Romans 8:12-17

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. [h] And by him we cry, "Abba, [i] Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.


Dig Deeper
On July 17, 1918, forces of the Bolshevik secret police stormed into the residence of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and brutally murdered the last sovereign of Imperial Russia and his entire family. It was the final blow of the Bolshevik revolution and forever changed the nature and direction of Russia, soon to be know as the Soviet Union. Among the family members of the Tsar that were slain that day was were four of Nicholas’ five daughters. It is likely that the other daughter, Anastasia, was also killed. I say likely, because since that day there have been persistent rumors that Anastasia had possibly escaped death and spirited away. Many years later a woman named Anna Anderson came forward claiming to be Anastasia. She had, she claimed, suffered from amnesia for years after surviving being shot in 1918, but escaped and only now was remembering who she was. Some people were skeptical but many relatives of the Tsar came forward after meeting the woman and said that they believed her. Imagine being in this young woman’s position. She was part of the royal family but apparently didn’t know it for years and then when did come forward, some doubted her. Anna died in 1984 still claiming that she was Anastasia but in 1994 DNA evidence proved that she was not part of the royal family. In 2008 new remains of a young woman were found in a shallow grave. DNA proved the remains were of Nicholas’s Daughter Anastasia. She had died in 1918 after all.

Things didn’t work out for Anna. She was not an estranged part of the royal family of Russia but imagine if she had been. Can you imagine many things more heartbreaking than being part of a royal family and not knowing it or not taking advantage of it? I can’t and yet it happens all the time. Those who have died to themselves and entered into the life of Christ have left the fallen family of Adam enslaved by the flesh and sin and entered into a new family. We have become part of the covenant family built on faith that God had promised all along but how many of us really know that or know what it means. Oh, we flippantly call God the Father and talk of being his children. We even call each other brother and sister but I wonder how many of us truly understand the position of sonship that has been granted to those in Christ. I wonder if we truly understand the incredible, glorious privilege it is to be adopted in the royal family of the king. We are a part of the greatest family that has ever existed and many of us have nothing more than a vague notion of what that even means. But for Paul, there was nothing more incredible, nothing more important.

In chapter 5, Paul began to speak in terms of creation and a new creation as he described the roles of Adam and Christ in the world. Then in chapter 6 he began an incredible narrative of the new exodus, the escape of God’s people from the slavery of sin, as he used language and allusions from the original Exodus. In chapter 7, he moved us to scenes of Israel receiving the law at Mt. Sinai as he explored the role of the law in Israel. Now, Paul begins us on the journey into the promised land. He speaks of being led by the Spirit of God. This is a clear allusion to the Exodus generation that were led through the wilderness by God himself as he sent a pillar of clouds during the day and fire at night to guide his firstborn son (Ex. 4:22) through the wilderness and into the promised land. The going in the wilderness was tough and fraught with temptations but the children of Israel were urged to hold on to obedience to God and come into their promised inheritance.

Inheritance is a key term. It was given typically to the oldest son, but at times, as we see in the Old Testament, the inheritance could be passed to another son (a point that will become important for Paul in the next chapter). If we think back through all that has been discussed to this point, the incredible depth of Paul’s point begins to come into focus. Going back to the point where man’s rebellion began in the garden of Eden, God promised that the solution to sin and death would be through the family or seed of a woman (Gen. 3:15). As we have seen, God gave that promise to Abraham, as he declared that Abraham would not only be the father of many nations but that through this family, the whole world would be blessed. This was no ordinary family this was God’s family; God’s family through whom the entire world would be restored to the state of paradise that God intends for his good creation. Only those in that family would have their sin dealt with. Only those in that family would be declared vindicated or justified on the final judgment. But those of us who were born into Adam and sinned were forever separated from that family. Paul has already made that point clear. We could look at that family from afar but could never be part of it. And that applied to Israel as well because, as we peak ahead to Paul’s point in the next chapter, just as the inheritance went to Isaac but not Ishmael, and Jacob not Esau, so that inheritance was given to Christ alone. He was Israel, the family of promise.

This is Paul’s point here and we need to take some time to let it fully sink in. Those who have been led by God’s own Spirit out of sin, just as he led the Exodus generation out of Egypt, have been brought into Christ where what is true of the king is true of his people. We have been declared the children of God because we have died to ourselves in Adam and taken up the life in Christ. No longer are we slaves to sin. No longer do we need to fear the final judgment. We have been adopted into sonship. Paul specifically uses that language because it is inheritance language. Men and women alike can celebrate that we have been given the sonship of inheritance. It is ours. And in Christ, we can do something unthinkable. We can rightly do what Jesus did throughout his life. We can call out to our Father; we can use the endearing term “Abba” because we are his sons. The fact that we have the Spirit leading us into the promised land and away from the slavery of sin demonstrates that we are heirs. We share in the inheritance that is Christ’s. We share in Christ’s own relationship with the Father and can truly identify with the youngest son in the parable of the prodigal son from Luke 15. Because we have thrown our lot in with the Messiah, the Father has rushed out to us and thrust a ring on our finger, thrown a robe around us, put sandals on our feet, and embraced us as his son.

The son has invited us into his life so that we may share in his glory. The glorification of which Paul speaks here is the rule of the Messiah over the restored world. We have been called to not only be part of God’s family and share in the Messiah’s inheritance but we will also reign with him (cf. Rom. 5:17). But, Paul gives an important reminder here, returning to his thoughts of 5:1-5. We do have the life of Christ but that calls us to live that life. We should not think that God has called us into his family to live lives of comfort and ease as the “king’s kids.” This is part of the twisted theology of the prosperity gospel folks but it stands in stark opposition to what Paul says so clearly here. In 1 Corinthians 1:24, Paul describes what he means by this call to suffering: “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.” Paul understood that if we are called to the life of Christ that it is a life of laying down our selves for the benefit of others. The way that we pass on the life of Christ to others is to not just tell them about what Jesus did for them but to follow his example by laying our lives down for others. That will rarely call us to literal death (although it might) but it does call us to share in his life, share in his suffering for others. It is only then that we “may also share in his glory.”

Because we are part of God’s family (oh it is so incredible to even think of such a thing), this is why we call one another brothers (and sisters, an insertion by the TNIV which makes the important point that women are included in this just as much as men, but somewhat obscures the point that Paul is using the inheritance language of being sons). We are part of God’s family, don’t ever forget that. It obligates us, says Paulin verse 12, to live like members of that family. We represent our Father and that is serious business. It calls us to not be like the Exodus generation who repeatedly looked back to Egypt and opined about returning to the relative ease and comfort that they enjoyed there. It was so much easier than the struggle in the wilderness as they made their way to the promised land. We are called to look ahead to the glorious inheritance and not to how “easy” it was to not fight, to simply give into temptation, and do our own will. It is our obligation, but more than that our privilege and honor, to be led by the Spirit as he leads us into our promised land to life. It is high time that we stop lightly throwing around family terms in the kingdom of God and truly spend serious time contemplating what it really means to be part of God’s family. I believe we would find that the struggle with the flesh would not be nearly as difficult. We need to wake up to what we have been given by being called the sons of God and live up to the obligations of our new family.


Devotional Thought
You are part of God’s family. We tend to think of salvation in individual terms but in reality we have been brought into a family, oh the incredible thought of it all. How does this change our understanding of what it means to be a Christian? What does this do for our concepts of commitment to the body of Christ and to other Christians? Do you truly live as though you have brothers and sisters in Christ or are they just people you go to church with?