Sons, Heirs, Joint Heirs

Romans 8 14 through 17 I heard from Jim by email that things were Interesting last week had a good chance to pause a bit and kind of reflect on kind of where we've been Let's begin with verse 12 and read through through verse 17 therefore brethren were debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh and But if we live after the flesh, we'll die. And we, of course, know from Jim and Roger's teaching that death is not us. Yes, physically, we all die. But we're talking about the works here. The works will die. There's nothing that lasts that's of the flesh.

But if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, you'll live. And that's the life of the Spirit. The Spirit gives life, is life. And those deeds of the Spirit, that life of the Spirit, lives on eternally. Now, for today, verse 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." All right. Verse 14, for as many are as led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

Sounds kind of conditional, doesn't it? See, if you're walking in the Spirit, you're the sons of God, and if you're not walking in the Spirit, heck with you, right? You're out in left field someplace. You think that's what this means here? Why not? Why is that, to begin with, in terms of these four verses, not the best way to start? Well, let's build on this and see.

The term sons is wios in the Greek. You're going to pick up on that, Jim. And that sons is really best interpreted adult sons. These are people who have come of age. And we're going to compare this to Technon, which is children, in a couple of verses. And Technon reflects younger children. And 1 John has a lot to say about children, young men, and the seniors, if you will, of the faith. So this positional truth, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they're sons of God, is people who have come of age.

That doesn't mean by works, but by God's relationship as declared with each and every believer. We are identified as sons. No works here. It says, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Now, we're going to look in terms of the conditional versus the unconditional nature of this in more detail. In the highest sense, Jesus Christ is God's son.

And Romans 8.3 so nicely reflects this truth. For what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son, Wios, the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. Now, but in the broadest sense, all men are the offspring of God, are they not?

Is that what that is? And it's connected to the thing in the church. Could be my cell phone. That's actually my tree and my trio. And since most of that's irrelevant to today's Sunday school class, I could. So in the broadest sense, all men are the offspring of God. So so. Margaret, let me give you this. I think this is I think it is my home. I think so. Yeah. Margaret, I used to have a little black book that used to carry around, right? If everything in my life is on that thing now. Oh, well, except, you know, what we're talking about. Talk to Roy about it, wouldn't you?

So Acts 17 gives us a kind of idea of this broader sense for offspring. For in him we live and move and have our being is certain. Also of our own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. I mean, you know, every man and woman who walks this earth is God's offspring, right? He would have all of us come to a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. But in context, this offspring has special interpretation. What does it mean to be led by the Spirit? Back to the question that was posed before. What do you think? What does it mean to be led by the Spirit? No reading on. And what if you're not? Okay. Roger, you want to teach the rest of this guy?

So that's true. I guess the thing is we're thinking about putting metrics to that though, and it's making it very conditional, isn't it? And I think, you know, in my study of this by God's great grace, this is not kind of a conditional statement. Let's build on that a little bit. To lead is here, it's a passive present indicative. I remind you of the tense. Passive means being done to us.

That doesn't mean we lay back and let go and let God. I mean, in a sense, you could really develop a long theology about this. We have to always be active in our faith. We can't passively sit around and expect the light bulb to be turned on when nobody throws a switch on the wall. Okay, so the condition is our faith. But to be led, we're the recipients of that leading.

It's an act of process indicative, meaning it's factual. God has said, you're led by the spirit. So you can say, well, who is Mike Doyle? I'll say, who's this guy dancing around in here, right? Well, according to Thayer, it's interpreted here in this most extreme manner, impelled in forces and influences affecting the mind. So this leading is an impellation or an impelling of God's truth of the fact as believers, we're led by the spirit.

The question is, what's the walk look like? We're not talking about the walk here. We were talking about the walk back in 12 and 13, but now we're talking about what it means to be a son of God. And those that are led by the Spirit, which is a passive existence of who we are in Christ, we're the sons of God. Don't put works on this. This is not a conditional statement.

Let's look at Galatians 5.18. being born again. We're going to build on this case as being led by the Spirit.

Now, your walk may not reflect that all the time, but those back in verse 12, Therefore brethren, we're debtors not to the flesh, but to the living flesh. Verse 13, if you live after the flesh, you're going to die, not you, your works. Yeah, you're going to die too, but your works. Jim, could you read Galatians 5, verse 18, please?

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Well, I mean, How's that one for a statement? The contrast between being in bondage or slavery to a legal system to being led by the Spirit. There's not, oh, by the way, if you're led by the Spirit, you're not under bondage. No, it says we're, in fact, not under bondage because we're Spirit-led. This is directed to the saved, the second birth, which includes both the Jew and the Gentile.

Galatians 3.7, know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. identifying the relationship of those led by faith to Abraham to the relationship as sons we have or adult sons to the Lord Jesus Christ. In context, being led is not service or guidance, but it's who we are. It identifies us with the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are led by the Spirit. And by the way, if you're not being led by the Spirit, you're not one of His. I mean, the question is, the shepherd knows his sheep, and the sheep know their shepherd. And unfortunately, you know, we put too much of an assessment on people's works. Being led by the Spirit is who you are in the Lord Jesus Christ, simply that.

Now, your walk may go astray, but you're still spirit and dwelt. This is a passive thing that God considers as factual that's being experienced in each and every one of us, in fact, if we're born again. This relationship, I think, is confirmed elsewhere. Look at 1 John 3, 1. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.

Therefore, the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. And my question to you is, why does the world know us not? They would never choose God. The world would never choose God, no, not once. So therefore, if we're identified with Christ, and that's who we are, they're not going to know that part of us. They're going to know the flesh.

What's the world's metric? It's works. It's success. And in fact, let's build on that, Rich. I mean, what kinds of things does the world really honor? It honors intellect, doesn't it? Smart people tend to get ahead. It enters good looks. I mean, finances often relate to how good looking you are. It relates to physical talent, doesn't it? Look at the athletes of the world. Look at all the glamour and glory these people get. It honors riches, doesn't it? Financial riches. I mean, these are the world system kind of things. But we can exist in all those environments But yet the world knows us not. Why does the world not know us? All right, and how can the world not see that?

So what does, in context, what does being led by the Spirit mean in terms of the position of the believer? How would he or she smell like that rose 1 Corinthians talks about? What's that rose smell like? It smells like death to the rest of the world. They don't smell the sweet savour.

Okay, true. What's that sweet savour? It's Christ. The life of Christ. It's a life, isn't it? And what's that life look like? Okay, and so how would you describe that to someone who's never heard of the Lord Jesus Christ? All right, and that builds on the principle of grace, does it not? And what does grace eliminate?

Works. All right, so what the world's using as its metric is works. But yet we fall short. If people are looking at our works, we're never going to measure up, because we're always going to make some mistake. I mean, think about your day-to-day walk.

The flesh is fully manifest and has full capability. But those that are led by the Spirit are saved by grace, that's positional truth, and were adopted as sons. We're going to look at that relationship more now, because the son relationship is one like your own children. It's as strong as a parental relationship and perhaps even stronger because it's in God's wisdom that we've been made into this relationship. Very, very special.

So we live in the confidence of who we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our works are totally inadequate. And then by his great grace, he has co-crucified us, buried us, and risen up to be now identified with and led by the Spirit. So being led by the Spirit is the identification of the principle of grace lived out in the Christian life.

Margaret and I had the great pleasure, the Lord Jesus Christ was really very special to us. We were in New York a weekend ago, in fact last Saturday night I think was the evening, and they were a Jewish couple. It's interesting when you have an opportunity to share the Lord that when you're not pushing it, but yet they're the ones driving the conversation. It's so uplifting, and these principles came out. We tried to get them totally off the works aspect. It's not that the works shouldn't be who we are as believers, but yet let's look at grace and what it's really all about."

And she kept asking questions, didn't she, honey? I mean, she wouldn't let us alone. She asked Margaret how she met me. And she couldn't let that go, how someone in science and medicine could be at a Bible study. Not only was I at it, I was the teacher. I mean, they couldn't actually connect that. And she didn't quit for an hour and a half.

So it's really neat, but yet this principle of grace versus works is a principle the world doesn't know, and that's why they don't know us. They don't know grace for what it's all about. So, so important. Now, this is a bit tangential, but I think really relevant as to what the son relationship. We're called the sons of God, and the world doesn't know us because of that relationship. Isn't that neat? And when people start asking questions, they're trying to figure out something that's a little different maybe. And we take no credit for that. We just show up.

Alright, let's go on to Romans 8.15. For you have not received the spirit of slavery. Now keep in mind that the Jew particularly comes out of that system. But I would contend that the non-Jew or Gentile comes out of an atmosphere of slavery.

Because he or she is wedded to works also, are they not? I mean, my brother thinks he's done a lot of good things. He doesn't need the Lord Jesus Christ. By the way, what is that? That's pride. Isn't that pride in the flesh? The idea that I can do enough good things to merit God's favor?

Anyway, Fred, you have not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you've received the spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father. have not received. Active, aorist, indicative. Active meaning it's an active process. Aorist, one point in time, usually historic, but not always. Indicative is factual.

The spirit here, I'm not sure how that little box got in there, but the spirit in the Greek is the term pneumo. And I think we have to be reminded that the spirit of slavery is the same term used as the Holy Spirit. So pneumo is one of those words that you cannot look at the Greek word interpret it for exactly what it means. It relates to the Holy Spirit, but this is not what he is or represents. So again, the point here is that the term spirit can go either direction. We have to interpret it in context. What this spirit relates to here is the atmosphere of slavery.

And I'm quoting Thayer here, Thayer's New Testament lexicon. The thing I like about Thayer a little bit is is that the word is that Thayer was not a believer. So that's kind of interesting. I mean, I don't know whether that's true or not, but that's what a lot of commentators say about Thayer. But Thayer was a Greek scholar. So therefore, in the times of Thayer's interpretation of the Greek text, we look at, quote, a very worldly objective interpretation of the Word of God. Now, how one can get as much into the Word of God and not be a saved man, I have no idea. But I'm just telling you what maybe hearsay.

But Thayer says, used as a slavish sense of fear, devoid alike of buoyancy of spirit and trust in God, such as is produced by the thought of death, Hebrews 2.15, as well as by the Mosaic law and its votaries. So this spirit of bondage or spirit of slavery is nothing in terms of reverence, has no relationship to the reverence in terms of the fear of the Lord we have, but one that's in bondage to a legal system. So my question here is, the fear that comes from this spirit of slavery, is this dread and terror, or is in fact this reverence? And I think I just effectively answered that for you. Keep in mind, fear of the Lord is one of reverence, too. That, in context, is often the way that that should be interpreted. Let's look a little bit further at this.

1 Corinthians 2.12. Now, we've received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. So that's the Holy Spirit. That's what we're studying. He's given unto us the things of God, not the spirit of the world. different spirit, same Greek word.

Second Timothy 1.7, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Interesting, sound mind. We could spend the rest of the time talking about what that's all about.

And Hebrews 2.15, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. So, you know, in general, we all have kind of in our flesh a fear of death, don't we? I mean, I I think we reflect more on how we're going to get there more than the death itself. How difficult is this going to be? But we all kind of think about this thing periodically. My late wife was so beautiful that she wasn't concerned about going to be with the Lord. It was how she was going to get there. And he let her get there pretty gently, actually, over the end time. So that was really sweet. But anyway, fear of death is a whole different thing for the unbeliever because there's no tomorrow, is there not? So this is a fear or a phobia that the believer should not have to relate to, that aspect of the fear. It's the bondage and slavery that the world system is all about.

Adoption. What do you think about when you think about adoption? Those of you in here who may have adopted children or those who may consider adopting or those who reflect on the adoption process, what do you think of the adopted child compared to, let's say, your own children? So Roger, take that on to the next level, the legal system. How does the legal system view the adopted child versus your own child? On equal level, does not the legal system consider an adopted child, your child, as if by birth? You know, talking to people who are in the process of adopting a child, the things that they have to go through to be approved for adoption is much greater than anyone has to be approved to have their own child. Do you make enough money? Is your house large enough? Do you have the resources? Let's do a credit check. How about a background check? Have you ever been in jail?

None of that happens if you have a little child. And that's pretty extensive if you're adopted. There are a couple of people in the workplace for various reasons that are adopting children from foreign soils. There's one couple now waited several years for a child from China who's under the year of one year of age. And then there's another couple. And she just doesn't want to have to be burdened by pregnancy and have to miss work. I mean, there's another couple that are adopting twins from the Ukraine that are older. I mean, the deal with older is it costs little less and I mean the whole big mug is right.

I mean the system the world makes you go through to adopt, do you think that's the kind of system the Lord did here? Looking at qualifications? No. What comes to mind in adoption is a process that's tied up in legal principles and it is the slavery of bondage, is it not? Not God's rules. Entirely different. But yet the legal system, once the adoption process is complete, views that child identical to if that child had been born in your home.

So let's think about those issues. The term adoptions used five times in the Bible, and all relate to the relationship of God to his church. And I think we could look at all those. I'm going to let you take a look at some of these on your own because of time here this morning. But nevertheless, those are all worth looking at. Let's do look at one.

Let's look at Ephesians 1.5. The problem with Ephesians is that first chapter is all one sentence, right? It's kind of hard to look at one verse and take it into context.

So it says here, we're talking about now the believer in Christ in the heavenlies, this is positional truth, but having predestinated us into the adoption of sons by Christ Jesus to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Wow. Is it true though, because we're talking about this too, that In biblical times, if you adopted a child, that child actually had more rights than your own blood children. In other words, you could still sell your own blood children into slavery or make them a slave. Whereas your adopted child had actually, you could never do those things with an adopted child in biblical times. So you're saying it was even better in terms of the benefit to the offspring. That's a very good point. Other thoughts about that? That's good, Margaret. I didn't really reflect on that in my preparation, but that's important.

And we've already kind of done this in terms of adoption, what comes to mind, but compare this to earthly adoption. I mean, the process, we've reflected on that, the process that we have to go through to adopt a child now is substantial, costly, and really a time-dependent issue. But for the Lord, it was one price to pay for all. And Margaret's good to reflect on this. Maybe even a superior relationship than that of a live-born child. And notice what our response is to this.

Abba Father. What do you think about when you think about Abba Father? A term of endearment. Really is. It's kind of informal in a sense, too. It's, hey, daddy. It's kind of one of those very special relationships that we, as children, have with our parents. And so that's not meant for us to be lack of respect paid. our Heavenly Father, but it is a really kind of very intimate, very kind of special relationship.

And that's really kind of the way we're to respond. JFB says, expressing the spontaneousness, the strength, and the exuberance of the final emotions. That's good. I think I like that phrase, the spontaneousness. I mean, it's kind of a relationship with God doesn't require any formality. There's no bondage to a process here. We have a very comfortable kind of backroom kind of relationship, which doesn't make it unfair.

It makes it very special, very intimate. And I don't think we reflect on that enough, that casuality. And by the way, what's coming in Romans 8 is this prayer issue in terms of these utterances we all make that we don't even consciously are aware of. And that comes from this kind of very special and intimate relationship. we have with the Heavenly Father.

Here's a quote from Strong. It's a customary title used of God in prayer. Whenever it occurs in the New Testament, it has the Greek interpretation joined to it. That is apparently to be explained by the fact that the Kaldi Abba, through frequent use in prayer, gradually acquired the nature of a most sacred proper name to which the Greek-speaking Jews added a name from their own tongue. That's Strong's view of all this, and we could take a little look at that. Let's do the look at Galatians 4, 5 through 7 together right now. Let's start with 4.

But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Let's just reflect on that just a second. Remember, we're led by the Spirit. So the fact that we've been redeemed to receive the adoption of sons, we're led by the Spirit. Remember, fact, position. Those who are believers are led by the Spirit. Don't put the yardstick to that. It's true. If you are a saved person, you are led by the Spirit. Don't ever let anyone convince you to the alternative. So, again, verse 6, And because you are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, saying, crying, Abba, Father, wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir, God through Christ."

Verses very nicely parallel. And I just noted here, this is a very special relationship we have for sure. This is nothing to be placed in kind of a second-place category. This is very special. And you know, when things get tough, which they often do, and that roller coaster seems to be at the bottom of the hill instead of at the top, and We go through all the trials and tribulations. This is a sweet reminder of what life is all about. To be identified as an adopted son, and maybe with special privileges, right? And of no work of ours but our act of faith. Very special.

Romans 8.16, this is a Darby translation.

The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Now I got tripped up a little bit here because of itself. keep in mind that itself is relating to the spirit here. Well, I had to kind of get that worked out because every translation I looked at said itself, not himself. But doing a little homework here, I came away feeling convinced that it should be himself, even though it's translated itself.

Now let's look at that. Itself is confirmed by other translations, for instance, even the inner linear Greek puts itself for the spirit. Now we think of the spirit as he, Part of the triune godhead has a masculine identification, and itself seems to be neuter, so neither masculine, feminine. So if you go to the original Greek, the term here is autos, without gender. It simply refers to self. And spirit, again, is pneuma, which in itself is a neuter term.

But the Greek used also the natural gender as we do exclusively, as in John 16.13.

Let's look at John 16.13. To proceed this by verse 12, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Nevertheless, when he, autos, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come."

So actually, the he here is really ikon of masculine. The term spirit is neuter. Let me correct that, what I just said. The term spirit is pneuma, is neuter. But yet the he that is frequently referred to, and in verse 14, he shall glorify me, is in the masculine, and the Greek term there is a khanos. So the spirit is not itself.

Why it's interpreted itself in Romans 8, 16 is not entirely clear to me, but it really is a new term there and is best interpreted. Yeah, but it's funny. I've looked at numerous translations, maybe 10 or 12 of them, and itself was there for all of them. Now, whether they depended on the interlinear Greek, some of these, and it had itself there.

But according to Robertson, I quote him, it is a grave mistake to use the neuter, it or itself when referring to the Holy Spirit, because the text almost entirely refers it to a masculine term, he. So don't get misled like that, like I did on this whole issue. think it is very appropriate for the human spirit because pneuma is neuter there and the human spirit clearly is not identified with masculine gender or feminine gender.

So this spirit bears witness, he bears witness or testifies, which implies kind of jointly the Holy Spirit and our spirit kind of get together here and this is a present active indicative. This is happening right now and It's an active process of the spirit, and it's factual.

It's going on in each one of us all the time. That's why we're being led by the spirit. If you are born again, you're led by the spirit. And this active relationship is not appealing to the intellect, but it's appealing to their consciousness. So this isn't something you smarten up about. When you're born again, the spirit testifies or bears witness with our spirit that we're the children of God. And that's a tremendous truth. And, you know, once saved, always saved, and that's what this really implies. Our spirit and the Holy Spirit bond together in our conscious mind to say we're sons of God. No doubt, ever, about this. So where do those thoughts come from, Roger? What do you think? I'm not coming from a squirrel now, I think. I think it's the old man.

I mean, I think after people are initially saved, I know for me, I questioned it a lot, you know, just because, gee, what's this life of Christ supposed to look like? That's not the way I'm... I mean, you know, there's a lot of self-condemnation. There's a lot of kind of the works mindset initially.

But I think, I mean, more the fathers or the young men, the people quoted 1 John that are more advanced in their understanding of the Word of God, doesn't that occasionally come up even in some of us? I mean, occasionally, you know, you just kind of don't know whether you're profoundly impressed with how powerful the flesh is and you say this, or what it is, but this is never... never should this be an atmosphere of doubt on our behalf. Being led by the Spirit, we're placed, positioned, and adopted. So yeah, please Jim.

So then how would we interpret that if a believer but then is walking, but is being controlled by its own nature. So how does that play out? Well, if we're assuming this is positional truth, that's never threatened, right? I mean, you know, every believer is positioned above. When that walk is of the flesh, I mean, what can we say that that bonding process, this active, present active indicative, it's happening right now relationship is something that God declares is true, but we, in fact, don't live. We doubt our faith falls short. I mean, I don't know. I mean, the flesh is always capable of everything it could always do, is it not? I mean, if we fall back in the power of the flesh, we can do anything.

The Spirit constrains us to some extent, but I think the freedom from a very positive perspective lifts us up above all this and gives us a freedom to walk without that bondage that these verses really reflect on. And you hear Christians say, well, I'm a sinner. But God sees you as a saint. But you still can sin. So that kind of builds up in our mind kind of a conflict in its position. For example, we're seen in Christ, but we still have capacity to sin.

I think we look at these verses, Jim, to be uplifted in them and be positioned and recognize that being born again is being led by the Spirit. Yes, our walks can fall short, but God doesn't want us to study the walk or study the sin or the sin nature. Yes, he has us understand it better as we walk further.

Remember, the principle is that as the darkness gets greater, the light becomes brighter. I mean, in a sense, that's the beauty of the salvation experience, is that when the darkness gets really dark, the light of the Lord Jesus Christ gets even brighter. So as we grow in grace and truth, ultimately, I don't know about you all, but ultimately sins show up you didn't even think were there. I mean, in other words, there's this grace manifestation in every aspect of life. And what can we say about this? I mean, one of my children, in fact, is in this position, you know, biblically saved as far as we can recall. And I think she even recognizes that. But the issue is, where's her walk? And it ain't there. Has God changed his relationship with her positionally? I don't think so. But yeah, but the walk. So the question is, why isn't that bonding, that conscious bonding of the Holy Spirit with our spirit, more impacting in some people's lives than others? I mean, keep in mind, we put metrics on... and God's metric, I think, is are you saved?

I've been saved, I'm being saved, I will be saved, and ultimately then it's the power of the... I mean, the believer has a will. We've been there in this class before. We have a will, and that will is to believe what God has revealed. Margaret? even for those people that are not walking in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is going to, that's His job, is to convict, to show that person that He's not walking down the street and taking their life. We pray every day that the Holy Spirit will just continue whatever that path is. And I ask the class to continue to pray for that. For her to come and to realize that. But I think the Holy Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit's job. Carol, we need to be careful that there's not a cockiness on our behalf in terms of this Walker relationship, right? I mean, God is in the business of reminding us of who we are. and there's no human arrogance that's possible here. Excellent. Roger.

I was wondering, is the word lead, I think that's part of Jim's question, is the word lead always a positional statement? I mean, the Galatians and Romans sort of looked at it that way. I can't answer that, Roger. I did never ever reflect on that. But that's a good question. I didn't. Anybody have a thought of it? I didn't want to go off on another.

But you used lead in the passage sense for the believer. The Holy Spirit draws us to salvation, too. Correct. And is that lead in the passage in that sense? Well, we'd have to look at a verse to interpret that. Do you have one in mind? No. I mean, the whole process about how people come to salvation is, I think, one that we could talk about a long time here. I mean, God would have all men to come unto himself. But our will reflects on that decision, doesn't it? And is it an act? Does God act by faith to bring us to that step to become saved? Or in fact, are we just intellectually making that decision?

I mean, there's really a lot to converse about that. I mean, God would have all come to himself, right? So that means he's calling all men unto himself and women. But the process of how that happens, I don't know. I just reflect on your own salvation.

But I increasingly became impressed with with what that life of my wife was looking like that I hadn't seen before. And that opened up more inquiry and understanding. I didn't get saved by my intellect. I got saved by a life that was changing before me. But we all go through different steps to come to salvation. Let's see, we've got to move quickly. I want to finish today because next week, although we could potentially pick up where we left off today, and I can finish off next week.

I was going to read 2 Peter 1.4.

It says, by which are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And in fact, that really is this bearing witness with our spirit, this Holy Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are sons of God. So we then can partake of the great and precious promises. And by these, we have the divine nature, which allows us to escape the corruption of the world around us.

I mean, that's pretty special. And that's a heavenly view. We can never be convinced with an earthly view, reading the newspapers or watching the news on the television, that good things are happening. But remember, our citizenship ain't here. we're heavenly citizens. And God has given us the ability, through this bearing witness of his spirit with ours, that we are the sons of God. Now we see in this verse also that we're the children of God.

Our is present indicative, no voice here. And it's interesting, no voice, not active, not passive. You think, well, gee, how's this taking place? And this is just kind of a reflection on the Blue Letter Bible says, in almost all of these cases, one can assume that the tense is present and the voice is active. especially when the sense is that of a command, imperative, and that's what we have here. But I just reflect that it could be that this is such a done deal and reflects our oneness to the extent that no voice is necessary here. We are the children of God. It's not something that, gee, we're made the sons of God. We looked at that being passive recipients of the hope being led by the Spirit. Our faith is active in responding to this, but here We're the children of God.

It's so firm, so solid, so convincing that we don't need a tense. It's pure identification. That's a speculation on my part. I put a question mark there. So I won't force that down your throat. But maybe the absence of tense here reflects the oneness, the pure oneness we have with our Heavenly Father.

Children here is technon. This is not huevos, which is the adult son that we were talking about being adopted as sons. We're now talking about being children. In the human perspective, this is Thayer again. The name transferred to that intimate and reciprocal relationship formed between men by the bonds of love, friendship, trust. just as between parents, and I put in this, younger children, because tecton usually, in Scripture, reflects younger children. It does not reflect the adult son concept of adopted sons. And let me have you maybe reflect on this a little between now and next week. Why do we start with being adopted sons, and now we're commented on as being children?

And I was just going to have us discuss a little bit, how is this act of the Spirit carried out? What are your thoughts? The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Any thoughts about that? Well, there are a lot of different ways. Time, again, doesn't permit us to look at this, but in 1 John 4, 13, it talks about the knowledge that we have.

Hebrews 2.15, the words that were given. Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit.

And Romans 8.5, the attention, or is it more than this?

And Romans 8.5, just read briefly because it was the beginning of the chapter that we're currently looking at.

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. So in a sense, that's being led by the Spirit. Our attention is given to the things of the Spirit. So all these things, the knowledge of who we are in Christ, the words of the Spirit, the attention given the Spirit, and finally, the works of the Spirit being fruit. And I think what we're going to do is, well, let me just finish this because we're almost done with this verse. So let's ponder on 1 John. 5.10 for a second.

He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself, and he that believes not has made God a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave him the Son. Let's not look at the second part of the verse, but the first. He that believes on the Son hath the witness in himself.

Is that not being led by the Spirit? I mean, again, don't get distracted by works. you're a son of God, you're led by the Spirit. And if that understanding is not there, then ultimately you have some really little bit of homework to do about what your relationship to the Heavenly Father is. The scripture unequivocally declares that we're adopted sons and that Spirit bears witness with our spirit of that relationship.

So, I think we're going to stop there. What I'm going to do next week is pick up at verse 17 and we'll go ahead and finish with 18 and 19. Again, I have to question the person who made the schedule here today. Let's close in prayer. Father, we're grateful for the time together here and the perfect wisdom you have and we work through the power of the Spirit and our own capabilities to bring the best in understanding, and we'll trust that those things that are our view and the truth of the Word will be continuously manifested in our thoughts and minds and hearts and the lives that we live by faith. We're thankful for the gathering, we're thankful for the season, and we're thankful mostly and eternally for the Lord Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.