Romans 8:10-17 – Children of God

We are children of God.  This is Good News.

10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

Romans 8:10-17

Christ lives in us.

The Holy Spirit gives us life because of our right standing with God.  Remember from our lesson in Romans 3, we are made right with God when we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  Our righteousness is imputed to us because we are grafted in to the Body of Christ when we believe in Him.

I’d like to point out a reference to the Trinity in verse 11 above. God the Father through the power of God the Holy Spirit raised God the Son from the dead. Do you see it?  The Trinity is one of those Heavenly secrets that man will never fully understand.  All three in the Trinity are fully God.  All are in each other. While they are all their own Person, they do not act independently of each other.

Because of this righteousness that comes from Christ, we no longer are slaves to the sinful nature that we received from Adam. We are new creations and, as such, sin has no hold over us any longer.  Paul makes it clear if we live by our sinful nature, we will die. If we live by the Spirit, we will live. And when we are led by the Spirit, we are children of God!

Does this happen overnight?

No, we do not immediately stop doing those sinful things. The Christian life takes discipline. We must train our minds to focus and go to the things of God that we find in Scripture. This is why it is so very important to study the Word and get it in our hearts and our heads. When we have the Word within us, it is easier to battle those sinful desires. The more we battle and win against those sinful desires, the more we are like Christ. This should be our goal.

The Holy Spirit makes us Christ-like when we allow Him to lead.

The Holy Spirit assures us that we are children of God. We are Abba’s children.  In Aramaic the word “Abba” is for Father and is an intimate term that we can relate to as “Papa” or “Daddy.”  God the Father is our Papa. He wants us to look to Him as our Father. The Holy Spirit makes this possible.  The Holy Spirit joins with our spirit to witness that we are the Father’s children.

We are heirs with Christ Jesus of God’s glory.

If you’d like to learn more about the Holy Spirit, read my ebook all about Him. It is available for free when you sign up to receive emails from my blog by visiting www.evaconner.com and entering your email address in the orange bar at the top of the screen. You’ll receive an email asking you to verify that you are not a robot. After you do that, you will receive an email with a link to the free ebook which is a PDF.

Stay in the Light and the Love Always,

Eva