spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

8.2.3 Spirit of adoption
James Dunn (1998:328ff) gives an extensive overview of various biblical metaphors of salvation,
which reveals that salvation can be explained on the basis of the legal metaphor of justification,
but also on the basis of metaphors drawn from the major events of life, such as ‘giving birth’
(Galatians 4:19, 29) and ‘adoption’ (Romans 8:15, 23; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:5). Plantinga
(2010:321) takes the metaphor of adoption one step further, and contends that “in a
comprehensive sense, all of the dimensions of personal salvation can be tied together in the
metaphor of ‘adoption’ into the triune life” 46 . The Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15) is the One
who enables believers to be in union with Christ, and to be children of the Father — this
understanding of salvation as a union with Christ through the Spirit of adoption is part of the
Reformed profile (cf. Berkhof 1981:515; Hoekema 1994:185; Burke 2006:21-31; Plantinga
2010:322).
Salvation can, thus, be seen as a life-transforming event that is rooted in the union with Christ. In
this process of transformation, the Holy Spirit plays a decisive role, because the work of the
Spirit is perceived to change believers into the likeness of Christ, and to mark out their new
status before God (Romans 2:29; 5:5; 7:6; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 4:4). The basic idea of the
redemptive work of the Spirit is that no one can be united with Christ, if one does not experience
the reality of the Spirit. One biblical text with an intense focus on the impact of the Spirit is
Romans 8:1-27, showing that it is ‘having the Spirit’ that defines someone as a Christian (Dunn
1998:423). Salvation, then, is when the Spirit of adoption ushers the believer into the life of God
the Father, and turns the believer into a co-heir with Christ (Romans 8:15-17). The
transformation of the believer is the adoption, as son or daughter, of God. Such participation in
the divine communion implies an existential transformation of the believer: the believer does not
cease to be a living being, but his or her creaturehood is being affirmed and renewed by the
union with the triune God (Plantinga 2010:322).
The Spirit of adoption is the agent who brings all of creation, restored and healed, to its
fulfillment by drawing creation back into the embrace of the triune God (cf. Tomlin 2011:83).
One major implication of the redemptive involvement of the Spirit is that every aspect of human
life is claimed by the Spirit of God: in the process of salvation, the Spirit is “the power of God’s
final purpose already beginning to reclaim the whole person for God” (Dunn 1998:469, who also
46. Dunn (1998:436) states that the metaphor of adoption is worth noting. It only appears in Pauline literature
(Romans 8:15, 23; 9:4; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:5). Adoption is not a typically Jewish practice, but rather a
Greco-Roman custom. However, the theme of the status of sonship does fit Jewish categories.
225