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"Adoption" is made up of two Greek words, huios, meaning "son" and thesia,
meaning "to place". We quote the following comment upon the distinction between
"sons" and "children" from the writings of Bishop Westcott:--
"There is the position of `sonship' (characteristic of the teaching of St. Paul), which
suggests thoughts of privilege, of inheritance, of dignity: and there is also the position of
`childship' (characteristic of the teaching of St. John), which suggests the thoughts of
community of nature, of dependence, of tender relationship. Sons may be adopted;
children can only be born. The two conceptions are evidently complementary; but they
must be realized separately before the full force of the whole idea which they combine to
give can be felt. Two or three illustrations will be sufficient to indicate the gain to the
student of Scripture from the faithful preservation of this distinction between the general
conceptions of a Divine inheritance and a Divine nature. Thus we now read (in the R.V.)
that the Lord gave them that received Him the right to become children (A.V. `sons') of
God, `which were born . . . . . of God' (John 1: 12). And again: "Behold, what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children (A.V. `sons') of
God; and such we are' (I John 3: 1)."
So, conversely, in other places the title of privilege is restored to the English text.
"They that are accounted worthy to attain that world . . . . . are equal to the angels; and
are sons (A.V. `children') of God, being sons of the resurrection" (Luke 20: 35):--
"We have received the spirit of adoption (the placing as sons, involving the thought of
an inheritance), whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Itself beareth witness with our
spirit that we are (or, because we are) the children of God: and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God" (Rom. 8: 15-17).
We do not include the succeeding words, "And joint-heirs with Christ", for that takes
us into the realm of suffering in view of glory. This would be additional to the subject
before us, which is simply the fact of sonship, childhood and inheritance.
We have seen that under the Greek law that obtained in Asia Minor at the time of
Galatians was written, a man could "adopt" as his heir one who was not his child by
birth. We are assured, however, that all who have the spirit of adoption or sonship in the
fullest sense, are the children of God. And it is at this point that the Holy Spirit is
introduced:--
"The Spirit Itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God"
(Rom. 8: 16).
It must be remembered that while the English language has rid itself of almost all
genders in words, other languages, like French for example, have retained them. With us
the word "table" is neuter. With the French, it is feminine, la table. Obviously, however,
it would not be a correct translation into English to refer to a table as "she". In other
words, the gender of a word has no relation to the sex of the thing signified. The Greek
word for "head" is kephale, and is feminine, but it would make strange doctrine if this
grammatical fact obtruded itself into the thought of Christ as the Head of the church. The
word pneuma, "spirit", is neuter and consequently is followed by the neuter pronoun "it",
just as kephale would be followed by the feminine pronoun "she". The neuter pronoun
does not in any way suggest the impersonality of the Holy Spirit; just as the feminine