Dan Cruver over at Carolina Hope Adoption Blog has a great short interview with one of my favorite professors from seminary.
He interviews Dr. Robert Peterson, who is Chair of the Systematic Theology department at Covenant Theological Seminary (here) and author of several good books, one of which covers the theological and practical aspects of our adoption into God’s family (Adopted by God: From Wayward Sinners to Cherished Children, 2001, P&R Publishing).
With 2007 being the year of the doctrine of justification, or legal/penal substitution, its important to not overemphasize one aspect of our salvation at the expense (and often, the neglect) of other equally important emphases found in Scripture.
Sure, there’s a time and a season for everything, but in our thoughts and reflections on all that God has done for us, we should maintain a full orbed sense of our salvation, or a view of the whole diamond, even while gazing through one of the many facets of that diamond.
Peterson responds to the question of why the doctrine of adoption is relevant to us on a daily basis, by saying:
It should make a great difference because it is one way that God impresses upon us our new identity in Christ. We are his children and as such we bask in his love, live for him (what else can we do in response to such love!), and eagerly await his Son’s return, when our spiritual resemblance to Christ our older Brother will be complete (1 John 3:1-3; Hebrews 2:11-12). Knowledge of our adoption should fill us with patient hope that God that will raise and redeem our bodies (Romans 8:23-25) and grant us a glorious inheritance (Matthew 25:34; Romans 8:17; Galatians 3:29).
You should go read the interview to hear Peterson’s reasons for writing his book on adoption in the first place, and truly wonder why more hasn’t been written on the subject (click here).
As I’m working through the book of Romans with a group of great guys at Christ Church Santa Fe, I am struck by how often the questions of the role of sin in the Christian life come up. This question makes sense and comes up in the book of Romans in chapter 6, but it’s at least in the background throughout the whole book. We are utilizing a study guide put together by Tim Keller and Redeemer Church New York, and it is a great tool for our study, but still, this question lingers.
