(9) The Spirit in the Life of the Believer

The Spirit’s Role in Creation

The Spirit Unveils the Face of God

The Spirit and his relationship with the Lord Jesus

The Spirit in the Life of Jesus as Sustainer

The Spirit in the Life of the Believer

Rivers of Living Water

Who is the Holy Spirit? Who the Spirit is and how the Spirit worked in the Old Testament and in the life of Jesus. What about the disciples and believers today?

He indwells Christian believers. John 14: He is with you and will be in you. He was with the disciples in the person of Jesus Christ. I’m going to leave you and the Father will give you 16:8-11 the Spirit. He will convict the world… The Day of Pentecost.

How does Pentecost fit into my life? This is the wrong question. Asking if you have had a personal Pentecost is like asking if you’ve had a personal Gethsemane or a personal crucifixion. Pentecost was an epochal once for day in the history of redemption. It’s something Jesus did on one day when he poured out the Holy Spirit on the church, the one who had been his companion, his friend, his helper, his counselor, his director, his supporter throughout his life.

Acts 2 records it but John 7 looks forward to it in the feast of Booths. One week. Last day, Jesus stood up and cried out, come and drink, out of his heart flows streams of living water. As yet the Spirit was not because Jesus had not been glorified. There’s a special sense in which the Spirit had not been given to the church. Experienced in various ways in the Old Covenant but in the New … The feast involved rituals in Jerusalem. The priest would fill a golden pitcher from Siloam and the priest would pour out the water at the altar of burnt offering. Moses drawing water from the rock. Zechariah, God would open a fountain for sin. Is 12 - with joy we will draw water out of the wells of salvation. They walked around the altar of burnt offering 7 times. The living waters of God’s spirit would be poured out on God’s people some day. Jesus cried out though he would not raise up his voice in isaiah. If anyone believes in me out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. This is not a direct OT quotation. The Greek has no punctuation. Either, whoever believers in me out of his heart or whoever believes in me let him drink for out of him will flow rivers of water. Jesus is referring to himself, the Spirit had not been given because Jesus had not been glorified. Out of Jesus’ heart will flow rivers of living water that will quench the thirst of his followers. Jesus flowed blood and water. The blood that pardons our sin and the water that represents the gift of the Spirit from the glorified Lord Jesus and in John’s gospel Jesus was glorified at the cross. The Spirit had not yet been given in that sense. Jesus fulfilled the promise at Pentecost. He asked the Father and the Spirit indwelt the entire church.

Acts 1:8, power would come, the promise of John the Baptist, baptize with the Spirit. The fire comes in the tongues of fire that rest upon the disciples as they gather together, the Spirit comes in a mighty way to transform their lives. The resurrection transformed the disciples is often said but it is Pentecost and the resurrection tof=gether. Pentecost transformed them . They were hiding in a room and the Spirit came. The Holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus is sent on the day of Penteost. John 14 - keep my commandments, stay in Jerusalem. Another helper with you. Done at Pentecost. Not what happens to us but what Jesus does for the whole Christian church.

Acts 2 shows the significance of this event. What happens when Jesus gives the holy Spirit? 1. A sound like a mighty rushing wind that filled the house. In the OT winds are expressions of the power of the Holy Spirit (rauch, Spirit, wind, the Spirit is the wind of God transforming things in his mighty power). God is bringing in a new creation, a new order of being in the church. 2. 2:6 as they spread out the crowd was bewildered as they heard each one speak in his own language. They are separated at Babel by language, God dispel s their unity and fragments their language. This is the beginning of one new community of those who had been divided and were under the judgment of God. In the OT some did come, like Ruth, but God is now doing by the Holy Spirit like rivers flowing out, is building a new united community. 3. 2:9-11 All the different places and heard the mighty works of God in their language. Reminiscent of the Abrahamic covenant, all the nations of the earth. Fulfilled through Christ and the Holy Spirit. 4. The prophecy of Joel 2 2:17ff, The Spirit on the 70 and the 2 in the OT. I wish the Spirit was on all the people. Not an unusual prophetic gift but the access every Christian believer has to God in Jesus Christ. In the OT it was to the prophets God that revealed his secrets. His ultimate secret was the Lord Jesus Christ. Now through the Spirit we don’t need a teacher to come along and to say I want to give you second hand knowledge about the Lord Jesus, when we receive the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ we know him through the Spirit. God keeps back nothing from us that only a few have but gives to all in the Lord Jesus. 5. Acts 22:21 - Everyone who comes in the name of the Lord shall be saved. A fulfillment of Psalm 2, God sets his king on Zion and then urges the nations to come and kiss the Son that they may be saved. 2:33 - A wonderful fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to the disciples in the upper room, I will ask the Father and he will send you the Holy Spirit. God has given the Spirit once and for all and then individually when we come to faith in Jesus Christ we experience the reality that Jesus spoke of, that if anyone is thirsty and comes to Jesus, from Jesus will flow these glorious rivers. We’ve been brought into the blessing of God’s covenant, drowned in the rivers of the grace of the Holy Spirit who came to us from the ascended Lord Jesus.

Pentecost is a once and for all event like the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension. It’s a non repeatable event. And yet, like the crucifixion, resurrection, ascension we share in it, we participate with Christ. We have been crucified with Christ, we are raised with Christ, in Colossians we have in a sense been ascended with Chrsit and our lives are hidden in Christ and he will come again and bring us together with him. How do we share in the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost? Abraham Kuyper, the Work of the Holy Spirit. The new waterworks and the water flows once and for all. New communities are connected to the water that flows once and for all. At Pentecost Jesus fulfills John the Baptist’s promise that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost there is the great baptism with the Holy Spirit. Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:13 tells us that all who belong to Jesus Christ have been baptized with the Holy Spirit. We come in Christ to share in that blessed gift of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus given to us.

A Heavenly Birth

The ministry of the Spirit in the lives of individual believers. John 16:8-11- sin righteousness judgment at Pentecost this happens and the people come to faith in Jesus Christ.

How is the Spirit involved in bringing us to faith in Christ? The Spirit brings us to faith in Jesus Christ by his work of regeneration, by giving us the new birth. John 3 describes this event. Nicodemus calls him the great theologian of Israel. Are you the teacher in Israel? He’s gracious, he honors Jesus. And yet you don’t know what it means to experience the new birth? You can know a great deal but never experience the regeneration of the Spirit. JC Ryle said, “a man may be ignorant of many things and be saved but to be ignorant of the matters that are handled in this chapter is to be on the broad road that leads to destruction.” You need to be born again, you need to be born from above. The word regeneration features largely in our theology and doctrine but occurs only twice in scripture. Mt 19: the restoration of the entire cosmos so that it may breathe the glory of God. Titus 3, Paul speaks of the washing of regeneration. However, the language of birth and new birth that brings us into the kingdom of God through the Holy Spirit is very frequently found. Four things that help us understand the Lord Jesus’ teaching. 1. The origin of this birth. William Still, Aberdeen, “You must be born anothen.” Anothen, something that comes downwards from above. The curtain was torn from the top to the bottom, he who comes from above. Jesus, you must be born from above, the birth you have is from below, you’ve had an earthly birth. You need to have a heavenly birth through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Born of water and the Spirit he can’t enter the kingdom. What’s born of the flesh is flesh, what’s born of the Spirit is spirit. The wind pneuma means both wind and Spirit. How do you understand the invisible wind: you see its effects. This is true of anyone born of the Spirit. He’s teaching Nicidemus that there are no resources down here on earth to make you the new man that you need to be if you are to be part of God’s kingdom. You've been born of the flesh but you need to be born from above, born of the Spirit. The origin of this new birth is found in the Holy Spirit who will come down to us from above. We have no resources in ourselves to give ourselves the new birth. The Holy Spirit has all of these resources. Second, this picture portrays how the birth is given to us. The wind blows where it wills. The rustling of the leaves. It’s only when you see the effects on the leaves that you know which way the wind is blowing. This does not mean that the new birth makes us free spirits but that the wind is not under your control. The wind does not 0bey the desires of the leaves, the wind blows sovereignly. This is an absolute sovereign work of God to which we contribute absolutely nothing. The new birth, God himself does by his Spirit does sovereignly. 1 Peter 1:23, James 1:18, of his own will God begat us that we may be firstfruits. Of his own will. God does not do 70 or 90 or 98% and we do the rest. Just like our physical birth, we contribute nothing. We did not decide to be born or when to be born. It was the desires and activities of others. We are not self generated. John made this clear in John 1:12, those who believe receive the right and are born again. A heavenly birth given by the Spirit, a sovereign work given through the Spirit and a transforming birth with very decided effects in our lives. The wind blows but you hear its sound by its effects. We didn’t know we were conceived, we didn’t know we’d been born. We know we’ve been born again by the results of this birth. First, 2:3, you can see the kingdom of God, the power of God, Jesus is king and his kingdom, the thief says remember me when you come into your kingdom. Our sinful minds were darkened and we can’t see the kingdom. Nicodemus was darkened, how can a man be born again? Regeneration illumines this mind so that we can see. Luke 24, the two on the road to Emmaus. They didn’t recognize Jesus and he speaks to the darkened minds and distressed hearts and their hearts burn within them and they see Jesus and his kingdom. Regeneration illumines our darkened minds. Second, regeneration liberates our enslaved wills. Jesus said 2:5 you can only enter the kingdom of God through being born again. You can’t enter the kingdom of God because your will is bound, you are a slave, you are in bondage. But the Holy Spirit comes and gives new birth and you begin to will what you could have never have willed yourself. You want Jesus and you didn’t want Jesus before. Third, born of water and the Spirit. Not physical birth but the prophecy of Ezekiel and pouring out of the Spirit and the sprinkling of clean water. Jesus is speaking of the transformation that takes place in our affections so that we are clean, we have the sense that we belong to the Lord, our affections, our desires, are no longer directed downwards but are directed Christwards. Thomas Chalmers, the sermon “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.” The transformation of the affections. Fourth, the new birth brings us to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. (Not faith in Jesus brings us to the new birth). We must never separate the teaching on the new birth in John 3:1-8, especially 3:3 from the teaching in John 3:16. That whoever believes in him should not perish. This is the first and the great sign that we have been born again by the Holy Spirit. We don’t look downwards and inwards and proclaim that we've are born again. When we are born again by the Spirit we look outward and come in faith to trust Jesus and to serve him and to love him.

A Heavenly Helper

John 14. Luke in his gospel and Acts. John in his gospel. But it is the Lord Jesus who is the person most interested in the ministry of the Holy Spirit. John 14:16 - another parakletos, para and kalew, to call alongside. Jesus is going to give us the Holy Spirit who enables us in our lives and is the one who is called alongside us to be our helper. Jesus giving the Holy spirit in terms of being baptized with the Holy Spirit (but John 14:16 helps us see the Spirit as a person and not as an impersonal force). A beautiful picture of Jesus calling the Holy spirit to come alongside believers to minister to them and minister in them. I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper. Two Greek words for another. One means “another of a different kind” and the other means “another of the same kind.” Jesus says I will give you another in the sense of another of the same kind. It’s to your advantage that I go away. How? The Holy Spirit is a helper, a minister of the same kind as the Lord Jesus. The disciples are thinking that they will lose and that no one could take Jesus’ place. But Jesus says that there is one who is of the same kind. First, the Spirit will come to be our teacher. John 14:26 - he will teach you. 13:12 - he taught them, do you understand, teacher and Lord, you Lord and teacher. Jesus had unfolded the secrets of the kingdom of God. And now their teacher was leaving. But the Spirit will be their teacher. How? The Spirit will teach us the deep things of God (Paul). When the Spirit comes you will know that I am in my Father and that you are in me and I am in you. 14:31 - the world will see that I love the Father. The unity of fellowship and love between them. He will inwardly teach us marvelous things about God. The doctrine of the trinity is shown by the Spirit to be an awesome and worshipful doctrine. Jesus: You will know things about me that you never knew during my time with you. The Spirit leads us into deeper worship of the Father and the Son. We will love the Father because he loves the Son, to love the Son because he obeys the Father. To say with John in astonishment, Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son (1 John).

Second, the great heights of grace. John 14:20 - in that day when the Spirit comes you will know that I am in the Father and I am in you and you are in me. Col 1: Christ in you, the hope of glory. When we become Christians the Lord comes and loves within us. The Lord of glory dwells in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus left and gave the Spirit our relationship is much more intimate. John 14:26 - teach you all things and bring to remembrance all I have said, he will bear witness about me. Jesus is preparing the apostles to give the Holy Spirit in the scriptures. The teaching of God’s Spirit in the NT scriptures. The Spirit will remind them of everything Jesus did and said, lead them into all truth, teach them and show them the things that are to come. This is how we get this teaching. We weren't in the upper room, it did not fall from heaven to us. Where do we learn the teaching of the Holy Spirit through the NT scriptures. If we want to receive the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit we need to receive the scriptures because there we learn about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Finally, Jesus is saying that when the Spirit teaches us he not only has words in the Scriptures, he dwells in our hearts and is able to work from within and illuminate our understanding so that instead you will truly understand my teaching

Second the Spirit comes to be our counselor, that is, to give us counsel. They would ask him questions and he would answer. In 14:23, if anyone loves me he will keep my words and the Father will love Him and we will come to him and make our home with Him through the Holy Spirit. They will receive the counsel of the Son and the Father. Paraclete, an elastic word. It has a legal meaning, counselor or counsel (you need legal counsel). Jesus has defended them, pled their case and now the Spirit will be their counsel. You would be defended by your best friend who had known you longest would defend your honor. John 15: when the helper, counselor comes he will bear witness about me and you also will bear witness because you have been with me since the beginning. They will be counsel to Jesus and the world. They will say the truth about him since they have been with him from the beginning. The Spirit is Jesus’ counsel and our counsel because he has been with Jesus from the beginning. The Holy Spirit is the key witness and he will Jesus advocate and our advocate. In Jesus' name he will also bring charges against the world.

Third, the Spirit is the divine homemaker. John 14:1-4. I will make a place ready for you. Jesus has gone to be the homemaker. 14:18, 21, 23 we will come to him through the Spirit and make our home with him. The Spirit makes our lives a home for the Father and the Son. He is transforming us so that we will be a home for the Father and the Son. Homemakers tend to be overlooked, in the background.

The Spirit will be your teacher though my word, your counselor through your life and to be the homemaker to transform your life so that I and my Father may enjoy living in your heart.

Walking in the Spirit

We of God in terms of his names and titles. Jesus’ work is described in terms of his titles (prophet, priest, king, savior). The Holy Spirit has titles (the creator Spirit, the recreator (fullness from emptiness, the Spirit of Christ). 2 Corinthians 13:14, The grace of the Lord Jesus Chrrist, the love of the Father and the fellowship or the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you. In order to love people we need to know who they are and what they are like. We give them descriptions and titles. Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit in the upper room discourse as the divine paraklete, the one whom he calls alongside us to be our helper. There’s another title - the Spirit is the Holy Spirit. What do we mean? We mean that in himself he is holy. He shares in the infinite holiness of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The words of Isaiah 6 that are the heavenly praise of Revelation may be thought of as referring to the holy Father, the holy Son and the holy Spirit. Therefore, those who are in communion with him must also be holy. The great ministry of the Holy Spirit is that he takes our disordered lives in our falleness, our sinfulness, and he recreates us. He is sent by the Lord Jesus into our lives in order to work holiness into our lives.

Romans 8:3 - The Spirit of the Lord is given to us in order to create holiness. The Spirit enables us to grow in holiness and eventually in Christ likeness. God has sent his Son for our salvation and now he has given his Holy Spirit for our sanctification. Paul encourages us to not set our minds on the flesh but on the Spirit because we are no longer in the flesh (dominated by the flesh) but we’ve been brought into union and communion with Christ and we live in the Spirit. So, if we are living in the Spirit we should then walk in the Spirit even though we remain sinners. In Romans 8:12-13, if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. We are sons, children of God. We should live in a manner in keeping with this. This might be how this family does it but we do it this way… Remember where you’re from. Live as a member of this family. We are sons of God and have the Spirit of God so live in a way that

How do we do this? Meditate on the verses around this statement. Paul exhorts us to live a certain way and reveals the sources that enable us to live this way. The Bible tells us what but then we go to the Christian bookstore to learn how. We have forgotten that the how’s are also found in the Bible. Paul shows us how we can put to death the deeds done in the body. Three things to notice (actually 11). First, the Spirit of God begins to create in us a sense of four things that help us to put to death sin in our lives. A. We need to do it. We are by nature sinners and we have Christ dwelling in us then it’s inappropriate that we should live in the same old way. We need to get rid of sin and we need to do it to death. B. Romans 6, we are able to do this. You’ve been raised into a new kingdom where grace reigns. Some believe that sin is so powerful they will never overcome it. If you’re a Christian you’ve already died to the dominion of sin, it no longer reigns over you, it’s still present in you but because it no longer reigns over you it is possible to live by the Holy Spirit in such a way that you keep on saying no to sin. C. We are responsible to do it. The ministry of the Spirit doesn’t reduce my responsibility to do it but energizes that responsibility. Phil 2:12-13. D. We want to do it. The Spirit creates a desire to be like Christ and no longer to be what we once were. The Spirit creates in us this general sense of who we are and what we are called to be.

Second, the Spirit creates motives in us that make us want to live righteously in a holy fashion and not according to our old lifestyle. Romans 8:13, if you live according to the flesh you will die. We reap what we sow. Sow a thought reap an action, sow an action reap a character, sow a character reap a life, sow a life reap a destiny. There are those who have fallen, messed up in a major way and they will say I don’t know how I did it. They did it because they looked at present experience rather than fixing their gaze on final destiny. The Holy Spirit effects this in our lives, especially when we are tempted. We don’t look at the short term, but we look at the short term in light of the long term. We look at the small in the light of the great, we look at our sin in the light of eternity. This is what the Spirit does. How we look at things is revolutionized. Write your obituary. All practical theology involves looking at the present in the light of your eternal destiny. The visible in light of the invisible. We see time in the light of eternity. We see all of our actions in the light of the final harvest.

Third, Christ died for our sins, how then can we live for them or to the, (Romans 6:1-4)? The Spirit will glorify Christ. The Spirit of the Lord Jesus shines his spotlight on the Lord Jesus and especially on the fact that he came to die for my sins. Therefore, how radically inconsistent it is that if he died for my sins that I should go on living for my sins. Each time we stumble and fall and make wrong choices it’s because I’ve grieved the Holy Spirit and resisted his ministry and in effect I’ve said it doesn’t matter that you died for this sin, I will continue to choose it. This is a contradiction of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It is a marvelous motive for us to leave our sinful lifestyle. We look at the cross and say, Lord Jesus if you’ve died for this sin I will not embrace it.

The Spirit of God who dwells in you and unites you to Christ is a Spirit of holiness. Romans 8:9-11, you are in the Spirit, dominated by the Spirit. If the Spirit doesn’t dwell in you then you’re not a Christian… That same Spirit will give life to your mortal bodies. The Spirit in us is the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:15 , Paul deals with sensitive and offensive things. To corinthianize meant to live in an immoral sexual way. Your bodies are members of Christ. Not a disembodied soul that belongs to Christ. You belong to Christ body and soul. Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute, do you not know that there is one flesh. He who is joined to the Lord becomes one Spirit with him, therefore flee from sexual immorality. A Christian believer going into the brothel and it is impossible to say to Jesus, stay outside for a moment because we are joined to Christ. We are dragging the Son of God down into the brothel. Whoever is joined to the Lord is one Spirit with Him, 1 Cor 6:17. Jesus shares his Holy Spirit with us, we share the Holy Spirit of Jesus. If true, and it becomes a conscious and subconscious reality in our lives then by God’s grace the Spirit will work to help us flee from sin and to live lives of holiness. Therefore, if you put to death the misdeeds of the body you will live.

The Spirit points us to the Lord, illumines our minds, then God has given us the great motivations to put sin to death.

The Inward Groan

Romans 8:13, we often ignore the opening verses and the marvelous teaching on the Holy Spirit. Paul is concerned with how God gets us there for our God. So that we might be transformed into the image of Christ. His passion is to make you more like the Lord Jesus. This involves radical transformation. CS Lewis - I thought my life was being made into a nice little cottage, and then someone started knocking down walls… transforming the whole thing. He was changing my life into a palace where he could dwell. This is why we need a helper.

The help the Holy Spirit gives to us. 8:18, the sufferings of this present time compared to the glory. There are difficulties and struggles and suffering.

The use of the word groaning. First, in Romans 8:22 the whole creation is groaning… Second, we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, that is the first fruits of our final salvation groan inwardly. Third, in 26 the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words.

It is the presence of the Spirit in our lives that is the cause of our groaning. Some teachers teach that the Spirit will give you a level of Christian living without challenge and difficulty and groaning. You’ll defy the laws of gravity and have health, wealth and happiness. But Paul is saying that we groan because we do have the Holy Spirit. The Spirit dwells in me as the first fruits of the final harvest of my full salvation. I groan as I wait eagerly and I long for that day when the final transformation will be made. There’s a not yetness of the Christian life. I feel the influence of sin, I continue to struggle because I’m not yet finally holy but we thank the Lord that he allows us to groan because of that. The day we stop groaning in this world is the day we’ve grieved the Holy Spirit. You can’t have the Holy Spirit and live in a world like this without it effecting (causing) this kind of inward groaning. This is not the groaning of a backslider but the groaning of a Christian who is growing in grace. Not a groan of despair but a groan of longing. We long to be out of this world and we long for the day when we will be holy like Christ. Part of the Christian life is that we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our final adoption. The Spirit’s presence is part of the explanation of our groaning.

Second, through the Spirit God makes provision for us in our weakness. The Spirit helps us in our moral weakness, now the Spirit helps us in our weakness. Helps is a weak translation of the word is basically the word for to take something with two prefixes, the prefix syn (to do something alongside) and the other means opposite or over against. To take something along with but opposite. To lift something that you can’t lift on your own. To stand opposite you and to carry the heavy end. The Spirit doesn’t just take over. The Spirit wants salvation to work throughout the whole of your life and when you are in need to be given the strength to serve the Lord. If it’s too big a burden then the Spirit comes and takes the heavy end and by his power he enable us to live for the glory of God. The Spirit helps us in our weakness. Then in 8:28 that those who love God, all things work together for good, according to his purpose. Our weakness the Spirit will in our lives we carry the burden and I will be your helper.

The Spirit is the explanation in part for our groaning, the Spirit comes as our helper and makes provision for our weakness in the Chrsitian life and the Spirit helps us in our prayers. Romans 8:26, we don’t what to pray for as we ought but the Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. We groan, the Spirit groans. Intercessory prayer is an expression of our weakness. Lord, I can’t do it. What if in our weakness we are so weakened we don’t know what to pray. What would we do if one of our children expressed their weakness? Would we push them out of the way? The Father gives us his Spirit who makes intercession for us with groanings too deep for words. He who searches hearts knows the mind of the Spirit. The Spirit knows the mind of the Lord and the Spirit knows our hearts. Prayer according to the perfect will of God is being made in our hearts. Groans that can’t be expressed but groans that the Father understands and interprets. When our weakness is doubly weakened we learn what it means to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. The story of cousin Johnny. The Spirit prays according to the will of God. What a tender Father, what a great savior, the Father gave the Spirit who was with Jesus in his weakness.

The Spirit of Sonship

John Wesley’s father on the inward witness as the proof of Christianity. Page 100 Wesley’s works, volume 12. Based on the words of Romans 8:15, the Spirit not of slavery but of sonship, the Spirit of adoption.

Third book of Calvin's Institutes. The first title of the Holy spirit is Spirit of Sonship. Chronologically this is not the first title, Gal 4 and Romans 8. It’s the supreme title of the Spirit. The first ranked title. At the end of the day the Spirit is given that we might be born again into the family of God and live as the sons of God and that we have a sense that we really are the children of God. Romans 8, the gospel of no condemnation and ends with no separation for the children of God. God takes us from the condemned cell of the sinner and into his family. He pledges himself as a heavenly father who works things for our good and conforms us to the image, likeness of Christ. The purpose of the Spirit is to bring us into the family of God, to give us a consciousness that we belong to the family of God and to enable us to live as children of the family of God.

As fathers we should want this for our children and this what the Heavenly Father desires. In the Old Testament sometimes the presence of the Spirit of God and the unveiling of the face of God are closely connected together. This is the apex of that teaching. As the Spirit of God unveils the face of the first person of the Trinity it unveils his face to us as our Heavenly Father. The NT is full of Chrsitians talking to God as their heavenly Father. We refer to him as Father when we pray the Lord’s Prayer. We call each other brothers and sisters. He cares for us and gives us his Holy Spirit so that we have a consciousness of this truth. We don’t instantly enjoy all the privileges of the gospel. It may take time, a slow Spirit given process to realize that we are the children of God.

We cry Abba Father. Why sonship and not daughters? The problem in the household of Pride and Prejudice. Daughters never inherited. The nearest male relative would get it. Paul says that males and females, all become the sons of God. In Christ we’ve come to share in a glorious inheritance. Romans 8:18-19, the sufferings of this present time compared to this glory - this glory is in 8:17, that we are children, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with him. God makes us his heirs so that all the blessings stored up for us in Christ may be brought to us and applied to us by the Spirit of God as he works in our hearts as the Spirit of adoptive sonship. We have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba, Father. The Spirit works within us a consciousness of the Father’s love for us that we are bold to call God our Father. It’s not a liturgy but a reality. The verb here is krazen and it's an onomatopoeic word, it’s a sharp cry. Jesus crying out on the cross, it’s used in the LXX Psalms of the poor man crying and the Lord hears. Not the soothing sounds of a baby, but the crisis, pain, suffering, circumstances that make us cry out. This sense that we are a child of God is not for best believers, the top 10% but for even the weakest Christian. They have the assurance that he is their Heavenly Father and he will respond to their cries. He will come to help them.

The Lord’s prayer as a liturgy and as a conscious recognition of God’s love as a Heavenly Father. The Spirit bears witness with our Spirits that we really are the children of God.

A real Father says that in a real crisis, no matter what happens, we will be there for you. If sinful human parents can say this, how much does our Heavenly Father love us. He gives us the Spirit of sonship that we may cry out to him in times of struggle and crisis and hardship. We truly are children of God. Whatever happens we are safe with Him. The non Christian cannot experience this. We often forget this great privilege.

If God has given us the Spirit of his Son and adopted us into his family and wants to bring us a consciousness that we really belong to him then there is another dimension that Paul wants us to realize. What is God’s ultimate goal for those who are his children? What good does God have in view in 8:28? All kinds of good things are happening but we must be careful that we do not define what good is happening. In this passage God himself defines the good: those he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. God’s ultimate goal is to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Chrsit. That Christ might, as in Hebrews 2, be able to stand before the Father and say here am I and the children you have given me. The reason the Spirit works in our hearts is to bring us from where are by nature, renegades, haters not lovers, children of the devil, but by God’s grace brought into God’s family and the Spirit more and more is transforming into the likeness of God’s Son because he wants Jesus to be the firstborn among many brothers so that in our Christian life the Spirit makes us more like Jesus. We’re nothing like Jesus but the love the Spirit has for Him makes him determined to make us, within our own personalities by God’s grace, more and more like our elder brother, Jesus Christ, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

How much the Spirit loves the Father that he regenerates us into his family, how much the Spirit loves the Lord Jesus that he makes sinners like us like Him. We praise not only the Father and the Son but together with the Father and the Son with the Church of Jesus Christ we praise the name of the Holy Spirit and thank God for his gift.