Review: Adopted into God’s Family by Trevor Burke

Trevor Burke.  Adopted into God’s Family.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, November 24^th, 2006.  233 pp.

How much do you know about the doctrine of adoption?  The author Trevor Burke definitely made a contribution towards the biblical doctrine of adoption in writing this book.  In the first chapter Burke noted how this doctrine has been misinterpreted and misunderstood.  He gives examples of how those in the field of systematic theology have made the mistake of equivocating adoption as the same thing as justification or have confused regeneration with adoption.  Burke also argued that it isn’t just systematic theologians who have erred for he also faults those who have been imbalanced in their focus on the background cultural material.  While Burke acknowledges that cultural background is important it should not be the predominate focus.  The writer does talk about the cultural background in understanding adoption but he does go back to the Scriptures to see how Scripture itself is describing our spiritual adoption.  As readers will discover in this work, the biblical description of adoption, while it presupposes the social understanding of adoption of the time, is also different: God’s adoption is far better and a contrast with what man does since spiritual adoption shows much deeper God’s amazing love.

 

Readers will definitely learn about God’s use of the metaphor of adoption as a result of reading this book.  I myself learned that adoption was not taught in the Old Testament but instead is found only in the New Testament.  Yet when one turns to the New Testament one discover only Paul has spoken directly about adoption.  Adoption is mentioned 5 times by Paul and these appearances are found in four of Paul’s major epistles.  I also got to learn about the way adoption was carried out in first century A.D.  The author presents a very convincing case for why we should understand adoption in light of Roman customs rather than say Greek customs.  The author then use this understanding to help illuminate the New Testament.  I like how the author argues that some of the epistles in the New Testament should be understood as part of the genre of family letters to resolve conflicts within the family.  This definitely makes me appreciate the epistles more and also members of the church!  However the biggest portion of this book is actually interaction with Paul’s adoption passages and its context.  At times the author could be quite exegetical and technical.  For instance he spends a considerable time tring to figure out the function of the genitive in Paul’s phrase “Spirit of adoption.”  Burke takes the view that the “Spirit of Adoption” in Romans 8:15 is a genitive of quality and that the main idea is that one cannot separate the Spirit from adoption and vice versa.  He argues this point with the parallel of Galatians 4:6 of the “Spirit of the His Son” having the same idea.

Excellent work.  Scholarly and insightful for the exegete, the theologian and the pastor.  Educated lay readers will also be edified by this work that’s part of the New Studies in Biblical Theology series.

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