The Heavenly Father and His Children
Romans 8:12-17
Turn to Romans 8. One of the things that is such a blessing in life is family, as all of us here have grown up or are growing up within a family. Many of us have fond memories of family, and the security and love that can exist within a family. All the while understanding that some may not have had a similar caring or safe experience. But this we know is the ideal, and this is usually something as we grow up, and if we get married, we likely desire to have a family ourselves. It does always amaze me that within the same family there are so many differences. Sometimes, I will look at my sons and be amazed at something they have done that I could never accomplish; and then other times, I will see something my boys will do and think, you are so much an Ottaway. A few weeks ago, Kelton was here. Kelton is the brother of Janelle and Nigel, and he and his wife Amber attend my son Aaron’s church in South Cambridge. And while he was here during the sermon, I was saying something about roses, not surprising; and right after the service, Kelton came up to me and said, if you substituted birds for roses in your story, “Everything you said and how you said it sounded exactly like Aaron.”
And then, of course, you watch your grandchildren, who can be so uniquely gifted in many ways, and yet in other ways, they can display such familiar family characteristics. A few months ago, watching my 16-year-old granddaughter smile, I thought, does she ever smile like Andy. This past week we had the Middles with us for a few days. And the Middles are a confident crew and can think of themselves as better than the Originals. The Originals sometimes call themselves, for short, the Ogs. And one of the Middles said, “Yeah, the Ogs, the Old Geissers!” Family, the laughter, the joys, the security, the love, the trust, the faith, as so much of our energies and dreams are tied in with family, and rightly so, for family is so important.
And in our passage this morning, Paul will show how God places such importance upon family, and how our earthly families in some ways are imperfect representations of the spiritual family of God. You know, sometimes we wonder about heaven and eternity and what that will all be like. And the Bible has told us much about heaven, but obviously, much is such a mystery because it is something that we have never experienced before. We may wonder about the beauty of eternity compared with today, but then understand that the God who created the existing heavens and earth is the same God who will create the new heavens and the new earth, untainted by sin and therefore far greater than what we could ever imagine. The Bible tells us that the present creation groans and yet someday it will be set free from its slavery. So, however that looks, we know that the new earth will exhibit a freedom and beauty that this earth does not, as beautiful as this earth is.
But also, when we think about heaven, we must think about family: that God is preparing a place for us with many rooms for His children. And I know some have thought, man, when I get to heaven, I am going to want that mansion on a hilltop by the lake somewhere and with a lot of privacy and space, while the Father is talking about having many rooms within the Father’s house, that sort of sounds like a lifetime family reunion, doesn’t it? But it would likely be best to trust the Lord on this, that God knows what is best. For God has created joy and gladness; He has created the marriage relationship, and the blessing of children and love. So, He knows what we will love in eternity. Therefore, we can be certain that whatever God has in store for those who love Him will be the very best and that we can trust the words of Paul to the Corinthians:
“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”
- Corinthians 2:9 (LSB)
And we see much family language in our passage this morning. So, listen for it as we read.
12 So then, brothers, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—
13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the practices of the body, you will live.
14 For as many as are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, also heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.
Romans 8:12-17a (LSB)
Notice especially verse 16, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.” Here we read about the work of the Spirit in the declaration that we are children of God. In other words, this work of the Spirit is displaying before everyone that the Christian is a son or a daughter of God, which assumes a unity and alludes to a family. And I suppose that it is no surprise that one of the primary works of Satan is to try and disunite the family of God, and therefore, discourage the believer from being everything he could be within a healthy family. Just imagine the effect of the gospel if all believers were completely driven in their walk with Christ, and were harmonious in their relationship with God and with their brothers and sisters in Christ. And throughout this passage of family, notice the connections with the Spirit: (vs 10) the Spirit is alive; (vs 11) the Spirit gives life to your mortal bodies; (vs 13) if you live by the Spirit, you put to death the practices of the body; (vs 14) those led by the Spirit of God are sons of God; (vs 15) you do not have a spirit of slavery leading to fear again [assumption that at one time you did]; (vs 16) the Spirit testifies with our Spirit that we are children of God; and (vs 17) heirs of God and of Christ.
Now understand that as we live in our present world, whether that is today or the good old days, some of you might think of the good old days as the nineties; our boys would. I might be more inclined to think of the sixties. But whenever it is, and including when anyone lived before us, and our children and grandchildren being born today, this work of the Spirit is in many ways in opposition to what we see and hear today. And so, the point is that for us to exhibit the Spirit as our testimony today, we will need the power of the Holy Spirit. For without the Spirit, we will lack the wisdom and the unity to be an effective witness for Christ. And the discernment to deal with the things around us requires us to lean on the Spirit, as the Spirit enables us to see things from a true spiritual perspective. So, what I wish to do this morning is to consider the association with 4 things that Paul mentions here, all in relationship to the Spirit of God. And you need to know that I work very hard to make these sermons my own. But I came across these 4 titles by Charles Spurgeon that I cannot improve upon, as I felt they were so good that I will give them to you as he gave them. The first is:
THE SPIRIT OF SLAVERY (vs 15a)
Verse 15, “for you have not received the spirit of slavery of fear again.” The Bible describes our slant towards sin as slavery or bondage. And really, in many ways, we are slaves of our culture, as we can get so tied into the direction of culture, the pleasures of our culture, the styles, and the fashions. So, there is much that the world offers that we can get caught up in. Much of it is sin, and much of it pulls us away from ministry and service to Christ and others, as it limits our effectiveness for Christ. But Spurgeon notes that there is a sense of slavery, which he believes is of the Spirit of God. And this was his thinking: that before the Spirit of God sets us free, there was a purpose by God for a spirit of slavery. He said that sometimes the Spirit of God wounds us or burdens us before he heals us. Sometimes the Spirit can cause us great heartache before He restores us.
And this he credits much to the work of the law within the gospel. The work of the law, whether that is God’s formal law that He gave in the Ten Commandments, or even the law written in our hearts so that our conscience is bothered. For often it is guilt that drives us to Christ for salvation. And without that guilt, that dissatisfaction in ourselves because of our sin, we would never cry out to God. And this is explained as a work of God because the natural human heart would not normally respond this way, as our human nature does not drive this. And certainly, Satan would not cause us to feel guilt so that we would cry out to God. So, this is where he concluded that this spirit of slavery in this sense must be the work of the Spirit drawing us to Himself. And our culture would not cause us to feel guilty for sin, while our human reasoning would only cause us to rationalize our sin. Yet when Jesus was telling His disciples that the HS would come, He said this to them:
“And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”
John 16:8 (LSB)
See, it would require a miracle from God to cause us to come to Him, for this would not be natural for a dead sinner to admit guilt, to repent, and to believe, as this is beyond human ability. Man would not naturally own this. Even when a person might confess to wrongdoing before a spouse, a parent, or a boss, he would never see himself as rebellious against God and be in need of punishment. As it is not natural for us to think that we need a Saviour, yet God uses the law to place this upon us. Later in that John passage, when Jesus was speaking with His disciples, He said, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth.” See, this is truth that we would not naturally know. One of the things that is so exciting about Bible-reading and Bible-study is the fact that God has left us truth that we otherwise would have never known.
And when God through His Spirit convicts men and women of their sin, He is revealing to them the truth about themselves. And there is no beating around the bush here, as the message from the Spirit is that you are a sinner in need of a Saviour. And some were drawn to Him by His holy law. Some were drawn to Him by the guilt they felt in their conscience, as the Spirit caused us to see things the way they really are. The world will not do that, for the world will try to convince us that cheating on a spouse is expected if that spouse does not provide all they should physically, that killing a child in the womb is not murder if that child will be unwanted anyway, or that marrying someone of the same sex is okay. But the Spirit says, “No, it is not okay!” Because the Spirit reveals truth.
This is why for the believer after salvation it is so vital that we live in tune with the Spirit because everything around us will want to move us in a different direction, and when we follow untruth, the world will applaud, but for all the wrong reasons. Yet the Spirit of God is always the Spirit of truth, and therefore He will convince us of the truth. “When the Spirit of truth is come, he shall convince the world of sin.” Because it is sinful, that’s the truth! So, that when man sees his sin, he is seeing what is true about himself. But most will not see themselves this way, for they will rationalize away the truth of their sinfulness. For their hearts will tell them that they are special and that they are not as bad as others, that they simply need to believe in themselves, and that they can do and become anything they put their minds to. And when they see the list in (Rom 3) that no one is righteous, that no one understands, they do not see themselves as part of that list, but will only see it in really bad people. But others, to whom the Spirit of God draws to Himself, receive the truth, and the truth sets them free. As without the Spirit of God everything is upside down, darkness for light and light for darkness. Isaiah 5:20, “those who call evil good and good evil.” But when the Spirit of truth is revealed, sin appears as sin. And when we see ourselves in bondage to sin, we have actually recognized the real truth.
And when that truth is acknowledged, then the truth that we deserve punishment follows, as truth reveals to us the holiness of God. And we realize that we have no place before a holy God, and we begin to agree with Ezekiel 18:20, which says, “The soul who sins will die.” And we fear death and we rightfully lose trust in our humanness and in the perceived goodness of humanity. And as Spurgeon wrote, we become so convinced of sin that it was a matter of astonishment to us that God’s judgment does not immediately come upon us.
Yet our world would scream back at this and say, no, no, you are good. Don’t have such negative thoughts about yourself! And yet the Spirit would say, no, this is the truth. Truth says things like, I am accountable before God. Truth says, I have sinned against God. Truth says, I cannot trust myself. So, there is really a thankfulness, or ought to be a thankfulness, for the spirit of slavery that God used through both His perfect Law and even our own conscience made us feel guilt and bondage to sin, and that we deserve the judgment from God.
Also, through the Spirit, we become aware that law keeping will not save, as even if we desire to do good, we cannot do good. As the truth of Romans 3:20 is revealed to us, “because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight.” And so, even the spirit of slavery is used by God to reveal to men and women that they are sinners, that they deserve punishment from God, and that even their goodness falls short of God’s righteous requirement of His Law. And all men and women are under this spirit of slavery. Some, I suppose, for a shorter time and some for a long time. Some come to Christ at an early age and realize their sinfulness and their need for God while they are young, and this is a tremendous blessing. And though at times they will struggle with sin, God rescues them from many sins that they would commit if they had not come to Christ until they were older.
Some, as I have told you in the past, are like John Baird, who attended church, but was an unbeliever his whole life and received Christ when he was in his late seventies. Or like Terry Symington, who broke down and received Christ while in our small group at Peoples in his sixties. Both of these men were in Christian circles, but refused the truth for years. And then my friend Ken Clarke, who was in a spirit of bondage in his teens. He heard the clear gospel for the first time at age eighteen and received Christ and never looked back. So, some, like Ken, hear the gospel for the first time and are rescued from the spirit of slavery, while others may refuse the truth for years, and yet come to Christ on their deathbed. A man like Reuben Kendall, who came to Christ days before he died and just beamed with the joy of the Lord. And then others never come.
And our text reminds us that the result of this spirit of slavery (vs 15) leads to fear. Maybe fear of the unknown, the future, people, illness, possibilities, hurt and harm. But even more than this is a good fear. And that is the “fear of the Lord,” which is “the beginning of wisdom.” This is a precious gift of grace (Ps 112:1), “How blessed is the man who fears the Lord.” And the blessing of our passage is that for the believer there comes a time when (vs 15) this spirit of slavery does not lead to fear again, that we realize ourselves in Christ as “not guilty.” That the truth now is that we are no longer slaves, and therefore, there is no more bondage for us as we have been set free in Christ. For we have been made children of God. And as Spurgeon said, “and God forbid that His children should tremble like slaves, for they are no longer under the law, but under grace.” Yet even some Christians may struggle with this, in that they continue to live within this same spirit of slavery, as they believe that at a time when they may sin, they are no longer a son or a daughter. Yet a son is a son forever, and that truth cannot change. For if I am a child of God, who shall separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION (vs 15b)
Verse 15, “you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons.” Now, if we were described as under the spirit of slavery, then next, we may believe we would be described as now under the spirit of freedom. And some passages would teach this freedom in Christ. John 8:36, “If the Son has made you free, ye shall be free indeed.” But Paul goes to the Spirit of adoption, which becomes really the highest form of freedom as we have been adopted by the Heavenly Father. And the adoption here is of the fullest sense, for the new adopted son or daughter can cry out (vs 15) “Abba Father.” Imagine if we had a good father in this life, one who cared for us, taught us, fed us, clothed us, provided a place for us. Yet here the Heavenly Father adopts us and now promises that “no good thing will be withheld from us,” and that “all things work together for our good.” And the Spirit of adoption is also a spirit of gratitude. In other words, why would the Father adopt me? Why should he do this?
“See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we would be called children of God; and we are.”
1 John 3:1a (LSB)
There is something so special about the doctrine of adoption where a Mom and Dad choose a child to be their own, and the result is a true son or a true daughter. In other words, there is absolutely nothing in that relationship that limits or does not match being a natural child. I was thinking about Christ as the only begotten Son, as Christ was the only natural Child of the Father in a deity sense. And yet all saints from the Old Testament, all the saints from the New Testament, and all the saints from the church age, all have been adopted by the Father. This should teach us much about adoption. The tight bond and great love of the parent toward the child. And the great bond and the great thankfulness of the child toward the parent.
THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER (vs 15c)
Notice here (vs 15) the child cries out “Abba Father.” And crying, of course, is the natural response from a child. And this should be the natural cry from the child of God. This is the full understanding that God is our Father. And it ought to be naturally shown by our gladness and joy. I dare say that there could not be a greater truth for a person than that he or she has been adopted by the Father. And for that adopted child to call the Father, “Abba Father,” is to acknowledge complete ownership; in other words, I am my Father’s child, as this tender word denotes admiration and the desire of the child to be with and like their parent. “Abba, Father” or we might say “Daddy” today. There is something special when we hear a young child say “Mommy” or “Daddy,” as it expresses so much dependency and love. And so, to cry “Abba Father” is a very natural cry and a very natural prayer, for the one who has total dependency upon God. C. S. Lewis wrote …
“True prayer pleads the fatherhood of God—‘My Father, my Father, I am no stranger; I am no foe, I am thy own dear and well-beloved child. Therefore, like as a father pitieth his children, have Thou pity upon me.’”
- S. Lewis
And only a true child could address God in prayer in such a way, as no one else could come to a mother or father and say, “Mommy or Daddy,” as only the child may draw this close. The Greek phrase translated here, by whom we cry out “Abba Father” is a difficult phrase to translate in English. It literally says, “your spirit is even now crying out Abba Father.” Do you know within your deepest spirit that you are a child of God? A Father who dearly loves you. A Father who gives you the desires of your heart. A Father who disciplines you, but for your own good. And a Father who is always faithful.
THE SPIRIT OF “WITNESS” (vs 16)
“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,”
Romans 8:16 (LSB)
As believers, we have been made certain that we are sons and daughters.
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.”
John 1:12 (LSB)
The question here from this verse—The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God—is this: How does the Spirit of God witness to our sonship?
The Spirit Declares Our Sonship in God’s Word
This is a good reminder for us that it was the Holy Spirit who breathed the Word into the heart of men.
“For no prophecy was ever made by the will of man, but men being moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
2 Peter 1:21 (LSB)
That the Holy Spirit directed men in what to write should bring great confidence to us. As Peter said, we have a more sure Word. As the Spirit of God therefore has witnessed to us through the Word, and the Word of God is the surest truth we have. So, may we never question God’s Word. And even times when we may find something hard to understand, may we come before the Bible, knowing that it contains all truth, and that we would do well to heed its truth as a light in a dark place.
The Spirit Bears Witness to Our Sonship by His Work in Us
I think one of the testimonies to our sonship is our love for God, as most who are true believers, even in their weakness, would give their lives for Christ. That is a very strong indication of the evidence of our faith and of our love for God. But also, we have a strong reverence for God. I have mentioned to you before the joy and anticipation of beholding God in His glory in eternity forever and ever. The music, the worship, and the praise from us His children, could and will go on for eternity, as it truly will never end. And there must be some witness from the Spirit to have placed that desire within our hearts, because no one else but the Christian would desire that. I also believe there is a boldness in us because we are His children, not a cockiness, but a sincere gratefulness and confidence that we are His. And it doesn’t mean that we are experts and know all things and all that will happen, or that we have the answers to every question, but as children, we can be confident in what we do know from God. I love what Spurgeon asked: what is the necessity of us having to see and know all things when our Father’s eyes are running to and fro across the earth to show Himself strong on behalf of all those who trust Him?
And there are things about our faith that are hard to understand. To fully explain God’s sovereign election of His children, and at the same time understand our responsibility to come to Him in faith. Or that the One God we serve is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And that the Son Himself is truly human and truly divine at the same time. And yet, as children, we even joyfully accept those truths that we do not understand, things that the Father knows and understands, but we do not. For God must always be true, and we know this. Even as earthly children, we would never expect to know what our earthly father knew, but we joyfully accept what he has told us. And too, the Spirit bears witness with our Spirit in the way He convicts us of sin, as He gives us a desire for all that which is good and right. Finally, there is a verse in Ecclesiastes 3:11 which says that God has “set eternity in the heart of man,” that God has created us with an eternal purpose and perspective. And the witness of the Spirit has made that a reality in us, and has given to us a certainty of heaven and of the things to come. So that a verse like (John 14:1), “I go to prepare a place for you,” is not merely sentimental words of comfort, but they are words of absolute truth, for they are words from our Father, who is in heaven.
The whole purpose of Jesus Christ coming to earth was to make it possible for us to have a relationship with the Heavenly Father. As Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through Him.” Let’s Pray. Behold, what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we would be called children of God. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You the potter; And we are the work of Your hand. What a blessing for children to have a perfect Heavenly Father. And so, we praise You as You care for us daily. And we anticipate being with You forever. And all God’s people said, amen.