In this series we have stressed how the introduction of John’s gospel shows us that, from the very beginning in eternity past, God desired to impart His divine life into us to make us His very own children (John 1:1, 4, 12-13; see “In Him Was Life” • 3). It is so crucial for us to have a clear understanding of this if we are to go on in our relationship with the Lord in a healthy way!

Nonetheless, many Christians today seem to believe we are only God’s adopted children, not His natural-born children who have His divine life and nature. This is because almost all the major translations of the New Testament use the word “Adoption” in a number of verses to describe our relationship with God (Rom. 8:15, 23, 9:4, Gal. 4:5, Eph. 1:5).

The note below is taken from the section “Notes on Specific Words and Phrases” in the upcoming 2025 edition of the Standard Version of the New Testament. It explains why it is much better to translate the Greek word in question as saying we are “taking our place as sons,” as the SV does, rather than as saying we have merely been “adopted” by God.

“To Take Our Place as Sons”
versus “Adoption”

One major factor that motivated the creation of the Standard Version was the common practice of almost all English versions to translate the Greek word huiothesia (Strong’s #5206), which literally means “the placing of a son,” as “adoption.” For example, the NKJV translates Romans 8:23 in this way:

Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

These translations read in this manner because in ancient Greek this word was used in relation to the process of adopting a child.

However, as the believers in Christ we are absolutely not God’s adopted children, but those who have been born of God to be His real, actual children, so that we now possess His own divine life and nature (John 1:12-13; 1 Pet. 1:4). Thus, to use the word “adoption” to express the nature of our relationship to God is profoundly mistaken, for it causes so many of God’s children today to fail to understand they are the genuine, natural-born children of God, rather than those who have merely been adopted by Him as a legal matter.

Yet, there surely is a legal aspect to our divine sonship, which relates to our taking on the rights and responsibilities of sons, and for the most part that is the idea being expressed by the word huiothesia. So, to convey this thought, we simply translate this word literally, as, “to take our place as sons.” For example, Romans 8:23 in the SV reads:

And not only so, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting to take our place as sons: the redemption of our body.

Only in Romans 8:15, where our sonship is spoken of, not in positional terms, but in relation to the Spirit, do we translate this word as “sonship”:

For you have not received a spirit of bondage to fear again, but you have received a spirit of sonship in which we cry, Abba, Father!

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—  29 October 2025 —