We Are Sons of God

We Are Sons of God

Romans 8:12-17

I. Introduction

A. Illustration – When my boys were in college, I had their bank accounts tide to my own.  I could always see how much money they had in their accounts. When they ran low, I would make sure they were covered. I didn’t want them to overdraw, and I certainly didn’t want them to have to pay the penalties that went with that. They would thank me, but they didn’t offer to pay it back. With what?!  They didn’t have any money.  I never billed them for that.  I didn’t even keep up with what I gave.  They are my children.  There is coming a day when all that I have will be theirs.

II. You have a great debt

A. Explanation

1. Paul says we are debtors

a. He gives the negative – not to the flesh

b. But the positive is implied – To the Spirit

2. Why are we in debt? –

a. We owe nothing to the flesh – It was causing brokenness and death

b. We are in debt to the Spirit because He gives us life and saved us from the debt of sin and death

3. What do we owe?

a. We do not owe anything for our salvation – Jesus has paid the full price

b. But now that we are saved, we should fulfill our salvation through living out the righteousness of Christ and being faithful to Him

c. It is not a debt as though a collector were hanging over us, but one that we should desire to pay out of gratitude and love

B. Illustration – Jake asked for money for a shirt. If I give it to him, I expect to see him in a new shirt.  He should not squander it on something else.  The same is true with the Spirit.  IF He gives Him to us, we should live in Him. 

C. Application

1. Every one of us who understand the truth of our salvation should desire to give everything to Christ – We owe Him our lives

2. But in return He gives us a life worth living

3. Know a real gratitude for your savior and what an extreme cost at which your salvation was bought – the life of our Savior

III. You have a genuine choice

A. Explanation

1. We have a sin nature

a. Romans 7:18 - For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

b. Ephesians 2:1 makes clear who we are apart from Christ – And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience

c. 1 John 1:8 - For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

2. Yet we are a new creation in the Spirit

a. 2 Corinthians 5:17 - if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new

b. Ephesians 2:10 - For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them

3. You have a choice as a believer to live in the old sin nature (the flesh) or to live in the Spirit

a. To live in the old nature is death and brokenness

b. To live in the Spirit is to allow th Holy Spirit to transform you into the likeness of Christ and His righteousness

4. The call is to mortify the flesh – to put it to death so that the Spirit is what remains

5. Out of this Spirit is real abundant life

B. Application

1. We are to put to death the flesh

a. Men, we are captivated by lust.  Lives are frequently torn apart by our actions when we follow the flesh – adultery, pornography,

b. Vanity – we pursue our own desires with no concern for others, and we end up with shallow unhappy lives

c. We desire riches over true love or Christ Himself only to find out that they are fleeting and quickly diminish

2. Are called to choose life in the Spirit over the flesh

IV. You have a gracious Father (15-16)

A. Explanation

1. There is a connection between being led by the Spirit and being Sons of God

a. You cannot consider yourself a Son of God if you are still being led by the flesh – That is not a real faith

b. But, by being led by the Spirit you show evidence of the presence of the Spirit and faith in His leadership and transformational power

2. You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into sin – You did not receive a spirit that would bind you in sin

3. But you received the Spirit of adoption as sons

a. Contrast slavery to sonship –

i. A son is loved, a slave is not

ii.A son has aa future; a slave does not

iii. A son has a father, a slave has a master

b. In the Spirit we are made sons of God, but our old nature, the flesh, kept us enslaved to sin and its consequences

c. If our faith is truly in Christ, we should desire freedom from sin and trust the Spirit in leading us out of it

4. Slavery causes fear – A slave does not trust his master. He fears doing something wrong that the master will be unhappy with

5. The son is expected to do right, but doesn’t fear the father when he is imperfect.  He wants to follow and obey the father so that he will make a good name for his father

6. 4 privileges of adoption

a. The adopted person lost all ties to His old family

b. The adopted person became an heir of his new father

c.  An adopted person’s past was forgotten

d. Roman law saw an adopted son as a real son.  1

7. We can call out, Abba, Father - Abba is the word framed by the lips of infants and betokens unreasoning trust; “father” expresses an intelligent apprehension of the relationship. The two together express the love and intelligent confidence of the child

8. The Spirit bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God – We should desire that relationship with God

B. Application

1. We are to see the relationship to God through the Spirit as better than our old enslavement to sin

2. We find our sonship as more precious than our previous enslavement to sin

V. You have a glorious inheritance (17)

A. Explanation

1. The work of the Spirit in us is the testimony that we are children of God – you can see it in saved people because they trust God completely

2. If we are His children, we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ

a. Heirs of

i. Eternal Salvation (Titus 3:7)

ii.God Himself (Lamentations 3:24; Psalm 42:1)

iii. Glory (Romans 5:2)

iv.All things (Hebrews 1:2)

3. We hope in these things because we know they are ours in Christ

4. Provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified in Him

5. Suffering with Him – The Christian life is not without trials and tribulations if we are faithful.  Many would want the blessings of God without the difficulties, but that would again be mechanical, not relational.  We must be willing to suffer for the father who adopted us if the relationship is real. 

B. Application

1. You have something to look forward to

2. Let that expectation drive your faith and trust in Him

VI. Conclusion

Titus 3:7, "so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

Lamentations 3:24, "“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”"

Psalm 42:1, "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God."

Romans 5:2, "Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

Hebrews 1:2, "but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world."