The Adoption.
Abraham's spiritual seed (Gal. 4:5).
3. The Adoption.
The church of the Dispensation of the
Mystery (Eph. 1:5).
Can we, dare we smudge these distinctions, blot out their unique differences, just to maintain what we can only
`assume', namely that the believer of John's Gospel finds his place in No. 3? Romans 9 makes it clear that the
adoption there mentioned is, like `the covenants, the giving of the law, the fathers, and the coming in the flesh of
Christ', the exclusive privilege of Israel according to the flesh. The adoption of Galatians 4:5 is on a higher plane.
Here there is envisaged a calling in which there is neither Jew nor Gentile, but a new creation (Gal. 3:27-29; 4:5-7;
6:15), and a new sphere of blessing hitherto unrevealed, namely `Jerusalem which is above' (Gal. 4:26). As
adoption relates to the appointment by Will of the first born son and heir, Hebrews 12:22,23 associates the heavenly
calling attached to the faith of Abraham, with the Church of the `Firstborn' and with the `Heavenly Jerusalem'. The
third Adoption is found in Ephesians 1:5. Here we are taken UP to `heavenly places' where Christ sits far above all
heavens, here we are taken BACK `Before the foundation of the world', and we have an Adoption, without which
membership of the One Body is impossible. Where, and how, can belief of the Gospel of John warrant an inclusion
here?
CHILDREN AND SONS.
The Greek word for adoption is huiothesia `to be placed as a son' not to be born into a family. By believing the
testimony of John we can pass from death unto life, can become one of the family of faith, but there is a difference
between being a `child' and being `firstborn son and heir'. The A.V. has not observed the distinction between the
Greek words huios `son' and teknon `child'. John never uses the word huios of a believer in any of his writings. He
uses it ONCE in a Hebraism:
`While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children (sons) of light' (John 12:36).
This usage is parallel with the title `sons of thunder' (Mark 3:17) or `The son of oil' see margin of Isaiah 5:1.
John never envisages the believer as a `son' always as a `child'. This is true of 1 John 3:1,2 and John 1:12 which the
R.V. corrects to `children'. The glory of membership of the church which is the One Body is in this predestinated
adoption, this place of SONS settled before the foundation of the world, which cannot be read into John's Gospel.
CAN TWO DISPENSATIONS RUN TOGETHER?
The Gospel of John and the Prison ministry of Paul are both in operation today, therefore, say some, they must be
really teaching the same thing, for,
`You might as well say that April and May can run together as say that two dispensations can run together at the
same time'.
*
If we believe that a dispensation is a period of time, then the above objection would be rational, but if we realise
that a dispensation (oikonomia) is a `stewardship' (Luke 16:4), we can have no such objection. Oikonomos is
translated `dispensation' in 1 Corinthians 9:17; Ephesians 1:10; 3:9 (R.V.); Colossians 1:25, and always indicates a
special `economy' or administration. The matter however is put beyond dispute in Galatians 2. There we see that
*For a fuller treatment of the word `dispensation' see the booklet The Key of Knowledge.