These verses are inseparably joined together, where one thing leads to another in logical sequence. Three things are mentioned: the leadership of the Spirit, the adopting power of the Spirit, and the bearing of witness by the Spirit.

The Spirit Leads⤒🔗

The Spirit of the Lord leads His people into the most extraordinary situations. One is tempted to say that He leads towards holiness of life and leave it there. Yet a surface scan of the Scriptures makes it very clear that He has ways and means to achieve the end of sanctifying His people.

For instance, He led the Saviour into the wilderness and brought Him to the place where He was confronted by the devil. It is the last place on earth that one would normally think of under the leadership of the Spirit. Yet in His infinite wisdom He saw it as the most suitable place to try the withstanding power of the Saviour's faith. It must needs be that our faith be tried in similar measure.

Furthermore, He leads the believer to see his own failings, not just that the believer might confess sin and seek forgiveness, but that he might learn to be less critical of others and more sympa­thetic towards those who are compassed with infirmities.

He also leads towards suffering. Much of that suffering is tied up with self-denial, as the apostle points out in verse 13, where he talks of the mortifica­tion of sin. This is an essential in the believer's life, and only as he is led and strengthened by the Holy Spirit is he going to be able to work at his sanctifica­tion in mortifying the flesh.

But if the Spirit is leading to these things, He is leading away from other things. We are told that He leads away from bondage to fear. He is addressing Gentile converts with Gentile problems - problems which are causing them to fear as Christians - the fear of being disowned by parents and community, the fear of losing face in society, the fear of failure, the fear of falling back ... very real fears. But He doesn't want them to become bogged down in these fears, so He goes out of His way to give them an encourag­ing reminder that they are under the leadership of the Spirit and as such, that one major purpose of this leadership is to confirm to them the fact that He owns them and has adopted them into the family of God.

The Spirit Adopts←⤒🔗

In so doing, He brings them into nearness to God, whereby the believer is given the peculiar privilege of being able to address God as `Abba'. It is only as we submit ourselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit that we are able to say with all fluency of spirit and ease of con­science that God is our Father, and as such that we need not be afraid.

Part of the privilege that belongs to such as are adopted by Him is that He chastises them. He has the right to do so for they are His. He knows when chas­tisement is needed. He knows how much is needed. He knows how to mete it out. Yet whatever chastisement the believer receives under His hand is but a further confirmation of His love for the believer, for that is what makes 'Abba Father' all the more precious to the wounded soul.

As the Spirit who bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God, He leads us into a family relation­ship with one another, where we are able to share and bear each other's burdens in the heat of the day, thus in our role as part of His family, drawing us closer to Himself and to one another.

The Spirit Bears Witness←⤒🔗

Thirdly, the Spirit shows His people that their privilege extends beyond this world. His witness to them is that they are heirs of God, and that they are such for Christ's sake. It is only as they are in Christ that they are joint heirs with Christ of all that God is, which means that their inheritance is inexhaustible and endless.

He speaks of this inheritance as part of the family privilege, in that having suffered together with Him we are to be glorified together with Him. The suffer­ing of the Christian is served in conjunction with the presence of the Saviour. The Christian is never alone in suffering. He has a great high priest who is able to be touched with a feeling of the Christian's infirmities.

Paul speaks of the glorifying of the Christian. This will not happen until the day of resurrection when the corporal church shall be assembled in His pres­ence. The souls of the saints may be perfected in holiness at the point of death, but that is not the moment of their final glorification. That is yet to come, and it can come only at the point of Christ's triumphant descending to receive the church bodily to Himself.