for as many as are led by [the] Spirit of God, *these* are sons of God.
Paul has just spoken of putting the deeds of the body to death by the Spirit. Now he names the mark of everyone in God's family: a Leader lives inside them and guides them day by day.
What does "led" mean here? One writer explains the word with a picture from a royal household:
This word translated "led" has many uses, but the main idea running through them all is "to take care of." The Spirit takes care of us by leading us into right paths. Having such a guide shows that we are "sons of God." A young prince is always in the care of a tutor. The tutor knows how the prince ought to behave in his position. He must act at all times as the son of a king. In the same way the Spirit lives in our hearts, instructing us in the conduct that suits us because we are "sons of God."
Some reduce this leading to a state of soul — faith and holiness stirred up in our affections and our life. One writer answers that the verse is about the Spirit Himself. Look at what the rest of the chapter says He does:
The influence of the Holy Spirit shows itself in these things. But what is on the apostle's mind is not the influence of the Spirit only. It is the Spirit Himself. What is on the mind of the writer he answers is a state of soul. In Romans 8:16 the apostle says, "it is the same Spirit," or "the Spirit itself." And again, "the Spirit helps," "the Spirit makes intercession," the Spirit "dwells" in us.
The word "sons" is deliberate. It sets the Christian's relationship against the position Israel held under the law:
"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." Here we begin to hear of our relationship, in contrast with the place of servants or slaves, which Israel had under law. It also opens the way for the Spirit to appear as a Person who acts, rather than only as what marks out our new nature and standing over against the flesh.
Commentators differ over how "sons" relates to "children," which appears two verses later. Some hold that "son" means a higher, more mature place in the family. Kelly disagrees. He says "son" is the less close of the two words. It marks a public place given by adoption, always set against the place of a slave. "Child" speaks of being truly born into the family.
Is this leading only for advanced Christians? One writer says it belongs to all of them, and sets it against what came before:
Being led by the Spirit is a favour common to all Christians. It is the principle on which God now deals in grace with His people. Outside the circle where God lives by His Spirit, Satan leads men. Under the law His people were in bondage, kept under a guardian. Now, as a Christian privilege, the Spirit leads: "But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law" (Galatians 5:18).
Verse 13 and verse 14 belong together. One writer asks where the power for a Christian walk comes from:
There is a further lesson here: we may be led by the Spirit. He is not only our power for keeping the flesh in check, for putting our members to death (Col. 3). He also enables us to walk, and so is our power for progress in the divine path. We must hold on to these teachings firmly. From them we learn that we have no natural resource of our own. We depend entirely on the power of the Holy Spirit for the fight and for the walk, as for every activity of the divine life.
How far may we expect this leading to reach into ordinary choices? One answer joins real expectation to two safeguards — humility, and Scripture:
I do not doubt this: if we walk with God and look to Him, the Spirit will put in our hearts the special things He wishes us to do. Only it is important that we keep the word of God in memory. It will then guard us against all our own imaginations. Otherwise the Christian who lacks humility will do his own will, and will often take it for the Holy Spirit.
- Led. The word carries the idea of taking care — a tutor training a king's son to behave like one.
- Leader. What leads is a divine Person living in us, not a mood or a stirring of our own affections.
- Sons. This leading marks a family relationship, not the slave's place Israel held under law.
- Power. The same Spirit who checks the flesh also carries us forward; our own willpower has no share in it.
- Path. Expect real guidance in daily choices. Humility and the written Word keep it honest.
For ye have not received a spirit of bondage again for fear, but ye have received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Paul has just said that those led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Now he says what that Spirit is not: not a spirit that drives a person back into dread, but the Spirit by which a guilty sinner comes to call God "Father."
One writer lines up three things Scripture says believers have not received:
We are told we have not received "the spirit of the world," which we know is taken up only with the things of earth, of time, and of the senses — things that death shuts in on every side (1 Cor. 2:12). Nor have we received "the spirit of fear," that spirit of dread and torment that always broods over painful doubts and gloomy fears about what is coming (2 Tim. 1:7). Nor have we received "the spirit of bondage again to fear," tied to keeping rules and religious ceremonies, which can never free anyone from the fear of death (Rom. 8:15).
The word "again" points back to a real condition that people once lived in. It marks off the position of those under law from the position of the believer now.
They were Gentiles, and they were never put into the spiritual condition of believers in Old Testament times — above all of those under law, who through fear of death were held in bondage their whole life long. The gospel brought the Jewish believers out of that bondage. It met the Gentile just as fully, though he had never known the discipline of the law... The one as much as the other received a spirit of adoption or sonship.
Being given new life and knowing God as Father are treated here as two different things, the second waiting on the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.
Believing souls could not take up and enjoy their relationship to the Father until the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. To be born again is one thing: a change God's power works through the word. To know that God is our Father is another thing, and we can enjoy it only through the gift of the indwelling Spirit.
"Abba" is not a formal title. It is the word of a household, and commentators note that it had never before been used of God by a worshipper in Israel.
Under the law we never find in Scripture that a Jew said "Abba" to God. Israel was connected with God as Father in a national way only. God had called Israel a son, but it was collective, it was national. No one then could ever say "Abba, Father" to God. But now, because Christ's work is finished, we have this liberty — a liberty that gives free access to the immediate presence of God... "Abba" simply means "Daddy." The Lord Himself said it only once, when He was in distress in the garden of Gethsemane.
Paul writes "we cry," yet elsewhere the Spirit is said to cry. Both are true at once, and the order matters: the Spirit is not sent to create the relationship but because the relationship already exists.
The Spirit of the Son of God is sent into the heart of the believer, not to make him a son, but because he is already such (Gal. 4:6)... The cry, Abba, Father, is our own; but the Spirit of the Son produces it. We cry Abba, because we know Him this way; but the power of that knowledge is the indwelling presence of the Son.
Human adoption can change a person's status and nothing more. One writer makes the point from the story of Moses:
You remember Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses — an Israelite adopted into the royal family of Egypt! She could not, however, put into Moses a spirit of adoption, so when he became a man he broke it all off. Now, in His rich grace, God has done more than adopt us as His sons, with all the rights, dignity, and glory that go with it, as the royal family of heaven. He gave us the very "spirit of adoption," so that we are truly joined to His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ — not merely given a position.
If this verse rules fear out, then living in dread of God is not modesty.
There is no such thing recognised in Scripture as a Christian doubting he is saved. And it is a completely false claim to humility. If my Father forgives me, and I doubt His forgiveness, I am not trusting Him... There is no such thing in Scripture as a Christian without the Spirit of adoption, crying "Abba, Father."
- Not again. The believer's Spirit is not the spirit of the world, not a spirit of dread, and not the old bondage that left the fear of death in place.
- Not national. Israel's sonship was collective. No one under law called God "Abba" — the word a child uses at home.
- Not automatic. New birth is one thing. The settled knowledge that God is our Father comes through the indwelling Spirit.
- Not manufactured. The cry is truly ours, yet the Spirit produces it. He is sent because we are sons, not to make us sons.
- Not doubtful. Fear is ruled out, so doubting the Father's forgiveness is not humility. It is distrust.