What is the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15)?

"For ye received not a spirit of bondage again to [or for] fear; but ye received a spirit of sonship, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Ver. 15.) Gentiles though they were (for there is no allusion here as in Romans 7 to such as know the law), they were not brought into the spiritual condition of the saints in Old Testament times, especially indeed of those under law, who through fear of death were subject to bondage during the whole of their life. Out of this the Jewish saints were brought by the gospel, which equally met the Gentile who had never experienced the legal discipline, but had lain here and there, seemingly overlooked in their wild course of lawlessness and idolatry. The one as much as the other received a spirit of adoption or sonship, as indeed it is said elsewhere: "because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father." The Holy Ghost could not but act in unison with the Son who had revealed the Father, and would give the sense of no relationship short of sons. The slaves had morally closed their history, not only by persistent rebellion, but by war to the death of the Son of God. From a lost world grace was saving, and placing those who believed in the Lord Jesus in the position of sons; and the Holy Ghost personally deigned to lead them, beside imparting a nature conformable to God and distinct from man though made good in man. It is in contrast then not merely with Gentile license and boldness, but with Jewish bondage and fear; and the Spirit gives us to cry, Abba, Father. So cried Jesus in Gethsemane, not on the cross. If we cry thus, it is the expression of dependence on and confidence in our Father, not of a suffering such as His, where His utter abandonment draws forth the still deeper and essentially distinct "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

The positive privileges and blessings of the Christian, as delivered from the world and brought in spirit to the Father's house, are next stated. But first, the characteristic name and operation of the Spirit which dwells in the believer, are declared and explained (verse 15). This is an important point. "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption (of sonship pneuma huiothesias), whereby we cry, Abba, Father." We have already seen in chapter 7 what were the effects of the full realization in a renewed mind of the Law as spiritual. The Holy Ghost acting as the Spirit of truth upon an awakened conscience through the Law, can produce no other effect than bondage and fear. The standing of a believer while under Law was that of a servant, not of a son. The Holy Ghost, therefore, as the Spirit of adoption could never rest upon such. Moreover, although the Spirit filled and used holy men of old, making them thus the fitting witnesses and messengers of Divine truth; yet was this a wholly different thing from what is now the portion of a saint. They were moved (pheromenoi) by the Holy Ghost, who fell on them at His will, and bore them often far beyond the feeble scope of their spiritual understanding. He could and did reveal to them in part the mystery of the ways of God, making them cognizant in a measure of the dispensational sequences in the order of the Divine mercy (1 Peter 1:11-12). But as to themselves, their standing actually was that of servants, not sons; though faith might and did anticipate in hope the good things of promise, which were laid up with God for them that feared Him.

The spirit of bondage unto fear, then, had had its sphere of operation, and had wrought its work. And now, as made free by the Son, they had received another Spirit. Reception into the house, with the abiding title of sonship, is now the effect of grace received. 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). As thus sent forth He is received by us; unawares it may be at first, until His blessed presence is disclosed by the utterance which He alone can truly bring forth from the heart. The cry, Abba, Father, is our own; but it is by the Spirit of the Son that it is produced. We cry Abba, because we know Him thus; but the power of that knowledge is the indwelling presence of the Son. "The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God." There is a concurrent testimony of the Spirit of the Son, and of the quickened spirit of the new-born child of God, whose heart that Spirit fills, Both speak, and speak to God. The Spirit cries Abba, because it is the Spirit of the Son — our hearts repeat that cry because we know, by the same Spirit, that the living Christ is our life to God.

The apostle again connects the Spirit of God in the closest union with the character, the spirit, which He produces in us, according to the relationship in which we are placed by His grace in Christ, and of which we are conscious, and which in fact we realise by the presence of the Holy Ghost in us: He is in us a Spirit of adoption. For He sets us in the truth, according to the mind of God. Now as to the power for thus, as to its moral reality in us, it is by the presence of the Holy Ghost alone that it takes place. We are only delivered from the law and the spirit of bondage in that the Spirit dwells in us, although the work and the position of Christ are the cause. This position is neither known nor realised except by the Spirit, whom Jesus sent down when He had Himself entered into it in glory on high as man. But this Spirit dwells in us, acts in us, and brings us in effect into this relationship which has been acquired for us by Christ, through that work which He accomplished for us, entering into it Himself (that is, as man risen).

The anointing is the power for the understanding of the Christian position, and the ability to take it up. Romans 8:15-16 tells us, we “have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” The Spirit gives the believer the understanding of relationship of children to the Father, the Spirit bearing witness with our Spirit, so that there comes from the lips of the believer the cry of conscious divine relationship, “Abba, Father.” “Abba” in the original is the word first uttered by the newly-born babe. It is an easy word to pronounce, and shows that this sense of relationship is given to the youngest believer, as the Apostle John addressed the youngest class in the family of God, “I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father” (1 John 2:13).

Further He sustains the character of a Witness, as we find in verse 16. Being made sons of God we have received the Spirit of adoption, and two results flow out of this. First, we are able to respond to the relationship which has been established, turning to God with the cry of, "Abba Father." Second, the Spirit gives us the conscious enjoyment of the relationship. We know in our own spirits that something has happened, which has brought us out of darkness into light. The Spirit corroborates this, bearing witness to what has happened, even that we are now children of God.

We may now point out the effect in us of the reception of the Spirit of adoption. The first is that we cry, as we have seen, "Abba, Father." In Galatians the apostle says, "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts." (Gal. 4:6.) This is as instructive as it is remarkable. When our blessed Lord was in the garden of Gethsemane, assailed by Satan in the prospect of His death on the cross, He cried, in the agony of that hour, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt." (Mark 14:36.) This shows what the "Spirit of His Son" is, as well as that the Lord was at this moment in the conscious enjoyment of His relationship to the Father, whatever the agony through which He was passing. The same Spirit therefore, in the power of which Christ, as the Son, thus, addressed the Father, dwells in us — in all who have, been cleansed by the precious blood of Christ. And dwelling in us He teaches, yea, leads, our hearts to cry, "Abba, Father." This cry is, so to speak, the necessary consequence of possessing the Spirit of sonship (huiothesia). We may have addressed God in other terms before; but as soon as the relationship has been formed, and God has sealed it by the gift of the Holy Ghost, we shall be constrained to. call God our Father. If we did not it would be as unreasonable as if the child of an earthly parent were to persist in naming him "master" instead of giving to him the endearing name of "father." Indeed, and it must not be overlooked, "Abba, Father" is the cry of the Spirit Himself in our hearts.

We have now to consider what is said concerning the Spirit as dwelling in us. We are sons, and by the Spirit cry, "Abba, Father," in the consciousness of being so. The Holy Ghost Himself (here we have Him definitely as a distinct Person) "beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." It is a distinct definite testimony of the Spirit who dwells in us that we are such; not a proving by the word on examination of ourselves (a false and unscriptural and evil procedure), but the testimony of the Holy Ghost Himself dwelling in us, which He bears to us as so dwelling in us. We have the consciousness and estate of the mind of the Spirit in us; but He Himself, as dwelling in us, bears consciously also to us the witness that we are sons. We are in the conscious relationship, but He who is in us gives the confidence-producing testimony.

There is, however, another thing. The apostle proceeds, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." (Rom. 8:16.) The possibility of all self-deception is thus obviated. There might be the imitation of others in calling God Father, but there is also produced by the Spirit the inward consciousness of the relationship. It is important to remark that it does not say, bear witness to our spirit. If this were the language employed, we might be waiting for some distinct testimony at a given moment to assure us that we were now God's children. The apostle says, "with our spirit;" i.e., the fruit of the indwelling Spirit is to beget in us feelings and affections suited to, and to lead us into the enjoyment of, the relationship into which we are brought. The child of God now knows the Father, and does not doubt that he is a child, for he has within himself the assured consciousness of his relationship, and is able therefore to repose, in measure at least, in the enjoyment of the Father's love and care. In other words, the filial spirit is the product of this testimony of the Holy Ghost.

But here we speak rather of the Spirit as dwelling in God's children, and as such, as we have seen, He "bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Rom. 8: 15, 16; Gal. 4: 6, 7). In this aspect, He is the witness of accomplished redemption to the individual soul - as will be seen when treating the next point - and hence every child of God ought to know by this sure testimony that he is saved. But it may be asked, How is this witness borne to our sonship? The very fact of His presence within us testifies to it; but by His presence He forms within us affections suited to our relationship, begets in us desires after the enjoyment of the Father's love, enables us in the holy intimacies of our filial place and position to cry, Abba, Father, verifies to our souls the word on which we have trusted as revealing to us the relationship and the blessings which belong to us as God's children, and thus bears very distinct witness with our spirit. No! it is not an audible testimony, and it is discerned and apprehended by our spirit alone; but it is none the less, nay, it is all the more, real on this account, because indeed it is a living secret between ourselves and God. The strength and distinctness of His testimony, it ought not to be forgotten, will depend upon conditions. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." In other words, just as being led by the Spirit of God is an evidence of our being the sons of God, so it is, when we are led walking in simple, loving obedience and dependence, that our spirit will discern most clearly His testimony to our sonship. But if we are so walking as to grieve Him, we shall listen in vain for His testimony, for we shall have grieved Him into silence. God will not therefore permit any of His children to walk carelessly, resting the certainty of their salvation on the ground of their being children; but He reminds us that if we are His we shall be led of the Spirit, and that He will bear witness with our spirit, and teach us to cry, Abba, Father.

Further, He is the Spirit of adoption: I know I am in Christ before God, and I know I am a son; I cry "Abba, Father." Mark the practical power of this. Suppose a child with his father; if there is a question as to whether it is his father or not, he cannot have the affections of a child. A child has a nature capable of those affections, but he cannot have the feelings proper to a child till he knows his father. We are in the consciousness of relationship: the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. I know I am in Christ, and Christ is in me, and I cry, "Abba, Father." In the gospel of Christ I get the ministration of righteousness from God to me, and I get the ministration of the Spirit; I get the Holy Ghost sealing me for the day of redemption. There is no question as to love now, for God has given His Son; none as to righteousness, for Christ is at the right hand of God; nor as to relationship, for the Spirit teaches us to cry, "Abba, Father."