What a Relationship!

Dearly beloved of God, since we received the complete new birth reality, we ought to walk in the reality we received as sons of God.

Romans 8: 15 Rotherham: “For ye have not received a spirit of servitude [bondage], leading back into fear, but ye have received a spirit of sonship, whereby we are exclaiming - Abba! Oh Father!”

The word “spirit” appears twice in this verse. “A spirit of servitude” or bondage spirit is set in contrast to “a spirit of sonship”. We received a sonship spirit which makes us God’s children; not a bondage spirit which leads us into fear.

God is our Father now. Our relationship with Him is quite different than it was when we were in the flesh, dead in sin, ungodly and enemies of God.

We now have access to Him by the spirit and He wants us to approach Him with confidence and speak freely with Him. We have a standing before Him in Christ as righteous, holy, sanctified, and without blame. We are His beloved. We now live in hope of receiving the glory of God.

The word “abba”, is an Aramaic word which expresses intimacy between a child and his parents. In our culture, we would say, “Daddy, Daddy”. Our Father desires us to be on intimate, tender terms with Him.

Whenever we manifest the spirit of sonship, we should be confident that we are His and He is ours. His ears are open to our prayers.

If God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son for us while we were dead in sin, ungodly, and His enemies, think how much He must love us now! We are His dearly beloved children, as beloved as His Firstborn Son, Jesus Christ.

We usually measure the value of an object by the price we pay for it. God paid for us with the life of His only begotten Son. How valuable do you think that makes us in His eyes?

Instead of being sin-conscious, we ought to be Son-conscious; conscious of who we are in Christ Jesus and of all that is ours in him. We must think about ourselves as our Father thinks of us.

We ought to believe who we are in Christ and walk as God’s beloved children, as justified, as righteous, as redeemed, as forgiven, as sanctified, as His beloved, as those who are enabled by His spirit, as those who have constant access to Him, as those who He called to obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our hope of glory should ever be before our eyes. We should walk on the resurrection ground that our Father set us on in Christ.

Our greatest desire should be to love and please Him, and do His Will.

Have you ever asked yourself what God gets out of His relationship with us? He desired to have a family; to have children who love Him, who freely approach Him; children who enjoy His tender fellowship, who are blessed to do the good pleasure of His will. He desired the intimate companionship of children who could walk and talk with Him.

If you are a parent, do you have joy when your children are in bondage and hurting; when they are in trouble, sick, or hurt? I bet that you would do everything within your ability to help them regardless of the consequences to you.

Why do we understand how concerned we are for our children but have such a hard time believing the concern and love our Heavenly Father has for us? For the most part this is the result of erroneous religious teaching; it has robbed us of this joy.

We became God’s children when we received His gift of holy spirit; the spirit of sonship. The gift of holy spirit is the basis for our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:16 and 17: “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God . . .”

What a tremendous comfort this is. When we manifest the spirit of God by speaking in tongues, it bears witness to our inner being that we are God’s children. This manifestation of the spirit gives us the certainty and assurance that we are the children of God and that we have eternal life and will receive the hope of the glory of God.

Since we are God’s children we are His heirs, but as fantastic as this revelation is, it does not stop here; the next statement makes a truly remarkable distinction.

Romans 8:17b-18: “. . . and joint - heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

God reveals that we are “joint-heirs with Christ” and that we will be “glorified together” with him as heirs. Read it again. What are we?

We are joint-heirs with Christ as joint-heirs and we will be glorified together with him!

There is no comparison to “the sufferings of this present time” with “the glory which shall be revealed in us!” The glory will be beyond anything that we can ask or imagine.

Our Father is bearing His heart to us in this revelation. When you consider what we were before our Father saved us – an utter ruin, dead in sin, ungodly, enemies of God, none good, none righteous, guilty before God, we all came short of the glory of God, deserving of His wrath – and then realize His great love, and grace toward us in Christ, it is overwhelming.

In Christ, we are now God’s beloved children – His family - and He will glorify us together with Christ as joint-heirs. We truly are His beloved and highly favored ones.

The revelation in the book of Romans stands in stark contrast to religion that pertains to the flesh. Religion always revolves around man and his work. The particular work you must do to have a good standing before God varies from one group to another. Religion always brings a person into bondage and holds him under their thumb. It always involves some yoke of bondage.

The gospel of the grace of God focuses on Christ’s accomplished work of redemption; what he did for us, what God made us in Christ, and what is available to us in Christ. True Christianity revolves around Christ and his work. It makes you free indeed.

Dearly beloved, walk in the goodness of God toward you in Christ Jesus our Lord. You are His dearly beloved and highly favored child. This is quite a relationship!