Christ Life In Us Romans 8:12-15 Sons of God

Well, we come to a really awesome passage this morning. We are in Romans 8, 12 through 15, and I've simply titled the message, Sons of God. Here we are in Romans chapter 8, carrying on with some very important verses. Very meaningful truths here in these verses, very important. But also some things that are often very poorly interpreted. And so we want to make that as clear as possible this morning. I just want to review what we looked at last week.

Last week in verses 9 through 11, we saw a lot about being indwells. In verse 9, we read, the Spirit of God indwells you. In verse 10, we see it, if Christ is in you. Verse 11, in the first part, we have, if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead indwells in you. Okay, that'd be the spirit of the father, his context, and the last part, you see the words, through his spirit who dwells in you. So it's an emphasis, it's a major emphasis, and what Paul is doing here is he's contrasting the indwelling of the Holy Spirit with the indwelling sin nature that he talked about back in chapter 7.

Chapter 7 is this big frustration. It's a frustration that I think all of us are familiar with to some degree. Sometimes we read Romans 7 and we think we're talking about big moral failures in the Christian life or something like that, but that's not really necessarily the point. Paul is talking about two opposing natures that exist in you and I as believers. And Paul sums up that frustration in 7.25. He says, So we want to have a godly life, we want to live a life that pleases our Savior, but we find the sin nature too powerful.

And we wonder, is there any hope? Is there any deliverance from this situation? And in the end of chapter 7, Paul cries what all of us cry eventually, who will set me free from the body of this death? And the answer is found in the following verses, I think in 8.2, we see something really important to that answer.

For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. And the answer to the whole frustration is in those words, has set you free. We have these two indwelling natures and we have that frustration, but we are free from the power of the sin nature.

We no longer are legally bound to the sin nature to obey it, right? And so, We talked last week about the principle that death separates us from the relationship. But just as death breaks that legally binding relationship, only death can break sin's authority over us. And so Paul's whole point is that even though you still have a sin nature indwelling your flesh, you have died to it.

It has no more authority over you. That authority has been broken. We talked about how you died. And that's really, really important to be clear on that. It has everything to do with the fact that you have been identified with the Lord Jesus. Now, if you were here at the conference a couple of weeks ago on Saturday, what do we have sitting up on the table up here? Someone can, what was it? Pickles. Why did we have pickles up here to illustrate this truth?

Baptism, right? Exactly, because when you placed your faith in Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit baptizes you and we think, what? We only think of baptism in terms of some water ritual. But the word simply means to permanently identify. to place into so as to permanently identify. It's a really oddly specific word. But it had several uses in the Greek language and one of them was actually making pickles. So you take your cucumbers and you baptize them, you immerse them into the vinegar solution and their identity is permanently and irreversibly altered.

And that's the picture of being baptized or identified with the Lord Jesus Christ. You now have His identity. And that's the key to understand how you died. Because you are permanently identified with Jesus, His death is recognized by God as your death. Because Jesus died to the power of sin on the cross, and you are in Christ, then you died to sin when He died.

And we use that example of your American citizenship, okay, for most of us here. Because of your identity as an American, you are free from the reign of the king, right? The king of England. Not because you fought in the war for independence, but because of your identity in the nation that did, right? The king of England has no authority to tell you what to do. And as Christians, neither does your sin nature. It's authority over you has ended, it's broken. And that's what it means to be dead to sin. Your sin nature no longer has the authority to control you. And then of course... There's a flip side of this, right?

We don't want to focus all our attention on the fact that we've died to sin, because not only are we dead to sin, but we are alive to God. Romans 6-11, even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. There's no neutral position in the gear shifter here. You're either in Adam, alive to sin and dead to God, or you are in Christ, dead to sin and alive to God. And when you see this verse, never forget that these things are true because of the last three words, because you are in Christ Jesus.

And this doesn't mean that you feel like the sin nature has lost its power. That's really important. It doesn't mean that the sin nature has gone away or that the sin nature has died. Remember, death means separation. The sin nature is still present and active in you, just as active as ever, if not more so, okay? But what's amazing is the way that God has done this, right?

How we feel doesn't change the reality of it. He wants us to trust him about what he's done, even when it doesn't seem like it's true or doesn't even seem like it's possible, and that's a faith thing. Trusting the Lord about what he's done, even when it doesn't feel real, right? And faith is always what the Lord is interested in. And it's really what it means to walk by faith. It's to trust him about what he's done.

The fact that he has separated you from the power of sin, which kept you from him, and he has brought you into life, eternal life in Christ Jesus. And then last week we saw in verse 11 the promise that the Holy Spirit will give life to our mortal bodies. And we asked, is that the future resurrection? I mean, we know that someday these bodies will be replaced and we won't have indwelling sin anymore, but in context, This is the Holy Spirit producing the life of Christ through our earthly bodies right now.

And I think that's the right interpretation because that fits the whole context. That answers the problem that Romans 7 brought up. The question was, how can we have a godly walk when we're still indwelt by a sin nature that's constantly seeking to control us? And the answer is that by identifying us with his Son, God has separated us from the power of the sin nature through death and is presently indwelling us so that he can live through us. So that, I think, is the answer to that whole frustration, the whole question, is that even in these fallen, decaying, earthly, fleshly bodies, the Holy Spirit is able to produce Christ's life in and through each one of us.

Now, the only question is, do you believe it? I heard of someone who really should have known better on this point, but he made this comment recently. He said, as a believer, you are in Christ. And then he turned around and said this, the hard part is living like it.

And that is a total misunderstanding of what the Christian life is supposed to be. We're not trying to live up to who we are in Christ, right? We're not trying to live like him. I mean, sometimes you hear that expression, you know, from father to son, well, you're a steward, you know, live like it, kind of a thing, or whatever your last name might be, you've got to live like who you are. But that's not how the Christian life is lived.

We're trusting Him to live through us. That's a totally different thing. It's not me trying to live up to my identity. It's Him living out in us who He is. So our part is to trust Him. Trust Him to produce in these fallen earthly bodies His righteous life.

So now we get to our verses for today. Verses 12 through 15. I think I forgot to put that verse up. Oh, there we go. But here's our verses for today. And Paul begins here with this expression, so then. He's drawing an important conclusion from what he's just explained. And notice that he's careful to use the word brethren here. This is something that is true for all believers.

So let's just read these again just to get our minds on track here. So then brethren, we are under obligation not Sorry, that language kind of confused you. We normally say we are not under obligation, but it says, we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. 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. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry out, Abba, Father." And so, looking back at verse 12 there, what is Paul concluding when he says, So then, brethren, what does he conclude for all believers? So then, brethren, what?

Well, we are not under obligation to the flesh. That's the conclusion of what he said up to this point. And you might have the word debtors in your translation, and that is literally what the word means. And so we could say here that we don't owe the flesh a thing. The flesh is viewed as a creditor or a master.

The flesh makes certain demands of you and I as individuals. And before we were born again, You know, we were happy, more than happy to go along with every desire and demand of the flesh, right? Because what are the demands of the flesh? What's the desire of the flesh, right? Anything that serves my interest, anything that makes me happy. And that looks different for different people, right? But basically, the demands of the flesh are all about serving self. Why? Because I love myself above all else. It's really self-worship. That's what the demands of the flesh are.

And so we happily went along with the desires of the flesh. But when we were born again, something changed, right? We now have the Holy Spirit indwelling us with a whole different desire. And the desire of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. And that gets in the way of the desire of the flesh to glorify me. So now we've got these opposing desires going to battle in us.

And the question is, am I going to live for what I think will glorify me? Or will Christ be glorified in me? And in any moment, we can go either way, right? We can live according to the flesh or we can live according to the spirit. But what Paul is saying here is that we have no obligation to respond to the flesh. We don't ever have to respond to the flesh.

And probably most of us have had the experience of being in some sort of debt, right? And hopefully you've also had the experience of paying off a certain debt. But you know probably what it's like to have to send in those payments month after month or week after week. It's burdensome. It gets old. We have an obligation to our creditors. We are serving them.

Proverbs 22.7 says the borrower is slave or servant to the lender. It's just a principle. If you borrow from someone, you are a servant or a slave to repay that.

And maybe you've gone through a time where you couldn't make your payments, and that is a stressful situation. You don't even want to pick up the phone, right? But when the debt is finally paid off, What does that feel like? You have no more obligation to the creditor. You can leave the phone alone. It's a great thing. They can't make any demands of you.

We understand that to some degree, but we have to understand that our obligation to the flesh wasn't like a debt we could pay off. We had a permanently binding obligation to the flesh. We were enslaved to the flesh as our master. And the only way that we could be freed from it was to die.

Okay, we could never, you know, it's like some of these proverbs that talk about fire is never satisfied, right? There's these things that never say enough. Death is one of them. Fire is, you know, we have all these different pictures of things that never say, oh, I'm good now. No, the flesh is like that, right? The flesh will never say, okay, yeah, you've served me enough.

Now you can serve the Lord some too or whatever. No, it's the only way to be freed from our obligation, our bondage to the flesh was to die. And what has Paul been telling us through all these chapters that we've been studying here? beginning back in Romans 6.2, how shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Again, the same idea, that we've been identified with the Lord Jesus Christ so that we are participants in his death. We've been freed from our obligation, our bondage to the sin nature. We're now free to live for the Lord rather than for ourself.

Romans 6.18 says, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. So our obligation to the sin nature is over.

It can make whatever demands it wants, and it does. I love with banks, when you paid off some debt, they'll still start sending you letters. Hey, would you like to take out another loan? We've got this great deal for you. You don't have to respond. The flesh can come back to you all at once. You never have to respond to the demands of the flesh. We are dead to it.

So verse 13, we're going to just look at the first part first and then the second part, okay? So Paul gets really practical here in verse 13. He begins with the word gar or for. And what he wants to do is he wants to kind of pause and explain. We can think of gar as an explanatory word, right?

He wants to explain the consequence of living according to the flesh. You are not under obligation to the flesh, but just in case you're wondering what it would look like, what does he say? That if you live according to the flesh, you must die. So you're not under obligation to the flesh, but if you choose to live as if you're under obligation to the flesh, you must die. The word must, the N-A-S-B, is mellow. It carries the idea of an expected result. A better translation might be, you are going to die, or you will surely die. And he contrasts that then with the alternative.

If by the spirit you're putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. So it's a contrast between death and life. And we have to ask ourselves, what kind of death? What does Paul mean here by die and live? Now this can't be eternal death. Why not? Why can't it be eternal death?

Because Paul is talking to believers. Verse 12, brethren. Now, always remember that when we see the word death in the Bible, it has many different uses. And what it's getting at depends on the context, right? But at the root of the word death is always the idea of separation. So if you can keep that in mind, it's really gonna help you. Just remember that when you see death, some sort of separation is in mind. One use of the word death in the Bible refers to those who are eternally separated from God. They have no relationship to Him. They are dead to Him.

We see this in Ephesians 2, verses 4 through 5. It says, but God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us even when, what, when we were dead. in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved." That use of the word death is talking about all those who have not put their faith in Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection, his cross work to pay for their sins. All of those people are still dead in their transgressions. They have no relationship with God.

But When we placed our faith in Jesus Christ, we were taken out of death, is the way the Bible says it. We were taken out of death and into life. John 5, 24 says, truly, truly, I say to you, he who, this is Jesus speaking, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Okay, so every believer has passed out of this death forever. It's an irreversible work of God to bring us out of death into life, bringing us into an eternal relationship with himself. But we know that this is not the death that Paul is talking about here because every believer has passed out of that death once and for all. So no one who has put their faith in Jesus Christ can ever be subject to that death again. Our relationship with God is unchangeable. But there is a death that you as a Christian can experience. What kind of death are we able to experience as Christians? It could be physical death. As a Christian, unless the rapture comes sooner, you will die physically.

But physical death isn't necessarily a consequence for living according to the flesh. It could be in some instances. I mean, your sin may take you to that point. But more often, physical death for the believer is looked at as a joyful thing, going to be with our Lord face to face. not usually looked at as a consequence for sin. So what I think this is talking about here is a death that you and I can experience even while you're physically alive. So what kind of death can you be experiencing right now as a believer?

Paul gives an example of it here. in his letter to Timothy, but she who gives herself to wanton pleasure is dead even while she lives. Okay, so you've got here a person, a believer, who is, in context, who is living in sin and is experiencing death, in death, is dead even while she lives. So there's, that's an example, but we also see kind of a similar type of use of the word death in the parable of the prodigal son. So I think we're all familiar with the prodigal son.

The son leaves home. He takes his share of his father's wealth and he goes off and squanders it. He finally realizes that I'm in big trouble here. Maybe, maybe, just maybe I can go back to my father on my hands and knees and beg to become his servant. But we see the father's words to his son When he returns, he says, for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found, and he began to celebrate. Now, a lot of times this parable is used as an illustration of someone coming to salvation, and I don't think that that's actually what's in view, because this son began, in the beginning of the parable, had a relationship to the father.

He was already a son. And did he ever lose that relationship with the father? No, he was still his son. And he didn't die physically either. But the death, that the son died, was a death to his fellowship with the father. He was still his son, but when he was off squandering his father's wealth, there was no fellowship between father and son.

And that's the kind of death that we have in view here. So this isn't eternal death. This is what, You know, it's hard to put words around it, but some have called it temporal death. And so we have eternal death, which is separation from a relationship with God, which will eventually wind up in eternity in the lake of fire. But then we have what we could call temporal death, which is separation from the benefits and enjoyment of that relationship. Separation from the life that God wants for you to have in him.

And think about it, right? When we're walking according to the flesh as believers, Is Christ actively living his life through us at the same time? No, right? Are we experiencing fellowship with the Lord? No, and that's what Paul's explaining. This is an if-then statement, right?

If you are living according to the flesh as a believer, then you should expect to be in this state of temporal death. In other words, you're not living the kind of life that is pleasing to God and is a blessing to other believers. So that's the kind of death that Paul's talking about. When you're living according to the flesh, you're in this state of death. You've never lost your relationship with God, but you are not walking in fellowship with him, and his life is not being lived and manifest through you.

And then we have the last part of the verse, and this is another if-then statement, right? And it's contrasted with the first one, but, if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body you will live." And there's a lot of misinterpretation that goes on with this statement, right? First of all, if we have the wrong death in view, okay, in the first part of the verse, and that's why we spent so much time on that, if we have the wrong death in view, Then what happens to the life in this half? If we have eternal death in view in the first part of the verse, then we all of a sudden transport eternal life into our thinking in the second half of the verse, and we make this last half of the verse a condition for eternal life. And that contradicts so much scripture, it's not even funny, right? The Bible says that faith is the only way to receive eternal life.

1 John 5.13, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. So that's a major, major problem.

If we try to import into Romans 8, 13, the idea that somehow putting to death the deeds of the body results in eternal life and gaining a relationship with God. So we want to steer far clear of that kind of interpretation. If we're consistent with our understanding of death in the first part of the verse, where you will live, it's not talking about being born again.

It's talking about fellowship with the Lord. And that as Christians, we all have eternal life, right? Then... then what this is talking about is the outflow of Christ's life through us. In John 10, Jesus said, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Not only does God want you to have eternal life, but he wants to generate a fruitful life through you and I, the abundant life, the life of the vine flowing through us to produce his fruit.

But what's the condition? What's the condition in this statement? And this is where a lot of misinterpretation happens as well. Even if we know that this is not talking about eternal life, gaining eternal life, and we know that this is talking about the abundant life or the fruitful Christian life, there's still a lot of misinterpretation because, what does it say there? If, the conditional clause, if by the spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Why does this get misinterpreted?

When we see the words, putting to death the deeds of the body, what do we automatically think? We think we know what that means. We think that we've got to crush sin in our lives. We've got to get really serious about overcoming sin. I've heard this kind of paraphrase, we've got to wake up in the morning and kill sin, and then we've got to keep on killing it.

How successful, I'm sure you've heard statements like that, but how successful is that going to be? I've been there, I'm sure many of you have as well, and I can tell you from experience it is not going to work. So many courageous attempts are made, so many resolutions, so many commitments, and then recommitments, and then re-recommitments, and one strategy after another, and they all fail. They all fail. But we don't have to base our interpretation on our experience, because what does the Word of God say? What did Paul say in 7 verse 18?

And so, whatever it means to put to death the deeds of the body, it does not mean that you can, in your strength, put down sin. And of course, a lot of people who take that position will say, well, I know, I know that I can't do it in my flesh, but I can do it in the power of the Spirit. And the verse does say, by the Spirit, putting to death the deeds of the body, but where's the problem even then? What are we depending on the Spirit to do? We pray, oh Lord, take away my desire for fill in the blank. Oh Lord, give me the power to do whatever it might be. But it always turns into asking the Lord to do something for you rather than resting in what he's already done.

And that's the mistake. Because the only thing that can break the power of sin is death. And that's not something that has to be accomplished still, right? It's a finished work. I have been crucified as Christ. So, when we get in that mode of expecting or asking the Lord to do something about the sin in our lives, we're taking our eyes off of what He has already done. and we've already lost the battle because it's been won. If we're looking for something to be accomplished, we're not depending on what is already being accomplished, right? So the only way to put to death the deeds of the body is to count on the fact that we are already dead to it. First, we have to know the facts about what God has done, right? You can't count on the facts if you don't know them, and that's Romans 6, 6. No, I don't have that on there, sorry.

Romans 6.6, which says, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be made powerless so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. Okay, that's the facts.

We have been crucified as Christ, and then we have to count on that reality Which is in Romans 6 11 even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus And that's how we put to death the deeds of the body by counting on what God has already done And that's what Paul means when he's talking about it being by the Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who baptized us into Christ so that we share in His death and resurrection, and it's the Holy Spirit who has revealed the fact of that to us through His Word. Our job is to believe it, to count on it, and that's what what translates or brings the legal reality into a practical reality. When we count on what God has done, that takes what is already accomplished fact legally and makes it a practical reality in our day-to-day walk, in our moment-by-moment faith.

And so It's very important that we don't take verse 13 and turn that into an exercise in trying to stop sinning. You'll never be able to. This is talking about counting on what God has done to free you, to put you into a position or situation of being dead to the flesh. And then verses 14 and 15 begin with the word for.

And what Paul is doing when you see the word for, it's a logical kind of a word. It's, you know, building a logical argument, so to speak. But if you can think of it in terms of strengthening. Okay, so Paul has made a statement, and I'm looking back to verse 12, and now he is strengthening the conclusion that he drew in verse 12.

So the summary of verse 12 is that we are not under obligation to the flesh, right? Its legal rights over us have ended, and now the Holy Spirit through Paul introduces a powerful truth about our adoption as sons, and this proves that our legal obligations to the flesh are over. And that's why he begins with four. But in verse 14, the adoption of sons doesn't come until verse 15. But in verse 14, we have, for all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. And this isn't intended to make you question, well, am I led by the Spirit?

This is a defense here of the fact that all believers are free from sin's power. Okay, so the idea is that as a believer, you are led by the Spirit. Okay, this doesn't mean that we always understand His leading, it doesn't mean that we always respond to His leading, but it's a fact that He is leading us. The verb being led is a present passive indicative, which means that this is a fact. It's going on continuously and it's what God's doing, not what you are doing. The Holy Spirit does lead us.

We are being led by the Spirit of God as believers. This is really just a way of stating the fact that you are a Christian. The believer, the one who is in Christ, the one who is being led by the Spirit of God, is the Son of God. So those who are being led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. And the point, okay, is that you are a son of God. And that's a really big thing for Paul to say, right?

The fact that we are sons of God means that we are free from our obligations to serve the flesh. And the title, Son, tells us something about the relationship that we have to God. We have a father-son relationship with God. We have some idea of the unbreakable quality of a father-son relationship. But verse 15 actually expands in a very profound way on the father-son relationship. Because verse 15 says, for you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out Abba Father.

And the term adoption as sons is a single word in the Greek. And it means we don't really have this concept of adoption in our culture today. It was a Roman culture concept. And it means to be placed in a position of full legal status as an heir of the father. So it's not just flowery language here. This is a statement of a legal reality.

We've been legally separated from Adam's condemned race through crucifixion death and we've been joined to Christ Jesus so that We share his standing before the Father. That's what it means here to be adopted as sons. We've been adopted as a son just like Jesus Christ is. We share his same standing before God the Father. And that's an amazing reality.

And so rather than having a spirit of fear, we have a standing before God that is the same as Jesus himself. Not because of what we are, but because we are identified with Jesus. We share Jesus' standing before the Father because we are in Christ. And that changes everything about the Christian life.

As Christians, there should be no more struggling under the bondage of law and the fear of death. In my study this week, I was reading through Hebrews and found that in Hebrews 2, some very applicable truth to what we're studying here. And the author writes, therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise, talking about Jesus, also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. That was our situation, the fear of death under the bondage of law.

For assuredly he does not give help to angels, but he gives help to the descendant of Abraham. Therefore, he had to be made like his brethren in all things so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. That phrase there in verse 17, his brethren is so big, so powerful.

That's what this is all about. The Lord Jesus has brethren. And that's what we are. That's what we've been made to be. We've been made his brethren. And notice that in verse 18, where it says, because Jesus himself was tempted, he was tempted and tried as a man, he is able to come to your aid in trials. And this ties in perfectly with what Paul's saying in Romans 8.

We cry out, Abba, Father. We don't approach God as our judge, but as our Father. And that word there for cry out is kradzo. It's an intense cry. It's to cry loudly. It's to cry urgently. This is a child crying out to his father. It's really important to see this because in the coming verses that we'll get into in the next few weeks, we're going to see a lot more about the trials and suffering that God takes us through as his children.

And you see that in the Hebrews passage there, right? That Jesus himself suffered. Well, if we are his brethren, then we follow the same pattern that he followed. We are also being taken through trials and sufferings. The Lord takes all of us through these things for our growth and for maturity. But understanding, our standing before God, before the trial begins, allows us to have a totally different response when we're in the trial. We can have a settled attitude that whatever our father is taking us through is for the good. He's not punishing us or trying to harm us. We're his children, and he's working out his good purpose in our lives.

So let's just summarize what we've seen in these verses. In verse 12, we have the logical conclusion that as a believer, as believers, we have no obligation to respond to the desires of the flesh. In verse 13, in the first part, we learn that walking according to the flesh puts us into a condition of temporal death. The life of Christ is not being actively produced through us. We're living for our own selfish ambitions and we're not of any use to God or to the body of Christ when we're in that condition. In the last part of verse 13, we want to be really careful not to think of putting to death the deeds of the body as trying not to sin, right? I won't do any good. This has everything to do with counting on the fact that we've already died to sin's power to reign in us.

And then in verse 14, we learn that as believers, we are sons of God. Just a monumental truth that's given further explanation in verse 15, where we see that we have full legal rights as heirs of God through adoption. Our standing before God is the same as that of the Lord Jesus.

And that gives us peace. It allows us to rest as we encounter the trials that are necessary for our growth. As the Lord accomplishes the work in us to conform us to the likeness of his son, because his whole purpose and goal in you and I is to cause us to share in his glory and to display his glory for the world to see. And so he's carrying out this conforming works and trials are essential to that work. And it's important that we trust him through that. We trust that he is doing good. He is our father and he's taking us through all these things for a very, very important purpose, all so that the son would be glorified in and through us.

Let's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you that you are our father, And that that's not just flowery language, but that we have a legal adoption as your sons. We share the same father-son relationship with you that the Lord Jesus has with you. We are his brethren. And Lord, we pray that you would teach us what this means.

We pray that you would teach us to trust you with all that you were doing in our lives, knowing that you're our father. knowing that you're not intending any of these things for our harm, but for our good, ultimately so that we can share in all of the joy and blessing that you intend for us, also that Jesus would be glorified in and through each one of us. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.