Original Meaning

IF 8:1–13 IS ABOUT “the Spirit of life,” then 8:14–17 are about “the Spirit of adoption.” God has made us his children through the work of his Spirit. As a result, we rejoice now in being able to call God “Father.” But we also rejoice in knowing that God, having adopted us, has also made us his heirs. We can therefore look forward to the future with confidence.

Paul attaches verses 14–17 to verse 13; note the way the NIV continues the same sentence from verse 13 into verse 14. It is “because” the Spirit leads us that we can be confident we “will live.” The recognition that we are God’s own children is yet another basis for our assurance that, indeed, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1).

In popular speech, Christians often use language such as “led by the Spirit” to refer to guidance: “I was led by the Spirit to witness to her.” But this is probably not what Paul means here.1 As in Galatians 5:18, where the same construction occurs, “being led by the Spirit” means “having the basic orientation of your life determined by the Spirit.”2 The phrase is a way of summing up the various descriptions of the life of the Spirit in 8:4–9.

Paul’s effort to balance the indicative and the imperative is again noticeable. Because of the Spirit’s work, we have life (8:1–11). In order to attain eternal life, we must use the Spirit to put away sin (8:12–13). And we know we will live because the Spirit has taken possession of us (8:14). The “middle term” in Paul’s argument from Spirit to life is being “the sons of God.” The imagery is drawn from the Old Testament, where God is pictured as the “father” of Israel (e.g., Deut. 32:6; Isa. 64:8; cf. Jubilees 1:25) and Israel as his “son” (Ex. 4:22; Jer. 3:19; 31:9; Hos. 11:1) or the people of Israel as his “sons” (Deut. 14:1; Isa. 43:6; Hos. 1:10 [quoted in Rom. 9:26]).

In 8:15–16, Paul pauses in his argument to elaborate the link between the Spirit and being God’s sons. Verse 15 centers on a contrast between two different spirits: “a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear” and “the Spirit of sonship.” Commentators have suggested various identifications for this “spirit of fear,”3 but this is the wrong tack to take. Paul is using a rhetorical device to explain the nature of the Spirit we have received. He is saying, in effect, that the Spirit of God we have received is not a spirit of fear but the Spirit who makes us God’s sons.

As the NIV note indicates, the word “sonship” (huiothesia) can also be translated “adoption” (the word does not occur in the LXX; in the New Testament see also Rom. 8:23; 9:4; Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5). The legal act of adoption was not practiced by the Jews, so almost certainly Paul uses the image of the Greco-Roman practice whereby a man could formally confer on a child all the legal rights of a birth child.4 This, Paul suggests, is what God’s Spirit confers on every believer—the rights and privileges of God’s own children.

Naturally, then, we are moved to cry out in a spontaneous outburst, “Abba, Father!” It is sometimes claimed that Jews never called God “Abba.” This is not strictly true, although it was an unusual way to speak of God. What is most important is that the Spirit enables us to experience the same kind of intimate relationship to the Father that Jesus did, who also called God “Abba” (Mark 14:36). Not only does the Spirit confer on us this status; he also is the one who, testifying with our own spirits, gives us the inner certainty of knowing that we truly are God’s dearly loved children.

Verse 17 resumes the main course of Paul’s argument in this paragraph, which runs from “Spirit” to “sonship” to “heir.” The transition is a natural one. The adopted child is guaranteed legally all the benefits of the natural child, including being the heir of his new father. But precisely because the adopted child is an heir, there is still something incomplete in his status. Though legally part of a new family, adopted children do not yet possess all the benefits of their new status. Thus, Paul reminds us, we Christians must still await the consummation of that new status. One day we will enter into the inheritance, following the Son who has gone ahead of us. We will share in his own glorious state. In the meantime, however, we must follow him in the road he himself walked on the way to glory—the road of suffering.

Bridging Contexts

FROM SLAVES TO SONS. Understanding Romans 8:14–17 is easier when we recognize in the text a pattern of argument that Paul uses elsewhere in greater detail. Note the parallels between Romans 8:1–17 and Galatians 4:3b–7:

Galatians 4:3b–7	Romans 8:1–17
we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world (v. 3b)	set me free from the law of sin and death (v. 2b)
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law (v. 4)	God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man (v. 3b)
to redeem those under law (v. 5a)	to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh (v. 3b)
that we might receive the full rights of sons [huiothesia](v. 6)	you received the Spirit of sonship [huiothesia](v. 15b)
Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father” (v. 6)	And by him we cry, “Abba, Father” (v. 15c) Cf. the Spirit of God lives in you (v. 9b)
So you are no longer a slave, but a son (v. 7a)	For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear (v. 15a)
and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir (v. 7b)	Now if we are children, then we are heirs (v. 17a)

In both passages, Paul affirms that believers are transformed from slaves to sons through the sacrificial death of Christ, “sent” as one like us. This new status is called “adoption” (huiothesia) and is tied to the indwelling Spirit, the Spirit who makes us aware that we now belong to God as his dearly loved children. In both, being God’s children leads to our being his heirs. Of course, Paul loosens the tight argument of Galatians 4:1–7 by weaving elements from that text into a larger context in Romans 8. As the context of Galatians suggests, Paul may have used the imagery of the slave-become-a-son to depict the new status of Israel in Christ. If so, he adapts the imagery and broadens its scope to include all believers. We see once again here, then, the way Paul can view Israel’s experience as paradigmatic for the situation of all people.

One other element of this conceptual scheme requires comment: the focus on “sons” (8:14) and “sonship” (8:15). As Paul’s shift to “children” in verses 16–17 suggests, his use of “sons” is not meant to exclude women from the status he describes. He uses the male terminology because in his culture it was usual for males both to be adopted and to stand as representative of both genders. In other words, to bring this message from Paul’s culture to ours, it seems appropriate, as the NRSV does, to translate uioi in verse 14 as “children.” This may be the best alternative, but one important point may be lost. For our status as “sons” is closely tied, Paul suggests, to Jesus’ status as the Son (8:3, 29; cf. Gal. 4:4). We are “sons of God” because we identify with Jesus, the Son. This echo is muted if we drop the terminology of son here.

Contemporary Significance

SECURITY. THE FEELING of being rejected is all too common in our world. Husbands reject wives and wives husbands as the divorce rate soars. Parents reject children and children parents. High school students reject other students because they do not fit with the “in group.” Every reader can fill in the blank with his or her own experience of rejection. The sad fact is that it is increasingly difficult to find a secure and permanent relationship. As a result, people feel uneasy and uncertain. I know wives married twenty-five years to loving husbands who find it hard to trust their husbands because of the broken marriages they see all around them.

Of course, no human relationship can ever provide ultimate security. The best-intentioned spouse can die at any time. But what our fellow humans can never supply, God does. In the midst of our disillusionment and doubt, he offers the most secure relationship imaginable: adoption into his own eternal family. Through our faith in Christ, the Son of God, we become his “brothers and sisters” (see Heb. 2:10–13), children of God and co-heirs with Christ of all that God has promised those who love him. We belong to the ultimate “in group,” those who are the dearly loved children of the God of the universe. Nor do we have to worry about being rejected from this relationship. As Paul has been teaching throughout these chapters and will do again in 8:18–39, our adoption is permanent. Nothing can change that; nothing and nobody can keep us from enjoying God’s favor and blessing forever.

No wonder we spontaneously cry out, “Abba, Father!” How could anyone who really understands that they have been adopted into God’s family and been given all the privileges his children enjoy not break out in amazed thanksgiving and praise? Some believers, bothered by the excesses of extreme charismatic groups, sometimes recoil against any expression of emotion. They worry that people will base their faith on their emotions rather than on the solid rock of God’s work in Christ on our behalf. They are right to worry. Some Christians do indeed seem to be all emotion, constantly on a roller-coaster ride of faith that lacks the stability that comes from a thorough appropriation of God’s Word.

But emotion should be part of any real experience of the living God. We will express our emotions differently. Some of us are naturally egregious and raise our hands in public worship without even thinking about it. Others of us may be less inclined to public display, though moved just as much as our more outgoing brothers and sisters. But, however we express them, the joy and praise that well up within us when we appreciate anew our status in Christ are inevitable.

But do we rightly appreciate that status? Probably never to the degree we should. Meditation on Scripture can help. Singing great lyrics about God’s gift to us in Christ can wonderfully bring home to us afresh the marvels of God’s grace in our lives. One of my own favorite hymns is “And Can It Be?” One stanza in particular from that hymn seems a fitting note on which to end this section and to awaken our emotions:

No condemnation now I dread,

Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!

Alive in Him, my living Head,

And clothed in righteousness divine,

Bold I approach th’ eternal throne,

And claim the crown, thru Christ my own.

Amazing love! how can it be

That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?