The Spirit of Sonship
Dearly beloved, what did we receive when we confessed Jesus as Lord and believed that God raised him from the dead?
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.
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.
God is our Father now. We 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.
Our Father did not give us the spirit of sonship to put us in bondage. If He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son for us while we were dead in sin, ungodly, and His enemies just think how much He must love us now! We are His dearly beloved children, the same as His Firstborn Son, Jesus Christ.
God never puts us in bondage. He never enslaves – He delivers; He makes free. He makes whole. We should never be afraid of Him.
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 should now be Son-conscious; conscious of all we are in Christ Jesus. We must learn to think about ourselves as our Father thinks of us.
God did not send His Son to accomplish all that he accomplished so that we would be in greater bondage than we were before he saved us. God sent him to make us free from sin, guilt, condemnation, and when he returns he will deliver us from the presence of sin.
He sent him so that we could have a more abundant life. He sent His Son so that as His children we could live in the reality of Christ’s achievements. He gave us the hope of receiving the glory of God.
Our greatest desire should be to love and please Him; to do His Will. The god of this world is the one who wants us in bondage and afraid, not our Heavenly Father.
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 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 anything and everything within your ability to help them regardless of the consequences to you. Why do you think we think like that?
Why is it that 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, erroneous religious teaching has robbed us of this joy.
We became God’s children when we received His gift of holy spirit; the spirit of sonship. The spirit is the basis of our relationship with God as our Father. Nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, dearly beloved.