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“If you’re able, please stand.” Reading 8:1–17. “Thanks be to God.”
First became a Christian, praying to God as “Father” was very unnatural. Praying out loud was unnatural. No model in my home or with the people I grew up with. But calling God “Father” somehow felt strange.
But at some point, I forced myself to pray to God that way. I called him “Father” not because I felt it, but because that’s who he was.
What about you?
This morning we’re looking at some verses in the middle of Romans 8. The epistle to the Romans is the most important and most consequential letter ever written. Augustine, Martin Luther, John Wesley, and so many others were saved through its message.
It is a clear and lengthy reflection on the gospel itself, the good news about Jesus Christ.
Paul wrote it during his third missionary journey, writing it from Macedonia (the time described in Acts 20:2–3). He anticipated going to Rome as a missionary, and this letter is his letter of introduction.
In chapters 6–8 he’s talking about “walking in new life,” a new obedience.
We live in a new realm: “in the Spirit” and no longer “in the flesh.” Then he begins to unpack what it looks like to live rightly “in the realm of the Spirit.”
But then he begins to talk about something completely new. He announces that we are “sons of God.” And in four verses, he gives us truth that is to be massively encouraging.
This truth revolves around the idea of us being “children of God.”
This morning we want to let your relationship with God be defined by being a child of God: (1) Sons of God; (2) Recipients of the Spirit of Adoption; (3) Heirs of God.
Prayer – Youth camp, McLeod family (Cason Rogers)
Read Rom. 8:14.
Paul here is continuing the theme from the end of Rom. 8:13—“if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” In that verse, the emphasis is on our efforts of putting to death sinful deeds—but the power source for that work is “the Spirit.” We are to do it! But we do it…“by the Spirit.”
But note the promise: “you will live.” The promise of Rom. 8:13 is that if we put to death these sinful deeds of the body “by the Spirit” then we “will live.” The blessed life now and eternal life later is the result.
Why can we have such confidence in this future blessing? It’s because those who live by the Spirit in this way are “sons of God”: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom 8:14).
In Rom. 8:13 the emphasis is on our work “by the Spirit.” Now in 8:14, we are passive. We are being “led by the Spirit of God.” The Spirit is compelling us, bringing us along, directing us, empowering us.
That work of the Spirit in us is a mark that we are “sons of God.”
The idea of being “sons of God” has its roots in the Old Testament:
“Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son.’” (Exod 4:22)
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. (Hos 11:1)
A few times in the Old Testament, God is referred to as “Father”:
For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. (Isa 63:16)
But it is not often. Only a few times (Isa 65:8–9; Jer 3:19; Mal 2:10). At times he described as treating us “like a Father,” but to address him as “Father” is extremely rare.
But then in the New Testament this completely changes. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus repeatedly speaks of God as “your Father in heaven” (Matt 5:16, 45, 48; 6:1, 4,6). When we’re taught to pray, Jesus to address God as, “Our Father in heaven” (Matt 6:9).
When Jesus tells us about the birds of the air and the lilies in the field and says that God will feed us and clothe us, he says, “your heavenly Father” knows your needs and will provide for you (Matt 6:26, 32).
All throughout John’s gospel, he speaks of God as his Father and refers to himself as the unique Son. The Father and the Son are one (John 10:30). The Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father (John 5:20; 14:31). They are eternally devoted to one another. They are eternally seeking the glory of the other (John 17:1).
That’s why it’s so amazing at the end of John’s gospel when he says to Mary of Magdalene, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17). God the Father is not just Jesus’ Father. If God is our God, then Jesus’ Father is our Father.
Jesus is the unique Son of God, but through the gospel and being united with him, we, too, are made “sons of God.” We encounter God as our heavenly Father. Not an angry Judge ready to pounce on us. But as our heavenly Father.
That’s the glory of having our sins washed clean. The wrath of God fully satisfied. The barrier that our sin had created between us and God has been forever destroyed. God deals with us as “sons of God.”
J.I. Packer speaks to the glory of being called “sons of God” in his classic book, Knowing God:
You sum up the whole of New Testament teaching in a single phrase, if you speak of it as a revelation of the Fatherhood of the holy Creator. In the same way, you sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. 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. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God.
J.I. Packer, Knowing God[1]
Now in Rom. 8:15, Paul develops further the idea that we are “sons of God.” Why is it that those “led by the Spirit of God are sons of God”? It’s because of what the Spirit is for us. Read Rom. 8:15.
This is one of the great verses in all of Romans. It speaks to the greatness of calling God “Father.” Paul captures it with a contrast. The Holy Spirit we have “received” is NOT“the spirit of slavery.” He IS“the Spirit of adoption of sons.”
First, the Holy Spirit in us is NOT “the spirit of slavery (douleias).” Now, when Paul identified himself in the opening of Romans, he called himself a “slave (doulos) of Jesus Christ” (Rom 1:1). And in Romans 6 we are called to give ourselves as “slaves (doula) of righteousness” (Rom 6:18).
These are positive ideas. It’s good to be a “slave of Christ” and a “slave of righteousness.” We give ourselves freely and fully to God as our Master and King. We submit ourselves freely and fully to his commandments as “holy and righteous and good” (Rom 7:12).
But in Rom. 8:15 Paul is after another kind of slavery. There’s a kind of slavery that is based in fear and raw power. There’s no love or affection between the master and slave. The master simply treats the slave as a slave, and the slave serves the master not out of love but out of obligation.
Fear in this slavery is the motivator, because there’s the constant fear of judgment. In a fear-based slavery, there’s an awareness that any small failure, the smallest mistake, will bring judgment. And that judgment can be fierce.
This “fear” is at the heart of what Paul is talking about. We have NOT received “the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.”
We’ve received a very different kind of spirit as Christians: “you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cray, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Rom 8:15).
Paul summarizes the Holy Spirit we’ve received as “the Spirit of adoption as sons.”
Paul is borrowing an idea from his surrounding Roman culture when he speaks of our being “adopted” by God. In the Roman Empire of Paul’s day, adoption was a fairly common practice.[2] It was used by wealthy men who lacked an heir to make sure they had an heir for their name and fortune. It was used by young men who lacked financial prospects and wanted to secure for themselves a good future. Even the Roman Emperors Claudius (AD 41–54) and Nero (AD 54–68), utilized adoption to preserve the line of succession. These were the emperors while Paul ministered in the Roman empire and wrote the book of Romans (see Acts 11:28; 18:2). Emperor Nero is the one who will put the apostles Peter and Paul to death.
When someone experience adoption in Paul’s day it was life-changing:
The resulting effect of adoption was to place the adopted person for all legal purposes in the same position as if he had been a natural child in the potestas [paternal authority] of the adopter. The adopted son took his adoptive father’s name and rank. He acquired rights of succession on death in his new family and lost all such rights as he had in his old family.
Berger, Nicholas, and Treggiari, “Adoption”[3]
Do you see what Paul is saying here? In this family, there are no natural-born children. Even the Son of God is not physically born of the Father. He is “begotten, not made,” as the creeds say. To be in God’s family, children have to be adopted children.
God saw the sea of rebellious and evil humanity, and he specifically and personally chose you to be his child in his family. He made you his child, and then he gave you all the rights and privileges—and affection!—that all his children receive.
The ESV has translated this as “adoption as sons” to capture something in that word “adoption.” It means to “make someone a son.” In the Roman culture of Paul’s day, that “son” idea was important, because the firstborn son would receive the key part of the family fortune and the line of succession.
So, what we learn here is that being a Christian means a total and permanent change to our status and identity. Before we were Christians, we were enemies of God. He was our Judge and Creator, absolutely not our Father. We were separated from him at every level. Our destiny was to be separated from him forever—to experience the permanent separation of hell itself, the unending physical and spiritual suffering that is the inheritance of all enemies of God who don’t repent and turn to him.
That’s who we were! But then God saved us. And in saving us, he adopted us. We were given all those rights and privileges that are appropriate for true children.
Sinclair Ferguson:
Adoption is not a change in nature, but a change in status. If we fail to see this truth, we will miss the significance of our adoption. Similarly, if we think of adoption as based on anything we have done, or on what we are, then we will jeopardize our assurance of God’s Fatherly relation to us. Adoption is, instead, a declaration God makes about us. It is irreversible, dependent entirely upon his gracious choice, in which he says: “You are my son, today I have brought you into my family.”
Sinclair Ferguson, Children of the Living God[4]
That idea of a changed status is really important. When God made us his children, he made us something new that will never be taken away. When it becomes true, it is always true.
But it’s more than simply a new status: there’s a new affection! There’s a freeness of affection between God and us that’s like a father with his children but infinitely greater. You can hear God’s love for us in how Paul describes the relationship in Romans 8:15: “You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’”
The Aramaic “Abba!” is the same word Jesus used in the Garden of Gethsemane when he was crying out to the Father the night before his crucifixion:
Mark 14:36:
And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)
In that moment of intimacy and desperation, he called God “Abba, Father!” Jesus was “crying out” to God and said “Abba, Father.” Paul uses the exact same phrase (abba ho patēr) to say we have that kind of relationship with God. We, too, can cry out, “Abba! Father!”
“Abba” is a word that’s hard to capture in English. It has a true closeness to it, but it’s more respectful than something like “Daddy.” Some authors have translated it as “Dear Father.”
Paul is telling us that with freeness and full honesty, we can “cry out” to God as our “Abba! Father!”
Life brings times when we want to “cry out!” God is telling us that as Christians, we can cry out to him. As our “Abba! Father!”
In these last two verses, Paul develops even more what it means to call God our heavenly Father. These verses help us know what it means to define our relationship with God by being a child of God. Read Rom. 8:16–17.
In the background here seems to be the practice of adoption in the Roman culture of Paul’s day.
First, we see in Rom. 8:16 that there are witnesses. In a formal adoption, witnesses were used to verify it. The person being adopted was a key witness, but others were present also. These witnesses would verify the adoption if it was ever challenged. And because inheritance was often an issue, this was really important.
Paul tells us here that the very Holy Spirit of God is our Chief Witness! He “bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:16).
ASSURANCE: that’s how this should impact us. Rest in this truth. This why Christians write songs with phrases like “Blessed Assurance.” Happy assurance! Happy confidence! Part of the work of the Holy Spirit is bringing us that felt confidence that we are God’s child.
And then we see in Rom. 8:17 that just as an adopted child would receive the full inheritance given to a natural-born child, so our becoming “children of God” means that we are also “heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.”
So, when do we get the cash? When is the check coming?When does the deed of the house get transferred over to us?What exactly do we receive?
Well, just like Adam and Eve were given the creation to enjoy, so we’re given the creation itself.
Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matt 5:5)
But there’s something even greater that we receive as “heirs of God.” We receive God himself!
God isn’t just the one who GIVES the inheritance, he IS the inheritance.[5] The greatest possession, the most infinite treasure, the most desirable thing we can ever receive as Christians…is God himself!
But—then we see something unexpected in this gospel, this good news, being preached to us.
Being a child of God brings with it privileges and joys and affections that are unspeakable. But when you take on the family name, you get the whole package.
Being “fellow heirs with Christ” will also mean that we “suffer with him.”
Think of the Henry Ford family – descendants of Henry Ford (1863–1947). He started one of the great American businesses of all time. Building Ford automobiles. Today the company is a public company, but the Ford family have the largest share of the voting and still have a fortune tied up in Ford.
But not everyone loves Fords. Or the company. Or the fact that these owners are really, really wealthy.
As Christians, being “children of God” brings with it the reality that we will suffer for being a Christian. We will “suffer with him,” suffer with Christ.
But “suffering with him” is not the end of the story. After we’ve “suffered with him,” we’ll “be glorified with him.” The suffering will end. Then the real glory begins!
The glory coming:
Brothers and sisters, let your relationship with God be defined by being God’s child.
Know that God is the model for all earthly fathers. If you had a good father, God the Father is infinitely better!
If you had a terrible or absent father, know beyond knowing that God is nothing like that.
As our heavenly Father, God always treats us in the way that is best—not always the way we want. But it’s the way that is best.
Application:
You might be listening and thinking, but God isn’t my Father. Jesus invites you:
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12–13)
Repent and believe in his name and God will be your Father! Trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and King and Savior. And then you will have God as your heavenly Father.
A final quote from J.I. Packer:
New Testament believers deal with God as their Father. ‘Father’ is the name by which they call Him. ‘Father’ has now become His covenant name—for the covenant which binds Him to His people now stands revealed as a family covenant. Christians are His children, His own sons and heirs. And the stress of the New Testament is not on the difficulty and danger of drawing near to the holy God, but on the boldness and confidence with which believers may approach Him; a boldness that springs directly from faith in Christ, and from the knowledge of His saving work (Eph 3:12; Heb 10:19-25). To those who are Christ’s, the holy God is a loving Father; they belong to His family; they may approach Him without fear, and always be sure of His fatherly concern and care. This is the heart of the New Testament message.
J.I. Packer, Knowing God[6]
Prayer and closing song (“Child of God”)
[1] Packer, Knowing God (IVP), 182.
[2] On the idea of spiritual adoption, see Trevor Burke’s Adopted into God’s Family: Exploring a Pauline Metaphor, NSBT (InterVarsity, 2006).
[3] A. Berger, B. Nicholas, and S.M. Treggiari, “Adoption,” in The Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford, 2003), 9, cited in Burke, 69.
[4] Ferguson, Children of the Living God (NavPress, 1987) 59.
[5] For this reading, see John Murray’s commentary on Romans 8:17.
[6] Packer, Knowing God, 183–184.
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