What do you first think of when you hear the word adoption? Most people think of horizontal adoption before they think of vertical adoption, that is, they think of people adopting children before they think of God adopting us as His children.
Throughout this new series of posts on the importance of adoption within the story [...]

Jason Kovacs hears a rumbling in the church. He writes:
There is rumbling in the church. A desire for more. A move out of complacency and away from comfort towards the needs of the world . . . I am deeply encouraged as I see in the evangelical church an awakening to the plight of [...]

Christianity has a unique vertical to horizontal movement; and its vertical movement is never first man to God. It is always first God coming down to man in grace. As a result, we move horizontally as Christians because God first moved vertically as Redeemer.
Consider these examples: First, love moved vertically before it ever moved horizontally. [...]

“Through the coming of Jesus Christ into the world as the only begotten Son loved by the Father, the Love which flows eternally between the Father and the Son in the Holy Trinity has moved outward to bear upon us in history and is made known to us above all in the sacrificial love of [...]

“What [Jesus] is toward us, with us and for us in his incarnate mission from the Father he is antecedently and eternally in himself, the eternal Son of the eternal Father” (Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God, 142).

Most people who have heard of Mark Altrogge are familiar with him because of the numerous cross-centered worship songs he has written, many of which have been recorded and published by Sovereign Grace Ministries, including “Only in the Cross” and “At the Cross.” Perhaps his most well-known songs are “I Stand in Awe” and “Forever [...]

John Murray:
“Union with Christ is the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation . . . It is adoption into the family of God as sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty that accords to the people of God the apex of blessing and privilege.  But we cannot think of adoption apart from [...]

Whenever we think of our union with Christ adoption should be in our thoughts as well. After all, we are sons of God by virtue of our union with the Son of God. That’s why after writing that we’ve been “predestined to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ,” Paul adds that this gracious [...]

Zach Nielsen writes:
Remember, as Christians we were once “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12) and God brought us near through the gospel. Of all people, we know what it means to be without hope. God commands his people to demonstrate this understanding in the way we interact with the world around [...]

“He came to . . . restore us through union with himself in his vicarious humanity as true sons and daughters of the heavenly Father who hear him, love him and obey him” (T.F. Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God, 41).

Since our adoption by God gives us the all-satisfying Triune God and brings us in to participate in the love of the Trinity, deepening in our understanding and experience of the good news of adoption is essential for success in our ongoing battles against idolatry.  
Because we are human beings, Cornelius Plantiga writes, we “long for [...]

North Carolina Baptists reviews our recent Together for Adoption conference.  Read it here: “Both Doctrine and Calling” by Douglas Baker.