Who are the children of God? What advantage is there being led by the Spirit of God? How do we know we are being led by the Holy Spirit?
Led
Romans 8:14 “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
Are we led by the world and its values or the Spirit of God? If we are rebels against God and His Word, we are not children of God. God’s children do not relate to Him like subjects of an earthly king, but as children to a loving father.
Since the beginning church overseers have read into scripture ideas and doctrines that it does not state, added burdensome traditions and taken away scriptural authority, giving it to bodies of mere men and discouraged, excommunicated or even murdered “Bereans” who want to search scripture to check up on their teachers.
Fear
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!’”
The answer for slavery to fear is having faith in a loving God. Faith knows that God is our refuge and salvation. Perhaps saying Father in both Aramaic and Greek suggests that God is father of both. In Roman law, adopted children had all the rights of natural born children.
Children
Romans 8:16 “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,”
The world exudes a false confidence. The Holy Spirit grants us true confidence that we are children of God. For those of us that doubt if God could love sinners such as us, the Holy Spirit is sent to reassure us, and our testimony is that we call God Father.
Heirs
Romans 8:17 “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.”
There is no inheritance unless we are children of God, and we are not children unless we experience a spiritual rebirth, and we cannot have spiritual rebirth without Christ, and faith in Jesus Christ. Christian suffering can vary from mere insults and false accusations to losing our lives for Christ.
This is not “He suffers with us,” which He does, but that “we suffer with Him.” Will we suffer minor persecution in insults and false accusations or worse, death? Do we die to selfishness as He died for us? Do we remember His suffering on Good Friday and during communion?
Who are the children of God? Those led by the Spirit. What advantage is there being led by the Spirit of God? We are God’s children, inheritors of His eternal kingdom. How do we know we are being led by the Holy Spirit? We are no longer dominated by fear but are growing in faith.
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
