A Word in Season: The Spirit of Adoption (Romans 8:15)

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In a healthy relationship, children are free. They are free to come into the presence of their father.

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They are free to open their hearts to him. They are free to express their deepest concerns, their most significant needs, their deepest fears perhaps.

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They are able to explain to him what is going on with the confidence that the father who they love and who loves them will hear them, will receive them readily, and will do all that lies in his power to bless them, to keep them, to provide for them.

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So it is with a child of God. In Romans chapter 8, the Apostle Paul talks about those who are led by the

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Spirit of God who are sons of God. The Holy Spirit does not drive us along with a force or a compelling power, but he leads us, leads us gently.

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And that leading, that guiding, that ministry of the Holy Spirit is one of the indications that we are indeed sons of God.

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It is by the Spirit's power that we are made new in Christ Jesus, and it is by the

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Spirit's gracious power that we come to be and know ourselves to be sons of God.

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Adoption is God's declaration that we are no longer alienated from him, no longer at a distance from him, but now brought near to him and become part of his spiritual family.

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And so says the Apostle, you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out,

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Abba, Father. And that's a very precious title for the Holy Spirit, the

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Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God and of his Son, who taking up residence in the hearts of his people, not only bringing us to God, but then also keeping us near God and making

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God known to us in Christ Jesus, can be called the spirit of adoption.

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Now Thomas Manton says quite beautifully that God as a judge by the spirit of bondage sends us to Christ as mediator, and Christ as mediator by the spirit of adoption sends us back again to God as a

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Father. So as the Spirit carries us first to Christ in order that we might find salvation, so having granted to us to know

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Christ, he brings us back to God no longer as judge, but as Father, to call out to him, to cry to him,

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Abba, Father. And there's a sense in which that's the very essence of prayer.

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Remember that our Lord Jesus taught his disciples to pray, Our Father in Heaven.

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Each one of them, truly united to Christ by faith, was able then to refer to God as Father, as Abba.

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And there's profound reverence and there's deep affection in those words.

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And it is by the spirit of adoption that we are able to cry out in that way.

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The reason for this is that not only does the Holy Spirit work in us and lead us and guide us that we might be called and identified as sons of God, but also having brought us to Christ and united us to him, so the

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Holy Spirit works in us to give us confidence in our dealings with God as Father.

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Yes, there are still troubles and still distresses, still confusions, still sometimes doubts and fears in the hearts of God's beloved children.

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But it is by the spirit of adoption that we know ourselves to be children of God.

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There are direct operations of the Holy Spirit upon the heart of God's people. And then there are the realities, the spiritual realities and evidences that the

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Holy Spirit works in a regenerate heart by which we can see ourselves, that the conformity to Christ, which is the privilege and the mark of every one of God's true children, is taking place in us.

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And so the Holy Spirit grants to us by his operations in us and upon us that sweet assurance that we truly are sons of God, and by that we are enabled to draw near.

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And with that deep affection and with that true reverence, with the freedom of children to come into the presence of their

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Father, open all their hearts before him and call upon him, we are able to call

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God Abba Father and receive from our Father in Heaven all those good things which he intends and designs for us.