Romans 8:15, “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”

Is adoption sinful or unscriptural? You have the answer up there in the scripture. Coming into the family of God as a born again believer is not a right but a privilege. Scripturally speaking, Christ is the only begotten of the Father (John1:14,3:16). The rest of us became sons of God by adoption. YOU WERE ADOPTED BY GOD INTO HIS FAMILY. This is an act of grace, the reason why you can call God your Father is because you have a Spirit of Adoption in you, which is the Holy Ghost.

LOOK AT JESUS – HE WAS ADOPTED

When Jesus came to the earth, Joseph adopted Jesus…Yes! Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus Christ. When he learnt about the pregnancy of Mary, he wanted to divorce her secretly but he was cautioned by an angel and was instructed to assume the role of a Father (Matthew1:18-25). In fact, most Jews in his day didn’t know that Joseph was not responsible for Mary’s pregnancy. He brought him up to a point where they began to ask ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph the carpenter’? Undoubtedly, he was – BUT truthfully, he was an adopted son of Joseph and God counted him as part of Joseph’s family.

OLD TESTAMENT

Moses was adopted by Pharoah’s daughter and he was accorded the honor of a prince. The book of Hebrews11:23-26, made it clear that he refused to be called a Prince/son of Pharoah’s daughter. What does that mean? Pharoah’s daughter must have told everyone that Moses was his son and immediately, the honor of royalty was accorded him by the people. In fact, he must have accepted that honor to a point but probably declined when he realized he was a Jew. It was God’s design for Moses to be adopted (Exodus2:1-10).

ESTHER AND MORDECAI

Unlike the previous examples, this involved adopting a child from within the family, which is very common in Africa.

So let’s wrap it up. Is it sinful to adopt a child from an orphanage regardless of the circumstances surrounding the birth? No, it is not. In our culture, if Mary got pregnant and Joseph took custody of Jesus, He would have been termed a bastard while Joseph would be called a dunce but God didn’t see it that way. Also, some may see adoption as faithlessness but it is not so. God works in ways we cannot see and understand.