The Spirit of the Children of God

Putting the Deeds of the Body to Death

Review the difference between of the flesh and of the Spirit.

Debtors. There are only two possibilities. Either we are debtors to the flesh to serve the ways of sinful nature or we are debtors to the Spirit of God.

One who is a debtor to the flesh serves the ways of the flesh by living in sin.

Paul makes it crystal clear here in verse 13. If you live according to the flesh you will die. This means that it is impossible to be in the Spirit and live according to the flesh. The person of faith is a unified person who walks in the way their mind is set, on the things of the Spirit.

The end is death. You cannot sow a lifestyle of sin into your life and expect to grow anything but death.

So if we who are in Christ are not debtors to the flesh, who are we debtors to? 13b. If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

To be a debtor to the Spirit means opposition to the law of sin and the power of the flesh. By the Spirit we put the deeds of the flesh, the sinful corruption of our passions and desires, to death and in this way we obtain life. That is sanctification, and without it there is no salvation.

So we are debtors to the Spirit to serve the Spirit and his ways, the ways of Christ, and not the ways of our sinful passions. But there is a great difference here between our old state and our new one. Our old state was slavery, our new state is son-ship.

The Implications of being a child of God

Vs 14 all who are led by the Spirit are Sons of God.

Those who had faith in Christ were justified, the justified were united with Christ in death and life, those united with Christ partake of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit leads us to walk in the Spirit and we follow as debtors to the Spirit, and all those led by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God.

I hope this gives you a grander view of salvation. It is not just about the moment you were converted, salvation is a lifetime experience as the Spirit is changing you into the image of Christ. As he does so, you have the assurance that, because the evidence of your sanctification is clear, you are a child of God.

Because we are children of God, we will live. God is not the father of the dead but of the living. And how are we his children? We are his children because we are represented by God, who intercedes for us. We are united to Christ as his bride and so we are treated by the Father as Christ himself is treated. We, as the church, are the daughter-in-law of God the Father. We are now part of the family through adoption.

OT prophets had at times spoken of Israel like an orphan taken under the providential wing of God. The picture is a tender one of God taking what is weak and helpless, nursing it back to health, and keeping it for himself as his treasured possession.

Because the people of God are united with Christ, they are regarded as children of God, loved and treated as such. This is how the doctrine of adoption works.

The spirit of slavery verses the Spirit of Adoption

The spirit of slavery is based on fear. We sin because we are needlessly afraid. We are afraid God will not give us what is good so we sinfully go and get it ourselves. We are afraid of God’s commandments because they convict us. We are afraid of God’s judgement because condemns us. Under sin we lived in fear which drove us to further and further sin.

Fear is the opposite of faith. Anything done against God’s will is actually done out of fear, a fear that God is not trustworthy. That he won’t give you what you need, that he won’t satisfy you, that he is holding back good things from you. There’s no such thing as a brave unbeliever, for they are all living in the spirit of slavery which is in fear.

The Spirit of adoption, on the other hand, specifies itself by its cry, “Abba! Father!”.

A cry of intimacy and of faith.

Intimacy, closeness, childlikeness in the word “abba”. In our adoption, we are truly drawn close to God so that we may call him such intimate titles without shame or reprimand.

A cry for help in time of need.

The reason there is no fear in the Spirit of Adoption is that we always have the listening ear of this caring father. If we should stumble, he will be there to help us if we call upon his name in faith.

“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit”. God does not leave us in doubt about our spiritual condition, but rather the Spirit he has made to dwell within us testifies to us that these things are true. This tesitmony is obviously accountible to the evidence and the witness of the Church, both of which are part of the Spirit’s testimony in the hearts of believers. This is not to say that everyone who feels they are saved is, but those who are saved may have the assurance of the Spirit if they walk in that same Spirit. These proofs of the Spirit’s work are all things that pertain to living in sanctification, growing in knowledge and wisdom of the Scriptures, growing in obedience, and growing in prayer and spiritual closeness with God so that you are able to know God personally and intimately.

If we are indeed children of God, then we are also heirs of the Kingdom of God in Christ. The new world will be one built for us, in which we will reign as true image bearers. This is added further to the great promise of life by being children of God. We live because we are his children, we inherit the Kingdom of God with Christ because we are his heirs.

“Provided we suffer with him”

Suffering is a provision here.

We suffer with him in living out a righteous life in a fallen world, as he did.

We suffer with him in resisting sin just as he suffered to die and rend from sin all her power.

We suffer with him by being his body, his presence, on earth until he returns. This means to continue his ministry of suffering that points to his own life-giving wounds.

Suffering and glory are attached like dying with Christ is attached to living with him. If we die in Christ, that means suffering in this world, but just as we also live with Christ, glory is ours in the next.

As heirs, we share in the glory of Christ, but only if we drink the cup of his sufferings.

Then we will be raised up incorruptible and share in life eternal.

Conclusion

Let us live remembering who we are a debtor to and who we aren’t.

If we walk in the Spirit, we have every reason to believe that we are children of God.

The Christian life is motivated by the knowledge that we are in the Spirit if we indeed walk in the Spirit, and that being in the Spirit means being one with Christ, a child of God, an heir of the Kingdom.