This guest post is by Jaelyn Morgan. Regent Law 2L and current Wills, Trusts, & Estates student:
Under the Laws of Intestacy,
an adopted child takes a distributive share just like a biological one.
Essentially, they are treated as the same under the law. In many states, upon a
validly issued order of adoption, adopted children simultaneously lose their
rights to inheritance and succession from their biological parents. The
congruent treatment of adopted and biological children in the probate process
reflects the biblical understanding that, when an adopted child becomes part of
his or her new family, he or she becomes fully integrated into that new unit and thus
should be treated the same as the children who were natural-born heirs to those
parents.
The way in which the Laws
of Intestacy treats adopted children accords with the Bible’s use of adoption
to powerfully illustrate of the new status a Christian receives through faith
in Jesus Christ. As Paul explains in Romans 8:15-17: “you did not receive the
spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of
adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears
witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then
heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in
order that we may also be glorified with him.” See also Galatians 4:4-7.
Thus, the truth incorporated into our own Intestacy Laws accords with our
designation in God’s family through Christ—we believers, as “adopted children”
in God’s family, take a share of the heavenly inheritance just as God’s one and
only Son, Jesus Christ!
As co-heirs with Christ,
the Christian takes a share in an inheritance that is “imperishable, undefiled,
and unfading”’ that is “kept in heaven for [them].” 1 Peter 1:4. Like the Laws
of Intestacy, which explicitly provide that an adoptee will take just like a
biological child during the distribution of the parent’s estate, the indwelling
presence of the Holy Spirit guarantees that believers share in this future
inheritance from God. See Ephesians 1:13-14.
Part of the inheritance we
Christians receive is new creation—not only in us presently, but to come when
the world is made new, over which God has declared “[t]he one who conquers will
have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.” Revelation
21:7; see also 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 6:15. God’s kingdom has
been inaugurated on Earth in Jesus Christ. Each one of us has the opportunity
to believe in Christ to be saved into God’s family and everlasting dominion.
For those who decide to receive the new designation of adoption as God’s son
through faith, we will live with God forever to the praise of His eternal
glory. As John fittingly concluded, “Amen, Come Lord Jesus!” Revelation 22:20b.
May the day of God’s heavenly distribution come to us very soon!
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