Message preached Father’s Day Sunday, June 21, 2015 from Romans 8:15-17
Theme: This passage shows us the blessings of being fully adopted by the greatest of all Fathers.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
This is a day that we set aside to pay tribute to our fathers. We of course honor our ‘flesh-and-blood’ fathers—as the commandment of God instructs us, and as we are truly glad to do. But we also think of those precious men that God has put in our lives who may not have biologically connected to us, but who have nevertheless been ‘father-like’ to us in some very significant ways. A few of us are particularly rich in such fathers. I have been rich in both kind.å
But as we come to the Scriptures today, I ask that we pay particular tribute to the one who is our greatest Father of all. He is the ideal from whom all true ‘fatherhood’ is modeled; and through the grace of His Son Jesus Christ, He has established a connection to us that is infinitely greater and deeper, and that will give us more eternal joy, than any other connection we could have with any other earthly father.
The apostle Paul wrote in the eighth chapter of Romans about our heavenly Father’s love—and about the blessings we enjoy because of the relationship that He has established with us. And I believe that a really great way for us to honor our heavenly Father today, and to express appreciation for His love for us, would be to study this passage together and bask in the blessings it describes for us.
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Now; the theological context of this passage is very important. So, I hope you don’t mind if I spend a little time reminding you of that context.
This passage is in the Book of Romans. (How’s that for establishing the context?) The apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans is his great treatise on our salvation in Jesus Christ. And one of the most important verses in this section of the letter would be the one you’ll find at the very beginning of Chapter 8: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus . . .”
What a wonderful proclamation that is! If a man or woman or boy or girl has placed a conscious, intelligent faith in the cross of the Lord Jesus—and trusts in the sacrifice He made for our sins there—then they are “in” Christ. By a work of God’s grace, we who believe on Jesus are placed “in” Him so that His death is now our death, and His resurrection is now our resurrection, and His life is now our life. We are now declared 100% righteous in God’s sight—as righteous in His sight as His own beloved Son Jesus. That’s what it means for there to be “no condemnation” for those of us who are in Christ. We could spend the whole morning talking about just that, couldn’t we?
And all of that affects the way we as believers are to now live. The rest of that first verse goes on to say this of those who are now in Christ—and who are now no longer condemned in God’s sight: that they are those “who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
Before being “in” Christ, we lived under the oppressive burden of God’s law. It’s a good and righteous law, because it comes from God and is an expression of His holy character. But it was ‘oppressive’ to us in that it was expressed in detailed rules, and regulations, and rituals, and ceremonies, and prohibitions. And because we are fallen and sinful, we simply could not keep holy before God on the basis of the strict letter of the law. The law couldn’t save us. All it could do is condemn us, and place us in the position of needing to be saved by faith in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
But now that we have been given the declaration of “no condemnation” through Christ, we no longer “walk”—that is, no longer conduct our lives before God—on the basis of strict obedience to the letter of the Old Testament law. We who are made righteous in Christ now walk in the liberty of being led and empowered by the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit always leads us in righteous paths, and never leads us in any way that is contrary to the true spirit of God’s law.
And by the way: That new ‘walk’ is a chief characteristic of all those who are truly ‘children of God’. No one is ever made a ‘child of God’ on the basis of their obedience to the letter of the law. Instead, a true child of God is someone who has been ‘born again’ by faith in Jesus Christ; and who now trusts completely in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross to make them righteous in God’s sight; and who are now indwelt by the Holy Spirit and walk in obedience to His leading and enabling. Just look at Romans 8:12-14; where we’re told,
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (Romans 8:12-14).
I hope you can appreciate why it was important that we first establish the theological context of this morning’s passage. People may think that they are “children of God” simply because He is their Creator. And there’s certainly a sense in which that’s true. But the apostle Paul isn’t writing these words to people who have simply been “created”. He is writing to those who have been “re-created”—to those who have been “born again” and are now truly ‘children of God’ by faith; who now have the enabling Holy Spirit indwelling them, and who now walk in holiness before God on the basis of the Spirit’s leading.
And so—having established all of that—we now come to what the apostle Paul tells us about the blessedness of the relationship we enjoy with God our Father. He writes;
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together (vv. 15-17).
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This is a passage that highlights one of the greatest acts of love that God the Father could have shown to us. He has sent His Son to die on a cross for us in order to save us; and that, of course, was a great act of love on His part. That’s how we are made alive to Him. That’s how, if you want to put it this way, we are “born” before Him—by being “born again” through faith in Jesus. But as wonderful as that act of love is, He actually took that love a step higher; and after having made us “born again”, He then officially “adopted” us as His children. He not only made us “alive”, but also officially made us “His own”.
To bring a child into the world in the natural way—as a natural father does—is, of course, a great act of love. But for a man to legally adopt a child that was not his own natural child, and to then officially declare that child to be his own from then on—to give that child all the rights and privileges of being his child, and to promise to give that child all that the father has as an inheritance—is an even greater act of love! And God has loved us to the highest degree! He has adopted us as His own children and heirs.
This weekend, I celebrated the twentieth anniversary of my graduation from Multnomah Biblical Seminary. I remember standing with my graduating class before Dr. Dan Lockwood after he had given us our diplomas. He stood at the podium over us, and raised his hands to us; and he told us, “By the authority vested in me, I now confer upon you the degree of Master of Divinity”; and he then added these words, “with all the rights and privileges that pertain thereto.” And that has served to illustrate to me—to a small degree—what it means to be adopted by God the Father. When the heavenly Father adopts us as His own child, it’s as if He sets us before Himself in great love, solemnly raises His hands over us, and officially gives us this declaration: “I now bestow upon you the legal title of ‘My own dear son or daughter’ forever—with all the glorious and eternal rights and privileges that pertain thereto.”
That means that it’s not just a nice, sentimental thing to say. It means, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that we now have all the legal rights and privileges of sonship. We no longer have to try to earn God’s favor by the works of the law; because as His adopted children, we are already eternally loved by Him and in His favor! We no longer have to labor to earn the right to come before His throne and tell Him about our needs; because we are adopted by Him and are already fully accepted in His sight—completely free to come at any time, and ask anything of Him that we wish! We no longer have to wonder if we will ever be ‘good enough’ to get to heaven; because we are adopted by Him and are already assured that all the wealth of our Father’s heavenly riches are now ours as a full inheritance—and that we are as certain of heavenly glory as if we were already there!
What a wonderful Father we have! How much He must love us!—to have adopted such unworthy sinners like us so fully, and to have declared us to be His own forever!
Well; that’s what this morning’s passage is about. Let’s look a little closer at the details of Romans 8:15-17, and bask in the blessings of our Father’s adoptive love together!
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First, let’s notice . . .
1. WHAT OUR DISPOSITION TOWARD THE FATHER NOW IS (v. 15).
Now; I refer to it as “our disposition” toward Him, because that’s the best word I can think of to describe it. But you might just as well think of it as “our attitude” toward Him, or “our orientation” toward Him. Paul calls this ‘disposition’ or ‘attitude’ or ‘orientation’ a “spirit”; and he writes in verse 15, “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear . . .”
Look closely at that word “again”. Implicit in that word is the idea that something has happened to bring one state of being to an end, and another state of being into existence. That great thing that occurred, of course, was our having been ‘born-again’ through faith in Jesus. And now, the old ‘us’ has been crucified with Him, and a brand new ‘us’ has been raised with Him to new life. We are now ‘new creations’ in Christ Jesus.
But what it is that we have been brought forth into is not the same old disposition “again”. Our former situation was that of a ‘slave under bondage’. God’s law imposed rigid requirements upon us; and the nature of our relationship toward Him was dependent upon whether or not we obey those commands to the letter. We had to render ‘perfect obedience’ to God in order to be in His favor through the law. It was a rigid and overwhelming bondage to such things as calendar dates, and feasts and fasts, and cleansings and washings, and laws and ceremonies—along with a rigid list of sacrifices and offerings and retributions and punishments of death for trespasses and violations.
And for that reason, it was a relationship characterized by fear. If we disobeyed, we suffered wrath and punishment. And we would always have to wonder and worry about whether or not we had failed or had missed something. I think here of the parable that Jesus told of the man who entrusted a portion of his estate to three different servants. The first two invested wisely and multiplied what was given; but the third hid his entrustment in the ground and did nothing with it. And when brought to account for it, he said,
“Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scatted seed, And I was afraid . . .” (Matthew 25:24-25).
That’s what our disposition toward God was before we were born again—a spirit of bondage to fear. What a miserable way to live!
So; we were crucified with Christ and raised again with Him. But we weren’t raised to receive that old “spirit of bondage again to fear”. We were raised to something completely different. As Paul writes, “but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father”.
Now; most of our Bible translations have the word “Spirit” capitalized, as if it is speaking of the Holy Spirit. And I believe that the Holy Spirit is definitely involved. But I believe it’s best to understand this second word “Spirit” in the same way as it is used in the first half of the verse. In other words, we have received a completely new ‘disposition’ or ‘orientation’ or ‘attitude’ toward God—no longer as a slave in bondage to fear, but as an adopted son or daughter; a disposition in which we cry out joyfully to God as “Abba, Father!”
That first word ‘Abba’ is an Aramaic word. Aramaic was the language that the Lord Jesus spoke; and the word ‘Abba’ would be the word that a child in Jesus’ day would typically use to speak to his or her father—the name that children would happily cry out when they saw their daddy come home from work–”Abba! Abba!”. When our Lord prayed to the heavenly Father, He called Him by the sweet and intimate name “Abba”. In fact, when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane—waiting to be betrayed and arrested—He called out to God in prayer and said, “Abba, Father” (see Mark 14:36). And do you know why I believe the Holy Spirit led Paul to tell us that we now have an orientation that makes us cry out “Abba, Father”? It’s to show us that we are now free to speak to God the Father with just as much intimacy of love as the Lord Jesus Himself did!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we enjoy a wonderful new disposition toward the heavenly Father! We are adopted by Him as His own dear children; and we no longer ever have to fear coming to Him. We are free to run to Him like little children who are 100% loved and accepted by Him, and who freely call Him “Abba! Father!”—because that’s what He officially made Himself to be to us.
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As we read on we see that our heavenly Father loves us so much that He even makes sure we have a constant reminder of the greatness of His love for us. Paul goes on to tell us . . .
2. HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT AFFIRMS THIS TO OUR SPIRITS (v. 16).
In verse 16, he writes, “ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God . . .” In the verse before this one, I maintained that both uses of the word “spirit” speak of a ‘disposition’ or an ‘orientation’. But here, Paul is clearly writing about the Holy Spirit—the third Person of the Trinity.
Earlier in this chapter, Paul made it clear that all those who truly belong to God through faith in Jesus Christ, and who have been saved by Him, have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. In verses 8-9, he wrote;
So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His (Romans 8:8-9).
And one of the gracious services that the Holy Spirit performs to those in whom He dwells is that of a divine, indwelling Teacher—one who gently speaks to us and guides us in truth. Back at the time before the Lord Jesus went to the cross, He promised the disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit to them; and He told them;
“These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26-27).
I often think of how helpless we would be without this wonderful, loving, indwelling Teacher to guide us. I sure am grateful for His ministry! And one of the things that He does for us is that He assures us that we are truly God’s adopted children. Paul tells us that the Spirit Himself bears witness to us—in the deepest levels of our being—that we are truly the adopted children of the heavenly Father. He is like our living, speaking ‘adoption papers’—constantly affirming to us, in times of doubt, what our legal standing is before God. At times when we may be fearful in our faith, Paul tells us in Romans 5:5 that “hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” In those moments when we feel most in despair of ourselves, or feel as if we are worthless and unacceptable, or doubt that God could ever love us, the Holy Spirit steps up to us as it were, and draws us close, and affirms to us the assurance of the Father’s love. In fact, it’s the Holy Spirit who cries out with us that we have the right to call God “Abba, Father”. As Paul wrote in Galatians 4:6-7—in words very much like this morning’s passage;
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ (Galatians 4:6-7).
In fact, the Holy Spirit even serves as a reminder to us of our future glory. As God’s adopted children, we are destined for a glorious heavenly inheritance. Later in this chapter, Paul stressed that we still await the full realization of all that our adoption means. He writes in verse 23 that “we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” When we are raised up in glory at Jesus’ coming, that’s when our adoption will be complete—both soul and body. But even though we do not yet experience the full reality of what we shall be; the Holy Spirit in us is the guarantee that we will one day! As Paul puts it in Ephesians 1, we who have believed
were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:13-14).
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And that reminds us of what else the apostle Paul tells us in verse 17 about the Father’s adoptive love for us; and that is . . .
3. WHAT OUR FUTURE WILL BE WITH JESUS CHRIST BECAUSE OF IT (v. 17a).
The Spirit Himself testifies to us that we truly are the children of God; “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ . . .” When a father officially adopts a child as his own, it’s a guarantee that that child will also one day—when they reach full age—be a full heir; receiving the full share in the inheritance of a son or daughter.
Look at how Paul tells us this. He says first of all that we are “heirs of God”. And just stop and think of that! What a marvelous thing! Our Father in heaven has all the riches of heavenly glory as His possession! All is His! And here, we’re told that we are now his “heirs”! That means that all is also destined to be ours! The apostle Peter once put it this way: that we are born again
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:4-5).
And as if to assure us that this will most certainly be true of us, Paul adds that we are “joint heirs with Christ”. As the only begotten Son, Jesus is sure to receive the full inheritance of the Father. And because we have been adopted by the Father, and have been made joint heirs with Jesus, then we are as sure to receive that glorious inheritance as Jesus Himself is!
Brothers and sisters in Christ; we should never let the trials and troubles of life in this world bring us to despair. No matter what happens to us in this short time we spend on earth, we have an inheritance from the Father that is sure and certain and that can never be taken from us.
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And that leads us to one final thing that Paul has to say about the Father’s loving adoption of us as His children; and that’s . . .
4. HOW WE SHOULD DAILY LIVE IN RESPONSE (v. 17b).
Paul writes in verse 17 that we are God’s children; and if children, then also heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, “if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”
Let’s be careful with this. Paul is not meaning for us to understand that we become glorified with Jesus if we endure enough suffering for Him. We don’t earn our ‘adoption’ by God through suffering for Jesus. Rather, I believe this is meant to be a demonstration that we truly are adopted by God and truly are His children. We demonstrate the truth of who we are by the fact that we are so confident in our new ‘disposition’ as Father’s adopted children, and are so assured by the Holy Spirit’s inward witness, and are so looking forward to our future inheritance with Jesus, that we are willing to endure any suffering for His name’s sake in this world. We would much prefer, in fact, to be identified with Jesus in His suffering, so that we can also be identified with Him in His glory. He Himself has said,
“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12).
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What a Father! He has made us His own through Christ; and has promised everything to us! We ought to give our everything to Him in return. And let me close by asking: Have you become His child? The Bible says this about the Lord Jesus:
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13).
There couldn’t be a greater way to truly celebrate Fathers’ Day than by making absolutely sure you have God as your Father; and that He has declared you to be His fully-adopted child by faith.