SERMON TITLE: Children of God
TEXT: Romans 8:14-17 (ESV)
SPEAKER: Josh Hanson
DATE: 7/18-19/20
Watch the sermon here.
It’s great to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And the one thing I always want you to know — and this is true if you’re worshipping with us in person at one of our Findlay campuses or are joining us online — I want you to know that God loves you and I love you too.
And we’re continuing our series in the eighth chapter of the book of Romans — which is an important chapter of — not only this letter — but of the entire Bible.
So if you have your Bible, please turn with me to Romans chapter 8. We’ll be looking at verses 14-17 together today. Again, we’re in Romans chapter 8. Beginning in verse 14.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 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!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:14-17 ESV)
So today I’m going to challenge what may be an assumption for many of us. And this assumption may be so ingrained in you — that what I’m going to say may — at first — be offensive.
So here’s my challenge. I want to challenge a commonly held assumption that everyone — meaning every single person — is a child of God. “Wait, what? Did Josh just imply that we’re not all children of God?” Yes I did. So there’s the offense I warned you about. So let me clarify.
I think something’s happened in our thinking where we’ve confused being made in the image of God with being a child of God. Now the Bible is absolutely clear that every single person is made in the image of God (For a helpful article on the image of God, see What does it mean to be made in God’s image? by David Closson. Found at https://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/what-does-it-mean-to-be-made-in-gods-image/) which means that all people have dignity and value. This is why we fight for the rights of the unborn — image bearers still in the womb. And why we fight for the rights of the poor and oppressed and those who experience racism and other injustices. Every single person on the planet is made in the image of God.
But being a child of God is different. What do I mean? Well to be a child of God implies being part of God’s family. And the Bible gives a clear definition as to what it means to be part of the family of God — which is what we’re going to look at today.
But I think some examples from everyday life may help. Think of your family.
How many of you are an Ohio State fan? Keep your hand raised — even if you’re at home. OK. Now put your hand down if — and only if — you’ve got family members who are also Ohio State fans — meaning mom or dad — your grandparents — if someone else who you live with is an Ohio State fan — just like you — put down your hand. Wow — where’d all the hands go? Looks like for many of us there’s a family expectation as to which college team we’re a fan of. The same is true of Michigan families, by the way.
Think of the expectation — and maybe this is close to home for you — to go into the family business. We recently had to buy a new fridge — our old one decided it was time to retire — and the delivery truck had “Dad Express” in big letters on the side. So I asked the two guys delivering our fridge if one of them was “dad.” The older guy said he was “dad” and the other guy was his son. So I asked the son if he enjoyed being in the family business. And you know what he said? He said he didn’t have a choice. Maybe your story is similar. You had other dreams and aspirations, but your family — well — your family had a business and an expectation that you would be part of it.
Maybe it wasn’t a business so much as a career. Your mom or dad’s a lawyer and the expectation was — or is — that you’d go to law school. Or medical school — if your parents are doctors. Or into ministry — if your dad is a pastor.
All kinds of family expectations we have of each other.
Political expectations of our family members. It makes for a much more peaceful family gathering — during the holidays — if we’re all part of the same political party, right?
Speaking of the holidays, holiday traditions are an expectation many have for their family members. Which is why the first few years of marriage can be difficult for newlyweds. Now they’ve got two sets of families and both have their own holiday traditions and expectations. And sometimes the families have expectations that conflict with each other.
Now the expectation of our culture — when it comes to who’s a child of God — is that everyone is — at least those who believe in a divine being think this way. But unlike our family expectations — “you will be an Ohio State fan or a doctor or at our annual Thanksgiving lunch” — unlike the expectations we have of our family members — the thinking of the day — where everyone’s a child of God — has an added bonus. And that is — not only is everyone a child of God — but the Head of the family has no expectations of his children! Meaning we’re all free to live as children of a Divine Parent who lets us make our own decisions and do whatever we want. How great is that?!
Which has resulted in us having an identity crisis in our country that’s resulted in us being more divided than ever as a nation. Because we divide ourselves up into groups and segments and little mini-families — with our own set of expectations — and if you don’t meet our group’s expectations — well then — you’re out. You’re the problem. You’re the enemy.
We divide ourselves by our gender identity, the color of our skin, political affiliation, gun ownership, and so on. And — if we don’t agree on one of these issues — well then — we’re enemies. We live in such a black and white thinking culture — in one of the most intolerant societies that’s ever existed — even though we claim tolerance all the time. And these groups — that we divide ourselves up in — well they have some serious expectations of us. And we all feel the pressure to meet the expectations of our group.
But here’s where our hypocrisy comes in. Though we have all of these expectations about how people are supposed to behave in our little groups — even in our families — how hypocritical it is of us to think that God has no expectations of his family members.
Now the Christian faith does show us that God adopts people into his family. And — in his family — we get to experience and participate in a relationship full of love between us and God and us and one another. But this is a new identity — being a child of God — it’s not something inherent to being human — like being made in the image of God is — this becoming a child of God is a new identity that comes with expectations. Expectations of how we’re to live as children in response to our loving Father.
So I want us to look at this adoption into God’s family and then to a spectacular and scary promise that comes with being a child of God.
Let’s begin with our adoption. Let’s go back to verse 14.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 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!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God... (Romans 8:14-16 ESV)
We’re looking at what it means to be adopted into God’s family. Now — like in previous weeks — we have to remember what’s come before our verses because our verses begin with the word “for” which is like the word “therefore.” It’s a pivotal word that suggests that — because of what’s been said prior — “for this reason” — what’s being said now is true. And what’s being said now is “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”
So what’s come before? The verses we looked at last week — verses 12 and 13.
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (And now our verse — our transition word “for”...) 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Romans 8:12-14 ESV)
And what does it mean to be led by the Spirit of God? It means — by the Spirit — you put to death the deeds of the body — which we looked at last week. And those who are led by the Spirit — in this way — are sons of God.
Now the phrase “son of God” — singular — not plural like our “sons of God” — “son of God” first occurs in the Old Testament as a reference to the nation of Israel — the Israelites were the people God had called to be his people. The prophet Hosea — in speaking of God’s love for the Israelites — writes, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt.” (Hosea 11:1 NLT)
Now — if you’re a Christian and have read your Bible — you may have thought that “son of God” was only a reference to Jesus. But in the Old Testament, “son of God” was a reference to the nation of Israel.
And yet even though Israel had this special personal relationship with God, the people acted foolishly in response to God’s love. Thus we read sobering words like, “I will proclaim the name of the Lord; how glorious is our God! 4 He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is! 5 “But they (the people of Israel) have acted corruptly toward him; when they act so perversely, are they really his children? (The way they’re behaving doesn’t align with how you’d expect God’s children to behave.) They are a deceitful and twisted generation. 6 Is this the way you repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Isn’t he your Father who created you? Has he not made you and established you?” (Deuteronomy 32:3-6 NLT)
Though the nation of Israel was called the son of God they failed to be the faithful child to their Father. Thus a better Son — the capital “S” Son of God — Jesus — came to do what Israel had failed to do. To be the faithful Son the Israelites had failed to be. (Thus Matthew quotes Hosea 11:1 and shows that Jesus is the true Son of God who was even called out of Egypt, like the Israelites, who failed to be the son of God they were called to be.)
Now back to our verses in Romans — Paul says that we — Christians — Jew and Gentile, male and female, young and old, no matter your race or ethnicity — if the Spirit of God is in you — you are a son of God. You’re no longer a slave — but a son!
Now let me speak to the women — because all of this son language may sound a bit sexist or chauvinistic — but I don’t want this son language to either be ignored — “let’s move on to ‘child of God’ language because that’s more palatable than ‘sons of God’” — or to cause you to not embrace and experience the joy of being able to cry out “Abba, Father”.
Now your Bible translation may use “children of God” — instead of “sons of God” — in our verse. And though I can’t say why they’ve made this word choice with certainty — I do know there’s a lot of pressure to make the Bible sound less chauvinistic these days. But Paul’s use of the word “sons” is actually the opposite of him being chauvinistic in his day. Here’s why. In Paul’s day, males were the ones who got the inheritance — not the females. So catch what Paul is doing here — it was so countercultural for his day. Paul says — in calling male and female Christians “sons” — he’s making it clear that male and female believers are heirs of a heavenly inheritance. Though the culture of his day could have easily influenced his faith, Paul refused to allow a cultural norm — male only heirs — to influence the way he and other Christians believed about the inheritance God the Father gives to his children. So he called both male and female Christians “sons” to make it clear that there’s no second class Christian when it comes to the Father’s inheritance. All — who believe in Christ — all who have the Spirit of God living in them — will receive an inheritance. And that’s glorious news!
Now — in verse 15 — Paul says that when the Spirit gave us life — which resulted in our faith and repentance — but when the Spirit gave us life — Pauls say that we weren’t given a spirit of slavery leading back to fear, but a Spirit of adoption. (Though other Christians and pastors, who I deeply respect, have differing views on what these verses mean. I believe that what Paul is saying here is so connected to Galatians 4, that this is the most faithful view to Paul’s thinking.)
What Paul is doing — here — is contrasting a slavery to fear — a fear of judgment — a fear of eternal punishment — a fear of the wrath of God — what ultimately Paul refers to as being a slave to the law — with the Spirit of adoption. The spirit of slavery is where we try to earn our salvation by works of the law — which is futile.
We see this in his letter to the Galatians. Paul writes, “Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had. 2 They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. 3 And that’s the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world. 4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. 6 And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.” (Galatians 4:1-7 NLT)
We were slaves to the law — Paul says. Yet God bought our freedom — from our enslavement to the law — so we could be his children. This slavery is where do all kinds of things thinking, “Well since I’ve done all of this, God’s not going to be out to get me anymore.” I don’t know what things were — or are — on your list.
That’s all slavery. There’s no list of things you can do that will make you right with God. God makes us right with himself through the sacrifice of his Son. And once God’s made us right — once he’s reconciled our broken relationship — then and only then do we have things to do.
And Paul is pleading that — once you’ve been reconciled to God — don’t go back to that old enslavement to the law way of living. But it’s so easy to do — so tempting to do — when life becomes hard and we think that God’s not treating us much like a child. We start to think, “What have I done that’s made him so angry?” We start to get afraid again — living in fear. But that’s not the Spirit that’s in you. You have — if you believe in Christ — a Spirit of adoption.
And that means not one second of one minute of one hour of any day of any week, month or year goes by that you are not God’s child. Through your faith in Christ — and through the power of the Spirit of God giving you new life — you are and will always be a child of God. He is your Father.
And our crying out to him — the “Abba, Father” — comes from a place deep within us. This doesn’t come from rational thinking. This doesn’t come from what our eyes can see and our hands can touch. This cry comes from deep within. An external cry that’s birthed from a truth that’s deeply felt and experienced. “God is my Father. I am his child.”
Now — to be sure — this crying out comes in all shapes and sizes. The point isn’t how charismatic of an experience you’ve had outwardly as much as it is how charismatic — meaning how Spirit empowered — of an experience you’ve had deep in your spirit that “I am a child of God.” This is — yet again — another gracious gift to us from our Father. He assures us that we are his. What an identity we’re given. What a family we’re adopted into.
And if you slow down — and have eyes to see — this is what you’ll see that people are looking for. We’ve looked at this already — this wanting to belong. And — as we saw — the belonging that we’re all looking for is found by belonging to God. Being his child. Belonging to his family.
Some — in looking for this identity — in trying to find this kind of family feeling — some look to whatever group will make them feel the most special and unique. But know that — in becoming part of God’s family — in being his child — you’ll find that not only does God think of you as special and unique — but you’ll find that you’re even his favorite child. And that all of his other children are also his favorite — but he can do that — he’s God.
Some look to groups that will give them a sense of safety and security. And it may be hard for you — if this is you — to trust God because you’re not sure that he is safe. I think of the words of Mr. Beaver when he was telling the children about Aslan — who represents Jesus in the Narnia series. Mr. Beaver said, “Aslan is a lion - the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr. Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good.”
So know that following Jesus — being part of God’s family — isn’t safe — which you’ll understand why I say this in a moment. But know that Jesus is good. And it’s good to be part of God’s family. It’s good to be a child of the King. And all of these things are good because God — who tells us to call him our Father — is good.
And now we come to what’s been called a spectacular and scary promise of our inheritance as children of God. We’ll begin in verse 16.
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:16-17 ESV)
First, an observation — but not the point. The Spirit of God doesn’t just make us children of God — he does that — but the Spirit also testifies to our spirit that we are children of God. So we’re not left all on our own here. There will be times when — on our own — we may doubt if we’re a child of God. But the Spirit will be there and he will be speaking. And if we’re listening we’ll hear his testimony — his witness to our spirit — that we are a child of God. So that’s my observation.
Now to the point. The point is this: If children — then heirs. But heirs of what — what’s our inheritance? We’ll get to that in a moment. But if children — then heirs — provided that we suffer with Christ in order that we may be glorified with him. So a spectacular and scary promise here.
What’s so spectacular? We’re not only children of God but have an inheritance that’s to come.
What’s so scary? We’re heirs only if we suffer with Christ.
Let’s talk about the spectacular first. If children then heirs. Paul says something similar to this in his words to the Galatians. He wrote, “But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. 6 And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.” (Galatians 4:4-7 NLT)
Paul says, “Christians, you once were slaves. Slaves to sin. Slaves to the principles of this world. Slaves to the law.” We’ve seen all of this in Romans as well. And — similar to our verses in Romans — to the Galatians Paul says that God — in setting us free through the work of Jesus Christ — God has adopted us into his family as his children. And as his children, we have an inheritance coming our way.
But what’s our inheritance? Most of us — when we think of an inheritance — we think financially. Maybe a house and some stuff — because inheritance is mainly focused on money in our country. In the time of the Old Testament — however — inheritance was all about land. And the nation of Israel — being the son of God, remember — was promised a land called the Promised Land. So as a nation, land was an inheritance, but as individuals, plots of land were also an inheritance.
Something interesting in the Old Testament is how — later on in the history of the Jewish people — inheritance started having an eschatological aspect to it. What does that fancy word mean? Eschatology means last things. So think eternal things. That there’s an eternal inheritance — beyond a plot of land — that was promised to God’s people.
Now — Paul — our author — was a Jewish man who became a follower of Jesus. So this thinking — about eternal inheritance — was probably on his mind. There was a promise to Abraham — the father of the Jews. A promise that Paul — back in chapter 3 of Romans — says is a promise for all who are in Christ — because all who are in Christ are the seed of Abraham — an offspring and heir of Abraham. Thus Christians — regardless if you’re a Jewish or Gentile convert — all Christians are now heirs of all of the promises that God has guaranteed to his people. One of the promises is the promise of a new identity — which we’ve seen throughout Romans — that a true identity is found only in Jesus. And this identity is given to us by the Spirit of God. So as heirs we are guaranteed to be recipients of all of God’s promises in eternity. That’s the spectacular.
Where the “scary” comes in is that the gospel compels us to proclaim our new identity over and against all others. So we’re to expose false identities as sinful substitutions of the one true and meaningful identity that Christ offers to us and to all people. And this means our faith — and our identity in Christ — must be made public. For the people in our community and nation and world need to be shown that the only identity that matters is whether or not a person is a child of God through faith in Christ alone.
And this can be scary — not just because of the identities that people who don’t believe in Jesus build themselves on — this can be scary because many people who claim to be a Christian have built their identity on things other than Christ alone.
The easy identity to pick on is political. I’ve said this before, but it’s been awhile and we all need reminding from time to time. If you demonize the other party — whichever the other party is for you — but if the other party can do no good — if everything they do is wicked and evil — if to you they are the Demon-crats or the Republi-cants — then you — even if you call yourself a Christian — have an identity problem. For when we demonize the other party we’ve idolized our own. And God has issues with our idolatry because our idolatry is about us making an identity for ourselves out of something other than Jesus alone. And Jesus isn’t a Republican or a Democrat. He’s King.
But that’s only one reason why being an heir is scary. The other is those in your face words of verse 17. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:16-17 ESV)
I don’t know about you, but I don’t really like the idea of suffering — tune in next when we’ll talk about suffering at an even greater length. But I don’t know if anyone likes the idea of suffering. But Paul says — I’m sure you see it — “if children, then heirs...provided we suffer with him” — him being Jesus.
So first, good news. Our end is being glorified with Christ for all eternity. New resurrected bodies in heaven here on earth forever. So that’s our final destination.
But before we get there — we will suffer. To Christians in Philippi, Paul writes, “For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him.” (Philippians 1:29, NLT) Later he makes it personal writing, “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death.” (Philippians 3:10, NLT) And to other Christians, some of his first words are, “For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 1:5, NLT)
Now — in one sense — just as we’ve participated in Christ’s death and resurrection — we’ve participated in his suffering. But here, Paul makes suffering personal. That we — all Christians — will suffer as we follow our Suffering Servant of a Savior. We may not all suffer to the same degree, but we will all suffer.
If children — then heirs — provided that we suffer with him. A family expectation.
All families have expectations. Even if the expectations are as simple as brushing your teeth before bed, cleaning up your room before you go out to play, and — when you do go out to play — don’t play in the street. And the same is true for God’s family — there are expectations. In fact, he has high expectations for us. But know that when we fail to live up to his expectations, he doesn’t reject us like the world does. For he is a loving Father who draws near to us — disciplining us and correcting our behavior when needed — but he’ll never abandon us because he really loves his children. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for your never abandoning us love that you have for your children. What comfort. What hope. What peace in knowing that our Heavenly Father loves us. Thank you for adopting us into your family. Not because we deserved it. Not because we had cleaned up our act. Not even because we’re the obedient children we should be. But because we are in Christ — the Son of God — that we are adopted to be your children.
Jesus — thank you for doing what we couldn’t do for ourselves. The nation of Israel — though called the son of God — went the way of the fool and responded to God’s love and mercy with ungratefulness and disobedience. And it cost them dearly. Yet you came to be the true Son of God. Responding to God’s love and mercy with gratefulness and obedience even when obeying your Father cost you your life.
And Holy Spirit, thank you for being the Spirit within God’s people. We do not have a spirit of slavery or a spirit of fear, but the Spirit of God who testifies to our spirit that we are God’s children. We are part of his family. You confirm to us — when life is hard — that God is our Father. Empower in us a desire to live according to our new family expectations. To find it a joy to obey our Father. And stir in the hearts of everyone listening to my voice the desire to be a child of God. May they respond to your call and you shine the light of Christ and the truth of the gospel in their heart and receive new life, a new identity, and a new family. And we pray all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.
You can find the notes for the sermon here.
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