Romans 8:14-17

¹⁴ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. ¹⁵ For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. ¹⁶ The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: ¹⁷ And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

The very moment a person places their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they are indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. They are “sealed with the Holy Spirit…until the redemption of the purchased possession” (Ephesians 1:13-14). In Romans 8:5-13 the Apostle Paul introduces the reality that believers who are in Christ now have the presence of the Holy Spirit. In our great struggle with sin, God has not left us alone, but has sent the Holy Spirit to guide, enliven, and empower us. His ministry is to help us in combatting sin and the flesh until the day when we are totally free from the “body of death” (Romans 7:24).

The Holy Spirit has another aspect to His ministry with the believer. It is through the Holy Spirit that we know that we are children of God. “Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit” (1 John 4:13). Here, in Romans 8:14-17, Paul talks about what Jesus has done for our present struggle with sin by making us children of God. There are three things in this passage that are true now because we are the children of God.

First, the children of God are led by His Spirit. This is a test of true saving faith. Since believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and “are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit” (Romans 8:9), their life is now patterned by being led by the Spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit that a person is born again as a child of God (John 1:12-13; 3:5). The new birth is a work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a person. From that point forward, a born-again Christian is led by the Holy Spirit through all of life. Believers are given new desires and this leads us to “delight in the Law of God after the inward man” (Romans 7:22). Therefore, the mark of a true child of God is not perfect obedience, but the reality of new desires for obedience created in the heart by the Holy Spirit.

Second, the children of God are adopted into His family. Instead of a “spirit of bondage again to fear,” believers have been given “the Spirit of adoption.” The “spirit of bondage” describes the motivation of slavery in the Greco-Roman world. Slaves lived under the fear of punishment for disobedience. Sons, especially adopted sons, were disciplined, but always had the right to approach their father as full heirs. While it is true that believers are born again into the family of God, it is also true that we are adopted into God’s family. The strength of this is that adopted children could never be left out of the will or disowned. Paul uses this to describe our new relationship to God through Jesus. This adoption is not something for some Christians and not others. Ephesians 1:5 tells us, “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.” This means that God has predetermined in His plan that all believers are adopted as His children. Through this, the believer is led to cry “Abba!” The word is an Aramaic term of intimacy that equates to “Daddy!” Jesus cried it in Mark 14 in the Garden of Gethsemane. Through this the Holy Spirit “beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” Where do you turn in your hour of greatest need? Is your natural response to run to your heavenly Father?

Thirdly, God’s children are heirs with His Son. In this passage the promise is that no matter where we stand in our ongoing struggle with sin, as a Christian and child of God, we are “heirs of God and join heirs with Christ.” We think of our inheritance as being heaven or a certain position in ruling with Christ forever. We will have those things, but they are not our inheritance. Our inheritance is God Himself. What makes heaven, heaven one day is that God is there. We are told about this great reality, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Revelation 21:3). We are also joint heirs with Christ. We will inherit all that He inherits, which is “all things” (Hebrews 1:2). In our lives we so often choose to settle for things of the here and now when we have an eternal inheritance of “all things” awaiting us in Christ. The suffering that we face now in identifying with Christ and struggling against sin is nothing compared to the eternal inheritance that we have.

Do you have God’s Spirit in you? Have you been born again? Are you led by the Holy Spirit? Can you approach God as “Abba?” The greatest title for any human being is “child of God.” If you are not an adopted child of God today, there is good news. The Apostle John tells us how to be a child of God. John 1:12 says, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” Cry out to Jesus today. He will send the Holy Spirit and you will be adopted as a child of God.