Be happy - God has adopted you!

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The gift of justification (that is, of present acceptance by God, the world's Judge) is accompanied by the gift of adoption, that is, of becoming a child of the heavenly Father (Gal. 3:26; 4:4-7). In Paul's world, adoption was ordinarily of young adult males of good character to become heirs and maintain the family name for rich people who otherwise had no children. 

Paul, however, proclaims God's gracious adoption of persons of bad character to become "heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17). Justification is the basic blessing on which adoption is founded; adoption is the crowning blessing for which justification clears the way. 

Adopted status belongs to all who receive Christ (John 1:12). In and through Christ God loves His adopted children as He loves His only begotten Son, and will share with them the glory that is Christ's now (Rom. 8:17, 38, 39). 

Believers are under God's fatherly care and discipline (Matt. 6:26; Heb. 12:5-11 ). They are to pray to God as their own Father in heaven (Matt. 6:5-13), imitate His virtues (Matt. 5:44-48; 6:12, 14, 15; 18:21-35; Eph. 4:32-5:2), and trust His fatherly love (Matt. 6:25-34), thus expressing the filial instinct that the Holy Spirit has implanted in them (Rom. 8:15-17; Gal. 4:6).

Adoption and regeneration accompany each other as two aspects of the salvation that Christ brings (John 1:12, 13) but they should be distinguished. Adoption results in a new relationship, while regeneration is a change of our moral nature. Yet the connection is clear. God wants His children, whom He loves, to have His character, and He takes action accordingly.

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