Romans 8:15-17
15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
Read this verse slowly and I want you to see what Christ did for us. First, He affirms us that we are not fearful slaves because His spirit is different from the spirit of fear that operates in this world. Instead, we have received God’s spirit through adoption. Through adoption, He made us (former rebels, sinners) as HIS OWN.
That is powerful. He made me His own. He tells me I am accepted and loved like His own. I know this feeling when I see my kids. I will never allow anybody to take hold of my kid because they are my own. But more powerful is that when someone is adopted and is treated to be the parent’s own. There is much redemption in that scenario.
And God tells us to call Him, “ABBA FATHER”. A term of endearment. To call your dad with such joyful and positive emotion. I call my dad Papa and when I call him Papa it reminds me of how much he loves me and how much I love him. Some of you might grow up without a father who loves you and a father who wasn’t there for you. God invites you to a new father-child relationship by extending His grace and the gift of a family when He tells us to call Him ABBA FATHER.
Then Romans 8 tells us that our spirit and His spirit are joined together to affirm of the relationship we have with God. Know the putting to death the deeds of the flesh would make sense because know we have a new identity in Christ. It is also a good news knowing that my relationship with my God is not based on my action but on His love. Imagine if we measure our relationship with our Father based on our performance. We will never measure up. We are in the process of sanctification but we will never reach ultimate perfection but the verse tells us that our relationship with Christ is affirmed because of His action and not ours.
And lastly, He tells us of the great reward of being part of His family. We are now heirs of God’s glory. And if we are to share in His glory, we also must share in His suffering. (this might be good for another blog)