Romans 8:15, commentary and pictures

Those led by God's Spirit have not received a spirit of slavery that brings them back to fear, but the Spirit of adoption that makes them God's children calling out to Him as their Father.
Adoption comes entirely by free, sovereign grace through sincere repentance and faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice, bringing pardon for past sins and a share in the divine nature.
Those who receive Christ are welcomed from the ruin of sin into the divine family as sons and daughters of the heavenly King, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ to an imperishable inheritance and eternal glory.
They are therefore no longer left in fear that tends to bondage, but can approach God with confidence and affection as their Father, bringing Him their needs in simple, earnest prayer.
As His children they obey not by force or fear but in free, glad service, changed by the new birth from self-love to supreme love for God and conformity to His image.

Meaning in Context

Those led by God's Spirit have not received a spirit of slavery that brings them back to fear, but the Spirit of adoption through whom they cry Abba, Father as God's children. Those who receive that Spirit are freed from fearful bondage and belong to God as adopted sons and daughters who can call Him Father. The Spirit bears witness that they are God's children, and God has revealed Himself as their heavenly Father by sending His Son to redeem them. That adoption confirms they are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, and their hope rests on this sonship. God's love for them in this adoption is greater than the love of earthly parents, so they can trust Him with unquestioning faith and complete confidence.

The verse stands between putting the deeds of the body to death through the Spirit in order to live and the Spirit's witness that believers are God's children and heirs with Christ who suffer now and will be glorified together. Those who accept the Spirit's invitation share Christ's glory if they suffer with Him, for sharing His glory is joined to suffering with Him.

The spirit of bondage is produced by seeking to live by legal religion through striving to fulfill the claims of the law in human strength, leading to fear. Receiving the Spirit of adoption means coming under the Abrahamic covenant, which is the covenant of grace by faith in Christ Jesus. The hope in the verse is the same hope Abraham had, because the gospel preached to Abraham is the same gospel preached today, and Abraham looked to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith.

The cry Abba, Father rises spontaneously from the depths of the soul when doubt and uncertainty are removed and rest of soul is received. The cry comes when the Day Star arises in the heart and Christ is formed within as the hope of glory. It rests on the ample and complete promises of God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that every believer should not perish but have everlasting life, leaving no room to doubt and bringing full joy and continuance in the Father's and Christ's love. It is an individual experience that must be brought into practical, daily life in the science of redemption. The Spirit of adoption reveals the deep things of God. Knowledge of Christ's divine glory does not come from human wisdom or goodness, and it gives no ground for self-glory; it is evidence that God has taught the believer.

Way Adoption Is Given

Adoption is received through sincere repentance and faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice, which brings pardon, forgiveness of past sins, and sharing in the divine nature. The sinner who turns to God in repentance and trusts in that sacrifice becomes a child of God and receives the Spirit of adoption in place of bondage and fear, with the new life bringing the heart into harmony with God and His law so that alienation and rebellion are changed into faith, love, and obedience. The pardoned believer is received not because of personal goodness but because Christ has taken the sinner's place and borne the sinner's guilt, moving from rebellion to loyal service with the hope of eternal life. Adoption comes entirely by free, sovereign grace, to which everything is owed. Grace in the covenant ordained adoption as sons of God, and grace in the Saviour effected redemption, regeneration, and adoption to heirship with Jesus Christ. Redemption, regeneration, and adoption as heirs with Christ are gifts of that sovereign grace, delivering from suffering and the coming wrath.

God revealed Himself as Father by sending His Son to redeem, so that those who accept the invitation and receive the Spirit of adoption are freed from bondage and fear and become heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, sharing His glory if they suffer with Him. Christ, acting as intercessor, introduces believers to God as sons and daughters, and through His blood He pays their ransom and by His merits gives them power to become members of the royal family. When the sinner is converted he receives the Holy Spirit, which makes him a child of God and a joint-heir with Christ and fits him for the society of the redeemed and the angelic host. Jesus has paid the purchase money for the soul, and His cleansing blood is applied upon belief, with the name written in the book of life.

Adoption requires understanding the plan of salvation and cannot come by one's own righteousness, since it is made possible because sins caused Jesus to die a shameful death so that pardon may be received through His sufferings and death. Forgiveness cannot be received before feeling to be a sinner and realizing the sinfulness of sin, and sinners come to value pardon when they sincerely repent, recognize that without Christ's pardoning blood there is only perishing, cast themselves in wretchedness wholly upon His mercy, and yield will and actions to His control. Adoption comes to the broken, contrite heart that lays guilt at the cross, believes Christ speaks pardon, and rests in His love without doubting, entrusting all to Him and pleading for Him to control the will and actions. Adoption follows receiving the truth with full surrender to Christ of all that one has and is, for Christ unites only with those who unite with Him. Through Christ's pardon the repentant believer is freed from guilt, has Christ's pure robe of righteousness put upon him, has peace given and remorse removed, has self-respect restored as one bought with Christ's blood and belonging to Him, has the weakened will strengthened, and is led step by step as he puts his hand in His and lets Him guide. Even children are not too young to die and need this adoption.

Everyone for whom Christ died must receive the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of adoption, appreciating the gift of Christ with whom God gave all heaven to restore the moral image of God in man. Receiving Him forms Christ within as the hope of glory and unites the believer so closely with God that the grace received is imparted to others, making the believer a living channel by which God communicates light to the world. The grace of Christ that brings this adoption is to be received daily and then acted out in words, in spirit, and in deeds, by exercising faith and cherishing the hope and comfort provided, continuing for those who walk in the light as Christ is in the light while each person on test and trial perfects character after the divine similitude. Faith lifts even the repenting soul from the deepest depths to share the adoption of God's sons, because mercy reaches that far. This was shown when Elijah, after standing alone for God on Mount Carmel, fled in weakness and weariness before Jezebel and prayed in the desert that he might die, yet God marked his heart-service and did not leave him to perish in discouragement and solitude in the wilderness or to descend to the tomb, but gave him ascent with angels to the presence of glory.

Standing of Adopted Children

Those who receive Christ are welcomed by God, born of Him, and lifted from the ruin and degradation of sin into His family as sons and daughters. They become children of the heavenly King and members of the royal family, with heaven as their home. All who hold this standing are linked with the family of the redeemed by a tie that cannot be broken. This kinship with Christ calls them to honor God as Father and to treat fellow believers as the Lord's brothers and sisters, living in conformity to His will and representing Him in life and character.

Adopted children are children and heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, and the Spirit who enables them to cry Abba, Father confirms that sonship and heirship. Their inheritance is imperishable, with eternal glory, and their hope rests on this sonship. Sharing Christ's glory is joined to suffering with Him now, for those who would share His glory must share His humiliation and suffering for the truth's sake. Those who accept the Redeemer and stand as His witnesses enlist under His banner as faithful soldiers in the conflict between good and evil, with His assured promise of great reward in the kingdom of heaven and the crown of life. The grace that brings this adoption is to be received daily and acted out in word, in spirit, and in deed, by exercising faith and cherishing the hope and comfort provided, continuing for those who walk in the light to perfect character after the divine similitude.

Adoption gives a bond with God stronger than earthly family ties, elevating the adopted to share in salvation with God to lean upon for support through trials in this life. Sinners and aliens are brought back by matchless love into a sacred relationship through the Son, who is not ashamed to call them brethren, a relationship even more sacred than that of the angels who never fell. Their names are written in the Lamb's book of life, making them part of heaven's nobility though the world does not know or acknowledge them, as it did not know Christ. When any soul approaches God as Father he becomes a child of the heavenly King holding a life-insurance policy endorsed by the Lord God who created him. The adopted child who uses probation to improve time and powers and become like Christ in spirit, word, and character is the overcomer whom Jesus redeems and looks upon with pleasure, covering him with a robe of righteousness, who will walk with Jesus in white because he is worthy.

God's love in adoption is greater and more powerful than the love of earthly parents, with nothing greater or more powerful. It is a love that never disappoints, does not fluctuate, and does not change with circumstances, but continues through time and through eternity, because unchangeableness belongs to His nature and whom He loves He loves unto the end. Whether a person is adopted depends on the person's own choice to receive Him. Therefore adopted children can trust Him with unquestioning faith and complete confidence.

This adoption makes all one in Christ, fitting the converted sinner who receives the Holy Spirit for the society of the redeemed and the angelic host as a child in one family, with the purchase money paid for his soul and cleansing blood applied upon belief. Faith in Jesus makes all the working forces laborers together with God, united as branches of the parent stock bearing fruit to His glory, and pure and undefiled religion binds those who are God's children into one family bound up with Christ in God. Christ binds them to Himself, to God, and to one another, building no walls of separation between a person and his fellow man, unlike proud, partial, exclusive false philosophy that favors only a few and has no power or disposition to uplift the lowly. So the ignorant and the wise, the rich and the poor, the heathen and the slave, white or black, are equal, and birth, station, nationality, or color cannot elevate or degrade, but character makes the person, and those thus adopted are given every advantage of redeeming power and love.

Sonship means each person is under God's direct control and bears individual responsibility for his own course of action with time, mind, and conscience. No mortal, whether youth or man, teacher, educator, or leader, whatever his place, learning, experience, influence, or supposed sharp intuition, can make a chalk line for another to walk on, mark out what he shall do, lord it over him, or dominate his mind, for the human mind is God's property and not to be bound to do any man's will. Every heart and mind is to be lifted up to God with one Master, Jesus Christ, and even Noah, Job, and Daniel could only deliver their own souls by their own righteousness and could not save son or daughter.

Sonship is a precious experience received by faith, with privileges far greater than any advantages and honors the world offers. Believers so adopted are part of heaven's nobility, and fully believing this belonging brings a foretaste of heaven. In this experience a person seeks a higher sense of eternal things, calls upon God with the whole heart with God nigh, endures as seeing Him who is invisible as Moses did, and receives a work from God to do.

Assurance Instead of Fear

Those who receive the Spirit are not left in fear that tends toward bondage, for confidence is given by divine condescension and by wide, deep compassion, tenderness and love. The glory and majesty of God fill the soul with holy awe that humbles in the dust before Him. Honor belongs to Him rather than to sinful, erring men, and He is to receive all there is in a steady, evenly balanced life that illustrates the principles of His law.

Adopted children can cry Abba, Father with thankfulness even while in pain day and night. That cry brings the sustaining grace of Christ. Hope in Jesus takes away loneliness, and Jesus as the light of life is made precious in long wakeful hours of suffering. Knowing God as Father in this way requires the enlightenment of the Spirit of God, by which alone the glory of Christ is seen.

Through the Son people can approach God and call Him Father and Our Father, a relationship to be held with joy and in the highest regard. Sinners and aliens are brought back by matchless love and adopted into the family, so they may address Him by the endearing name Our Father. That name is a sign of affection for Him and a pledge of His tender regard for them. As heirs of grace they receive through the Son, who is not ashamed to call them brethren, a relationship even more sacred than that of the angels who never fell. Living by faith in awareness of His presence and care makes the soul familiar with trusting and relying on Him, a gift to be received with deep thankfulness.

Because of that adoption, those who accept Christ as personal Saviour are born of God as sons and daughters and received into the royal family. As adopted children they offer simple, sincere, earnest prayer as soon as difficulty comes. They bring soul hunger, perplexities, temporal necessities such as daily bread, need for preservation of life and every power for service, and need of help against the devil to their heavenly Father. They know their wants are supplied from the heavenly storehouse, that the Father knows their needs and is moved by their petitions. Christ presents their prayers to the Father mingled with the fragrance of His Spirit, so they are wholly accepted.

Life as God's Children

Adoption must be brought into practical daily life, for the cry Abba, Father rises when doubt is removed and rest is received, when Christ is formed within as the hope of glory upon God's promise that believers in His given Son will not perish but have everlasting life, and that individual experience belongs in the daily science of redemption. The grace that brings adoption is to be received daily and then acted out in word and spirit and deed by exercising faith and cherishing the hope and comfort provided. The privilege continues for those who walk in the light as Christ is in the light, each on test and trial to perfect character after the divine similitude. Those who so use probation to improve time and powers and become like Christ in spirit and word and character are received as members of the royal family, sons of God and heirs of heaven with names written in the book of life. Yet sonship and the inheritance of eternity can be exchanged for worldly gain when life is shaped by worldly influences. The adopted overcomer whom Jesus redeems and looks upon with pleasure is covered with a robe of righteousness and will walk with Jesus in white as one who is worthy.

Adoption into the family brings the new birth and renewal in righteousness and true holiness, not as a birthright or as a gift from any human being but as the gift of God through Christ. Through His Spirit self-indulgence and self-love give way to self-denial and supreme love for God and for Christ. Holiness is not inherited by nature nor achieved by human strength, yet in the Redeemer's strength even weak and erring people can overcome evil. The change brings a changed mind with clearer vision of eternal realities, conformity to God's likeness and image, and progressive change by His Spirit from glory to glory. This gift of grace is more valuable than worldly wealth or clothing and turns the heart from pride and self-love to supreme regard for God.

God has the right to command and adopted sons have the duty to obey, not by force or fear or bondage but as sons and heirs of heaven. Obedience is an honor conferred on the son, to be rendered in free, interested, true-hearted, glad and honorable service and labor for God. Keeping all His commandments reveals a spirit of love for God, the same atmosphere of love in which Christ lived and worked. The sons and daughters of Adam adopted through faith walk in the way of God's commandments in obedience to all His requirements, and through that obedience are made more than conquerors.

That obedience rebukes the evil works of the children of men and alarms Satan and his angels that their prey is escaping from their grasp. Seeing the adopted family keep the law that he hated and transgressed and for which he lost heaven stirs his worst opposition. He sets every power to work to delude and allure them from the narrow path of holiness into the broad paths of sin and transgression.

Adoption creates kinship with Christ that calls believers to honor God as Father and to treat fellow believers as the Lord's brothers and sisters. As sons and daughters by spiritual adoption they are called to live in conformity to His will and to represent Him in life and character. By spiritual adoption they become His chosen representatives, with His image mirrored upon their hearts. They are to reflect it constantly in word and deed by perfection of Christian walk, so making Christ, whom the world does not know, known to the world.

Redemption, regeneration and adoption to heirship with Christ are gifts of sovereign grace, delivering God's children from suffering and coming wrath. Grace in the covenant ordained adoption, and grace in the Saviour effected redemption, regeneration and adoption to heirship, and everything is owed to that free, sovereign grace. While character is now forming for eternity in training for heaven, this grace is to be revealed to others by sowing patience, compassion and love and reaping the harvest sown. Those made children thus become agents through whom Christ works to deliver others, and serving in this work brings precious reward even in this life. Receiving the Spirit forms Christ within as the hope of glory and unites the believer so closely with God that grace received is imparted to others, making the believer a living channel by which God communicates light to the world.

Sonship gives youth dignity and honor, with the discipline of this life preparing them for that high destiny. It gives creation the higher object of honoring God and blessing others, and lifts ambition above low selfish aims and frivolous pleasures. Those who grasp it hate and shun sin because of its inherent baseness as a degrading of God-given powers and Godlike manhood, not merely from hope of reward or fear of punishment. Even children as well as adults may become members of the household of faith, for the young can receive the Holy Spirit's instruction, trust and love Jesus, and gain a lasting experience that turns them from enjoying sin to hating and avoiding it.

The adopted life is healthful and symmetrical, with the blessings of a life hid with Christ in God for everyone who takes Christ's yoke with full determination to obey every word of God. The adopted one has an abiding sense of belonging to the heavenly firm and must trade entrusted talents, earning money not to hoard it but to put it in circulation. In business life this works out the principles of the sermon on the mount by renouncing deceitful weights, despising tricks in trade, and acting toward all as Christ acted on earth.

God offers to adopt guilty, tempted and weak sinners with free pardon and grace to help their weakness. Adoption comes to the broken, contrite heart that lays guilt at the cross, believes Christ speaks pardon, and rests in His love without doubting. Christ puts His pure robe of righteousness on the sinner, takes the sin and gives peace, removes remorse, and restores self-respect because the sinner is bought with the price of His blood and belongs to Him. He strengthens the weakened will and leads step by step when the sinner puts the hand in His and lets Him guide.

Adoption may be known as the identity of sons and children of the heavenly King, a reason to begin the year with confidence. That life is to be lived obediently, cultivating character shaped by goodness, self-denial and responsibility. God's children are not left in fear that tends to bondage but are given confidence by His condescension, wide and deep compassion, tenderness and love. His glory and majesty fill the soul with holy awe that humbles in the dust before Him, with honor belonging to Him rather than to sinful, erring men. All there is of the person is to be given in a steady, evenly balanced Christian life that illustrates the principles of His law.