⁵ God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

²⁹ For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn^[a] among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.

¹¹ Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,^[a] for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.

⁵ God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.^{[a] 6} And because we^[b] are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”^[c]

3 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.

¹² But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children^[a] of God.

¹⁵ So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.^[b] Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”^{[c] 16} For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

²⁶ For you are all children^[a] of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

²³ And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children,^[a] including the new bodies he has promised us.