For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.

—Romans 8:14-16

Introduction: Wrestling with Belief and Truth

If you’ve subscribed to my newsletter, you know that I’ve recently started researching my next book. No spoilers just yet about the subject of this new project (shameless plug: join my newsletter to get exclusive content and be the first to know what’s coming next!), but I’ve been spending a lot of my free time reading for the last couple of weeks.

Yesterday, as I continued working through the rather sizable stack of books and resources I’ve compiled to help me develop this project, I came across a chapter on naturalism that caught my attention. Naturalism is a fancy word that refers to the belief that there’s a natural explanation for everything—no supernatural required. And one of the author’s statements caught my attention.

Describing naturalism, she writes, “There have been a whole schmear of hypotheses offered throughout history to explain away the existence of a God who is uncreated, self-existent, and powerful enough to create the universe. The solution? Hypothesize something else that is uncreated, self-existent, and capable of creating.”*

Naturalism vs. Faith: The Real Debate

Do you see what I see? The source of the universe is eternal and uncreated? Sure. The source of the universe is self-existent and does not have a cause? No problem. The source of the universe is powerful enough to create everything in existence? Obviously.

It’s not God’s eternality, self-existence, or power that people reject. It’s His personhood. As long as this eternal, uncaused, powerful force that brought all of existence into being has no name, no face, no identity, everyone’s happy.

That realization stopped me in my tracks. It’s absolutely tragic, but it also makes some sense. Now that science has proven that the universe isn’t eternal and must have some outside cause, anyone who takes science seriously has to admit that a force with those three qualities exists…but they don’t have to admit that the force is a Someone. Especially a Someone they owe their existence to.

Why God’s Personhood Matters

I think we can all agree that there’s a special bond we have with the ones who gave us life. For many of us, we’re able to maintain fairly healthy and positive relationships with our parents. But even for those of us whose parents are able to love us well, there’s still a relationship—a bond that links us to that person. It makes me wonder if that is what’s happening when people try to deny God’s personhood. Do they feel that God has let them down in such a deep way that they reject that natural, spirit-deep bond between Creator and creation?

I’m sure that’s not true for everyone who subscribes to this belief, but I’m also sure that must apply to some people, and that breaks my heart. I feel a deep need to be prepared to minister to people who express this belief out of pain and discouragement.

Adoption in Ancient Rome: A Powerful Metaphor

As I read Romans 8, I was struck by the metaphor of adoption. First, adoption requires personhood. It’s an intentional choice that requires both understanding and commitment to pursue. The miracle is that God wants to adopt us. Especially when you throw in the Roman law surrounding adoption. In ancient Rome, adoption was permanent. You could disown your biological children because you didn’t choose them, but if you adopted someone, it was for life.

Second, when Paul writes about crying out to God, the word used in the original language doesn’t refer to just trying to get your dad’s attention. The word for cry out refers to a desperate cry for help or even a shriek.

Ministering to the Hurting: A Call to Prepare

For anyone out there who has felt drawn to the idea that our universe came from some nameless, faceless force because of pain in your past, you have a Father who won’t abandon you. He wants to adopt you—the kind of adoption that can never be broken. He will be there when you cry out, and He will always hear you.

For those of us who already know the soul-nourishing miracle of being a child of the King of Kings, let’s be ready. So many people need the healing hope of the Gospel. Let’s be ready to share it!

*Quote from Mama Bear Apologetics by Hillary Morgan Ferrer.