The point that I think Paul is making here is who is in control of your life. He has made the case very clearly, starting in chapter 7, that there are two natures at war in your body; that which is flesh, and sinful, and that which is Spirit. Paul uses the phrase or something like it again and again in this passage, a phrase like “of the Spirit,” “or by the Spirit,” or “led by the Spirit.”
Now the question arises what is meant by “in the Spirit?” A lot of people get off track on this whole subject of the Spirit. The primary mistake they make is thinking that the Spirit is an unseen force rather than the third person of the Godhead. So it’s not a matter of how much Spirit you have as if He is like electric current; ie, 110 volt or 220 volt, etc. No, He is a person of the Godhead and we receive Him at salvation. As Paul said in vs 9 “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” So the Spirit is not just an unseen force but He is the Spirit of Christ, so that Paul say’s in the next verse that “If Christ dwells in you…” So there is a oneness in the Godhead that enables us to have the Spirit of Christ in us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
The other mistake that is commonly made is that being in the Spirit is communicated by a feeling. They talk about getting goosebumps or succumbing to tears or feelings of ecstasy or exuberance or some sort of feeling which they attribute to the Spirit. So the Spirit is relegated to an emotion that moves you inwardly or makes you feel something. But the Bible never relates the presence of the Spirit as a feeling, but as in knowledge. We know the presence of the Spirit because of knowledge based on God’s truth, not by some experience.
The Bible teaches that the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. He is a person that dwells in us. And as God, He gives life to our spirit, so that we are spiritually alive in Christ, and our spirit is now reestablished in the hierarchy that was ordained by God in Creation, but which was overturned at the fall. That hierarchy is spirit, soul and body. And that reestablishment of our original design as humans was accomplished by the Spirit when we were born again. Jesus said in John 3:6 says "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Before our salvation we were living in bondage to the body, or flesh, but now our renewed spirit is governing our soul, or mind, and our mind is exerting control over our body or flesh. That is the divine order that we are to operate under as born again Christians. And our spirit is in communion with the Holy Spirit who indwells us and controls us.
Now the old nature, the flesh, still remains in us. And Paul says that the way we give control to the Spirit, or live by the Spirit, is to kill off the flesh. We don’t need to seek more of the Spirit, but we need to have less flesh. God said in Genesis 6:3, ““My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh.” We are not obligated to listen to the flesh any longer nor to obey the flesh any longer. Notice vs 12, “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
So though the flesh remains we are not obligated to it. But we are indebted to the Spirit. 1Cor. 6:19-20 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” We belong to a new Master. We have been married to a new Bridegroom. If we were to continue to live according to the flesh he says in vs13 the outcome would be death. But by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh and the outcome is life. So Paul says in 1 Cor. that he buffets his body and makes it his slave.
But what does Paul mean, by “the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body?” Does that mean we don’t do anything, we just lay back and watch the Spirit of Christ put to death the deeds of our body? No, Paul relates this as something we are responsible for. Notice that Paul says “you are putting to death the deeds of the body.” Our body is something that is under the control of our mind, whether consciously or unconsciously. So how do we by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body? Well, the answer must be, by the controlling influence of the Spirit, by the wisdom of the Spirit, we deliberately put to death anything that we would do that is contrary to God. We recognize by the illumination of the Spirit that certain things are sinful, that they are contrary to God’s will for us, and we decide in our will that we will not respond to those desires of the flesh. We choose to die to those things that the Spirit of God tells us are wrong. And we choose to live to those things which are of the Spirit.
In Joshua 24:15 the Israelites were told; “choose you this day whom you will serve.” And in Matthew 7:24 Jesus told a parable about a man who built his house upon the sand, and another man who built his house upon a rock. They made a choice which life they were going to live, based on hearing the words of Christ and acting or not acting upon them. There is a choice whom we will serve. We have a responsibility to choose whom to obey.
So then to the degree to which we yield to the Spirit and deny the flesh, then we do things of the Spirit, and by the Spirit. He controls us. Paul states it that way in 2Cor. 5:14-15 “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”
Now if you are being controlled by the Spirit, if you are choosing to serve Him and denying the flesh, then you are obviously being led by the Spirit. He is leading, we are following His leading. So Paul says in vs 14, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Paul is now going to enumerate further the benefits of our relationship with God. Paul has used the analogy of slaves to a new master, and he has compared us to the bride of Christ, and now Paul says we that are led by the Spirit are sons of God. Now sons of God means children of God, as we can see in vs 16. But the reason that he generically lumps us all together as “sons” is because in that culture, the sons were the ones to whom was left the inheritance.
We have already addressed this concept of being led by the Spirit. It means our sanctification (that is as we are formed into the image of Christ) is something that is orchestrated by the Spirit as He indwells us, as He corrects us, as He teaches us, as He controls us, as He illumines our hearts and minds, as He gifts us, and as He produces in us the fruits of the Spirit.
And since we are led by the Spirit, Paul says we are not under the spirit of slavery, which leads to fear, but we have received the spirit of adoption. Consider how tremendous our salvation is in light of this verse. We once were enslaved to sin and under the penalty of death. But the blood of Jesus Christ was the payment by which we were bought by a new Master. Under this new Master we were purchased to be slaves of righteousness. But God was not content with keeping us as slaves. Lo and behold, God loved us so much, even when we were slaves, that He wanted us to be HIs children, and so He adopted us. God chose us to be His children.
Imagine a low level slave in Rome in the first century. He is put on the auction block for sale. And an incredibly wealthy and wise man buys that slave and takes him to his home. But instead of sending him to the fields, he washes him, cleans him up, dresses him in the finest clothes, and announces to him that he is going to adopt him to be his son. And then before the startled slave can comprehend how great it is to be a son, the master tells him that he is also going to make him the heir of all that his estate. This formally worthless, penniless, hopeless slave is made an heir to an incredibly wealthy estate and is able to live with this man, not just as his master, but as his father. That’s a picture of what God has done for us.
The apostle John writes in 1John 3:1 “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and [such] we are.” I don’t know if the tremendous blessing of the fact that God is our Father has escaped you. I fear that it has for me to some degree. I have accepted the reality of my salvation to be sure. I know that I am saved. But I must confess that I have not fully comprehended all the wonders of the fact that I am a child of God, that He has chosen me to be His son and all the blessings that go with that.
Listen, in a great house in the time of the Romans, there would have been a tremendous difference between the way a son lived and acted, and the way a slave acted. A son has an assurance and confidence as he lives in the house that comes from knowing that all belongs to him. Whereas a slave lives with the awareness that nothing belongs to him, and his very life belongs to his master. And so there would have been a sense of dread upon the slave, but a sense of freedom and confidence in the son. And that is the relationship that we have with God as His adopted children.
And because we are adopted into God’s family as His children, we can call out to Him, “Abba, Father!” Abba is the Aramaic for father. Paul, as did Mark, adds Father after Abba for their Greek and Roman readers. But it’s not necessary to say both. Father is an intimate expression of our relationship and of His love for us.
Perhaps you have seen photographs of President John F. Kennedy that were taken in the Oval Office, and his young son is hiding under his desk. Here is the most important man in the world, and yet when his son calls out “Daddy” he stops everything he is doing, and scoops up the young boy and sets him on his lap. That’s a picture of the relationship we have with our Father, whose ears are tuned to hear our cry of “Abba.”
Jesus called the Father “Abba” in the Garden of Gethsemane. He used “Father” when He taught His disciples to pray the Lord’s Prayer. He constantly referred to God as His Father. And the amazing thing is that we have that same privilege that Christ had as the Son of God, as we are the children of God.
Now as to that assurance that we are indeed the children of God, it says in vs 16, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.” So there are two that bear witness to our relationship with God. The Holy Spirit gives evidence to us by the fact that we are filled with His presence, and by the fact that He leads us. If we had not the Spirit of Christ, Paul said earlier, then we would not belong to Him. But the fact that we have the Spirit in us is evidence that we are His children.
But also Paul says that our spirit bears witness that we are His children as well. How is that? John gives us an indication of how that occurs in 1John 3:10, “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”
So as our spirit is in communion with the Holy Spirit and under His leading, then it controls the mind and body so that the deeds of the flesh are put to death and the works of righteousness are accomplished in us, is that not evidence that our spirit is regenerated and that we are children of God? Paul says that it certainly is.
Now that sonship that Paul speaks of expands logically into heirship. Vs 17, “and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.]” The state of being a child implies the benefit of being an heir, which of course, means that there is an inheritance in store for us. This is an immediate benefit and blessings which comes from being a child of God, but there is also a future blessing which comes as Paul says at the end of this verse “that we may also be glorified with Him.”
In an inheritance, there is a will. It’s often called the last will and testament of so and so. And the one who is writing the will, is called a testator. So who is the testator of this will? It is no less than God, our Father. Christ of course is the main heir of the Father, but again the amazing thing is that He has declared us to be co heirs with Christ.
Let’s consider the inheritance that God has promised us. Like the imaginary master who adopted his slave, our Father’s estate is beyond our imagination. Haggai 2:8 says that all the gold and silver are His. Psalm 50:10 says that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and all the animals in the forests. Everything belongs to Him, and He is ruler over all. Solomon in all his glory can not begin to compare with the glory that belongs to God.
According to Revelation 3:12 we will inherit a new name. In Rev.4:4 John says we shall receive a crown of gold. In chapter 20 vs 4 John says with Him we shall reign. Probably the greatest aspect of our inheritance is found in 1 John 3:2, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” We will be like Him. What an amazing thought, that we will become like God.
In vs 18, which we will be looking at in more detail next week, Paul says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
In 1Cor. 2:9 Paul quotes from Isaiah saying, “but just as it is written, ‘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.’” The long and short of it is our inheritance cannot be even comprehended. And what is known, especially that the glory which was given to Jesus is the same glory that we are promised to share with Him, that we will rule with Him, we who were slaves will become kings with God, is unfathomable.
The caveat though is that there will be suffering experienced here if we are God’s children. If we will share in Christ’s glory, then we will also share in Christ’s suffering. And perhaps that is another witness of the fact that we are children of God. The devil certainly recognizes the Spirit of Christ in us and he will do all that he can within his power to make us suffer, hoping that we might deny Christ, even as Job’s wife urged him to deny Christ to end his suffering.
But if we are children of God, and if we believe the promises that our Father has given to us, then we cannot deny our Father. And the promises that we have are the hope that is within us, that enables us to suffer with Him, so that we might be glorified with Him in the resurrection.
Suffering as a Christian can take many forms. It can mean alienation from loved ones. It can cause problems on the job, even possibly losing your job because of your testimony or your refusal to participate in certain things that they want you to do. Suffering may take place at school, for those who are still of that age. It may take the form of being a social outcast.
But it’s important that if we suffer, as Paul indicates, it’s because we are a Christian, and not because we have done wrong and suffer the consequences of it. Peter says in 1 Peter 4:12-19 “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; but if [anyone suffers] as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. For [it is] time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if [it] [begins] with us first, what [will be] the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? AND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER? Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.”
Let me close then by reminding you of what we started with. That if you are of the Spirit, if you are being led by the Spirit, then you are being controlled by the Spirit. The Spirit of Christ works in you to sanctify you. Peter said in 1 Peter 1, you “are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood.” I urge you then as children of God to yield to the Spirit of Christ. He will speak to you the words of Christ and bring to your remembrance the things that He has taught us. He will correct you and convict you when you stray from the way of righteousness. Listen to Him, follow him, and He will direct your paths. And that path is the path of righteousness, whereby we are being conformed to the image of Christ here on earth, that we might share in the glory of Christ in the future consummation of the kingdom when Christ returns for the children of God. You are children of God. May the grace of God enable us to live as such.
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