28 Becoming God’s Child

Romans chapter 8, Paul shows how a new believer in Christ is given new life through the power of the Holy Spirit, who takes us residency within the believer’s newly born spirit:

Romans 8:11

In that verse, Paul shows that the same power which raised Christ from the dead, gives the new believer new and eternal life.

Paul had previously referred to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of life, which is evident by the new (eternal) life which he imparts.

1 Living by the Spirit

Romans 8:12-13

In verse 12, Paul speaks of how the believer is to live as a debtor to the Holy Spirit, meaning that every aspect of the believer’s life is to be influenced by the Spirit.

Prior to salvation, all individuals live as debtors to the flesh, as all aspects of their life is influenced (directed) by their flesh.

In the latter part of verse 13, Paul states that the believer must “put to death the deeds of the body” – which is akin to what he’d said earlier in the letter, when speaking of how we must “reckon” ourselves to be dead to the things of the flesh.

Paul shows that we cannot put those things to death on our own, but it must be “by the Spirit” – literally “through the Spirit’s power”.

Jesus was clear when He stated the believer cannot do anything apart from Him:

John 15:5

2 Becoming a Child of God

As opposed to the thinking of many, the Bible is clear that we are not all automatically God’s children. Rather, we are all His creations, and all are equal in His eyes:

Acts 10:34

In verse 14, Paul then shows what constitutes one of God’s children:

Romans 8:14

Therefore, an individual becomes one of God’s children, because of our relationship with Christ. The following passage shows that it was the Father’s plan to send His Son to redeem fallen and man, and for them to receive adoption as God’s son and daughters:

Galatians 4:4-5

Under both Roman law and Jewish culture, when a child was adopted, the gained the full rights and privileges (such as becoming an heir) which were held by any naturally born children.

Next, Paul wanted to show that those who’ve been adopted into God’s family, are no longer under the bondage of fear (the Law) but rather now have an intimate relationship with the Father, whereby they may call Him “Abba” or “Daddy”.

By its nature, the Law produced a distant and fearful attitude toward God. But through Christ, the believer comes into a loving personal relationship with God, marked by intimacy.

Paul spoke of that relationship, in another verse from his epistle to the Galatians:

Galatians 4:6

3 The Witness of the Spirit

Unfortunately, there are some who aren’t certain of their salvation. Thankfully, the Bible provides serval passages which not only provide encouragement for those with that mindset, but they show how one might be certain of their salvation:

Romans 8:16-17

New believers not only must contend with the fact that they still reside within their sinful flesh, but their enemy, the devil, will do whatever he can to derail their new relationship with the Lord. One of the tactics he will frequently employ, is to plant seeds of doubt in the individual’s mind, whereby they begin to question whether they are really saved.

However, as the text shows, one of the things which the Holy Spirit does, is to “bear witness with our spirit that we are children of God”.

While the Holy Spirit does so in various ways, He will primarily does through the Bible, thus affirming our status as a child of God.

The idea of the Holy Spirit “bearing witness” evokes the image of the Jewish Law, which stated that two or three witnesses were required as confirmation of facts:

Deuteronomy 17:6

In this instance, the Holy Spirit is one witness, and our spirit is the other.

Which is why Johns was able to provide the believer with great assurance of their salvation:

1 John 5:20

Verse 17 provides the believer with both the benefits and responsibilities of being one of God’s children.

The greatest benefit is that the believer is an inheritor of eternal life.

At the same time, the child of God has a responsibility to share in Christ’s sufferings, meaning that because one is a believer, it doesn’t exempt them from persecution, trials, or sufferings.

Jesus even taught, that we should expect each of those in this life:

Mark 10:29-30

However, in that same passage, Jesus also spoke of the believer as being a recipient of eternal life.