What Does the Bible Say About Adoption?

Whether you’re hopeful adoptive parents or an expectant mother thinking about adoption, you may wonder what God’s word says about adoption. The Bible has lots to say about it.
 
Not only was adoption a legal way families could have an heir, but families adopted well-known people in both the Old and New Testaments. Their lives had a significant impact on what happened in biblical history.
 

Biblical Meaning of Adoption

In Biblical times, adoption had a two-fold meaning. First, people used the word “adoption” to describe a stranger coming into a family and being recognized as a son.
 
The second way they used this word was in the legal, public ceremony where the family recognized the son as an heir. An adopted child became a legitimate heir to the father’s estate. The family treated the adoptee as if they had been “born into” their new family. They had legal rights the same as their biological children.
 

God Adopts Us

Interestingly enough, God uses this term to describe our relationship with Him. He says He adopts us into His family.
 
When we put our faith and trust in Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins and his resurrection, God calls us his children. Ephesians 1:5 says it like this:
 
“In love, He (God) predestined us for adoption to sonship (and daughter ship) through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will…”
 
When we open our hearts to Christ and place our trust in Him for salvation, something beautiful happens—we become beloved members of God’s own family. Becoming family members isn’t through ordinary birth but through the tender act of adoption.
 

Biblical Stories of Adoption

In the Bible, there are many examples of adoption. The Bible doesn’t show any difference between the roles or responsibilities of an adopted child or a biological child. In God’s eyes of the law, adoptive families are just as real as biological ones.
 
Here are several well-known people who experienced adoption and whom God called to do great things for His kingdom.
 

Moses

The book of Exodus says that Pharaoh ordered the killing of Hebrew little boys. Fearful they would kill her son, Jochebed hid him in a small basket and placed it in the Nile River. When the daughter of Pharaoh found the basket with the tiny baby floating down the river, she pitied him. She raised him as her own son. She called him Moses.
 
He grew up to be a faithful servant of God who led the exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt across the Red Sea. God gave Moses the ten commandments, and he led the Israelites through the desert to the promised land. Moses’ adoption by Pharaoh’s daughter was God’s ordained plan for his life.
 

Esther

Esther lost her parents at an early age. Her cousin, Mordecai, who invited her to live with his family, later adopted her.
 
Years later, as a young woman, Esther married the King. Through a series of circumstances, Haman tricked the King into making a declaration to kill the entire Jewish community. Unbeknownst to the King, his own queen was Jewish.
 
Queen Esther bravely appealed to her husband to spare her people at Mordecai’s urging. She saved the entire Jewish population and removed evil Haman, who orchestrated the plan to kill her, Mordecai, and the whole Jewish population.
 

Jesus

In the gospels, we read the story of Mary, who carried not her fiancé Joseph’s son but with the Son of God.
 
Legally, Joseph could have accused Mary of adultery, resulting in her stoning. But when God spoke to Joseph, telling him to believe her, he obeyed God and took Mary as his wife. Likewise, after Jesus’ birth, he followed God by taking his little family down to Egypt to protect Jesus from Herod.
 
After they returned to Nazareth, Joseph raised Jesus as his own son, along with his biological children. It’s wonderful that Jesus understands adoption since Joseph adopted Him.
 

What Does God Think About Adoption?

For most couples, the road to parenthood is a straightforward and joyful journey. But, some couples battle with fertility issues and cannot conceive naturally. They may spend thousands of dollars on IVF and other assisted reproduction treatments without success.
 
Whether you are trying to conceive for the first time or trying to enlarge your family with one more baby, you must know that God plans to make us fruitful and multiply. Sometimes, God chooses us to become parents to children who are not biologically ours but still precious in the eyes of God.
 

What Does the Bible Say About Adoption?

Many believers wonder what the Bible has to say about adoption. Well, do you know that God has adopted us all? The Apostle Paul uses the concept of adoption to express the relationship between a believer and God. Adoption under Roman law meant that the adoptee becomes a “new creature,” someone who is born again into a new family, just as Christ baptizes every believer to be born again into God’s family as heirs and co-inheritors.
 
Do you feel a stirring in your spirit that God could be calling you to adoption? If so, I encourage you to spend time with Him in prayer to determine if it is in God’s perfect will and purpose for you.
 
The Bible says that God cares for orphans, and I believe one way of caring for them is by placing them in homes that are God-fearing. Here, parents will love, protect, and treasure them, just as God cherishes each member of His family.
 
If you feel God may be calling you to be a blessing to a child in need, I recommend checking out my book, Called to Adoption, which is an excellent resource for Christian couples considering adoption. It answers all the tough questions you may have and will help you make a Spirit-led decision on bringing a child into your family.
 

Adoption in the Bible

As you read the Bible, you’ll see many situations where adoption was a legal way for families to raise strangers as their sons and daughters. Of course, there are well-known Bible characters whom families adopted or chose adoption for their child.
 
As Scripture tells us, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship [adoption]. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father'” (Romans 8:15).
 
Just as adoption flows from deep love and intentional choice, God’s heart overflows with joy as He welcomes us home. “His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:5).
 
What a wonderful picture this gives us! When God lovingly adopts us into His spiritual family through Christ, it invites us to prayerfully consider how we might open our own homes and hearts to children through adoption.
 
Scripture paints adoption in the most beautiful colors. Those who adopt and those who are adopted both receive incredible blessings, reflecting the very joy and privilege we experience when God calls us His own children. It’s a picture of love choosing love, of families formed not just by birth but by the deeper bonds of intentional, sacrificial care.
 
God’s heart for adoption is clear since He calls us His adopted children. To describe His relationship with us in this way proves how precious adoption is to God and should be to us.
 

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on August 6, 2017, and has since been updated.