God gives us freedom because He adopts us into His family. This daily devotional looks at how God shows us He has adopted up into His family by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Nuggets
- God saves us from the bondage of sin, which eliminates our fear.
- God adopts us so that we can be changed to have His character.
- Because God doesn’t slap us into bondage but rather freedom, we call Him Daddy.
Devotions in the Never Alone: The Holy Spirit in Our Lives series
Salvation brings us freedom. This freedom allows us to be adopted into God’s family.
The evidence that we are now accepted into God’s family is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
Let’s see how Paul describes this.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
The Spirit of Slavery
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Rom. 8: 15 ESV)
God saves us from the bondage of sin, which eliminates our fear.
It really gets me when worldview people think that salvation is bondage. It does not force us into a type of slavery.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
We are born into bondage because bondage is of Satan. We are born with a sinful nature.
God gives us the opportunity to break free of it. Through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, God calls us to salvation.
Spurgeon and Beddome equated the conviction of sin to bondage. I can see where it feels like it.
Resource
I may be wrong, but I don’t think conviction is part of the bondage. Conviction is being made aware of our sins and realizing the need for repentance.
- Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to change our sinful ways to ways of righteousness through obedience.
- Obedience means submitting ourselves to the will of God as it is presented to us and living our lives accordingly.
Glossary
Conviction is part of breaking free from bondage.
Even the assurance of punishment of our sins, to me, isn’t bondage. Yes, it can give us the heebie-jeebies.
But the punishments are the consequences of our actions. We wouldn’t have those if we had made different choices.
Can’t you just hear a worldview person thinking that the assurance of punishment is bondage? We live in a society where people think there should be no repercussions for their actions.
God can and does have laws and commandments that we must follow. He is Sovereign God. He can have expectations.
Consequences do not mean it is a bondage situation. We have limitations of behavior that we will accept from others. We have boundaries we don’t let people cross.
God does, too.
God showing us our sinful condition is not bondage.
The Spirit of Adoption
“… but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons …” (Rom. 8: 15 ESV)
God adopts us so that we can be changed to have His character.
Part of the reason I am struggling with Spurgeon’s description of conviction as bondage is because conviction brings adoption into the family of God. That is the whole polar opposite of bondage to me.
Glossary
Adoption is a step up from “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn. 8: 36 ESV). Setting us free could mean leaving us where God finds us.
He doesn’t.
God not only doesn’t turn His back on us after conversion, but He also draws us in and provides for us. He changes us to be more like Him.
This concept did not have its roots in the Old Testament. Merivale reported that adoption was a Roman practice. It mimicked a sale, strengthening the tie to the concept of bondage.
A father had to sell his son three times, and the son be emancipated three times, before the son be free of his father’s authority. Merivale continued the description that is beyond the scope of this devotion, so go ahead and read it for yourself.
Resource
Bedomme argued that there were — for lack of a better word — levels of adoption. Some have more; some have less.
I can see the evidence if that being there are different levels of faith. It would be a logical assumption that those with more faith feel the spirit of adoption more.
I can also see the evidence against that. There are no levels of salvation. We are either saved or we aren’t.
God requires total submission. He doesn’t allow belief without submission.
It also sent up a flag when I typed that it was based on feelings. Feelings come and go. That doesn’t mean God has changed our level of adoption.
We have to watch how we think about adoption, too. When my Springfield Dad adopted me, what grew from there was based on feelings. None of us intended it to mean I was a bona fide member of their family.
God, on the other hand, adopts us and intends to make all changes necessary to welcome us into His family. I think that is one reason it is called spirit of adoption in verse 15. It is the hope of eternal life that adoption brings.
The Spirit of Family
“by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Rom. 8: 15 ESV)
Because God doesn’t slap us into bondage but rather freedom, we call Him Daddy.
This cry becomes our prayer. “Daddy, we need You.” We can boldly approach the Sovereign God because we have done it before. This conveys confidence and gratitude.
This doesn’t mean we are not giving God the honor due Him. In fact, I think we are giving Him more honor because we see how He wishes us to approach Him — in love and confidence.
Yes, it does also convey child-likeness. I know. That goes against the worldview norms these days, too. So many people want children to be little adults.
God wants us to have the wonder and faith of a child.
Making the Connections
I really liked what Bedomme said. He wrote, “Wherever this Spirit is received, it must be considered as the fruit of sovereign grace. … The Spirit is not only a witness to Christ without us, but to Christ within us …”
Resource
God gives us the Holy Spirit as a Guide because of grace. Grace is a free and unmerited gift of love from the Heavenly Father, given through His Son, Jesus Christ, that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Glossary
There is nothing we do to earn the Spirit’s presence in our lives. God freely gives Him to us. He verifies that we are His children by the Spirit’s presence.
Go back up to where we talked about the Roman practice of adoption. A son had to be emancipated three times before he would be free of his father’s authority.
That is a good description of how sin has a grip on us. It isn’t just a God-I-believe-in-You deal. We have to let God work to get it out of us.
How Do We Apply This?
- Don’t let seeking God become like bondage.
- Love God because He designed a way to show His love for us when we were disobedient.
- Praise Him for all He does for us.
- Depend on Him and trust in His plan for our lives.
- Obey Him through submitting to all of His laws and commandments.
- Go home to Daddy’s house for fellowship.
- Place our hope in Him.
Resource
Roberts made a good point. How many times do we try to make ourselves more acceptable to God by doing one or all of the items we do to seek Him?
Oh, we just have to pray more. We have to stop missing our devotion time. We have to stop sinning.
Doesn’t work that way. We can’t save ourselves.
Yes, God wants us to do that along with meeting with like-minded believers. But our salvation isn’t contingent on doing that.
It is contingent on us believing He is Sovereign God. We have to believe that belief in Jesus is the only way we gain salvation.
Father God. We are humbled that You would call us Your children. Our sinful nature is counter to what You want us to be. Change us to be more like You. Amen.
What do you think?
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