“For all who are led by God are sons of God. 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!””
“For all who are led by God are sons of God. 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!””
As we move into this section, we must connect with what proceeds because “For” establishes this connection “for” us. We are dealing with the change in our identity from fleshly mortality into Spiritual eternality of our righteous life in Jesus, who loved me and “gave himself for me.” Since we have been “born-again,” we now are in the Spirit, sons of God with an intimate relationship with our Abba! Father! Amen?
This section begins in chapter 5 where we are justified by faith through grace in our Lord Jesus Christ but is also rooted in chapters 3 and 4: “none is righteous, no not one” and “blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” We have left the sin chapters of condemnation and entered into the righteous chapters of us reigning in His life over sin!
God has made provision for mortal man under Adam, a sinner, to change his nature and identity through the redemption of Jesus, the second Adam, to a righteous, holy person redeemed, justified and sanctified. It was thru mortal Adam that we all became sinners and now in Jesus, who became “the last Adam,” we became a Spiritual persona. Since being created new in Christ Jesus, receiving the anointing of the Holy Spirit, we now have a capacity to be taught Spiritually living with the mind of Christ Jesus. We have received the “seed” of Jesus Christ, we are no longer the “seed” of Adam! This is what defines being “born-again.”
In the previous two verses (12-14), “if you live according to the flesh you will die,” Paul gives us the negative provisions of being in flesh but we now have, in Christ, the person and mind of Jesus created new within our jar of clay, providing our opportunity to grow His life, His agape love, with His grace in us. This process of changing our behavior from flesh to Spirit is called sanctification.
Sanctification is our spiritual boot camp. This is where created life in Jesus brings into our flesh, the living life of the Spirit of God. We are to put to death the deeds of the flesh because we are sons of God; the Holy Spirit is living within us training us in both faith and grace to walk in the light while sowing seeds of righteousness. We are led by God through the living Holy Spirit inside of our soul, glorifying the Son, by actively living and Spiritually growing in our new life, in His light, in His love, in His truth and righteousness. We are now processing His “workmanship” through our faith and His grace. We have to tear down self so that He can build up His righteousness in us. This is sanctification!
When living in this flesh, without the life of Jesus within us, we are in the “seed” of Adam separated from God in judgement for our sin and sinful nature. It is only the Holy Spirit working upon us, in this worldly condition, that we become aware of sin, providing us a choice to enter into Jesus’ absolute truth, righteousness and agape love through His operating grace and our faith.
We were in bondage to sin; living in darkness unable to discern His light, unable to discern the things of the Spirit. Being “born-again” means we are now literally “in Christ Jesus” and Christ Jesus is also literally in us. This is the product of being “born-again;” it means we are children of God and joint-heirs with Jesus with the capacity to discern the things of the Spirit and to glorify Him even in our flesh!
The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof,
The world and those who dwell therein,
For he has founded it on the seas and established it upon the rivers.
Who shall ascend the hill of the lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who does not left up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully. – Psalm 24:1-4.
The purpose of Romans 8 is to expose our own personal person to ourselves. We need to recognize our Spiritual identity in Christ Jesus with our capacity to glorify Him now in our fleshly jar of clay. The Spirit will show us who we were, who we are, and who we are yet to become!
We have in chapter 5 this transition from faith through the law to faith under grace “in which we stand” which is “so much better.” Under this grace provision we “must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” In Christ Jesus we have been redeemed and justified, being baptized into the mind of Jesus Christ!
So, within this context, Paul declares “… all who are led by God are sons of God.” We are capable of being led by God because we are already “sons of God;” we have been baptized and adopted into the family of God. If any person is created new in Christ Jesus, the old has passed and the new has arrived. Part of the “new” has come by the indwelling Holly Spirt of God who provides our access into God’s grace, it is up to us to now consume His grace!
We see this in Jesus’ prayer in John 16 where His departure from earth precludes the arrival of the Third Person of the Trinity residing in the heart of the believer, leading him in truth, teaching him all things pertaining to our resurrected Jesus.
The ministry of our indwelling Holy Spirit is what we see operating in Romans 8. “There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit of God is joined to our spirit so we are to glorify God in our body.
The Old Testament provides visual pictures of New Testament truth. An O.T. picture of being led by God is provided in the Exodus account of the children of Israel being led out of bondage in Egypt to the promise land through the wilderness of Sinai. Not only did Moses separate the Red Sea to walk across on dry land but God used a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to lead them on the path to the promised land.
The New Testament story uses O.T. pictures to illustrate Spiritual truth which were also in operation under O.T. law. The righteousness in Christ Jesus satisfies the O.T. requirements so that we can more clearly understand the Spiritual nature of our new birth in Jesus.
We are led by the Spirit of God, rather than Moses, because we are adopted as
Sons of God as Pasul explains in Galatians, which we will look at next. But being “led” by the Spirit of God requires our spiritual listening. To each of the seven churches in Revelation Jesus says: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” When we are created new in Jesus, we are equipped with a Spiritual capacity to not only hear Spiritually but have Spiritual fellowship with the 3 in 1 Trinity of God, Abba-Father, our Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
The children of God in the wilderness were not “born again,” they saw and knew because it was physically displayed to their fleshly eyes and ears. We, are under the “New Covenant” which is eternal. We are now eternal being created new in Christ Jesus with our own spiritual ears to hear. We now have the Spiritual capacity to receive O.T. truth with understanding, “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee,” (Ps. 119:11), “Trust in the Lord with all you heart, do not lean on your own understanding,” (Prov. 3:5-6). We are now led by God because we are Sons of God.
There is, however, another discernment we need to look at brought to our attention by Paul in his letter to the Galatians, (4:1-7).
In Israel an adopted son or daughter had no authority until maturity at an accepted time. Until then the child was under the authority of a guardian or manager. Even though he was an owner, he had no authority to boss people around. In this Galatians scripture, the Greek word used is indicating an “infant.” Our position in Christ Jesus is spiritually as an “infant.” This causes us to focus on the depravity of our capacity spiritually. Our ability to operate Spiritually in Christ Jesus is less than just a child, we are at the infant level.
His thoughts are not our thoughts. He is the creator God of universes. He breathed life into Adam, and controls the weather and knows the thoughts of humanity. This awesome three-in-one person is our papa, our daddy! This is the meaning of “Abba, Father.” This is our heavenly Father who in agape love provides grace to redeem, justify and make holy our condemned soul through His Spirit of life so that our likeness may be fulfilled in Him, in His righteousness which fulfills the Old Testament law.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. A fundamental character of our God is love. Not love on a human level, agape love! It is the total opposite of fear and produces within ourselves a strength which we must grow into. We now have the capacity to grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus Himself. The Holy spirit has been given to us to reveal the things of the “Son of man,” Jesus. Jesus said that we must be perfect even as “your Father in heaven is perfect.” Because of God we are now in Christ Jesus “who became wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” We are not in the spirit of fear because He who is in us is greater than he who is the world. Our body is now a holy temple where God the Holy Spirit dwells, (1Corinthians 6:19). Abba! Father!