We are children of God by adoption, which is the fruit of our justification. When we are reconciled to God, He brings us into His family. The church is a family with one Father and one Son, and everyone else in the family is adopted. This is why we look to Christ as our elder brother. We have been made heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. The true Son of God makes available all that He received in His inheritance. He shares with His brothers and sisters His full legacy.
That is something we ought never to take for granted. Whenever we pray, "Our Father," we should tremble with amazement that we, of all people, should be called "children of God." There is no second-class membership in God's family. We rightly distinguish between the natural Son of God and the adopted children of God, but once the adoption takes place, there is no status of membership in His family. He gives to all His children the full measure of the inheritance that belongs to the natural Son.
In our adoption, as sons, we also enjoy the mystical union of the believer with Christ. When we describe something as "mystical," we are saying it transcends the natural and, in a certain sense, is ineffable...If you and I are both in Christ, the union we share transcends our relational difficulties. This is not just a theoretical concept; the bond of that family is a stronger bond even than what we enjoy with our biological family. This is the fruit of adoption.
R.C. Sproul, Everyone's A Theologian
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