Adoption and Inheritance; Romans 8: 15b – 17. Tape 12.
Review of the
basics of the Spiritual Life from Romans 6 – 8
We have a temporal relationship based upon our obedience to
God’s word. We call it being filled by means of God the Holy Spirit and it is
roughly the same as walking by means of God the Holy Spirit. It is also called
walking in the light in Ephesians chapter 5 so that when we sin we are said to
be walking in darkness as we have seen in our study of Romans 8 we can walk
according to the sin nature or we can walk according to the Holy Spirit. So
whenever we sin we are out of fellowship, no longer abiding in Christ, no
longer walking by the Spirit, we are walking according to the norms and
standards of the sin nature and we are in carnality and under the control of
the sin nature. But no matter how hard
things get there is always recovery and this is through 1 John 1:9 when we
confess our sins. That means to simply admit or acknowledge our sins to God the
Father and we instantly recover fellowship. Positional truth is the subject of
Romans Chapter 6, this is our new position in Christ and because of that the
power of the sin nature is broken.
At phase 1 salvation (that instant in time when we trust Christ alone
for our salvation), we are justified and we are freed from the penalty of sin.
The power of the sin nature in terms of its tyranny is broken, so that during
phase 2 which is the spiritual life we can grow or advance in our spiritual
growth and as we do we are experientially freed from the power of sin, so that
we can advance spiritually. Phase 3 is glorification when we are freed from the
presence of the sin nature.
The Successful Believer The Failure Believer
|
Walk: Lives his life according to the norms or standards of the Holy
Spirit in that moment by moment dependence. |
Walk: Lives his life according to the norms or standards of the Sin
nature. Either personal sin or human good. |
|
Thinking: Renovating his thinking according to doctrine/Truth
also called divine viewpoint for application in every area of life |
Thinking: according to human viewpoint and operating on all
kinds of worldly concepts and ideas for application in every area of life. |
|
Results: Life and Peace – the abundant life, peace,
stability and tranquillity despite his circumstances of adversity or
prosperity. |
Results: emptiness, there is temporal or carnal death and
misery. |
|
Attitude: wants to please God, learning doctrine is the
highest priority and nothing takes its place. He recognises
his position in Christ as spiritual aristocracy and is now going to use that
position to advance to spiritual maturity. |
Attitude: becomes complacent towards God and Romans 8:7; says
his attitude is hostile towards God. Does not
recognise his position in Christ as spiritual aristocracy and does not
advance to spiritual maturity because he has an attitude of slavery where he
keeps putting himself under the dominion of his own sin nature. |
|
Sons: Children of God and Sons indeed |
Sons: Children of God |
|
Heirs: Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ |
Heirs: Heirs of God |
Romans
Verse 12, “...So
then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to
the flesh— ...”
And then there is
an appositional explanation. It starts with a gar in the Greek which means he is giving a
reason or explanation for this statement.
Verse 13, “...for
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...”
Last time I
pointed out that if the living here is eternal life then the way to get it is
to put to death the deeds of the sin nature, and that’s works! So the life here
can not be eternal life in heaven, it must be something else? If the life is
not eternal life in heaven, then the contrast, the ‘death’ in the passage that
is contrast with the ‘life,’ cannot be eternal condemnation in the
“...but if
[living] by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will
live...” Putting to death is an active verb there, which means you the believer
are engaged in doing something, you are engaged in saying ‘no!’ to the sin
nature. You can’t just say as a believer, ‘well, it really doesn’t matter, some
how God’s going to work it out, He paid for all the sins, so I can do what I
want.’ This addresses the volition of the believer and the fact that as a believer
we need to be learning doctrine and it must mean something. It means that we
apply it and we say no to the sin nature and we stay in fellowship and we avoid
temptation. The only way you can do that is through the power of the Spirit.
You can’t do it by pulling up your moral spiritual bootstraps, apart from the
Spirit. That is what Paul tried in Romans 7 and it was a failure. It has to be
done by staying in the Spirit, walking according to the Spirit and walking by
means of the Spirit under the filling of the Spirit. So you are putting to
death the deeds of the body, you will live. It is talking about the advancing
maturing believer who is moving towards this abundant life, that’s the context.
If you don’t understand that you will misinterpret the next three verses.
Verse 14, “...For
all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God...”
We have a problem
here. The problem is that it is standard for us to take a verse like this as
equivalent to John’s use of ‘sons of God’ in John 1:12.
John
There it
recognises that sonship is a positional factor. As I stated earlier, at the
instant of salvation we are adopted into the family of God and we are given a
positional title ‘sons of God,’ that is a technical term that comes out of the
Latin or Roman background. But that is not the way Paul is using the term here.
In this passage, look down to verse 15.
Verse 15, “...For
you have not received a spirit [attitude] of slavery leading to fear again, but
you have received a Spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba!
Father!" ...”
But he talking
about a particular kind of son and verse 16 and 17 he shifts from talking about
the huios
the adult son, to teknos the
child of God, the infant, the baby. So he is not looking at this in terms of
the position of adoption here as adulthood, he is looking at it experientially
and we have seen that is the whole context of Romans 6 – 8 is the experience of
the Christian life, not entering into the Christian life.
There are a couple of points we have to
observe in the contrast between this passage and John 1:12.
Ø Matthew
Ø Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God...” once again it looks as if being called
a son of God is dependant on doing something but that would be works salvation,
so there is a sense in which becoming an adult son is experiential growth not
just positional reality.
Ø Revelation
21:7, “...He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and
he will be my son...” So it looks form that passage like sonship is conditioned
upon overcoming , but what about the passages that make it seem like I’m a son
at salvation? We have to distinguish between positional realities and temporal
realities.
NASB:
Verse 15, “...For
you have not received a spirit [attitude] of slavery leading to fear again, but
you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba!
Father!" ...”
Now we have to
stop a minute and take a look at the translation because it is a little bit
confusing. It starts off with the explanatory article called gar which always gives you a reason or a cause and what we have here is
very interesting structurally. In the English notice that verses, 13, 14 and 15
all begin with ‘for.’ That tells Paul is building up a series of explanations.
Now last time I pointed out that starting from verse 9 – 11, you have a series
of ‘but ifs.’ He is building a contrast there, that’s why he is using those
conditional clauses with the conjunction of contrast. But he is doing something
different in 13 through 15; he is building explanations, staying on the same
subject of the believer and building one explanation on another. Now here he
says in verse 15.
Verse 15, “...For you have not received a
spirit [attitude] of slavery...”
What is a spirit
of slavery? Now the word spirit here is the Greek word pneuma.
This word has a variety of meanings, it can mean wind, breath, spirit [human]
and it can even stand for the soul in some places as the spirit and soul are united
together in the regenerated believer, sometimes to emphasize one aspect or the
other, sometimes it is simply referred to immaterial part of man in contrast to
the material part of man and in other passages it refers to angels or demons. The
word spirit can also mean a disposition or a state of mind, or a mental
attitude in other words. So if someone has a spirit of bitterness that means
that they are characterised by an attitude of bitterness, if they have a spirit
of anger that means that they are characterised by an attitude of anger. Here
Paul is talking about that attitude that comes on the believer who is failing
to recognise what he has in Christ. So that he is no longer relying on his
positional reality of Romans 6 and he is choosing to sin and put himself back
under the dominion to the sin nature. Now that was broken by the cross, broken
by baptism of God the Holy Spirit but each time you sin, you by your volition
are saying, ‘ok I am going to put myself back under the tyranny of my sin nature.’
Verse 15, “...For you have not received [at
salvation] a spirit [attitude] of slavery leading to fear again, but you have
received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba!
Father!" ...”
Fear seems to be
the core emotion produced by the sin nature. Beneath everything else, beneath arrogance,
beneath bitterness, beneath everything else is fear. What is the first thing
that happened when God appeared in the garden with Adam and Eve, they were
afraid. John addresses this in 1 John 4:17 ff,
“...There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because
fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love...”
What is the relationship of fear and love? Most people would say that the
opposite of love is hatred, and the opposite of fear is peace. But what the
scripture points out is the core underlying emotions that are produced by the
sin nature, fear is a lack of security, it is man suddenly realising that he is
a creature and that he really can’t solve his problems on his own and he is
confronted with God. The fear in the sense of a healthy respect and awe that
Isaiah had instantly when he fell on his face when he saw the Holiness of God,
in that sense it is not the sinful emotion of fear of the Lord that is the
positive awe and respect of God and realising that he is a creature (creator –
creature distinction).
But when you are
in carnality, it is a fear that eats up the soul and destroys and the only
solution is becoming mature and advancing in the spiritual life to that point
that we have that kind of love that Jesus commanded as the new commandment in
John 13: 33 – 34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another,
even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will
know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Now Paul says
here, “...For you have not received [at salvation] a spirit
[attitude/disposition] of slavery [to the sin nature] leading to fear again,
but you have received a spirit [attitude/disposition] of adoption as sons by
which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" ...”
This is your
positional reality. You are adopted as a son that is your reality. In the Roman
culture of the day the inheritance by primogenitor went to the eldest son. So
every believer, male or female is considered in that specific privileged
position of an heir in the Royal Family of God. It is a technical term and it
means that we have all the privileges and rights that are granted to the eldest
son in a Roman society and that applies to everyone in the body of Christ
because with the baptism of the Holy Spirit there is no longer Jew nor Greek,
male nor female, bond or slave and what that means is that under the Jewish economy,
in the Mosaic Law that if you were a women you could not go into the inner part
of the tabernacle or the temple at all, you were restricted. If you were a Gentile
you were restricted, if you were a slave you were restricted. But in the church
age no one is restricted; sex, economic status and slavery status are no longer
issues for access to God. Every believer is a priest, a royal priest in the
Royal Family of God and has the same equal access to God and the same privileges
and that is all part of our sonship.
So when we look at
Romans 8:15 there is a contrast between the attitude of slavery (the attitude
of the failure believer who keeps putting himself under the dominion of his own
sin nature) and the one who recognises his position in Christ as spiritual aristocracy
and is now going to use that position to advance to spiritual maturity.
The Doctrine of Adoption
[38:40]
This is quite a cultural
difference for us. What we have to realise is that the Bible must always be
interpreted in the time in which it was written. We can’t look at these terms
like ‘sons of God,’ ‘adoption’ and other things for a western civilisation
frame of reference. We have to understand the culture and historical context
with which this was used. So this is borrowed from both Roman and Greek
culture. We are going to look at the doctrine under two different categories.
Firstly, the historical background and secondly, its doctrinal significance.
Historical Background
The practice of
adoption is used in the Bible to illustrate the new position of the believer in
his relationship to God. Adoption in the ancient world is different from modern
adoption in that in modern adoption you are taking a child that is not born to
a family naturally and you are bringing them into the family and making them a
legal member of that family. But in the ancient world you could even adopt your
own natural son. Adoption in the ancient world, especially in Roman culture had
to do with adult privileges and inheritance.
So in terms of
historical background we need to look at two different practices because both
play a role in understanding what Paul is saying. The Greek practice of
adoption and the Roman practice of adoption.
1.
The
Greek practice of adoption
In
The Roman system of adoption was much more severe and demanding and put
a heavy emphasis on the authority of the Father over the son. It was the law of
the patria potestas, a son is little better than a slave until adulthood. That
is the background for understanding many of the factors in Galatians chapter 4
on adoption. The Roman custom emphasised the authority of the father and it was
designed to protect the aristocracy of
What
is the Doctrinal Significance?
The doctrinal significance
is that the believer now has the position of being a son of God. He now has
that position and we are to decide whether or not we are to live up to those responsibilities.
That’s the background for understanding Romans 8:14. “...For all who are being
led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God...” This is not talking about
every believer. This is talking about the advancing believer who is willing to
follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit. The immature believer or the failure
believer who is in carnality the whole time isn’t learning doctrine, isn’t
applying doctrine, isn’t putting to death the deeds of the flesh, that’s the immature
believer that is the contrast. The one who is putting to death the deeds of the
flesh will live. This is the one who is being led by the Spirit, the Greek word
there is agō
which implies volition on the part of the person who is following, the Holy
Spirit is out in front and the person following makes decisions to follow. It
is not like the verb that is used in 1 Peter 1: 20 – 21 were it talks about the
prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, that is like the wind pushing the sail
boat along a lake or out in the ocean, there is no volition involved there.
They were just moved along by the super attending guiding force of God the Holy
Spirit in inspiration. It is a different word, agō
involves that our volition is clearly involved; we have to decide whether or
not we are going to follow, whether or not we are going to walk by means of the
Holy Spirit. So it is those who are willing to be led and to follow and to walk
by means of the Spirit that are sons of God. So these are the two sonship’s.
The sonship of positional relationship and the sonship of those who advance to
sonship and it is only the adult sons that are going to be qualified to have an
inheritance in the
Verse 15, introduces the concept of adoption
again, and then it is tied by the time we get to verse 16 and 17 to
inheritance. When we come to
When you get to Romans 8:16 and 17 the
problem is punctuation in the English Bible. In the original Greek there is no
punctuation, you don’t have commas or semicolons, or quotation marks, and
everything is done through syntax. That is why it is so important to understand
the original Greek. It is also important to understand theology because
sometimes even the syntax isn’t that clear.
NASB – verses
17
“... and 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...”
That links heirs
of God and fellow heirs with Christ with the conjunction Kai as if they are synonymous and then you have a comma after Christ and
then a first class conditional clause, ‘if indeed we suffer with Him so that we
may also be glorified with Him.’ The way that is punctuated means that verse is
saying you can not be an heir of God or a joint heir with Christ unless you
suffer with Christ. That’s how that is punctuated, that’s what that means! In
other words, inheritance which is part of your salvation package at some level,
is dependant upon (in that translation) suffering with Christ. Once again that
is a works oriented salvation. Now that verse can be repunctuated by simply
moving the commas.
Corrected
translation– verses 17
“... and 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...”
That means there
is an heir-ship with God that is common to every believer that is part of your
package at salvation. Then there is an additional inheritance that comes as a result
of maturing and willingness to suffer for your faith and grow and mature
through that suffering as you advance to spiritual adulthood. Once you
understand that it really makes it clear what is going on in another passage.
2 Timothy
It is a
trustworthy statement:
For if we died
with Him, we will also live with Him;
If we endure, we
will also reign with Him;
If we deny Him, He
also will deny us;
If we are
faithless, He remains faithful;
For He cannot deny
Himself.
Here we have a
doctrine put to poetry in these three verses and it is a very controversial
problem passage. But once you understand that there are different categories of
inheritance and that believers who advance to the second category have the privilege
of reigning with Christ and those who are failures are going to enter into
heaven yet as through fire, (1 Cor 3:15) then it makes all the difference.
These are all first class conditions.
2 Timothy
It is a
trustworthy statement:
For if we died with Him, we
will also live with Him;
This is positional
death, identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection (Romans
6:1 -4), if you are identified with Christ in His death burial and resurrection
at the instant of salvation then you will live with Him. This is eternal life
in heaven for ever and ever.
If we endure, we will also
reign with Him;
This puts a
condition on reigning and that’s endurance, but not every believer is going to
endure. Not every believer is going to persevere, some will fall away, they
will not all abide, they are that third branch in John 15 that is gathered up
and taken to judgement.
If we deny Him, He also will
deny us;
Now some take that
second clause as meaning that there is a loss of salvation. That there are
those who endure and they will reign (and every believer will reign) and those
who deny him, well, they will be denied. But that is not what it is saying
because it turns around in verse 13 and says ‘if we are faithless...’
If we are faithless, He
remains faithful;
If we are
faithless, that is a believer who turns his back on his faith. For He remains
faithful for He cannot deny Himself.
For He cannot deny Himself.
Verse 12 is the
issue. Verse 12 is focussing on the advancing believer. “If we endure, we will also reign
with Him;” that is rewards and that is position in the kingdom. If we
deny Him He will deny us rewards and position in the kingdom. That’s loss of
rewards, the believer who denies Christ, denies His authority in his life and
does not advance to maturity but goes out and lives as he wills, will lose
rewards at the judgement seat of Christ, instead of having ‘gold, silver and
precious gems,’ he will have wood, hay and straw and so Christ will deny him at
that point, not in terms of salvation but in terms of rewards. He will lose
everything and enter into heaven yet as through fire. But the faithfulness of
the Lord in saving us is verse 13. If we are faithless, He remains faithful;
Even if we are faithless and all we ever do is put our faith and trust in Jesus
Christ and then 10 mins later decide, ‘well that was a stupid decision,’ we are
still saved, He remains faithful because He said ‘all you have to do is
believe.’ One moment in time you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you are
saved you can never lose it. He is faithful to His word and He can not deny Himself.
So the issue is what kind
of believer do you want to be?
Ø
There
are those who are failures and there are those who are successful and it
depends on your volition. It depends on renovating your soul by the truth of
Gods word.
Ø
It
depends on your volition and your priorities because Gods grace is sufficient
for any situation, any problem and any difficulty in life.
Ø
The
issue is whether or not you are going to make learning God’s word the priority.
Ø
That
is the only way you are going to learn the assets, that’s the only way you are
going to learn the skills, the spiritual problem solving devices and the
spiritual skills necessary to advance and mature in the spiritual life.
Father, we do thank you for
your Grace, your goodness that you have provided everything for us in the
battle of spiritual warfare, in the battle of warfare with our own sin nature
and in the battle with worldly cosmic thinking. That this is all based on
Grace, you have given us everything and all we have to do is learn how to use
it, take the time to devote ourselves to understanding these spiritual
principles, submit ourselves to your authority, being filled with the spirit,
walking by the spirit, abiding in Christ and advancing to maturity. We pray
that you would challenge us with the things that we have learned that we might
realise that we have been saved for a purpose and that is to live in newness of
life, to advance to maturity as adult sons that you might be glorified, we pray
this in Jesus name, Amen.