Romans 8.16-The Spirit Testifies To The Christian's Spirit That He Is A Child Of God
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday November 19, 2008
Romans: Romans 8:16-The Holy Spirit Testifies To The Christian’s Spirit That He Is A Child Of God
Lesson # 261
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 8:1.
This evening we will study Romans 8:16, and in this passage, Paul teaches that the Holy Spirit testifies to the Christian’s human spirit that he or she is a child of God.
In Romans 8:15, Paul teaches his readers that the Holy Spirit was instrumental in their adoption into the family of God and now in Romans 8:16, Paul teaches that the Spirit is also the instrument that God the Father uses to make them aware that they are children of God.
Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 8:2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”
Romans 8:3-4, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Romans 8:5, “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”
Romans 8:6-8, “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Romans 8:9, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”
Romans 8:10, “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.”
Romans 8:11, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
Romans 8:12-13, “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh -- for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
Romans 8:14, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
Romans 8:15, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’”
Romans 8:16-17, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”
“Spirit” is the noun pneuma (pneuma), which refers to the Holy Spirit.
“Himself” is the intensive personal pronoun autos (au)tov$), which emphasizes the identity of the Spirit since He is the member of the Trinity that communicates with the Christian’s human spirit that he or she is a child of God.
“Testifies” is the verb summartureo (summarturevw) (soom-mar-too-reh-o), which is a compound word composed of the preposition sun, “with” and the verb martureo, “to testify,” thus it literally means, “to testify with, bear witness with.”
Here in Romans 8:16, the verb summartureo means that the Holy Spirit provides “confirmation” to the Christian that he or she is a child of God.
The Spirit provides credible supporting evidence that the Christian is a child of God by giving testimony or by testifying to the Christian’s human spirit that he or she is a child of God.
In the Roman world, the adoption ceremony was carried out in the presence of witnesses since if the adopting father died and there was a dispute about the right of the adopted son to inherit, one of more of the witnesses stepped forward and gave testimony that the adoption was genuine.
Thus, the right of the adopted person was guaranteed and he entered into his inheritance.
So in the same way, Paul is saying in Romans 8:16 that the Holy Spirit Himself is a witness to our adoption and in fact, was instrumental in the Christian’s adoption and He bears testimony or witness to the Christian’s human spirit that they are indeed children of God.
There are some expositors who contend that summartureo does not mean the Spirit bears witness “to” the Christian’s human spirit but rather bears witness “with.”
The former is the correct view since the human spirit of the Christian gives one the ability to understand spiritual phenomena communicated by the Spirit and does not of itself have the capacity to bear testimony that the Christian is a child of God.
Rather, the human spirit gives the Christian the ability or capacity to receive the testimony from the Holy Spirit that they are a child of God.
Romans 8:16, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.”
“With our spirit” is the noun pneuma (pneuma) “with spirit” and the personal pronoun hemeis (h(mei$) (hay-mice), “our.”
The noun pneuma here refers to the Christian’s human spirit as indicated by the fact that it is used with the personal pronoun hemeis, “our.”
At the moment of salvation, through regeneration, the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit for the imputation of eternal life by God the Father, which makes the believer a new spiritual species meaning he now possesses the divine nature.
Titus 3:5, “He (God the Holy Spirit) saved us, not on the basis of deeds (human works) which we have done in (human power) righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”
This human spirit with eternal life imputed to it composes the believer’s new nature, i.e. the new self and this new nature is the nature of Christ.
This act of regeneration makes the believer a new spiritual species, which is the nature of Christ that can never sin and that is described in Scripture by many phrases such as the “new self, new man, new creation, inner man.”
2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new spiritual species; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
Romans 7:22, “For you see, I habitually and joyfully agree with God’s Law with respect to my inner man.”
2 Corinthians 4:16, “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.”
Ephesians 3:16, “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.”
2 Peter 1:4, “For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
1 John 3:9, “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
The human spirit is the receptacle for eternal life and together they give the believer the capacity to metabolize and apply spiritual phenomena communicated by the Holy Spirit through the teaching of the Word of God and to pray according to the will of God and to worship and serve God.
Philippians 4:23, “May the grace which originates from the Lord Jesus Christ be communicated to your human spirit. Amen.”
The fact that all believers received a human spirit and eternal life at the moment of salvation through regeneration makes the believer “trichotomous” in the sense that he has a body, soul and human spirit.
The human spirit of the Christian is mentioned in several passages.
Romans 1:9, “In fact, God is my witness whom I at the present time serve by means of my human spirit in the proclamation of the gospel concerning His Son, how on a habitual basis I mention of all of you.”
Galatians 6:18, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.”
2 Timothy 4:22, “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.”
Philemon 1:25, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”
1 Thessalonians 5:23, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Romans 8:16, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.”
In Romans 8:16, the noun pneuma functions as a “dative of indirect object” indicating that the Christian’s human spirit receives the Spirit’s testimony that they are children of God.
“We are” is the verb eimi (ei)miv) (i-mee), which denotes that the Holy Spirit bears witness to the Christian’s human spirit that they “belong to a particular class of human beings,” namely, they are children of God.
“Children” is the noun teknon (tevknon) (tek-non), which is used in a figurative sense of those sinners who have been declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and through the Spirit have been regenerated and placed in union with Christ and identified with Him in His death and resurrection.
In Romans 8:14, Paul uses the noun huios, “sons,” which emphasizes the legal aspect of the Christian’s relationship with God and is thus directly related to justification and adoption.
Romans 8:14, “Because, all of us who are, as an eternal spiritual truth, led by means of the Spirit, who is God, these are, as an eternal spiritual truth, God’s sons.”
In Romans 8:16, Paul uses the noun teknon, “children,” which emphasizes the Christian’s relationship from the perspective of the spiritual birth.
Paul uses the expression “children of God” in Philippians 2:15.
The expression “children of God” appears in the apostle John’s writings (John 1:12-13; 1 John 3:1-2, 10; 5:2).
Romans 8:16, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.”
“Of God” is the noun theos (qeov$), which refers to the Father since the word is used in relation to the noun teknon, “children” that denotes a father and child relationship.
The word functions as a, “genitive of possession” indicating that Paul and his fellow Christians in Rome “belong to” God the Father.
He “owns” them in a legal sense since they were declared justified by Him through faith in His Son Jesus Christ and adopted by Him through the Spirit Roman style into His family.