# Order of Salvation # Introduction: What is an Order of Salvation? In theology the technical term for order of salvation is "ordo salutis." I'll simply refer to it from here on out as "ordo". An ordo is an attempt to put into logical, not chronological, order the events that lead up to and take place in and follow a person’s initial salvation. Those are chronological terms, of course, and there isn’t any way to separate an ordo without using chronological language at least some of the time. Many theologians, however, would argue that, like the decrees of God, these ordo events are not necessarily chronologically sequential - especially from God’s point of view. The Bible and Christian tradition use many terms to identify things God does and things the person being saved does in relation to turning from being “lost” to being “found” (to use evangelical language) or from being "damned" to being "redeemed." The Bible nowhere lays out a single, clear ordo, so a major task of systematic theology has been to bring together all the biblical concepts of personal salvation and put them in logical order. Why? Because inquiring minds want to know what God does and what we do in our becoming saved persons. The included "ordos" included in this book are mere summaries given to the best of my knowledge. Please be aware I am not expert in these various disciplines and more precise explanations of these ordos would require further research.# A Wesleyan Ordo John Wesley’s use of an “order” of salvation is rooted in the existence and recognition of original sin and God’s response to it. According to Wesley, salvation from original sin begins with justification, continues in sanctification and ends with glorification. The following is a summary of an article found at [https://www.featheredprop.com/theological-works/the-order-of-salvation-in-john-wesleys-theology/](https://www.featheredprop.com/theological-works/the-order-of-salvation-in-john-wesleys-theology/) . 1. **Adam was Created in the Image of God**. The Original Condition of man at creation was wholly "good". 2. **Original Sin**. A Fallen Condition since Adam sinned where man became unable to reflect the full image of God. This spiritual death is inherited by all who are born through Adam. 3. **GRACE: Prevenient Grace Prompts Conversion**. Conversion as prompted by prevenient grace. This is God’s divine love that surrounds all humanity and prompts our first awareness of God and our desire for deliverance from our sin. It is this love, Wesley believes, that moves us toward repentance and faith. 4. **GRACE: Justifying Grace Effects Justification**. After conversion is prompted by prevenient grace, Wesley believes it is effected by justifying grace. This is God’s love that pardons the repentant sinner and accepts him/her into God’s family. 5. **Justification**. justification is the pardoning of the individual's sin and is making him righteous and just before God. Justification is provided only for the sinner, the lost and ungodly and known by them by faith and is not earned. (distinct from new birth and is what God does for us whereas new birth is what God does in us.) Justification deals effectively with Original Sin. The assurance of justification could be known and understood by the believer in her or his life. This assurance comes from the witness of God’s Spirit with our own that “we are children of God” (Romans 8:16). 6. **New Birth**. The very moment one is justified he is born anew, but absolutely justification precedes the new Birth. This assurance is evidenced y a vibrant faith which gives power over sin and hope. 7. **GRACE: Sanctifying Grace**. This is the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. 8. **Sanctification**. Though sin no longer rules the newly born Christian, it still resides in that person’s life. The newborn Christian may soon find that sin in their life has not been destroyed, but only suspended, is not dead, but only stunned. The presence of sin in the believer’s life is defeated by sanctification. Sanctification is the process of change in a believer’s life from sinfulness unto holiness. Becoming “more dead to sin” while we become “more and more alive to God.” This holiness is holiness of living and is distinct from the righteousness reckoned to us by God through Christ. The holiness that we receive from God through Christ cannot be improved upon or added to. That is perfect, absolute and effective holiness. The holiness that Wesley taught, preached and sought to exemplify was holiness in living. It included good works, works of mercy and a rejection of sinful living. And just as we are justified by faith, Wesley believed we are sanctified by faith. Potentially sanctificaiton could be completed even before glorification. 9. **Glorification**. The final step in salvation is glorification. This is the end result of our Christian life. It includes the changing of our mortal state to become “like him” (1 John 3:2). Wesley, however, sees glorification as changing not just the state of humankind but of all creation, that was corrupted by the fall of Adam. In that day, not only our salvation, but the redemption of all the cosmos will be complete.# Roman Catholic Ordo The following is a summary of the article at [http://www.reachingcatholics.org/way\_of.html](http://www.reachingcatholics.org/way_of.html) A popular post-Vatican II catechism provides the following summary of the Church’s teaching. **Question:** What is necessary to be saved? **Answer:** You have to be brought into spiritual contact with that saving death of Jesus by faith and Baptism and loyal membership in His Church, by love of God and neighbor proved by obedience to His commandments, by the other Sacraments especially Holy Communion, by prayer and good works and by final perseverance, that is, preserving God’s friendship and grace until death.\* - believing - being baptized - being a loyal member of the Church - loving God - loving his neighbor - keeping the Ten Commandments - receiving the sacraments, especially Holy Communion - praying - doing good works - dying in a state of grace# An Evangelical Arminian Ordo The following is a summary from an article at [https://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2013/08/an-arminian-ordo-salutis-order-of-salvation/](https://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2013/08/an-arminian-ordo-salutis-order-of-salvation/) 1. God’s electing grace in Christ of all who will believe in him; 2. Christ’s atoning, reconciling death for all sinners; 3. Prevenient grace given by God to sinners through the Word (calling, convicting, illuminating, enabling); (Baptism as a means of prevenient grace; "through the water") 4. Conversion (repentance and faith) enabled by assisting, prevenient grace; 5. Regeneration, justification, adoption, union with Christ, indwelling of the Holy Spirit; 6. Sanctification; 7. Glorification. The main point is this: In this Arminian ordo, in contrast to a typical Catholic one, a clear logical distinction is made between 4, 5 and 6. 6 is in no way a cause of 4 or 5. In contrast to a typical Calvinist ordo, 5 logically follows 4. Why does this matter? Well, Arminians believe this is the pattern of evangelism in the Bible—the call to repent and believe is serious; without repentance and faith, enabled by prevenient grace, one cannot be fully saved (regenerated, justified, etc.). And one cannot count on God doing that for him or her apart from his or her free acceptance. There is urgency to the call to conversion. It is something we do, enabled by God, in response to God’s call, and not something that just happens to us. It is freely entering into a new relationship, not just having a new condition imposed.# My Living Ordo 1. **Made in the Image of God** 2. **Original Sin**. Adam sinned and death has passed to all from Adam. All since Adam are born sinners. 3. **GRACE: God's Love**. The grace of God's love has been poured out universally through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. An effective remedy made available to "whosoever will". Eternally God's intended purpose even before the foundation of the world. 4. **GRACE: Drawing of the Father**. The grace of God's drawing is directed to the individual as and when God sees fit. He may use preaching, circumstances and even trials of the heart. Invitations of the Spirit of God, warms and invites the heart of the individual. Quickening a faith for salvation that must be acted on by the individual to be effective through the next step. 5. **Repentant Faith** Responding to God's love and drawing grace, the sinner turns form his sin and to God effectually receiving the benefits of the cross primarily the forgivenenss of sins. 6. **Justification** Legally acquitted of all sins in the past. 7. **Regeneration/Conversion/New Birth** New life. born of the Spirit. Born again of God. 8. **Sanctification** Sanctificaiton is a progressive work of the Holy Ghost beginning at regeneration and culminating in perfection. Although not realized by all Believers, provisionally may be experienced prior to their natural death. 9. **Glorification** The eternal state and blessed hope of all saints. 1 Corinthians 15:# John Piper on The Eternal State of the Saints from [https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/will-some-saints-be-happier-in-heaven](https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/will-some-saints-be-happier-in-heaven) The New Testament describes the relationship between our obedience and our condition — our happiness in the age to come — in three ways. 1. Obedience is never the ground of our acceptance with God. 2. Obedience confirms we have saving faith. 3. **Obedience results in degrees of reward.** The New Testament teaches that our obedience results in rewards in the age to come that differ from each other according to the measure of our obedience. **Full to Different Levels**. Do you believe there will be hierarchy in heaven? Here is my view; I think it is the same as Edwards. He helped me a lot on this. We will be rewarded differently in the age to come, but everyone will be fully happy. There will be no gap between anyone’s capacity for happiness, on the one hand, and anyone’s fullness of happiness, on the other hand. There will be no frustration over any of these differences. And the rewards, in their essence (and we’d have to talk a lot more about this, maybe) but the rewards, in their essence, are differing capacities for happiness in God. It is not like a Cadillac and a Chevrolet. That is very irrelevant. If you get down to the essence of what would be a good reward in heaven, it is knowing and tasting and having a capacity for greater delights in God and awareness of God and enjoyment of God. And I think that is what Edwards means when he says there are differing degrees of holiness and glory, since the essence of holiness and the essence of glory is the heart’s treasuring and esteeming of God above all things. Our God-treasuring happiness is our holiness and our glory. That is why Edwards talks about different degrees of holiness, different degrees of glory — not that there are unholy people in heaven, or inglorious people in heaven, or unhappy people in heaven, but that everybody’s capacities will be full, but the capacities are different. And with those differences there will be no envy in those with smaller capacities. And there will be no boasting in those with greater capacities. Benevolence from the ones that are greater, and humility will be perfect in both, so that it will involve no sin whatsoever — no resentment, no jealousy, no envy, no arrogance, no demeaning of anybody. And in that sense, we are all equal. We are all sinless. We all stand on common ground at the foot of the cross, totally dependent on grace to provide every measure of happiness and every measure of holiness. Here is another clarification. All Christian obedience, now and forever, is done by God’s grace. First Corinthians 15:10 says, “By the grace of God I am what I am. . . . I worked harder . . . though it was not I, but the grace of God.” So what God rewards is the fruit of his own grace in our lives. So there is no thought that rewards are earned in the sense of giving God something that he then has to recompense because he didn’t have it already. Good Deeds and Divine Rewards So if you wonder: Where does all that come from in the Bible, here are just a few texts. (And there are more.) Second Corinthians 5:10 says, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” That is amazing. So there are negative and positive consequences for the believer in heaven. What in the world does he mean by negative consequences, like good or evil? The closest text, I think, that sheds light on that question is 1 Corinthians 3:14–15, and it goes like this: “If the work that anyone has built on the foundation \[of Christ\] survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” So there is some loss of what might have been because we built with wood, hay, and stubble instead of silver and gold and precious stones. Likewise, in Ephesians 6:8, Paul stresses the correlation between good deeds and divine rewards. Here is what he tells bondservants to serve the Lord, “knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord.” Whatever good — that is amazing. Every single little whiff of goodness that God enables us to do is going to have its appropriate recompense in heaven. And that means that good deeds are noted and rewarded. And I think (there’s a little controversy around this, I suppose) that statement would be meaningless if everyone received the same level of reward. Hierarchy of Humility So just one last word on this issue of hierarchy. It sounded like Ken’s question saw that as a negative — like, “Whoa, hierarchy in heaven would be a bad thing.” And what I would just encourage Ken and everybody who is listening to do is read Edwards on this. Let me give just a taste of what he says. This is Edwards talking about us in the age to come, in heaven: Though all though all are perfectly free from pride, yet as some will have greater degrees of divine knowledge than others, and will have larger capacities to see more of the divine perfections, so they will see more of their own comparative littleness and nothingness, and therefore will be the lowest abased in humility. So when you read a sentence like that you say, “Well, that is going to be a kind of hierarchy that has never existed before.”# Huiothesia \*\*!! INCOMPLETE !!\*\* Last update August 3, 2025 ## Etymology The greek word huiothesia ("Adoption") is found only in Pauline writtings. There are five occurences of huiothesia in the Pauline epistles (Romans 8:15,23; 9:4; Galatains 4:5; Ephesians 1:5). [\#bdag](#bdag) According to BDAG 4th Edition, huiothesia is a legal technical term of 'adoption' of children. In Pauline literature, the senses are a) that of a son or daughter relationship between God and humans, b) the acceptance of Israel as son of God (Exodus 4:22) and b) of those who believe in Christ and are accepted by God as God's children with full rights — "the believers enter into the full enjoyment of their huiothesia only when the time of fulfillment releases them from the earthly body". In understanding the usage and implications of huiothesia in Paul's epistles attention is well-given to consideration to similar concepts like adoption in ancient Greek and Roman cultures and adoption in the Old Testament context. > [\#schoenberg](#schoenberg) **IN GREEK CULTURE** "A comprehensive description of adoption among the Greeks is given by W. J. Woodhouse. According to his analysis, adoption as an institution among the Greeks was the result of a need created by their system of family organisation. ... The institution of adoption was therefore a necessary outcome of the desire to perpetuate the family and the family cultus whenever there was no natural-born son in the family." > [\#schoenberg](#schoenberg) **IN ROMAN CULTURE** "A good description of the Roman attitude toward adoption and the consequent practice is given by J. S. Candlish, who stresses the following points. Among the Romans the rights of fathers over their sons (patria potestas) was extreme and almost despotic. ... As long as the father lived, his rights could be terminated only by certain legal proceedings analagous to those by which slaves were sold or redeemed. ... Adoption, when thus legally performed, put a man in every respect in the position of a son by birth of him who had adopted him. He possessed the same rights and owed the same obligations." ## Two Frames There are at least two extant theological framings of adoption \[huiothesia\]. These two framings are similar in that both directly explain adoption as part of the salvation experience of those born of God, but each has a particular emphasis on different aspects of the salvation experience. In the sum of the related Biblical testimony exists a tension of "present" and "future" aspects of adoption. The resolution of this tension, may result in at least one out of two framings of the theological concept of adoption. What is agreed is that adoption is both future and present. What is contested is in what ways is it future and in what ways is it present. TODO: FURTHER CONSIDERATION NEEDED It is important to note that "Framing B" is by far in the minority of acceptance. Further research is needed here, but my tentative conclusion is that Framing A is more historically accepted and Framing B has been promoted by-and-large the Wesleyan and its resulting movements: holiness, keswickianism, latter rain, William Branham, charismatic, etc.. TODO: FURTHER CONSIDERATION NEEDED I am not entirely comfortable CONTRASTING these "two" framings. There is too much nuance here to overesimplify the discussion as "opposing" framings. They share more in common than they do difference. I am thinking with further consideration, I may be able to come up to something closer to a harmony with differences in "emphasis". One possible caveat to this is the fact there are among the supporters of viewing adoption through the lense exclusively of justification a hard line that the realizing of the "fullness of sonship" cannot be experienced but beyond the grave. Wben viewed through the lense of sanctification, adoption can be realized before that hard finish line as in Wesley's "Entire Sanctification." I beleive the preceding two considerations are major components to the interpretative directions often taken with huiothesia. ### 1. **FRAMING A: Justification & Covenant: A Present Reality for those Born of God** Adoption is a metaphor for son/daughter relationship of Believers with God. This adoption of Believers is to be contrasted with Judaizers who are described as "children under tutors/the law" in Galatians 4. In this frame, "sonship" is a picture of justification and is the present reality for all those born of God. > adoption is “participation in the family of God” through justification. — Michael Gorman, Apostle of the Crucified Lord The future aspect of this framing is that the "full rights of sonship" will not be experienced until in the resurrection. One example of this delayed inheritance is the "redemption of the body" (Romans 8:23). ### 2. **FRAMING B: Sanctification → Glorification: A Future Reality for those Born of God** Adoption is a metaphor for the coming to full spiritual maturity and Divine acknowledgment of that development ("coming-of-age"). Adoption is the maturing of the child of God by their overcoming experience unto the measure of the stature of Christ. Sonship is future promise subsequent to justification, but possibly realized before resurrection. There is a lot of inerpretative weight placed on similar Greek and Roman practices of placing a child as full heir at a certain age as related to fully mature sons of God. ### 3. For More Detailed Exploration of this Subject I have not reviewed this sources, but found references to them in research:
AuthorWorkNotes
Trevor J. BurkeAdopted into God's Family: Exploring a Pauline MetaphorComprehensive theology on huiothesia. Distinguishes Roman/legal background from Jewish story.
N.T. WrightPaul and the Faithfulness of GodEmphasizes covenantal context of “adoption” for Israel and Gentiles.
J.I. PackerKnowing God, ch. 19: "Sons of God"Classic evangelical summary of adoption as both privilege and status
Michael GormanPaul: Apostle of the Crucified LordFrames adoption as participation in Christ and inclusion in the covenant family.
## II. What do these two framings share in common? - They share the same primary Biblical texts. - There are 5 New Testament Occurences of Adoption \[huiothesia\]
PassageUsage
Romans 8:15"Spirit of adoption" — present experience of sonship
Romans 8:23Waiting for (Future) adoption = "redemption of our body"
Romans 9:4Israel's privileges: the adoption belongs to them
Galatians 4:5Christ redeems to give us adoption of sons
Ephesians 1:5Predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ
> 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. > Romans 8:23 — And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. > Romans 9:4 — Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; {covenants: or, testaments} > Galaians 4:5 — To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. > Ephesians 1:5 — Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, ## III. Adam Clarke > \[excerpts from wikipedia.com\] Adam Clarke (1762 – 26 August 1832) was an influential Irish writer, biblical scholar, and Methodist theologian, best known for his extensive commentary on the Bible. At the age of 14, he was invited by Rev. John Wesley to attend the Methodist seminary at Kingswood, Bristol, where he converted to Methodism. He was a Methodist theologian who served three times as President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference. - **REFERENCE:** - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam\_Clarke - https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/acc/romans-8.html - https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/acc/romans-9.html - https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/acc/galatians-4.html - https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/acc/ephesians-1.html - **SUMMARY:** Adam Clarke's commentary on Romans 8 and 9 is consistent with "Framing A: A Present Reality for those Born of God". Adam Clarke repeats adoption as a bringing into a family. Clarke cites Dr. Lightfoot to affirm that adoption refers not simply to legal status but to the future resurrection and bodily redemption (full adoption). Adam Clarke stresses that Gentiles form a major component of the mystical body awaiting redemption. ### Romans 8:15 Commentary - **8:15 KEY THOUGHTS:** "Ye are brought into the family of God by adoption;" and "Adoption was an act ... by which a person was taken out of one family and incorporated with another." > But ye have received the Spirit of adoption — Ye are brought into the family of God by adoption; and the agent that brought you into this family is the Holy Spirit; and this very Spirit continues to witness to you the grace in which ye stand, by enabling you to call God your Father, with the utmost filial confidence and affection. > The Spirit of adoption — Adoption was an act frequent among the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans; by which a person was taken out of one family and incorporated with another. Persons of property, who had no children of their own, adopted those of another family. The child thus adopted ceased to belong to his own family, and was in every respect bound to the person who had adopted him, as if he were his own child; and in consequence of the death of his adopting father he possessed his estates. If a person after he had adopted a child happened to have children of his own, then the estate was equally divided between the adopted and real children. The Romans had regular forms of law, by which all these matters were settled.-See in Aulus Gellius. Noctes Attic., vol. i. cap. xix. p. 331. Edit Beloe; and the note there. - **8:23 KEY THOUGHT:** "waiting for the adoption; that is, the redemption of our mystical body" > And not only they, but ourselves also — Neither the Gentiles only, but we Jews also, (however we belong to a nation envious of the heathen,) to whom God hath granted the first fruits of the Spirit; we sigh among ourselves for their sakes, waiting for the adoption; that is, the redemption of our mystical body, whereof the Gentiles make a very great part. Lightfoot's works. vol. ii. p. 359 and 707. - **8:26 KEY THOUGHT:** "the Spirit that witnesses of our adoption and sonship, Romans 8:15; Romans 8:16, makes intercession for us" > But the Spirit itself — The same Spirit, viz. the Spirit that witnesses of our adoption and sonship, Romans 8:15; Romans 8:16, makes intercession for us. Surely if the apostle had designed to teach us that he meant our own sense and understanding by the Spirit, he never could have spoken in a manner in which plain common sense was never likely to comprehend his meaning. Besides, how can it be said that our own spirit, our filial disposition, bears witness with our own spirit; that our own spirit helps the infirmities of our own spirit; that our own spirit teaches our own spirit that of which it is ignorant; and that our own spirit maketh intercession for our own spirit, with groanings unutterable? This would have been both incongruous and absurd. We must therefore understand these places of that help and influence which the followers of God receive from the Holy Ghost; ### Romans 9:4 Commentary - **9:4 KEY THOUGHTS:** "taken into the family of God" and "this adoption took place when God made the covenant with them at Horeb" > The adoption — The Israelites were all taken into the family of God, and were called his sons and first-born, Exodus 4:22; Deuteronomy 14:1; Jeremiah 31:9; Hosea 11:1; and this adoption took place when God made the covenant with them at Horeb. ### Galatians 4 Commentary - **Galatians 4 KEY THOUGHTS:** "The whole Jewish people were in a state of nonage while under the law." "That we might receive the adoption of sons. — Which adoption we could not obtain by the law for it is the Gospel only that puts us among the children, and gives us a place in the heavenly family." "Thou who hast believed in Christ art no longer a slave, either under the dominion of sin or under obligation to the Mosaic ritual; but a son of God, adopted into the heavenly family." ### Ephesians 1:4 Commentary - **Galatians 4 KEY THOUGHTS:** PREDESTINATION: "God's fixed purpose or predetermination to bestow on the Gentiles the blessing of the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ, which adoption had been before granted to the Jewish people;" ## IV. Dr. Lightfoot's Work - **REFERENCE:** - https://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/book\_lightfoot\_works.html - https://archive.org/details/worrever02ligh/page/n3/mode/2up John Lightfoot (1602–1675), a 17th-century English clergyman and Hebraist, - Page 359 (Horae Hebraicae section) of Volume II, lays foundational Talmudic or Jewish interpretive material on resurrection, firstfruits theology, or the metaphor of adoption as tied to bodily deliverance. - Page 707 most likely contains Lightfoot’s direct commentary on Romans 8, especially about verse 23—showing how Jewish‑Christian readers understood adoption as inclusive of future bodily resurrection, and how Gentile believers were seen as part of that mystical body awaiting full redemption (Clarke’s summary fits this exactly). > So also, "The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain." To all which, let me add this observation farther, that throughout this whole place; the apostle seemeth to allude to the Israelites' bondage in Egypt, and their deliverance out of it, with a comparison made betwixt the Jewish and the Gentile church. When God would deliver Israelfrom his bondage, he challengeth him for his son, and his firstborn, Exod. iv. 22. And in like manner, the people of the Gentiles do earnestly expect and wait for such a kind of manifestation of the sons of God within and among themselves. The Romans, to whom this apostle writes, knew well enough, how many and how great predictions and promises it had pleased "God to publish by his prophets, concerning gathering together and adopting sons to himself among the Gentiles: the manifestation and production of which sons, the whole Gentile world doth now wait for, as it were, with an outstretched neck. (Lightfoot, https://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/lightfoot/vol12.pdf) - John 1:12 > "He gave them power. He empowered them, so Eccles. v. 19, and vi. 2. He gave them the privilege, the liberty, the dignity, of being called and becoming the sons of God. Israel was once the son and the first-born, Exod. iv. 22: but now the adoption of sons to God was open and free to all nations whatever. - John 1:13 > they supposed the Gentiles might become the sons of God, being by their proselytism made Israelites, and the children of the covenant: for they knew of no other adoption or sonship. > These were the ways, by which the Jews thought any became the sons of God, that is, by being made Israelites. But it is far otherwise in the adoption and sonship, that accrues to us by the gospel. ## V. Martin Luther - TODO: Review Martin Luther's related commentaries. Particularly: Galatians 4? ## VI. A Divide within the Future Aspect of Adoption There exists a further division of thought within the consideration of the future or eschatalogical interpretation of adoption. In the first, adoption is fully realized in the future resurrection and in the second, it is a glorification potentially realized in this life as a result of perfection or full spiritual development. ### A. Future Adoption: FULLY BECOME SONS IN THE RESURRECTION - Irenaeus, Against Heresies (Book III) — emphasis on becoming fully sons in the resurrection. - John Lightfoot (on Rom 8:23): adoption = full redemption, including the body. He also quotes Talmud sources emphasizing that God calls "saints" only "once they are in the earth" (after this life). - John Calvin, Institutes (III.11.4; III.25.3): speaks of a **“progressive” sonship** culminating in glory. - Thomas Goodwin and Puritan thinkers: adoption as “sonship manifested” at the resurrection. ### B. Future Adoption: FULLY BECOME SONS IN FULL SPIRITUAL MATURITY - a coming of age - an emphasis on sanctification → glorification - "Sonship" = "Brideship" Rev. James R. Reynolds, Sr. - This emphasis I found to be very common in The Latter Rain Movement and its "children" as well as William Branham. - Bill Britton - Latter Rain - https://youtu.be/LmoEaiHcuRU?si=HPRMMOJ4jprrQfgd - https://youtu.be/JX7k\_n1FlKg?si=6uSrnAAI7FdAw211 The placing of a full grown son. - Jack Miller, World harvest "Sonship Theology" (reformed, baptist) - William Branham, "manifested sons" message - Keswickianism, Higher Life Movement - - - - - - ## Sources - TODO: convert to a detailed bibliography 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam\_Clarke 2. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/acc/romans-8.html 3. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/acc/romans-9.html 4. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/acc/galatians-4.html 5. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/acc/ephesians-1.html 6. https://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/book\_lightfoot\_works.html 7. http://concernedbrothers.com/truth/huiothesia.pdf 8. https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/35603/does-%ce%a5%ce%b9%ce%bf%cf%84%ce%b7%ce%b5%cf%83%ce%b9%ce%b1-huiothesia-really-mean-adoption-in-galatians-45 9. https://ezraproject.com/huiothesia-a-different-kind-of-adoption/ 10. https://archive.org/details/a-greek-english-lexicon-of-the-new-testament-and-other-early-christian-literatur/page/n11/mode/2up, BDAG 4th Edition 11. “Huiothesia: The Word and the Institution”, Martin W. Schoenberg, https://andrewcphiri.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Hiothesia.pdf 12. https://old-baptist-test.blogspot.com/2025/02/spirit-of-adoption-8.html 13. https://studybible.info/vines/Adoption