You Have a Father

Picture a person who grew up in a home where their father was hard to please. Not abusive. Just distant and demanding. Whatever he did, it wasn't quite enough. Good grades got a nod and a question about the one B. A clean room got a comment about the closet. They learned early on that love was something you earned by performing, and even then you weren't sure you had it.

They grow up, come to Christ in their twenties, and starts going to church. But for years afterward, their picture of God is the picture of their father. They pray like a person trying not to get caught. They serve at church the way an employee serves a boss who's always watching, never quite sure if today's effort was enough.

Then one Sunday, their pastor preaches on Romans 8:15. And for the first time in their life, this person hears the words "Abba, Father" and understands that God is a Father they can run to.

That sermon changes how they pray for the rest of his life.

Some of us in this room are that person who knows that picture from the from their own life.

We've been Christians for years without knowing that we have a loving Father. We've had the Spirit and we've believed the gospel. But we've been living like servants in the house when God has called us his children. Paul wrote Romans 8:12-17 to set that right.

Last week we saw in verses 9 through 11 that the Spirit of God dwells in every believer. This week Paul tells us what that Spirit does. He brings us into God's family and marks us as heirs of everything Christ inherits.

Open your Bible to Romans 8:12-17.

Romans 8:12–17 NKJV

12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

YOU OWE THE SPIRIT EVERYTHING (vv. 12-13)

Romans 8:12 NKJV

12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

Paul opens this section with the word "therefore." He's drawing a conclusion from what he's just said. Because the Spirit of God lives in you, and because that same Spirit will one day raise your mortal body, you owe the Spirit something. You're in his debt.

GREEK NOTE: The word "debtors" means people who owe something. It's the same word Jesus uses in the Lord's Prayer when he says "forgive us our debts." Paul is making a financial scenario. The Spirit has paid for our life and for our future resurrection. We owe him.

Notice how Paul says it. We owe the Spirit. We do not owe the flesh. The flesh never did anything for us. The flesh got us into the mess we needed Christ to get us out of. So why would we go on living like we owe it something?

If a man pulled you out of a burning building, you wouldn't go back inside that building the next day to thank the fire. You'd thank the man. You'd live differently because someone saved you.

Story of Stephanie going to England. Live a live worthy of being spared.

That's the logic of verse 12.

Then verse 13 makes the obligation specific.

Romans 8:13 NKJV

13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Two ways to live. One leads to death. The other leads to life. And the way of life involves the Spirit putting to death the deeds of the body.

GREEK NOTE: The verb "put to death" (thanatoute) is in the present tense. It's not a one-time event. It's an ongoing practice. The believer keeps putting sin to death, day after day, by the power of the Spirit working in them.

The “death” Paul talks about here is not eternal damnation for the believer who sins (1 Cor. 3:1–4 makes clear that believers who are controlled by the flesh are still saved), but the loss of the experiential life and peace the Spirit offers. The believer who lives according to the flesh experiences the Christian life as if they were unsaved.

This is one of the toughest sayings in Romans because it sounds like work. And it is. But notice who does the work. "If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body." The Spirit is the power. You are the one yielding. Killing sin happens when you stop fighting in your own strength and yield to the Spirit who lives in you.

YOU BELONG TO GOD'S FAMILY (vv. 14-16)

Now Paul takes a turn that changes everything. He moves from talking about obligation to talking about family. And the way he does it shows us why obedience and joy are tied together in the Christian life.

Romans 8:14 NKJV

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

GREEK NOTE: The word for "sons" here (huioi) is the word for a child who has come of age and can act on behalf of the family. It's used differently from the word for "children" (tekna) that Paul will use in verse 16. "Sons" emphasizes status and privilege. "Children" emphasizes the birth relationship. Both apply to every believer.

Then in verse 15, Paul names what the Spirit does and what he does not do.

Romans 8:15 NKJV

15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

This is one of the most personal verses in the New Testament. The Spirit you have, Paul says, is the Spirit of adoption. The Spirit that turns slaves into sons and daughters.

In the Roman world, when a Roman father adopted a son, that son took the father's name and the father's inheritance. The adopted son had every legal right of a natural-born son. There was no difference in his standing. He was family, fully and forever.

That's what Paul says God has done with us through the Spirit. We were strangers, and now we're sons. We were on the outside, and now we're at the table. And to make the picture even more personal, Paul tells us what the Spirit teaches us to call God. "Abba, Father."

The word "Abba" is Aramaic. It's a child's word for father. Some commentators call it the equivalent of "Papa" or "Daddy." A slave would never use this word for the master of the house. This is the word a child uses with the man who tucks them in at night.

J.I. Packer, the British theologian, wrote in his book "Knowing God" that adoption is the highest privilege the gospel offers. Higher than justification, he said. Justification gets us off the witness stand. Adoption seats us at the dinner table.

If you've come to Christ, that's what God has done with you. He has forgiven your sins and brought you home as family.

And verse 16 says the Spirit himself confirms it.

Romans 8:16 NKJV

16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

There are moments in the Christian life when you know, without anyone telling you, that you belong to God. The Spirit inside you bears witness with your own spirit. Two voices saying the same thing. You are God's child. You have a Father.

Sticky statement: If you have the Spirit, you have a Father.

And it gets even better.

YOU INHERIT EVERYTHING CHRIST INHERITS (v. 17)

Paul reaches the climax of his argument in verse 17.

Romans 8:17 NKJV

17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

If you're a child of God, you're an heir of God. A joint heir with Christ. Whatever Christ inherits, you inherit with him.

Warren Wiersbe gives a helpful picture of this. A newborn baby cannot sign checks. A baby cannot draw on the family wealth. But the adopted son of God, the moment he's brought into the family, can begin to draw on the spiritual wealth that belongs to the family. Through faith and through the Word, the child of God starts living off the inheritance now.

GREEK NOTE: The word "joint heirs" (sygkleronomoi) is a compound word. "Heirs together with." Paul is saying we inherit alongside Christ. What he has, we share.

But Paul adds a phrase at the end that we'd rather not hear. "If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together."

The inheritance comes with a hard reality. The Father didn't promise us a path different from the path Jesus walked. Jesus walked through suffering on his way to glory. We follow him on the same road.

Paul includes this verse as preparation. He wants us to know that when life gets hard and when following Jesus costs us something, that pain is part of the road home. The path to glory goes through suffering. That was true for Christ, and it's true for everyone who belongs to him.

And the destination is glory. Verse 17 ends with "that we may also be glorified together." The Father is bringing us through hard things and into glory on the other side.

Sticky statement: If you have the Spirit, you have a Father.

APPLICATION

So what do we do with this?

Start by examining how you've been thinking about God. Have you been relating to him as a slave relates to a master, trying to earn his approval and afraid that one slip will get you cut off? That's the spirit of bondage.

The Spirit Paul says you received is the Spirit of adoption, and that Spirit teaches you to say "Abba, Father." If you've been praying like a hired hand, the Spirit wants to teach you to pray like a son or daughter.

Try this one specific thing this week. The next time you pray, don't start with "Lord" or "God." Start with "Father." Just that one word. Pause after it. Let yourself remember that the God you're talking to is the God who adopted you. Then go on with your prayer.

If you've never trusted Christ, you're hearing this from the outside.

You don't have the Spirit, so you don't yet have the Father. But the door is open. The Father is offering adoption to anyone who'll come through his Son. Receive Christ, receive the Spirit, and the same Father who brought us in will bring you in too.

VISION (CLOSE)

Picture a church full of people who pray like they have a Father. People who walk into tough weeks knowing the Father sees them, and who walk through grief and even toward death itself knowing the Father is with them and waiting on the other side.

That's what Paul is calling us to. That's the kind of confidence that comes from the Spirit of adoption.

And one day, when this is all done, we'll find out that the inheritance Paul promised was true all along. We're joint heirs with Christ. Everything he has is ours too. The glory he stepped into when he rose from the grave is the glory we'll step into when he raises us.

If you have the Spirit, you have a Father. And if you have a Father, you have everything.

Let's pray.