Romans 8 is the chapter on the Holy Spirit. From hardly rating a mention up until now in the letter — Paul here in this chapter refers to the Holy Spirit no less than 19 or 20 times. The theme of the chapter, then, is the work of the Spirit in the life of the be­liever.

We have seen so far His multiple ac­tivities:

• The Holy Spirit brings us life and has set us free from the penalty of sin and death (v.2).
   
• The Holy Spirit empowers us to fulfil the righteous requirements of the law (v.4).
   
• We now live each day according to the Spirit and set our mind on His desires (v.5).
   
• The Holy Spirit now permanently indwells the believer; so that ‘our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit’ (v. 9).
   
• The Holy Spirit will give life to our mortal bodies — assuring us of our physical resurrection (v. 11).
   
• We are debtors to the Holy Spirit — we owe a debt of gratitude by living Holy Spirit controlled lives (vs 12-13).
   
• The Spirit leads us (v.14). There’s nothing mystical or ecstatic about be­ing led by the Spirit — despite the way some ‘Christians’ would have us be­lieve. Being led by the Spirit is not the preserve of ‘the highly spiritual’, but of all who are the sons of God. The Holy Spirit leads us into the truth of Scripture. The Holy Spirit leads us by way of the fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit leads us so that we might be conformed to the likeness of His Son. The Holy Spirit leads us to ‘mortify the deeds of the body’ (v.13). Then Paul says something very remarkable (v.15). ‘For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father!’... The apostle is telling us that the Spirit of God has led us through the experience of conviction of sin when we feared, when we were brought to see ourselves ‘naked’ be­fore God, helpless and hopeless. But He didn’t abandon us there. The Spirit led us to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who gave us the Spirit of adoption.

The Spirit of adoption (or sonship) is one of the richest titles in the New Testament.

J. Packer in an excellent chapter ‘Sons of God’ in his book Knowing God states: ‘The revelation to the believer that God is his Father is in a sense the climax of the Bible.’ J. Murray agrees. Adoption, he says, ‘is surely the apex of grace and privilege ... it staggers imagi­nation because of its amazing con­descension and love.’ (Redemption Accomplished and Applied Page 134.) Adoption is then the summit of God’s gospel blessings for the be­liever, and the highest privilege that the gospel has to offer.

We, however, have not been condi­tioned to think like this. Surely, we think, justification is higher if not the highest blessing? Yes: justifica­tion is a wonderful blessing. It is fun­damental; primary; foundational; vital. It meets our primary need as sinners. It is the declaration of God the judge declaring that we leave His court NOT guilty of any of the charges laid against us — all because of the right­eousness of Christ credited to us. But justification is a legal term. It does not imply any personal or intimate relationship with God the judge. By contrast, adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and views God as Father. In adoption, God takes us into His family and fellowship and establishes us as His children and heirs. It’s richer than justifica­tion. It’s as though the judge leaves the bench to embrace the guilty sin­ner and presents him with adoption papers and says to him, ‘I now want you to come home with me to be part of my family. My home is your home!’ Such a thing is unheard of and unthinkable. Yet this is what God the Father does with the justi­fied!

Jim Packer says, ‘To be right with God is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.’ He states that the richest definition of a Christian is: ‘one who has God for his Father’. He further suggests; ‘If you want to judge how well a person understands Christi­anity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not un­derstand Christianity very well at all ... Our understanding of Christian­ity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.’ Let that statement in­struct our approach to this passage:

1. Adoption Determines How we Relate to God (v. 15)⤒🔗

Is everyone a child of God? No! It’s true that we are all His creatures; it is in Him that we live and move and have our being. But not all are the redeemed children of God. By na­ture we are children of disobedi­ence and children of wrath. It is only because of God’s sovereign saving electing love that we are His children (see Eph. 1: 5 and John 1: 12).

When the aged apostle John thought of his adoption he was still filled with sheer wonder, amazement and joy. He exclaimed, ‘Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God’ (1 John 3:1). It’s not that there was any beauty in us that He should have desired us! It’s not that the Lord was lonely and ‘wanted a family.’ No! There was never any deficit in God.

The old Dutch theologian Wilhelmus a Brakel put it this way:

From being a child of the devil to becoming a child of God, from be­ing a child of wrath to becoming the object of God’s favour, from a child of condemnation to becoming an heir of all the promises and a possessor of all blessings, and to be exalted from the greatest misery to the highest felicity — this is something which exceeds all com­prehension and all adoration.

Many things might be said about the privileges of being a child of God. The one thing that Paul here em­phasises in verse 15 is our remark­able, intimate relationship with God; so that we can now cry, ‘Abba Father.’ ‘Abba’ is child-like language; a personal form of address; a family word for Father/Daddy. It is Aramaic and even sounds like ‘Da, Da’ in Eng­lish.

But the key to interpreting this phrase (the noun) in verse 15 is in under­standing the verb ‘cry.’ (Greek = krazein which means: a loud cry; a scream; a loud call.) E.g. Jesus cried out twice with a loud cry on the cross: ‘My God, my God why have you forsaken me?’ and ‘He cried out again with a loud voice and gave up His Spirit’ (Matt. 27:45-49). Bar­timaeus cried out, ‘Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.’ The crowd cried out, ‘Crucify him, cru­cify him’).

In other words, the verb here indi­cates that the atmosphere envisaged is not the tranquility of the nursery, but the crisis of the schoolyard. It’s not that of a little baby cooing and babbling while learning to say, ‘Da-Da.’ Rather, it’s when our adoption (our sonship) seems threatened and we lose that assurance and we feel overwhelmed that we can cry, ‘Abba, Father.’

‘What Paul is saying here is that even at the darkest hour ... although we are broken and bruised, tossed about with fears and doubts, the child of God nevertheless in his need cries out ‘Father!’ as instinc­tively as a child who has fallen and been hurt calls out in similar lan­guage, ‘Daddy, help me.’ (See Fer­guson: The Holy Spirit: Page 184). Let me illustrate. I read about a Chris­tian girl who had received word that her fiancé had been killed suddenly in an accident. She was obviously shocked and distraught and in great distress. She rushed to her bedroom and closed the door. Her mother heard her sobbing, and after a bit said to her father, ‘I think you had better go up and see her. She needs a father right now.’ So the father went up­stairs and opened the door a fraction. He saw his daughter kneeling beside the bed with her head buried in her hands crying out, ‘Oh, Father, Oh, Father, Father.’ The man quietly shut the door, came back downstairs and said to his wife, ‘She is in better hands than mine, for she is with her Heavenly Father.’ That young girl knew God as her Father! ... Even when we don’t know what to pray for; just to cry, ‘Father’ and mean it is real prayer. (See also verse 26).

When our world is turned upside down; when we feel threatened and isolated; when others blaspheme the name of God and shake their fist in the face of God; the child of God can but cry, ‘Abba Father.’

As God’s adopted children we have this special privilege that we can come with confidence to Him in prayer. ‘What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and grief’s to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.’

2. Adoption Determines How we Understand Ourselves (v.16)←⤒🔗

‘The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.’ For many people it’s important to know the family tree. There seems to be a felt need to know where we ‘fit in’. There are a couple of popular T.V. programmes which focus on this very theme — ‘Who do you think you are’ (SBS); and, ‘Can We Help’ (ABC). Both seek to trace, con­nect and reunite lost members of the family.

This is what the Holy Spirit does in the life of the believer: ‘He testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.’ God the Father wants us to know that He is our Father and that He loves us. He has proven His love in giving us His Son. He confirms that love by the witness of the Holy Spirit with our spirit.

Exactly how He does this is very hard to explain. It’s been well said, ‘There are some things better felt than tell’t!’ This is one of them! This verse has caused endless debate among theologians. I can scarcely add anything by way of enlightenment!

Nonetheless, it is clear that God wants us to be sure of our position as children of God. This is not merely a truth to believe, but a rela­tionship to experience. How then can we be sure of being a child of God? Is there some kind of buzz? Is there a tingling sensation? Is it the ‘Toyota’ feeling? No! Feelings are fleeting — and subject to circum­stance. There are days when I feel like a Christian and there are days when I don’t. Or perhaps Paul is referring here to such things as visions, voices from God or special revelations from the Spirit? No!! We have no need of that. He has given us His complete word in the scriptures. How then does the Spirit bear witness to (or with) our spirit? Let me suggest some evi­dences.

The Holy Spirit has opened the eyes of our understanding that now we ‘behold wondrous things out of God’s law.’ (See WCF 1:5). The Holy Spirit has opened our eyes to Scripture enabling us to recognise it as truly God’s Word. We were like a blind man, being told about the beauty of a flower. Then he received his sight and could see the flower with his own eyes. The Spirit who inspired the Scriptures enables us to receive: to recognise and resonate with the Scriptures so that we are able to say ‘Amen’ to the promises of God.

The Holy Spirit enables us to keep on believing on and trusting in Christ so that I can testify with the Heidelberg Catechism ‘that I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death – to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven: in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to Him, Christ by His Holy Spirit assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheart­edly willing and ready from now on to live for him.’

The Holy Spirit gives us the language of prayer. Do we realise that prayer is one of the highest privileges we have as children of God? Is it not incredible that God who is in heaven should hear the voice of a man? (Verses 15 and 26).

The Holy Spirit leads us in the ways of holiness and obedience (13-14). ‘We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin’ (1 Jn. 5:18). If we are children of God, then we must live like His children (Matt. 5:45 and 48).

The Holy Spirit will be producing fruit in our lives: ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;’ ‘so that we might be con­formed to the image of his Son’ (Gal. 5:22-23 and Rom. 8:29).

The Holy Spirit will enable me to love my new family who are broth­ers and sisters and mothers and fathers in Christ. It’s a hard thing to do sometimes! It’s often said, ‘You can choose your friends — but you can’t choose your family.’ This is true even in our church family. The Lord gets to choose the members. Just be thankful that you can be a part. ‘We know we have passed from death to life because we love the brothers’ (1 Jn. 3:14).

3. Adoption Determines How we Understand our Future (v.17)←⤒🔗

‘And if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in or­der that we may be glorified with him.’ We are heirs of God. He is our inheri­tance! In the 1^st century Roman world, the reason for adopting a son was specifically to have an heir to bequeath one’s goods and estate. Is that the reason the Father has adopted us? He wants us to share His heavenly riches. He wants to share Himself. Murray says, ‘It is diffi­cult to suppress the richer and deeper thought that God himself is the inheri­tance of his children.’ The psalmist says; ‘Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my por­tion for ever’ (Ps. 73: 25-26).

We are fellow-heirs with Christ. Though Christ is the first born and thus the natural heir of all things — yet He will share with us all that He receives. Psalm 2 tells us that the nations are His inheritance. Jesus says, ‘the meek shall inherit the earth.’ I frankly don’t know nor can I imagine all that is in store for us, but I do know that Jesus prayed, ‘that we might be with Him where He is and see His glory’ (Jn. 17:24). We may have to suffer a little now; but for the child of God the best is yet to come. Though we are the adopted children of God, He treats us and receives us as His natural sons! That’s love!

It was Richard Baxter who said: ‘My knowledge of that life is small; the eye of faith is dim: but it’s enough that Christ knows all; and I shall be with Him.’