Romans 8:12-17: Spiritual Adoption

Introduction: How often do you pause to appreciate your salvation? Often we approach the gospel and our salvation as if that were Christianity 101 and we studied for and took that exam years ago. We're now at Christianity 202, give us something new. I want us to look this morning at an angle our salvation that we don't often tilt our head far enough to consider. There are 5 major metaphors for salvation in the New Testament; 1. Justification (the legal metaphor): This speaks of our legal standing before God. When we turned form sin and placed our faith in Christ we were at that moment given a right standing before Him. 2. Redemption (the slavery metaphor): We were bought with a price. We are no longer slaves to sin, we are slaves of righteousness. The Apostle Paul calls himself a "bondslave" of Jesus Christ, 3. Reconciliation (the friendship metaphor): We are no longer enemies of God, but we are the friends of God. 4. Propitiation (the sacrificial metaphor): God's wrath was turned away from the Israelites temporarily in the OT sacrifices, but it wasn't enough. The blood of Christ had to be spilled as He became the ultimate sacrifice once and for all.

The 5th one is our metaphor of the day... Adoption (the family metaphor). How do we know we are adopted? What is adoption? What does it mean for us? By the grace of God these are the questions we'll answer today. Turn with me if you would to Romans 8:12-17.


1. V.12-13: "12So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- 13for 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."

Amidst a world that says we are all children of God and therefore in equal standing with Him and therefore all going to heaven, how do we know what a child of God looks like? Because while we are God's children by virtue of the creation order, we can't all as humans stand with a sense of entitlement that says, "Well, I was born smarter than the animals and most favored by God so I'll go to heaven when I die." No, we must realize that we ARE ANIMALS without the Lord (Eph. 2:3, John 8:42-22). We were God's children before we sinned back in Genesis 3. Adam was God's child! Now we are prodigals! "In Adam all die" the Bible says. "Sin came through one man... Adam." Salvation only comes through Christ.


"So then" draws a conclusion from all that was said v.1-11. This entire chapter is full of grace and hope. Paul begins with the famous verse 1, "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." In v.4 a statement is made about the believer's lifestyle saying we are those "who do not presently continuously walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." In v.9-11 we learn that this ability to walk in a way that honors God is made possible by The Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Paul uses the imagery of the resurrection to share with us the fact that just as Christ was raised from death to life, our dead flesh is given the Holy Spirit so we can LIVE a holy life. God says we are not obligated nor in debt to live according to the flesh. The implication is that we ARE obligated to live according to the Spirit now that He's living in us. We are now defined by the Spirit, not by the flesh. We are a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come. That's something to rejoice about today! If you've turned from sin and put your faith in Christ alone you are no longer who you used to be! God is continuing to changing you from the inside out!

In v.13 we're given a contrast between those who will die and those who will live. You may say, "but we all die!" What does it mean when it talks about dying? Someone once said, "If you're born once, you'll die twice. If you're born twice you'll die once." There are 2 kinds of life and 2 kinds of death. We live here on earth and we die here on earth, but if we're only born once physically and we die physically, we'll also experience what the Bible calls the "second death" in a literal place called hell. BUT... if we are born on this earth and born again spiritually we'll die on this earth and go straight to heaven having spiritual life forever.

What does it say about those who "live" and go to heaven? They are "putting to death the deeds of the flesh." Notice what it's saying here... the only death you should be associated with is the death of sin in your life. You may say, "what you're saying sounds great but I still struggle" and I would say back to you... "exactly!" Do you think there's much of a struggle in the life of someone who doesn't know God? When someone only knows sin and doesn't know God the only thing there is to struggle with is how little or how much to sin. The very desire to live for God says something about who you are. You see it's not about perfection, but about direction. We often hear about justification... that God saves us and we stand blameless before Him, but does He leave us there? Is He a God who winds us up like the energizer bunny and expects us to reach the switch to keep going when it runs out? NO! He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. A Father doesn't ever let His children out of His sight.

I don't intend to give you 7 keys to pleasing God. I don't want to throw at you 8 principles to a powerful prayer life. It's not my goal to give you a Bible reading program that promises you'll be closer to the Lord in one year. We like formulas and programs, but the danger is so great that we try to do those in the power of our own strength and determination, which is always a recipe for disappointment. I want you to do what v.13 implies... look at your life and ask, am I growing in holiness? Am I different from who I once was? When sin crouches at my door, have I been growing in the strength to pick up the shovel and add a little more dirt on the grave of that sin? We must realize the truth that the Holy Spirit is living within us and enables us to STOP trying in vain to be a good person we'll never be and to allow the Spirit of God to give us the power to live as we should. What does our verse say? "but if BY THE SPIRIT, you are putting to death the deeds of the flesh..." It's ONLY by His power.

So, first what we see in v.12-13 is that...
1. ...We know we ARE adopted because God's Spirit living in us enables a new obligation. (v.12-13)


Now assurance comes in v.14-15...

2. V.14-15: "14For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba! Father!'"

The fact that we are walking according to the Spirit... the fact that we are even able to do that shows us that we are children of God. We like to talk about the Spirit leading us to make decisions about our future, about a school to attend, a job to take, things like that. There is some biblical precedent for a general leading (John 16:13). Our context here however makes this very specifically a moral leading. This is a reference to God's known, revealed, moral will for how a Christian is to live in a given situation. When that moment comes, when time slows to a crawl, and the decision to sin tries to creep its' way out of the coffin, the Spirit of God will hand us a padlock, but we need to put on.

V.15 says we don't have a spirit of slavery that leads to fear. There's debate about what kind of spirit this is... is this an evil spirit? (PAUSE) Is this an emotional disposition? ("That person has a spirit of kindness about them, or a cynical spirit") (PAUSE) Or is this a reference to the Holy Spirit Himself as He worked when mankind was under the law? (PAUSE) The text also says we were given a "spirit of adoption." Is this a reference to emotions or the Holy Spirit? If you look in your Bible, most of them take the first one to be emotional and the second to be the Holy Spirit. You can tell by the capitalizations, which are not in the Greek.

ANSWER: Now, neither of these is an evil spirit. This whole chapter has been about the flesh vs the Holy Spirit. We have no indication of demons here. It's possible to take one or both of these as emotional spirits. One deals with fear and the other causes us to cry out. But, I want to argue that both of them are the Holy Spirit. This does not mean the Holy Spirit is Himself a Spirit of bondage, but the sense what God is saying here is, "The Holy Spirit you've been given is not one of bondage, but of adoption." We don't have to live in bondage to our sin and in the fear of expecting judgment anymore because now we are sons and daughters of God!

Illustration: You may remember the story of Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9. He was the grandson of king Saul and the last surviving heir of Saul's family line. King Saul tried so many times to kill David, but what did David do? He graciously sought out Mephibosheth, took him into the palace and adopted him as his own. Mephibosheth was crippled and couldn't fight for King David or be of any good use to him, but David in his gracious love took him in.

Illustration: Picture a 5 year old girl. Her name is Sarah. Sarah finds herself in the church nursery. The sound of kids yelling and feet running fill the room. Plastic clashes against plastic as boys are being boys. Sarah is getting bored and an idea comes to her mind. She looks around to find that the 17 year old nursery worker is occupied with little Darth Vader and his nemesis. "I bet I could climb up to the top of that counter and jump off, " she thinks to herself. And as she makes her way up the counter, her arms are secure, and she's beginning to stand... but her left foot slips and her 15 seconds of fame are stolen form her as she falls into the hands of pain. The teenager yells, "Sarah! You're sitting in time out for that!" After what seemed like hours later, a tall figure appeared in the doorway of the nursery. He called out, "Sarah, daddy's here!" "Sarah was filled with joy as she yelled back, "daddy.. daddy!" The nursery worker walked over to him and explained what his daughter had done. Sarah approached her dad with head hung low. The dad kneels down, kisses her bruise, and hugs her tight.

And OH, how gracious it is of God Himself to CALL OUR NAMES and put His arms around us after we have disobeyed Him, lived for our own pleasure, and as orphans crippled in our sin to adopt us into His family!

So, not only do we know we are adopted because the Spirit enables a new obligation. But secondly...

2. We know what adoption IS because our new obligation DEFINES and confirms our adoption. (v.14-15)


3. V.16-17: "16The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,17and 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 Greek of v.16 brings us the most interesting difficulty in this passage. Every major Bible translation says the Holy Spirit is testifying WITH our Spirit that we are children our God. The Greek however can also mean testifying TO our spirit. So the question is, is God alone telling us we are His children or are we affirming our adoption WITH HIM? (PAUSE) It always comes back to the pervading mystery between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Those who take the "to" interpretation ask an important question theologically... What authority do we have that we would testify to our adoption? They say because of this it must be God alone who testifies TO us. I believe this testimony and assurance of salvation is cooperative. I choose the "with." Yes, God confirms our salvation, but we also affirm it outwardly. Dr. Trevor Burke, one of my professors at Moody says this in his book Adopted into God's Family,

"The idea of dual witnesses is well attested in Scripture. For example, in Deut. 19:15 we read that 'A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses,' and Paul demonstrates an awareness of the principle of multiple witnesses, as 2 Cor. 13:1 makes clear... In the ancient Roman world adoption was a public act [that was carried out] in the presence of witnesses, to ensure that the legality of the adoption could be established beyond doubt by reference to one or more of the witnesses."

I would add that we see this idea of a cooperative testimony even in today's passage. You could say when we receive the Spirit (v.15), He is testifying to our adoption and when we cry out to acknowledge our abba, father we are testifying to our adoption. Or we can see this earlier when we learned that the Spirit indwells us (He testifies inwardly) and we walk according to the Spirit (we testify outwardly). But ALL of this is given for our encouragement and assurance. We have a dual testimony to our adoption. We know we are the children of God because His Spirit and ours rejoice together to say I once was lost, but now I am found! I am no longer a child of Satan. I am a child of God!

In v.17 we also learn that our adoption points to our glorification. We are not only sons and daughters, we are sons and daughters with an inheritance. Just as Christ was raised to glory so shall we be raised to glory! And the sufferings here mentioned are present sufferings just as Christ suffered. (PAUSE) How's the world treating you? If you say, "just fine." I have to say, "What's wrong? Because the Bible says, "whoever desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." And if you suffer with Him you will be glorified with Him. This glorification is reflected in the common "now, not yet" idea in Scripture. In v.23 we read that we are "waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." We are God's children now, but the culmination of that will be fully realized when we are glorified with Him in heaven.

Summary:
1. We know we ARE adopted because the Spirit enables a new obligation. (v.12-13)

2. We know what adoption IS because our obligation DEFINES and confirms our adoption. (v.14-15)

3. (v.16-17) We know what adoption DOES as it points to our inheritance.


Big idea: From this passage overall we learn that Our Comfort in our adoption Comes by our Dependence on the Spirit. (REPEAT)

Application: There's still much I don't know about all of you. I do hope to change that before I graduate in December. For some of you this morning it's difficult to relate to God as Father. Maybe you don't know what it's like to have a father. Maybe it was as if your father wasn't even there. For others of you, your father didn't lead and love in a way that honored God. I won't presume to say I understand your situation. I can say that I wasn't raised in a Christian home. My dad is a loyal man who will always give of himself first to help others, but He still doesn't know the Lord. I know what it's like to come home from a semester at Bible college and not be able to tell my father what God is teaching me and doing in my heart and life because I know he won't understand. he can't relate. But you and do have a Father. We have the SAME FATHER!

He is not a man that He would change His mind.
He is not flesh that He would ever grow weak.
He is not human that He would make mistakes.
He is not too busy that He would ever ignore you.
He is not a coward that He would ever desert you.
He is not uncaring that He would ever abuse you.
He is not insensitive that He would ever cut you down.
HE IS NOT A MAN, HE IS THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE! AND HE... IS... OUR... FATHER!
What characterizes a child? a child is WEAK, INEXPERIENCED, IMMATURE, OVERZEALOUS, EASILY MISLED and what are we without our heavenly Father? They're also DEPENDENT on their parents... and so should we be dependent on the Holy Spirit given by our heavenly Father?

***Our Comfort in our adoption Comes by our Dependence on the Spirit.