THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION

THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION

Romans 8:12-17 NET.

¹² So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh ¹³ (for if you live according to the flesh, you will die), but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ) — if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.

Every first Sunday of the month, we celebrate Communion and have also been studying the gospel message as presented by the Apostle Paul in Romans. We are learning about justification by faith in God’s grace brought about by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross as our substitute. We are also learning that justification is never alone. You cannot be saved by grace without that salvation making a difference in your life. A change of status marks that difference. Among other things, that difference is called regeneration or redemption. Regeneration is the new birth. Redemption is God’s rescue of our lives from sin and its consequences.

By the time we get to chapter eight of Romans, we learn about the difference the Holy Spirit makes in a believer’s life. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of adoption in today’s text. Most people think of Romans as Paul’s way of explaining justification by faith. But for Paul, you cannot explain justification without talking about sanctification. Put another way, you cannot explain what Jesus did for us on the cross without mentioning what the Holy Spirit is doing today. God has a plan, and the death and resurrection of Christ were only part of that plan.

We also learn from Romans that the Holy Spirit is not an additional option for only the most spiritual and committed. He is part of God’s plan for every Christian. That fact comes through in today’s text. Paul writes to his brothers and sisters in Rome, but his message applies to all his brothers and sisters everywhere. He tells us that the Holy Spirit is God’s plan for all Christians. He is the Spirit of adoption. The only natural-born Son of God is Jesus Christ. All the rest of us must become members of God’s family through adoption. The Holy Spirit is the means of that adoption.

That is why there is no such thing as a Christian without the Holy Spirit. Earlier in this chapter, we learned that if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him (Romans 8:9). So, when Paul writes to the believers in Rome, he does not try to convince them to receive the Holy Spirit. They already have the Holy Spirit, and so do we. If you believe in Jesus Christ today, you do not have to jump through any hoops to receive the Holy Spirit. You already have Him.

Paul’s purpose in today’s passage is to explain why Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit – particularly in terms of what the Holy Spirit does for us as the Spirit of adoption.

The Spirit of Adoption guides our lives (12-14).

Paul says the Holy Spirit leads believers as sons of God. Since we are adopted into God’s family by faith, we do not automatically possess the ability to do things that please our heavenly Father. We are naturally born children of Adam, so our natural inclination will be to live according to the flesh. When we become Christians, God does not perform a fleshectomy on us. [My spell-check went wild on that word].

No, God did not remove the flesh. So, we are still inclined to live according to the flesh because before we came to Christ, that was the only way we knew how to live.

What God did for us was to add the presence of the Holy Spirit to our lives. The Holy Spirit is like God’s GPS. He guides us in living according to God’s will, in step with the walk of Christ, and in tune with the word of God.

Most of you know that when Penny and I travel, I usually drive, and she navigates. We might sometimes use a GPS on one of our phones, but sometimes even that is wrong, and I’m thankful that Penny usually knows when. Sometimes, she uses two phones with two different apps, but we still defer to her. Having those apps on our phones is nice, but they are not always reliable.

The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit leads us. But the problem is that we are born with another means of guidance and are already used to it. That other means of guidance is what Paul calls the flesh. But Paul has already taught earlier in this chapter that the flesh GPS is not a good source of guidance. He taught in verses 5 and 6 that those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh. And the outlook of the flesh is death. He says in today’s text that if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

Now, imagine you were shopping for a phone app that is supposed to guide you as you travel. Suppose you are looking at the advertisement for an app that would provide a GPS location and help you get from point A to point B and back. But what if you look at the fine print and it says, ” If you use this app, you will die?” I don’t think anyone would be tempted to buy and use such an app.

Paul is saying that we are born with a guidance system already installed and ready to go. The only problem is that it is designed to lead us off the cliff—that is what the flesh does. So, we all need to upgrade to a new GPS, and that system is the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of Adoption testifies to our relationship with God (14-17).

The Holy Spirit within us is also the means of connecting us to our heavenly Father. He enables us to cry out to God – not just God as creator. He enables us to recognize our new identity in Christ, leading to our calling to God as Father. Paul uses both the Aramaic word ἀββά and the Greek word πατήρ in verse 15. Both words mean father. Paul said the same thing to the Galatians. He said that when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who calls “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:4-6).

The Spirit of adoption does more than ratify our legal adoption by God. It creates an emotional and psychological relationship that was not there before we received him. Our loving Father sent His Son Jesus into the world, and he sent His Holy Spirit into us. That Spirit of adoption allows us to relate to God in a way we could not before. He replaced our fear of God as judge and enabled us to relate to him as a loving Father.

Why do we need that? Well, as God’s children in a world dominated by his enemies, we are going to suffer as Jesus did. We will suffer with him, but not vicariously. The world only needs one Savior. But we will suffer precisely because of our new identity in Christ. We need the Holy Spirit because he will keep us crying out to God amid all our suffering.

Penny and I have been watching the reality series “Alone.” It is about people brought to the wilderness and left alone to see who will survive the longest. One complaint we often hear is not about the weather or the wild animals. The contestants regularly complain that they miss their family. They imply they could handle the hardships if their loved ones were with them. The Holy Spirit is in us to remind us that the Father is always with us.

The Spirit of Adoption reminds us of our future destiny (18).

The Holy Spirit is also our guarantee of an inheritance that we did not qualify for. Verse 17 says that we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. We are going to inherit the same thing that Jesus will. We will be glorified with him, and that glory will be revealed to us. The author of Hebrews wrote that God’s purpose was to bring many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10). If you are a believer, you are one of those sons. He is bringing you to glory. You have a destiny.

Destiny is not the same thing as a destination. Lots of people talk about going to heaven. God’s plan is not to take us to heaven. His plan is to glorify us because he will restore the universe. He is going to make all things new, but he has already started by making us new. He is getting us ready, not for a new destination but a new destiny. The preparation process is called sanctification, and the new destiny is called glorification.  The Holy Spirit within us is a constant reminder of the glory we will share with Christ in the future.

For further study:

Moule, Handley Carr Glyn. The Epistle to the Romans. London: Pickering and Inglis, 1861. pp. 218-226.

Murray, John. Epistle to the Romans. Eerdmans, 1959. pp. 292-299.

Newman Barclay Moon and Eugene A Nida. A Translator’s Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. United Bible Societies 1973. pp. 152-156.

Nicoll, W. Robertson. The Expositor’s Greek Testament. v. 2. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1910. pp. 647-648.

Nygren, Anders. Commentary on Romans. Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1949. pp. 325-329.

O’Donnell, Wayne. Romans. 2020. pp. 87-89.

Palmer Earl F. Salvation by Surprise: Studies in the Book of Romans. Word Books 1975. p. 99.