Introduction
In last week’s passage Paul was contrasting those who live according to the flesh and those who live according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh. And that means that their mindset and what they think about is dominated by sin, because sin is what characterises life in the flesh. This is the life of the unbeliever. And they’re unable not to sin. And this is the way that ends in death and condemnation and eternal punishment away from the presence of God.
But those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. And that means that their mindset and what they think about is shaped by the Spirit of God. And this is the life of the believer. And with the help of the Spirit, they’re able not to sin. They’re able not to sin and they are able, with the help of the Spirit, to do what is good and right and pleasing in the sight of God. And since God the Father raised the Lord Jesus from the dead by his Spirit, then he will also raise his believing people from the dead by the same Spirit who lives in us.
And at the end of last week’s passage, Paul said to the believers in Rome that we have an obligation. But it’s not an obligation to the flesh to live according to it, because everyone who lives according to the flesh will die and be condemned. Instead, as believers, we have an obligation to the Spirit to put to death the misdeeds of the body. Since we now belong — by faith in Christ — to the realm of the Spirit, we’re to give up our old sins and we’re to live holy lives of loving obedience. And this is the way that leads to life in the presence of God.
That’s how the passage ended last week. And Paul went on in the very next verse to say that those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. And that’s what today’s passage is all about: it’s about being sons of God. And if we’re sons of God, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
Now, before we get into the text, I should perhaps explain why Paul writes about being sons of God and not about being sons and daughters of God. And I think there are two reasons for this.
The first reason is that in those days, only sons could receive an inheritance. In fact, this is the way it was in many countries until fairly recently. A father would expect his daughters to marry a husband who would be able to keep them in the manner to which they were accustomed. And therefore fathers would not leave any of their property to their daughters, but would leave it to their sons. And so, if Paul had referred to being sons and daughters of God, then his female readers might worry that they would not receive the same rights and privileges as the men. They might think that only Christian men can be heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. And so, to avoid that misunderstanding, Paul calls all believers sons of God in order to make clear to his readers that every believer possesses the rights of sonship and will receive the promised inheritance, which is eternal life in the presence of God.
So, that’s one reason why Paul refers to male and female believers as sons of God. The other is that we become sons of God through faith in the Son of God. Through faith, we are united with Christ. We are added to him. We are in him. Our whole relationship to the Father is mediated through the Son, Jesus Christ. We become sons of God when we’re united by faith with God’s only begotten Son. And so, we are sons of God because we’re in the Son. And that’s another reason why Paul refers to male and female believers as the sons of God. It’s because our relationship to God the Father is on account of the Son, Jesus Christ.
Having said that, let’s turn to the text.
Verse 14
In verse 14 Paul says that all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
When he refers here to being led by the Spirit of God, he’s not thinking about guidance. So, when we’re trying to figure something out, we might turn to God for guidance. We, in a sense, come to a cross-road in our life and we want God to lead us and show us if we should take this path or that path. Should we take this job or should we do something else? Should we marry this person or not? We look to God to lead us and to guide us.
But Paul is not referring to that kind of thing here. When he refers to being led by the Spirit, he’s referring to what we were thinking about last week. He’s thinking about living according to the Spirit so that our whole mindset or our whole outlook on life is shaped by the Holy Spirit, so that we put to death the misdeeds of the body and we do only those things which are good and right and pleasing in the sight of God. It’s not about what we do with our life, but it’s about how we live our life each day. That’s what he means when he refers to being led by the Spirit of God.
And being led by the Spirit of God in this way is one of the things that marks us out as the sons of God. The sons of God are people who belong in the realm of the Spirit and their thoughts and attitudes and words and actions are influenced continually by the Spirit of God. The sons of God, or the children of God, want to resist every temptation to sin and they want to do God’s will here on earth.
And it’s possible that in the back of Paul’s mind he has the image of the Israelites in the wilderness in the days of Moses. So, in the days of Moses, the Lord rescued his people from their slavery in Egypt and he brought them through the Red Sea and into the wilderness. And the Lord led his people through the wilderness by means of his glory-cloud: that pillar of cloud and fire that went before them and showed them the way. And just as God led the Israelites by his glory-cloud, so he now leads us by his Spirit. He leads us by his Spirit and he says to us this is the way to live as my people. This is the way I want my children to behave. One of the marks of being a believer or a child of God is that he leads us by his Spirit.
Verse 15
And before the Lord rescued the Israelites and began to lead them through the wilderness, they were slaves. The Egyptians enslaved them and made their lives miserable through hard labour. But God heard their cries and he rescued them and set them free. And in verse 15 Paul says to his readers that they did not receive a spirit that makes them slaves to fear. That is to say, they did not receive a spirit of slavery which leads to fear. Slaves are afraid of their masters, because their masters might be cruel and their masters might make unreasonable demands on them. Think of the Egyptians who ordered the Israelites to build their cities. That was bad enough, but then they said they wouldn’t give the Israelites any bricks. So, before they could build the cities, they had to make the bricks. It was unreasonable. It was cruel. And no wonder the Israelites groaned and were afraid. Slaves are afraid of their masters. What will he want me to do today? What will he demand from me today? How will he make me suffer today?
But — says Paul to his Christian readers — you have not received that kind of spirit. You have not received a spirit that makes you a slave to fear. You have received an entirely different kind of Spirit. You have received the Spirit of sonship. And the little footnote beside the word sonship in the NIV tells you that he’s really referring to the Spirit of Adoption.
Whenever we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we receive various benefits from him. One is justification whereby God forgives for all that we have done wrong and he regards us as being right in his sight and worthy to receive eternal life. So, because of our sins and shortcomings, we deserve to be condemned by God because of all that we have done wrong. But through faith in Christ, we are justified: pardoned and accepted by God. That’s one of the benefits we receive from Christ.
Another is sanctification, whereby God works in us to make us holy. He enables us to die to sin and to live holy lives of loving obedience to God. In justification, God regards us as righteous in his sight. In sanctification, he makes us righteous in his sight. In justification, sin is forgiven whereas in sanctification, it is subdued. That’s another of the benefits we receive from Christ.
And another is adoption, whereby we’re received into God’s family. He’s no longer the Judge who is ready to condemn us. Instead he becomes our Heavenly Father who loves us. And so, we come under his fatherly protection and care and provision and we receive all the rights and privileges of sonship.
Because God regarded the whole people of Israel as his son in the days of Moses, they were able to rely on him for his help and protection in the wilderness. Every day he fed them and he provided them with water and with everything else that they needed. When their enemies attacked them, he was there to protect them. As a human father loves and cares for his children, so the Lord loved and cared for the Israelites in the wilderness. And he does the same for his believing people in every generation. All who are justified through faith in Christ are adopted into God’s family and become his sons.
Now, the Holy Spirit is not the one who adopts us. We are adopted into God’s family by the Father who works through his Son and Spirit. However, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Adoption because the Holy Spirit is the one who persuades us that we are the sons of God. He enables us to believe that this is true. I’ve used the illustration before of how sometimes we might feel awkward calling someone we respect by their first name. We naturally call this person, ‘Mr So-and-So’ or ‘Mrs So-and-So’. But the person tells us to call them by their first name. And though they invite us to do so, it still doesn’t seem right and we feel awkward about it.
And without the Holy Spirit, we would feel awkward about calling God our Father. But he comes to us and he convinces us of the Father’s love and he makes it feel normal and right for us to refer to the Most High God, who rules in heaven over all that he has made, as our Heavenly Father.
And the Holy Spirit is the one, as Paul says in verse 15, who enables us to cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The word Abba is the Aramaic word for Father. And Paul is actually quoting the words of the Lord Jesus. According to Mark 14, when the Lord Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, right before he was arrested and crucified, he fell on the ground and prayed to his Father in heaven, saying, ‘Abba, Father’.
That’s how God’s only begotten Son referred to his Father in heaven. And Paul is saying that now that we’re adopted into God’s family through faith in the Saviour, our relationship to God is so similar to Christ’s relationship to God that we too can call God, ‘Father.’ Because we’re united with Christ through faith, because we’re in Christ, our standing with God is the same as Christ’s standing with God. And so, just as he could call God his Father so we can call him Father too.
And we should note carefully that Paul writes in verse 15 about crying out to our Father. And the verb he uses means cry out. It means to cry out in desperation and to cry out for help. The same verb was used to describe what Blind Bartimaeus did when he heard the Lord Jesus was passing by.
And the point Paul is making is that when we’re in trouble, when we’re suffering, when we’re in need, the Holy Spirit inside us is the one who enables us to cry out to God for the help we need. When an unbeliever is in trouble, she might, as a last resort, turn to God for help. But invariably, she’ll refer to God as God. The unbeliever will refer to God as God, because God is a stranger to the unbeliever. But when a believer is in trouble, she will call out to God as Father. And she will do so naturally. She’ll do so without even thinking about it. Because of the influence of the Spirit of Adoption in her life, she’s come to think of God as her Father. And calling out to him for help is the most natural thing in the world for her to do. And it’s the most natural thing in the world for her to do because the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Adoption, has enabled her to think this way about God.
Verse 16
And so, as Paul says in verse 16, the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. So, this is something that occurs within us. It’s something that happens to us inwardly.
When a human child is being adopted, there are probably papers to sign and actions which need to be performed. And afterwards the child is moved from a care home to their new parents’ home. It’s all external and outward. But when it comes to divine adoption, it happens inwardly and invisibly. The Spirit of Adoption persuades us deep down inside that God is our Father and that he cares for us. And we don’t have to move house or anything like that. There are no papers to sign. But the Holy Spirit works in us to convince us of the Father’s abounding love for us.
And he doesn’t do it by direct revelation. He doesn’t write it in the clouds and he doesn’t speak to us in an audible voice. He doesn’t even whisper it to us. But as we read the Bible or as we hear the preaching of God’s word, the Holy Spirit works in us in such a way that we come to believe that the things we’re hearing about God the Father being the Father of his people are true and they are true for me. And the idea that God is my Father becomes one of those things that we just know the same way we know our human parents. We’re not introduced to our human parents. No one has to tell us who they are. We just grow up believing it about them. And the Holy Spirit enables us to believe the same thing about our Heavenly Father.
Verse 17
And since we’ve become God’s sons through faith in his Son, then we also become heirs. Do you see that in verse 17?
And it’s possible that Paul has the Israelites in the back of his mind, because God rescued them from their slavery in Egypt so that they could inherit the Promised Land of Canaan, where God dwelt in their midst. And so, there, in the land of Canaan, they could enjoy God’s presence, because God dwelt among them in the temple and they could go up to the temple to meet him there.
And God has rescued us from our captivity to sin and satan and to death through faith in his Son who died to set us free. And through faith in Christ, we’re adopted into God’s family. And he promises his adopted children a wonderful, priceless inheritance. He promises his children that we will inherit life in the Promised Land to come in the new heavens and earth, where God will dwell in our midst and where we’ll see and know the God who has loved us with an everlasting, abounding and never-ending love: the God who has become our Father through Jesus Christ his Son and by his Spirit.
Paul says we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. And we are co-heirs with Christ because we inherit eternal life only because of Christ, who gave up his life on the cross to pay for our sins and who shed his blood to cleanse us of our guilt. He is the one who obtain eternal life for us and we receive it through faith in his name.
And so, eternal life in the presence of God is the wonderful inheritance which all of God’s children can look forward to. What we deserve is death and condemnation. But what we will receive — because of God’s overflowing grace and mercy and love to us in Christ — is eternal life and happiness in the presence of God.
That’s what we’ll receive in the life to come. However, for now, what we can expect, as the children of God, is to share in the sufferings of Christ, our elder brother. And this is how Paul ends today’s passage. And he’ll say much more about sharing in the sufferings of Christ in the verses which follow. But just as Christ suffered before entering the glory of eternal life in the presence of God, so his people can expect to suffer before entering the glory of eternal life in the presence of God. Since we’re united with Christ by faith, since we’re in him, then our life on earth matches his life on earth. His life was a life of sorrow and suffering, because of the normal troubles and trials of life and because the devil and an unbelieving world were against him. And because we’re united with him, our life is often a life of sorrow and suffering for the very same reasons.
But just as he could cry out to his Heavenly Father for the help he needed, so we can cry out to our Heavenly Father for the help we need. And so, when you’re suffering and you cry out for help, you’re not crying to a stranger who doesn’t know you and who doesn’t care about you. When you’re suffering, you’re not crying out to someone who hates you. When you’re suffering, and you cry out, you’re crying out to your Heavenly Father who loves you with an everlasting love. He loved you so much that he did not spare his own natural Son, but he gave him up for you. And if he was prepared to give up his own natural Son for his adopted children, then there’s no good thing that he will withhold from you now. And so, there really is no reason to worry or to be afraid or to be anxious, because your Father in heaven will take care of you always.
