In that which follows we have a further unfolding of those absolute privileges and blessings which are the portion of the saints. In verses 15 and 16 we have first the character, and then the action of the Spirit that dwells in the believer. “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father!” (verse 15). Under the law there was nothing but bondage and fear, as we have seen in the latter half of Rom. 7. The Holy Ghost, as the Spirit of Sonship, would not dwell in any one who was under the law. The Spirit, nevertheless, wrought in the Old Testament saints, and made them witnesses and messengers of the truth, hut this was very different from that which is the portion of a saint now.
Their individual position was, and remained, that of a servant, and not that of a Son; though faith enabled them to see in hope the precious things of promise, which God had prepared for them that love Him.
But those who have been delivered through the Son have received the Spirit of Sonship. The reception into the house, with the abiding title of Son, is the immediate and everlasting result of the 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 one already (Gal. 4:66And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (Galatians 4:6)). He makes known His personal presence through an utterance which He only can produce from the heart. The cry, “Abba, Father,” is our own; but it is made through the Spirit of the Son in us. We cry, “Abba, Father!” because we know God as such, but the power of this knowledge is the indwelling presence of the Spirit. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (verse 16). He it is who awakens the affections of a child in us, and who, at the same time gives us the consciousness that we are the children of God. But this Spirit does not separate Himself from the person in whom He has produced life, and by His powerful presence bears witness that we are children of God. We have this witness in our hearts, but at the same time it is the Spirit Himself, who, distinct from us in whom He dwells, bears this witness to us. The Spirit cries “Abba,” because it is the Spirit of the Son, and our hearts repeat this cry, because by the same Spirit we know that the living Christ is our life before God. And it is His Spirit who gives power to our hearts to say that we are children of God.
In verses 14 and 15 a different word is used to that in verse 16, to express our relationship to God. There, it is “Sons,” and here, “children.” Our position is that of a son, but our proper relationship that of a child. The word “son” is used in contrast to the condition under the law, which was that of servant; it expresses the whole bearing of the privilege of a child. The word, “child,” on the other hand, expresses the entire intimacy of this relationship.
In the three last verses, therefore, it is a question of our relationship as children to God, and that it is in the spirit of children that we call on God as our Father, and in the 17th verse the apostle goes on to speak of the further privileges connected with this relationship. We have part in the inheritance of God, “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together.” It is therefore not only the Spirit of the Son who gives expression to our relationship to God, as sons, but also the love of God knows us in no other relationship, and blesses us as sons with the same fullness of blessing as that which Christ as Son, is blest with. This love has made us one with Christ in all things, except in His glory as God. But before we take possession of this inheritance, we have to walk in a path of tribulation. The way to the coming glory leads through suffering. But these sufferings here are not so much represented as sufferings for Christ, but rather as sufferings with Christ. The spiritual man feels the things below, as Christ felt them, and therefore he must suffer with Him. His nature stands in contrast to all that is in the world, and therefore it cannot be otherwise than that he is troubled in it. The love, holiness, fear of God, love to men, in short all that dwells in him, as a partaker of the divine nature, is a source of suffering for him. But just this partaking with Christ in sufferings here below, assures him of his partaking with Him in the glory above. And upon this abounding glory the Holy Ghost directs his eye amidst the sufferings, declaring through the apostle, “That the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (verse 18).
The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for this manifestation of the sons of God in glory. We are brought into this liberty, as we have seen in this chapter; but creation has nothing to do with this liberty which we through grace enjoy. Grace occupies itself with persons; but glory, as the fruit of the power of God, with outward things. Creation itself “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption,” because it shall take part in the liberty of the glory of the children of God; for creation was not subjected to vanity by its own will—it has no will in this respect—but because of him, who has subjected it, i.e. because of man, who brought confusion into the realm of nature by his sin, and because of whom the earth was cursed. Nov, it is in a condition of misery and corruption. But the redemption price, the blood of Jesus, which has bought us, has also been paid for it; but its deliverance will only take place at the manifestation of the sons of God. When Christ shall come then He will be the source of joy for all who acknowledge Him, and blessing will spread itself over the whole creation. Until then it groans and travails in pain—(verse 22)—and the believer is the channel through which these groans ascend to God. Its deliverance will be effected through the coming of Christ, when God shall unite all things in Him, under one head, and then it is delivered from the curse (Isa. 11 and 35). But if creation groans, which has but to expect an inferior glory in comparison to us, then it is easy to understand what Paul says, “And not only they but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption—the redemption of our bodies” (verse 23).
We not only see the groanings of creation round about us, but connected with it through our bodies, we ourselves groan within ourselves and are troubled, not because we are uncertain as regards redemption or the love of God, but because we know that we shall take part in this glory. We feel the contrast of the condition in which we find ourselves at present. “We groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption—the redemption of our bodies.” At the coming of the Lord the body will put off mortality and put on immortality, and then shall we be fully delivered from the dust. But in our present condition we shall the more sympathize with the suffering and groaning creation, the more the love and grace of God are realized in our hearts, the more we feel like Jesus, to what sin has brought everything, and the more the brightness of the coming glory beams in our hearts through the Spirit.
Now have we the Spirit of Sonship, who fully convinces us that we are children, but we long after the full realization of this sonship, to which also belongs the redemption of the body. In view of this coming time of blessing, when the Spirit of God will have been poured out in abundance, what may be looked at as the harvest of the Spirit as it were, we have the first fruits of Him now. If we had already received the reality of our blessed position, then should we cease hoping and yearning for it; for what we see we do not hope for. But we are saved by hope through faith, and this hope is a reality for our hearts, because we have the Spirit as the earnest, and therefore “we wait with patience” (verses 24, 25).
Now the Holy Ghost, as witness of our sonship, takes a full part in the painful experiences in our connection with the first creation through the body, and thus is He in us the source of feeling which reveals itself in groaning—a feeling which in its character is both divine as well as human. And this feeling as regards the evil is not that self-love of the flesh which will not suffer, but a sympathy which is according to God, and which also manifested itself in Christ. This shows us in a striking manner how the Spirit and life are practically united in us. Like as Christ felt our affliction and our misery, because He Himself was man, even so the Spirit now, as dwelling in us, feels our sorrows and afflictions. We come short of real discernment to pray in the right manner in these circumstances, therefore the Spirit of God comes ‘to our assistance, and “maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered” (verse 26). We ourselves may not understand this groaning, but the Spirit is the source of the same. We may have no discernment to know what the right answer is to it, but God finds this work of the Holy Ghost, in feeling with us for that which is round about us, according to Himself. “He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit” (verse 27). God searcheth our hearts, and in them He finds the desire of the Spirit, for the Spirit Himself prays for us. It is I that groan, for it is done in me, and it is not I, when I look upon the source and power whence this groaning comes. What a glorious and encouraging thought that God, when He searcheth the heart, even if it is burdened by the feeling of misery in which it moves, does not find the flesh, but the affection of the Spirit, and that the Spirit Himself in this respect is occupied in grace with all our infirmities!
But if now also “we know not what we should pray for as we ought,” and that the Spirit, therefore, maketh intercession for us, then we know “that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose” (verse 28); and this discernment comes through the knowledge that God is for us.
This truth, then, that God is for us, forms the end of this precious chapter. In the beginning of it, as remarked already, the Spirit is declared as life; then the Holy Ghost as personally working, as present in us, since He on the one hand gives us the knowledge of sonship and the joy of the inheritance, and, on the other hand, takes part in our sufferings and our infirmities, during our stay in this world; and now we have God for us in His counsel (verse 29), in the giving up of His Son (verse 31), and in our circumstances here below, so that nothing can separate us from His love (verses 35-39).
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (verse 29). All, whom God has called according to His purpose (verse 28), He also did foreknow; and He has predestinated that all these shall be conformed to the image of His Son. They all shall be sons, in the same blessed position with Christ, that He may be the first-born among many brethren. God has chosen us before the foundation of the world to be conformed to His Son. Here it is not a question of salvation, or of the glory as such, but of the conformity with Christ. Every saint shall be an image of Christ; nevertheless Christ, as the firstborn, as the image of God, will remain distinct from His brethren. This counsel of God is the clearest proof that God is for us—that He embraces us with the same love in which He loves His Son. Likewise also everything proceeds from Him—what is necessary to our preparation, in order to arrive at the end before appointed. “Whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified (verse 30). Paul here once more grasps all the privileges which he had fully detailed in the former part of his Epistle, and makes an indestructible cord of precious pearls of it, which shall adorn the Christian at all times. Called, justified, glorified, predestinated, foreknown, to be conformed to the image of Christ. What glory for such poor beings as we are! Yea, God is for us! And there remains nothing more for us but to fall down, to wonder and to adore. But, “if God be for us, who can be against us?” (verse 31). All things must serve to lead us to the blessed end to which His counsel has before ordained us.
But it is not only His counsel that testifies to us that God is for us, but we have the strongest fact as proof of it. “He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?” (verse 32). Christ is the center of all the thoughts and counsels of God. He was the only one in heaven, and upon earth, in whom God had His whole delight—the only begotten and beloved Son—and God has not spared Him, but gave Him up for us who were but enemies and wicked ones. Is not this the fullest proof that God is for us? Can we still doubt His love? Can we still think that He may withhold some good thing from us, when everything else cannot in the least be compared with what He has given us already.
God is for us, and therefore He has taken our justification in His own hand. The elect of God can remain at perfect rest in the face of every charge and every condemnation, for God Himself arises for them, and annihilates every accusation. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?” (ver. 33.) And on what rests the righteousness of God as regards our justification? How is it satisfied and glorified, so that the stream of His perfect love can flow out toward us without any hindrance? We find the answer in the following verse, “It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (verse 34). On these inviolable pillars are founded all our blessings. “He was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification,” and now He sits at the right hand of God and maketh intercession for us. What love! How sure the foundation we are placed on! From this point we can look upon all that is against us, and exclaim with confidence— “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Verse 35.) What now is able to sever this bond of His love toward us? Is it the trials of this present time? “Tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (verse 35)—trials which, in particular, were the part of the apostles so abundantly (verse 36). It is just these tribulations which seem to be calculated to separate us from the love of God, in which we meet the love and faithfulness of the Saviour. Christ Himself went through them, and He is now with us in them, and in all these tribulations He causes us to be more than conquerors (verse 37). Who, then, shall be able to separate us from His love? The enemies? He has overcome them. The heights He is above for us. The depths? He has gone into the depths of death for us. Everything, even the mightiest, the strongest is only a vain and impotent hindrance for him, who is the object of the love of God, and who, in the presence of this love, manifested in Christ Jesus, has found his rest!
And with this treasure of inexhaustible riches in the heart, every Christian can mingle with the apostle in the high and lofty shout of the victory of faith which this precious chapter begins and ends with a shout of victory, which will be the more effective the more we shall have entered into the depth and bearing of the finished work of Christ, and, in the face of sin, the world, and Satan, shout triumphantly, “Who will condemn?” Who or what “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus?” (Verse 39.) For those who are in Christ Jesus there is no more condemnation, and no more separation. All around us vanishes into dust, but faith triumphs; it looks beyond mountains of difficulties and depths of sins. Amidst the conflict it stands immovably sure, for it looks not upon that which is seen but upon that which is not seen, and that which remains eternally. Faith looks through all mists of the lower creation upon Him who has finished His work, and sits as victor at the right hand of God and expects us now as partakers of His joy, and as co-heirs of His glory.