(Note: This sermon was introduced with a drama called "Love of Another Kind" and a song called "Faithful Father").
The reality is that not all fathers are faithful. My father wasn’t faithful. When I was born he was only 16 years old, still just a kid himself. And by the time I was 3 years old, he was gone. Since that happened I’ve only seen him twice.
When I became a dad I swore I’d be different. And I have been a different kind of father to my four boys. But as hard as I try, I still disappoint my kids. I still let them down at times or put too big expectations on them. I hope I leave a very different legacy than my birth father left to me, but still, I’m only a partially faithful father.
Yet we just sang about God being a perfectly faithful Father to his children. We sang, "Father, I can’t explain this kind of love, this kind of grace." That’s really what we saw in the drama: An inability to understand or explain God’s kind of love. It’s so different than what we’ve experienced from those who’ve loved us, and even different from how we’ve love others. Faithful, forever faithful; that’s what kind of Father God is to his children.
Today we’re going to look at four family privileges that we receive when we become part of God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ. You see, although the Bible teaches that all human beings are God’s offspring by creation, the Bible also teaches that because of the power of sin in our world, we’re estranged from God. In our natural condition, all of us are children of Adam, not children of God. According to the Bible, it’s only when we place our trust in God’s good news about his Son Jesus Christ that we move from being a child of Adam to a child of God. When we move from being a child of Adam to being a child of God lots of things change in our lives. One of those things are the family privileges we’re going to talk about today in Romans 8:12-17.
1. Forward Progress (Romans 8:12-14)
Let’s explore the first privilege together in vv. 12-14. Now at first an obligation doesn’t sound much like a privilege. I mean a privilege is something like getting into a Laker’s game for free or free college tuition. An obligation is more like paying property taxes. It’s to imagine an obligation being a privilege.
But the point here is that our former obligation to our old way of life has been completely broken. The phrase "sinful nature" in vv. 12 and 13 is literally "the flesh" and as we’ve seen throughout Romans, "the flesh" describes life without Jesus, life in Adam, without a relationship with God (Moo 494). According to the Bible, in our natural condition we’re enslaved to sin, and this enslavement obligates us to live life without reference to God and God’s principles for living life. We were stuck, like a person sitting in a car with a dead battery, constantly turning the ignition but unable to start the engine.
But when we trust in God’s Son and become followers of Jesus, we’re no longer in the old era of "the flesh" but we’re transferred to the new era of "the Spirit." Because of this change in where we belong, we’re not under obligation to live our lives to the old era. Our obligation to life in Adam has been broken because now we’re part of God’s kingdom, brought into God’s family, joined to God’s people, the Christian Church. So now we’re free from our old obligation, and we’ve been given the freedom to live a new way.
In v. 14 Christians are described as "sons of God." The word used here doesn’t describe a young child, but an adult child who has all the rights and privileges that go with being an adult child in a family. When we trust in God’s Son, we become part of God’s family, joined to God as our Father, and entrusted with the rights and privileges of adult children.
Children of Adam will ultimately experience death, eternal separation from God. That’s the death mentioned in v. 13, and it’s the inevitable result of being a child of Adam, a person who belongs to the old era of the flesh. People who are children of Adam have no choice but to live according to this old age.
But when we become God’s adult children through faith in Jesus Christ, we’re promised life. This "life" isn’t just future life in heaven, but a rich, abundant, satisfying life walking with God today (Stott 229). This is God’s kingdom life enjoyed in the present.
Being "led by the Spirit" in this section isn’t so much talking about specific acts of guidance as it’s talking about the direction of our life being shaped by God’s Spirit (Schreiner 422). Every follower of Jesus Christ is by definition led by God’s Spirit in the sense that his or her life direction is now determined by God’s Spirit. God’s Spirit gently and constantly prods us in the direction God wants for us. Paul Achtemier says, "To be led by God’s Spirit…means to have changed our future from death to life, to have changed our relationship to God from rebellion to obedience, and to have changed our status from rebellious enemy to beloved child" (138).
So here we find the first family privilege. When we become children in God’s family, God gives us the privilege of forward progress.
Now that we’re led by God’s Spirit, we can expect steady progress toward our future with God.
I want to you notice a dynamic tension between God’s power and our effort in this text about how we make this forward progress. On the one hand the source of the power to make progress is God’s Spirit. It’s "by the Spirit" that we put to death the misdeeds of the body. It’s God’s Spirit who’s guiding and directing us forward. But on the other hand we have an important role to play in making the choice to put to death the misdeeds of the body.
You see, we tend to think forward progress either all depends on God or that it all depends on us. When we think it all depends on God, we figure if we simply let go and let God, we’ll move forward. So we spend our time surrendering our will to God, releasing ourselves to God, giving ourselves over to God again and again. But we find that no matter how much we give ourselves, we don’t go anywhere. We find ourselves stuck.
So then we figure it must all depend on our efforts. So we try harder; we focus on disciplining ourselves, gritting our teeth, clenching our fists, forcing ourselves forward in the spiritual journey. But again we find ourselves stuck, simply lacking the power to make ourselves change.
What we find here is a balance between God’s power and our effort. God’s Spirit is like the battery in a car. The reason the engine starts is because of the charge generated by the battery. But simply sitting in a car waiting for the engine to start won’t start the car. We must put the key in the ignition, and turn the ignition. That doesn’t mean the ignition is the source of power, but it simply means that there’s a dynamic relationship between the ignition and the battery, which together start the car. The power comes from the battery, but the car only starts when we turn the ignition. God supplies the power for us to make forward progress through the Holy Spirit. If we stop relying on God’s Spirit in the spiritual journey, we’ll be like a person trying to push a Cadillac up a hill alone. It will be a losing battle.
We turn the ignition in our spiritual life by "putting to death" the misdeeds of the body. This means making a conscious decision to treat our inclination toward sin as dead. It means actively replacing resentment with forgiveness, replacing lust with purity, replacing anger with love, and so forth. This is a step by step process, not a once and for all event (Origen, cited in Bray 215). That’s how we turn the ignition, by making the choice to "put to death" that inclination by choosing the virtue that’s the opposite of our inclination.
One ancient spiritual writer named Tiro Prosper puts it this way: "Since the Lord prepares the will, he also touches the hearts of his children…so that they might do good…Consequently, we do not think that our free will is lacking, nor do we doubt that in each and every movement of our free will, God’s help is the stronger force" (Prosper of Aquitaine, cited in Bray 217).
A pastor named Craig Barns tells the story how when he was a child, his father-who was also a pastor-brought home a 12 year old boy named Roger (www.Preaching Today.com). Both of Roger’s parents had died from a heroin overdose, so you can imagine how hard it was for Roger to adjust to his new home-an environment free of drug-addicted adults. Craig says every day he heard his dad saying things to Roger like, "No…that’s now how we act in this family," and "No…You don’t have to scream or hurt people to get what you want," and "No Roger, we expect you to show respect in this family." Roger didn’t have to make those changes in order to become part of the family-he was already welcomed into the family-but being part of the family meant living a new way. The grace of Craig’s dad made Roger part of the family, but Roger had to work hard to be different once he was in the family. Craig says, "It was tough for Roger to change, but he was motivated by gratitude for the incredible love my dad had shown him."
When we become part of God’s family through Jesus, we’re also given the privilege of forward progress.
2. Intimacy (Romans 8:15)
Now let’s look at v. 15. The moment we trusted Jesus Christ and became his follower, we received God’s Spirit. Last week we learned that if a person doesn’t have God’s Spirit living inside, that person’s not yet a genuine follower of Jesus. But here we find God’s Spirit called "the spirit of sonship" or the "spirit of adoption." When we trust in God’s Son, God’s Spirit brings us into an experience of adoption, where we become adopted as God’s sons and daughters. Adoption means "to legally and formally declare that someone who’s not your child will from that point forward be treated and cared for as your child" (Louw and Nida 35.53). It means to receive a person not a child into your family, so that person legally becomes your child, with all the rights and privileges that go along with it.
Because of this adoption, we can cry out, "Abba, Father." Now "Abba" is the Aramaic term for "father," and it was a very familiar term, the kind of title a six year addresses his dad by. In the gospels in the New Testament, this is the term Jesus himself used when he was praying to his Father. Jesus prayed "Abba, Dad." By giving us this same title, "Abba," Jesus is sharing his relationship with his Father with us, so we can approach God with the same kind of familiarity and intimacy the eternal Son of God had.
Here we find the second privilege. When we become children in God’s family, God gives us the privilege of intimacy.
Through the gift of God’s Spirit, we move from being children of Adam to adopted children of God. We no longer live in fear of judgment, because we can address God with the same familiarity Jesus himself addressed his Father with. Before we were welcomed into God’s family through Jesus, our lives are characterized by fear and uncertainty. Even as a young atheist when I was a child, I remember key times when I wondered, "Maybe there really is a God." When I had those thoughts, I’d start trembling because I realized that if there was a God, I didn’t know anything about him. But when we’re welcomed into God’s family through faith in Jesus, adoption replaces our fear. We’re welcomed, safe and secure. Our adoption makes us secure, so we can enjoy intimacy with our Abba, our Father, our Dad.
When John F. Kennedy became president, it had been a long time since there had been a small child in the White House. In order to make an appointment with the president you had to go through an elaborate screening process, coordinate it with his chief of staff and his secretary, and put up with a lot of red tape. But John’s little son had free access to his dad. He could come bursting through the door, cry out "Hi Dad" and jump on the president’s lap simply because he was the son. That’s what we have, the ability to approach our Father at any time and just be together.
This is my birth certificate. It says I was born at Pomona Valley Hospital to Mike Peck and Carla Peck. But do you know what? When I was born that day, Mike Peck had never even heard my name before. In fact, Mike Peck wouldn’t even earn my name or know who I was for about six years. You see, after my birth father abandoned us, my mom eventually remarried, and when I was 8 years old, her new husband Mike adopted me. When that judged signed those adoption papers, my birth certificate changed. From that point on I’ve bore his name, and even through the years I ran away from home and got in trouble, I never stopped bearing his name. This is a symbol of security, a symbol of the Spirit of adoption that brings us into God’s family so we can have an intimate relationship with our Father.
When we trust in God’s Son, we received the wonderful privilege of intimacy.
3. Assurance (Romans 8:16)
But along with intimacy, let’s look at another privilege we receive in v. 16. Along with the Spirit leading us and the Spirit of adoption, God’s Spirit also testifies to us that we really are God’s children.
Our "spirit" here is our inner self, who we are on the inside (Louw and Nida 26.9; Moo 503). In the core of our inner person, God’s Spirit gives us a sense of assurance that we really are God’s child. This inner testimony isn’t something that comes from ourselves or even from other people. It’s something that comes from God. This goes beyond our rational thinking about God, beyond the sermons we hear, and pierces the core of who we are.
This inner witness of the Holy Spirit is given to every single follower of Jesus Christ. If the Spirit of God lives in us, then the Spirit of God will give us this assurance. This is a promise for every follower of Jesus Christ, not just a few.
Here we find our third family privilege. When we become children in God’s family, God gives us the privilege of assurance.
We know that we know that we know that God has made us his child. Not because my wife told me, not because my parents told me, not because my pastor told me. We know because God’s Spirit fills us with assurance in the core of who we are. We might still struggle with doubts and questions, but at the core of who we are, we know.
I think of a scene from the Disney movie "The Lion King." Simba, a young lion runs away from his responsibilities as the king. But one night his father speaks to him from the clouds, and he says, "Simba, you’ve forgotten me." Simba of course says, "Father, I could never forget you." His dad responds by saying, "You’ve forgotten who you are, you’ve forgotten that you’re my child, and therefore you’ve forgotten me." How often we Christians forget who we are. We get so busy and frantic living life that we pass by those still, quiet moments where God wants to assure us again and again of who we are. We forget God by forgetting who we are as God’s children, accepted and adopted through faith in Jesus.
God gives us the privilege of assurance.
4. A Bright Future (Romans 8:17)
Let’s look at the final privilege in v. 17. Paul follows logic: If we’re adopted as adult children into God’s family, then that makes us heirs. Heirs of God, and co-heirs with Jesus.
Now in the Old Testament the inheritance God promised to the nation of Israel was the land of Palestine. The land was their inheritance. But for the Levites (the tribe in Israel where the priests came from) there was no land given. Instead, God said, "the Lord is Levi’s inheritance" (Deu 10:9). That same imagery is now applied to us as God’s children, that God himself is our inheritance. So although this is using the imagery of someone dying and leaving us their estate in their will, it’s not as if God is going to die and leave us in charge. The idea is that God shares who he is with us, that God himself is our inheritance (Stott 234).
But the path to receiving our inheritance isn’t someone’s death, but the path of suffering. The emphasis of the Bible is that suffering is the path to glory. That was true for Jesus Christ himself, who took upon himself a road of suffering to be glorified as the Savior and Lord of the universe. And it’s true for us as well, since we’re co-heirs with Christ. The sufferings referred to here are the daily anxieties, tensions and sometimes persecutions that come to us because we belong to Jesus (Moo 506). This is a law of God’s kingdom: That the path to glory is the path of suffering.
So here we find the final family privilege. When we become children in God’s family, God gives us the privilege of a bright future.
God has written us into his will as his heirs, and even though God will never die, he invites us to share in his own future as God. The glory God himself has by nature, God wants to share with us by grace. This glory is indeed a bright future, a future of intimacy with God, a future characterized by being forever part of God’s family.
Once someone asked hall of fame NFL football quarterback Roger Staubach how he kept playing when he was injured. Staubach replied, "If you’re not playing hurt, you’re not playing football." The same is true in the Christian life, that if you’re not living the Christian life hurt at times, you’re probably not really living the Christian life at all. Yet despite the pain, the future is bright because of who we belong to.
Conclusion
Becoming part of God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ brings with it certain family privileges. Among these special family privileges are forward progress, intimacy, assurance, and a bright future. These privileges become ours because God is a faithful Father, the kind of Father who shows us an entirely different kind of love than we’ve ever experienced before.
I want you to notice one more thing about this section. We often read this section as if it were talking about people as individuals. We think, "I’m a child of God," or "I’m a daughter of God." That’s certainly true, but the emphasis here--as it’s been throughout Romans--is on the community nature of the Christian life.
Notice the emphasis on the plural here. "We have an obligation" in v. 12, "sons of God" in v. 14, "we cry" in v. 15, "we are heirs" in v. 17. Every word translated "you" in these is the plural "you" in Greek, not the singular "you." So it’s better to think of this as talking about a whole family of children, rather than as isolated sons and daughters who have no connection to each other. We embody these family privileges as we embody the Christian message in our relationships with each other as a church community. It’s as we stop going to church and start being the church that we truly enjoy these privileges of forward progress, intimacy, assurance, and a bright future. As we share our lives together in small groups, as we serve together in various ministries, as we worship together as we’re doing today, here we enjoy these family privileges together. But if we try to separate ourselves from the family and still enjoy these privileges, we find ourselves frustrated. We find ourselves no longer moving forward, feeling distant from God, doubting the assurance we once had, and wondering about our future.
It’s so important that we be a community as a church, and not just a crowd. Thank God for God’s family.
Sources
Bray, Gerald (editor). 1998. Romans. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture Vol. 6. InterVarsity Press.
Louw, J. P. and E. Nida. 1989. Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains. New York: United Bible Societies.
Moo, Douglas. 1996. The Epistle to the Romans. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Schreiner, Thomas R. 1998. Romans. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker Books.
Stott, John R. W. 1994. Romans: God’s Good News for the World. Downers Grove: InterVarsity.
