The Spirit of Adoption - The Exegetical Part

Introduction

Over the last two weeks we considered the 5th action of the Holy Spirit in the life of the uncondemned faith-follower of Jesus Christ. That action was the mortification of the deeds of the flesh or the body.

Today we continue by examining verses 14-15, and we will conduct this examination, as we always do, word for word.

Sonship Introduced - 8:14

The Condition - Spirit-led

The object of Paul’s sentence here is all. All who? All who are being led by the Spirit. A few items to note here:

All - Paul’s statement here is exhaustive, all-inclusive. Now some will argue that this means everyone, period. No exceptions. That is patently false as we’ll see in a minute. All-exhaustive, all-inclusive of what?

Who are being led by the Spirit of God - So Paul’s statement is not all-inclusive of everyone who has ever lived, but is rather all-inclusive of a specific group of people - those who are being led by the Spirit of God. The all, then, refers to the brethren, the church, the “us” of verse 4 who walk according to the Spirit, and not according to this flesh. And what is true of this group, these brethren?

They are being led - What does this mean? Grammar time! This English phrase here “are being led” is one word in the Greek, agontai. Let’s break it down.

It’s a verb, which means it’s a specific action. Not an idea, but something concrete that is done. But it’s not an active verb...

It’s a passive verb. What does that mean? It’s done to the subject, rather than by the subject. So it’s all who are being led, rather than all who are leading.

The verb is in the present tense, meaning that this is not something that happened and is now done, nor is it something that we might anticipate happening in the future. It is happening right now, and in Greek, the present tense generally indicates perpetuity. In other words, it’s always happening. It’s perpetual.

The verb is in the indicative mood, which means that Paul intends this as an absolute fact. It’s not a possibility, it’s not a thought, it’s not a prayer. It is fact. All who ARE led, not all who I hope are led, not all who I pray might be led, all who ARE led.

The verb is in the third person, which means that Paul is referring not only to himself, and not only to the Roman church to whom he is speaking, but he is referring to an even broader group beyond just the two parties in the conversation, as it were. The being led is a common truth across geographical space and chronological time.

Finally the verb is plural, which means it not only applies to a single person but to a group, which we can easily infer from what we’ve already seen.

They are being led by the Spirit of God - this group of people as we have seen is not leading others, nor are they leading themselves, they are being led. The necessary supporting linguistic device here then is the subject - in other words, if “all” are not doing the leading, who is? The answer? The Spirit of God. Let’s try to understand this Spirit-leading, then. What does it mean to be Spirit-led? The Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich Lexicon of Biblical Greek, or BDAG, for short, provides 4 definitions for the word ago, meaning to lead. I think all of these definitions provide some clarity and insight into Paul’s intent in using this word.

To direct the movement of an object from one position to another. In Paul’s context here, to be led by the Spirit means to be moved or directed from one level of sanctification and holiness to the next. The Spirit continually lifts us up to glory, as it were.

To take into custody. This connects us back to the obligation or debt motif we examined last week and the week before. To be led by the Spirit is to be bound by obligation to the Spirit. We are in the custody and under the care of the Spirit, as it were.

To provide moral and spiritual guidance or encouragement. To be led by the Spirit of God is to be exhorted and encouraged to walk according to the Spirit and to set one’s mind on the things of the Spirit. The Spirit is our primary guide, mentor, coach, and discipler, as it were.

To move away from a position. To be led by the Spirit of God, finally, is to be moved away from the life of the flesh. To be moved away from the old man, from the life of sin, from slavery to the world, the flesh, and the devil. This is the freedom Paul spoke of in 8:2.

However, in addition to these 4 definitions, Paul also have given us some contextual explanation of this concept of Spirit-leadership. You can formulate this as an answer to the question “How is one led by the Spirit?” The Spirit leads us in three ways, which we see in 8:2-8:13.

The Spirit leads us by delivering us.

Delivered by Christ’s incarnation

Delivered by Christ’s death

Delivered by Christ’s resurrection

Delivered by Christ’s active obedience

The Spirit leads us by directing us.

Flesh to Spirit

Death to life

Hostility to peace

Rebellion to obedience

God’s wrath to God’s delight

The Spirit leads us by dwelling in us.

Realizing

Regenerating

Resurrecting

Restraining

So it’s really rather compelling here: by using this phrase, being led by the Spirit of God, Paul is effectively summarizing the entire chapter and the entire argument up to this point.

The Outcome - Sonship

All of this detail on Spirit-leading forms the foundation for the second part of Paul’s statement here. These two statements form an if-then logical pair. While the if-then verbiage isn’t stated explicitly, it is there by implication. If led by the Spirit, then Sons of God. Spirit-led = foundation, Sonship = the building.

So what is intended here by Paul? There are a couple of items worth noting here:

Son - This is a common word in the New Testament, occuring some 375 times. Bauer offers two overarching definitions.

The first might be construed as a natural or biological son. It is intended to be understood as male offspring in the most basic biological sense.

We see there that it can apply in a direct sense, which is our most common understanding of the word son. Father, son.

It can also, interestingly, refer not only to human offspring but animal offspring - Matthew 21:5 uses the word to refer to the young donkey colt on which Jesus rode when he entered into Jerusalem.

It might also refer to indirect descent, in the idea of grandsons, great-grandsons, etc. not a direct offspring but an indirect, removed offspring.

But Bauer also offers a second definition, that a son is a person related or closely associated as if by ties of sonship. He furthers clarifies that this definition takes three forms in the New Testament:

A son in the sense of a pupil or disciple. This is the sense in which Jesus used the word in Matthew 12 and Luke 11 when he condemned both the Pharisees and the sons of the Pharisees. This is also the sense in which Peter refers to Mark in 1 Peter 5:13 and the sense in which Paul refers to Timothy 1 Timothy 1:18, and the sense in which I refer to Zach on a daily basis.

Sons in the sense of members of a large and coherent or unified group. The Psalmist in the Septuagint regularly refers to “the sons of men,” a term he borrowed from Moses who referred to the group who built the Tower of Babel as the sons of men. In Acts 13, Paul also refers to the nation of Israel as the sons of Abraham.

A son in the sense of one whose identity is defined in terms of a relationship with a person or thing. Most commonly in the Bible, both Old and New Testament, this sense is used. Almost always it is spoken of as the human relationship to God, though sometimes it is also used with reference to the devil.

It is this second, more spiritual and less biological sense that is in view here for Paul. So we can effectively say that, by virtue of being led by the Spirit, Christians are pupils and disciples of God, Christians are members of a coherent and unified group focused on God, and Christian identity is inextricably linked to God.

Having thus established the leads of the Spirit as the grounds or condition for sonship, Paul now endeavors to expound upon the idea of sonship in verse 15.

Sonship Explained - 8:15

Paul explains this concept of sonship with two negations and two affirmations.

Negation #1: Sons are not slaves

This first negation and also the first affirmation focus on the Greek word translated receive. This is an interesting word here. It is given not in the passive voice but in the active voice, indicating that it is not something that is so much given as it is obtained or laid hold of. This might come as a surprise, given that being led by the Spirit is emphasized as passive, in other words, the Christian life is one being led rather than providing one’s own direction. Nevertheless, the twin spirits of verse 15 are not given so much as they are taken.

And what is it that has been obtained or laid hold of? In this first negation, it is emphatically not a spirit of slavery. Let’s cut this phrase in two parts, and first discuss the word spirit. There’s a bit of difficulty here when it comes to translating this word into English. It’s the exact same word, pneuma, that we saw in verse 14, and have seen 12 times already in chapter 8. Every time, with one exception, it has been a capital S spirit, in other words, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. However, in verse 15 in the NASB it’s a lowercase word, indicating that it’s just a common spirit, or perhaps we might say just a state of the inner man, much as we might say someone has a gentle spirit, or an energetic spirit. It is a key defining part of who they are. But it’s not quite that simple. The ESV takes a double approach: “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons” So you can see what they’re doing there. The ESV translators are actually providing some subtle interpretation for you there. They are saying subtly that a spirit of slavery is not the Holy Spirit, but a false spirit, or a spirit of the age, or something like that, while the Spirit of adoption is in fact the Holy Spirit of adoption. But it gets even more hairy. The NIV says this: “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.” So the NIV frames it as less a statement about the believer and more a statement about the Spirit.

All of that being said then, I believe the NIV does the best job of capturing Paul’s meaning here. I would translate this passage like this: The Spirit you received is not the Spirit of slavery, leading to fear again, but is in fact the Spirit of adoption as sons.

So with that in mind then, what is this hypothetical Spirit of slavery that we have not received?

Let’s get right to the heart of it: Paul is saying emphatically (this verb received is in the indicative mood, and if you remember that is the most emphatic way you can express an action in Greek) that we have not received a Spirit of douleia. Yes you heard me correctly. Paul is saying the Holy Spirit, which we have laid hold of, obtained, and received, is not a spirit of douleia. Now if you’ve been tracking over the last 6 months, you know that Paul is very concerned to identify Christians as slaves of Christ. That is foundational to Paul’s argument in chapter 6, and indeed foundational to Paul’s conception of his own identity back in 1:1, and most recently, two verses ago in fact, Paul has reminded the Roman church that Christians have a doulos debt, a slave’s obligation to rely on the Spirit for the restraint and removal of sin in their lives. So on it’s face, it appears that Paul is contradicting himself. And on top of that, this whole statement here seems a little misplaced. Why does Paul include this at all? Why doesn’t he just say you’re led by the Spirit, you’re a son of God, because the Spirit that dwells within you is a spirit of adoption. Why does he include this bit about slavery and fear?

Paul, as he always does under the inspiration of the Spirit, is doing what he does on purpose, and he is not contradicting himself.

Paul’s intent here can be discerned this way: He is saying we have not received a spirit of slavery, a spirit of debt, a spirit of doulos alone, but we have also received a spirit of adoption as sons.

In other words, just understanding the Christian’s relationship to God as master is not enough. If the Christian is to truly be led by the Spirit, he must also understand that his relationship to God is as a Father as well.

Negation #2: Sons are not afraid

Paul’s second negation here is that sons are not afraid. The text says the Spirit that we have received does not lead to fear.

This is interesting. In the Christian context, we usually think of fear as a good thing. Proverbs 1 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Isaiah 9 tells us that we are to fear the Lord. And just within the context of Romans, Paul in chapter 3 placed a lack of fear of the Lord within one of his lists of the evils of the unbeliever, in chapter 11, fear is commanded, and if you look beyond Romans to Paul’s other writings, you will find such places as 2 Corinthians 7 in which Paul indicates that the fear of God is the means by which one grows in holiness. So clearly Paul does not believe that fear is inherently a bad thing. Why then is it portrayed here in a negative light?

The question can be answered by returning to our previous negation. Fear is certainly part of the life of the Christian, but relating to God only as a slave relates to his master reduces the Christian life to a cold, transactional, works-based existence in which you live in constant fear that God is unhappy with you.

That is the type of fear that sons do not have, according to Paul.

So we may summarize these negations as follows: The Spirit-led Christian does not only relate to God as a slave, and therefore does not only respond to God in fear.

Affirmation #1: Sons are adopted

We now turn our attention to the first affirmation. These affirmations are placed in contrast against the negations, but should not be viewed as opposites. Rather they should be viewed as the greater part of a less-to-greater logical progression.

The pairing is indicated by the repeat use of the word received. What have the Spirit-led received then? A spirit of adoption as sons. Initially we might want to split these two words up and consider them separately, adoption, and as sons. But that would be unfaithful to Paul because this is a single word in the Greek language, huiothesias. What’s interesting about this word is it’s actually a compound word, combining the word huios which we already saw in verse 14 translated sons, and the word tithemi, which means to present, consecrate, or set apart. This word denotes a purpose or intent, a kind of specialness.

Thus we can deduce that this concept of adoption is purposeful, intentional, special sonship. This reflects a common sentiment of adoptive parents in our day: You don’t choose your biological kids, but you do choose your adopted kids. Without disparaging the biological relationship of parents to children, there is an added layer of meaning to a parent’s relationship with an adopted child, and anyone who has adopted knows this meaning.

It is significant then that Paul specifies here the type of sonship. It’s not merely a biological sonship that happens as a matter of natural course. It is adoptive sonship which happens as a matter of purposeful intent on the part of the adoptive parent.

Affirmation #2: Sons are knit to their father

Again standing as the greater part of the lesser to greater argument, the result of the spirit of adoption is a cry. Specifically the cry of Abba Father.

First, to cry out, according to Bauer, is to make a vehement outcry, or to communicate in a loud voice. It is expressive of urgency and a fervent spirit. There is passion and and animation in this cry. And what do we cry out? Abba.

This word abba is a transliteration of the Aramaic and Hebrew word for father in the Old Testament. The formal version was Ab, the informal version was Abba. This transliteration only occurs 3 times in the New Testament: Here in Romans 8, Galatians 4, where it is used in a similar context by Paul to make a similar point, and perhaps most compellingly, it is used by Jesus himself in Mark’s account of Jesus’ prayer to His Father in Gethsemane.

Being that it is an informal version of the word, it denotes the personal and emotional nature of the relationship. Your Ab in Hebrew is your father, your Abba is your daddy.

The intent here for Paul is this: the adoptive relationship between the Christian and God is one of fervent, urgent passion, and one of close, personal intimacy.

Conclusion

I have attempted today to give you an in-depth, word-for-word consideration of the text of Romans 8:14-15. Next week, we will consider the principles at play here. In other words, what do we learn here? What is Paul’s point? His big idea? And in the week following we will consider the implications. Because of these principles, how do I think? What do I do? Where can I change and grow? In anticipation of next week then, let’s introduce 14 principles that we can deduce from these 2 verses as we examined them today:

All believers are adopted.

Adoption is predicated on the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.

The Holy Spirit is the agent of our adoption

Adoption is a certain reality for the believer

Sons are disciples

Sons exist in a group

Sons find their identity in their Father

Sons are greater than slaves in their Father’s house

Sons do not only fear, but love their Father

Adoption is an act of intentional love

The adoptive relationship is passionate

The adoptive relationship is personal

The sonship of believers fulfills the Biblical motif of sonship

The sonship of believers is a reflection and extension of the sonship of Christ

I encourage you to join us next week as we consider these doctrinal truths from these verses!