The Holy Spirit: Romans 8:15-17

Rom 8:15

(Rom 8:15 ESV) For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Paul had used slavery as a metaphor back in chapter 6. He reminds his readers that we shouldn’t go back to the slavery we escaped — the law of sin and death — or the fear of damnation that he described in chapter 7. Rather, we should stick with the Spirit.

He refers to the “Spirit of adoption” and emphasizes our relationship with God as “Father” and “Abba.” It’s by the Spirit within us that we can cry, “Abba! Father.” What does that mean?

This passage parallels,

(Gal 4:6 ESV) And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

But in this passage, it’s the Spirit who cries, whereas in Romans, we cry.

The word translated “cry” referred originally to the cry or caw of a raven. It came to refer to anything like that. Hence, it’s “cry” as in “town crier.” It’s to call out. The word doesn’t mean “cry” as in sobbing — although one could certainly cry out while crying. In fact, “cry out” might be a better translation.

Abba is, of course, Aramaic for “father,” and so Paul uses both the Jewish and Greek forms, showing that God is father of all nations — and just as close to one as the other. Some dictionaries add that “Abba” is a more intimate term than “Father” is in English. In fact, a son of an earthly father would rarely call him “father” in modern America. He’s say “Dad” or “Daddy” or “Papa.” And “Abba” is the word a child would use of his father in Aramaic, making “Father” a bit too stiff of a translation.

It is, of course, the constant delight of young people to pray to God in congregational settings as “Daddy,” and there is nothing wrong with that so long it’s from the heart. Paul refers to our having a “Spirit of adoption,” and an adopted child would call his new father “Daddy.”

Some take offense at this, thinking this is too familiar for a personage as august and mighty as God — but this is sheer confusion. Someone as august and mighty as God gets to decide how he’ll be addressed!

But Paul tells us that we address God as Abba “by the Spirit.” What does this mean? Well, I think, at least two things. First, it means it’s the Spirit who changes our hearts so that we want to be God’s children. This is not entirely our doing. After all, a rebellious child isn’t looking for an Abba-sort-of relationship.

Second, it means that it’s only by the Spirit that we can feel about God as our father. It’s the Spirit that drives away the fear and allows us to crawl up into God’s lap and take comfort there. It’s not that God isn’t fearsome. He’s the same God whose wrath we escaped when we were saved. But our relationship with him has changed and so our feelings toward him must also change.

Rom 8:16-17

(Rom 8:16-17 ESV) 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,  17 and if children, then heirs–heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

V. 16 is very controversial. What on earth does it mean that the Spirit bears witness? The verb “bear witness” means to confirm by testimony, as opposed to being the primary evidence. We might better translate “corroborates.”

Well, if the Spirit is the corroborating witness, who is the primary witness? Evidently, “our spirit.” Now, “spirit” can carry many different shades of meaning in the Greek, and different authors use it differently. But in Romans, Paul only uses the word a few times to refer to a part of the Christian other than the indwelling Spirit.

(Rom 1:9-10 ESV) 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you  10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

(Rom 11:7-8 ESV)  7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened,  8 as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”

(Rom 12:11 ESV) 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

Rom 11:8 is a quotation from the Septuagint, and so not necessarily representative of Paul’s use of “spirit.” In 1:9 and 12:11, “spirit” means something like “will” or “passion.” It’s the part of us that drives us to behave a certain way.

Therefore, in 8:16, “with our spirit” does not mean that the Spirit testifies to our spirit (taking “spirit” to mean something like “mind,” I suppose), but that our spirit testifies to our adoption, and this is corroborated or supported by the Spirit’s own evidence. More precisely, the idea is that our spirits and the Spirit jointly testify to our adoption.

But how? Well, by what Paul has just said. We have the Spirit of sonship. We are led by the Spirit. Our hearts have been circumcised. And when our hearts are circumcised by God, when are paths are led by the Spirit, and when we have an Abba-relationship with God the Father, well, people can tell. Or they should be able to.

This is not a warming or fuzzy feeling that surely I’m saved. Not mainly. Paul isn’t worried about you know that you are saved. He’s wanting other people to see it! And they should be able to see the work of God’s Spirit on your spirit.

The thought Paul tosses in is heirship. By becoming God’s children, we gain an inheritance, which Paul had earlier described in —

(Rom 4:13-14 ESV) 13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.  14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

Our inheritance is the world. We are the meek! We inherit the earth!

Now, this is a surprising thing, because we normally think of Christians leaving the world for a better place. And besides, the earth is pretty messed up. Surely, God has something better in mind for us! But “world” means world.

We start by looking back to God’s promise to Abraham —

(Gen 15:18-21 ESV) 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,  19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,  20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,  21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

(Gen 17:4-8 ESV)  4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.  5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.  6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.  7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.  8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

God’s original covenant with Abraham was not for the entire world, but for Palestine and surrounding territories only. Bobby Valentine considers this question in detail in a recent post, and I’ll not repeat his excellent analysis here. I would add that although Abraham is promised only certain land, he is also promised that all nations will be blessed through him.

(Gen 12:3 ESV)  3 “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Paul evidently took this as requiring that the inheritance ultimately include where all the families on earth live — which makes sense. What also makes sense is a separate line of prophecies –

(Isa 66:18-23 ESV) 18 “For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory,  19 and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations.  20 And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD.  21 And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the LORD.  22

“For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain.  23 From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the LORD.”

In a prophecy frequently referred to in the New Testament, the end of time is pictures as the creation of new heavens and a new earth (a re-making of the Genesis 1 creation!).

(Rev 21:1-3 ESV) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

The Revelation in fact concludes with the making of the new heaven and new earth (“new” meaning renewed or refreshed) and God leaving heaven to dwell with man. And so it’s easy to see how Jesus, Paul, and John all conclude from the Old Testament that the “inheritance” is not just Palestine, but the entire world.

Finally, Paul says we must “suffer with” Jesus to be glorified with him. To be “glorified” is to be taken into the immediate presence of God. And suffering is to be like Jesus, the suffering servant of Isaiah —

(Isa 53:11-12 ESV) 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.  12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

We are called to be like Jesus — to also be suffering servants, willing to die to help God redeem the world.

Now, to borrow a lesson from Ray Vander Laan, we Americans feel blessed not to suffer as the early Christians did, and often thank God for that. What we don’t do is feel the pain of those who do suffer for the gospel today. If we mourned with those who mourn, we’d suffer. But we are far too comfortable to pay much attention to the Christians who are being persecuted all over the world today for their faith.