"So you have not received the spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead you have received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, "Abba, Father"" Romans 8:15
This message was delivered to me specifically from an app called Giant Slayers. To me it is very comforting. As a man who is the bread winner and protector of my household and extended family I have felt, at times, great loneliness in the stresses of every day life in NYC and corporate life. To "Feel" the meaning of Romans 8:15 is to feel, once again, that there is actually someone looking over me. Someone to protect, teach, lead the path for me. VERY novel feeling indeed for me. It brings back a feeling of protected warmth I thought I had lost forever as I grew to be an adult.
Thank you Lord for this blessing. Thank you for adopting me as your child and for being my Father.
Comment
You're quite welcome brother. Have a blessed day.
Tammy, your comment was so enriching. I really appreciate the depth and detail and context you offered. Thank you!
There is a contrast to be drawn here between the life of a servant and the life of a son. When Paul says that we have not received the spirit of bondage he is saying that when the Spirit of God dwells in us we are not treated by God as servants but as sons (cf. 1 Cor 2:12; 2 Tim 1:7). We do not fear God as the slave fears his masters Rather we love Him as a son loves his father. The slave does his master’s bidding because he knows he will be punished if he does not. But to him in whom the Spirit of God dwells, to him there is no element of fear that can intrude into his service for the Lord. He serves the Lord as a son lovingly serves his loving father. Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The son is on entirely different footing than the servant. The spirit of adoption, (Gr huiothesia) or sonship, enables us to enter into a relationship with God the Father that the unbeliever can never experience. In the first century a.d. the adopted son was one who was deliberately chosen to perpetuate the name of his father and inherit his estate. He was not at all inferior to a son born after the course of nature. Thus we are enabled to cry Abba, Father. The word abba is an Aramaic word which was never used by the Jews in addressing God. But when the Holy Spirit dwells within us, our relationship to God the Father is such that we may address Him as freely as we would our own father.
Edward E. Hindson and Woodrow Michael Kroll, eds., KJV Bible Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 2240.
Welcome to
All About GOD
© 2024 Created by AllAboutGOD.com. Powered by
You need to be a member of All About GOD to add comments!
Join All About GOD