Plain-language reading guide
READING HELP
Read this chapter alongside the Confession chapter on the same subject. The Testimony states what the church teaches, applies that teaching, and identifies views it rejects. Read each statement with its Scripture proofs and the surrounding paragraphs.
To find explicit rejections in this chapter, go to point 5, point 6. Read each full point to see exactly which teaching is rejected.
This reading guide is separate from the official text below.
Read the official text, or choose a simpler explanation to explore together.
Westminster Confession
1. All those that are justified, God vouchsafeth, in and for His only Son Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption: by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God, have His name put upon them, receive the spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace with boldness, are enabled to cry, Abba, Father, are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him as by a father; yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises, as heirs of everlasting salvation.
Scripture proofs: Eph. 1:5; Gal. 4:4-5; Rom. 8:17; John 1:12; Jer. 14:9; 2 Cor. 6:18; Rev. 3:12; Rom. 8:15; Eph. 3:12; Rom. 5:2; Gal. 4:6; Ps. 103:13; Prov. 14:26; Matt. 6: 30, 32; 1 Pet. 5:7; Heb. 12:6; Lam. 3: 31; Eph. 4:30; Heb. 6:12; 1 Pet. 1:3-4; Heb. 1:14.
Words to know
- Adoption
- God’s welcoming believers into his family as his children through Christ.
- Heir
- Someone who receives an inheritance; God’s children share his promised blessings.
WCF 12.1 · Welcomed into God’s family
Everyone God justifies is also adopted through Jesus. God makes them his children, gives them his name and Spirit, and welcomes their prayers. He cares for, protects, provides for, and corrects them as a loving Father. He never casts them out. They share the promises of everlasting salvation as his heirs.
Ephesians 1:5; Galatians 4:4-5; Romans 8:17.
What changes when we may call God our Father?
1. All the elect, and only they, are adopted into the family of God. The adoption of saints under the Old Testament dispensation was as real as that under the New Testament, although they were regarded as children under age. Under the New Testament God bestows His Spirit more abundantly. He gives more knowledge of, and intimacy with, Himself. He receives on equal grounds those from every part of the world. He allows greater boldness in approaching Him. Eph. 1:5; Gal. 3:9; Heb. 13:9-10; Rom. 9:4; Jer. 3:4; Gal. 4:1-5; Matt. 11:11; 2 Cor. 3:10-18; Rom. 9:26; Ps. 72:17.
2. Justification and adoption, although inseparably connected, are nevertheless distinct from one another. They are both acts of God’s free grace. They are both performed once, and not repeated. They both spring from the grace of God; both give a right to all the privileges of the sons of God; and both are received through faith alone. John 1:12; Titus 3:7; 1 John 3:1; Jer. 3: 19; Gal. 3:26; Rom. 8:15-17.
3. Justification applies to believers as those who were guilty, and in a state of condemnation, but whose sins are now pardoned, and they are accounted righteous. Adoption applies to believers as those who were aliens and strangers to God. They were children of wrath, but by this gracious act are brought near unto God and made the children of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Eph. 2:2-3; 2 Cor. 6:17-18; 1 Pet. 5:7; Heb. 12:28; Rom. 8:17; Ps. 16:5; Eph. 1:7; Gal. 4:7.
4. There is a sense in which God is the Father of all men, because He created them. They are therefore obligated to love and seek the welfare of one another; yet to the redeemed alone belongs the right to be called the sons of God. Acts 17:29; Matt. 5:44-45; John 1:12; 1 John 3:1; Rom. 8:14.
5. We reject the common conception of the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of men, which denies the distinction between the saved and the unsaved. 1 John 2:23; John 8:44.
6. We reject the teaching that sonship, conferred in adoption, will ever be annulled by God.
Words to know
- Adoption
- God’s welcoming believers into his family as his children through Christ.
- Heir
- Someone who receives an inheritance; God’s children share his promised blessings.
- Rejects
- Says that a teaching is wrong and must not be accepted.
- Justification
- God declaring a sinner righteous because of Christ, received through faith alone.
Testimony 12.1
God adopts all his chosen people into his family. Old Testament believers were truly his children too; the New Testament brings fuller knowledge, access, and experience of the Spirit’s blessings.
Read original point 1 and its Scripture proofs →Testimony 12.2
Being declared righteous and being adopted are distinct gifts that always come together. God gives both once, freely, and through faith alone.
Read original point 2 and its Scripture proofs →Testimony 12.3
In justification, God declares us righteous because of Christ. In adoption, he welcomes us into his family as his children. We share in the inheritance he gives with Christ.
Read original point 3 and its Scripture proofs →Testimony 12.4
God created everyone, so we owe one another love. Being adopted into his redeemed family, however, is a special gift belonging to believers.
Read original point 4 and its Scripture proofs →Testimony 12.5
The Testimony rejects using the language of God as everyone’s Father to erase the difference between those who are saved and those who are not.
Read original point 5 and its Scripture proofs →Testimony 12.6
The Testimony rejects the claim that God will later cancel the adoption of someone he has made his child.
Read original point 6 and its Scripture proofs →Source: The Constitution of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, updated 2026, A-40, A-41, A-42.