The Holy Obligation of Sonship

The Validation of Unshakable Assurance

Manuscript Notes

PowerPoint

Text: Romans 8:12-17; Galatians 4:1-7

If you received a Rolex as a gift and one day wondered whether it came from a reliable jeweler or a NY street vendor, you would want to know how to spot the difference. At some point, you would want rock-solid assurance that the Rolex you had been given was real – especially since you did not purchase it yourself and you have only the reliability of the testimony of the person who gave you the watch to base your confidence in its genuineness.

And this is where a good number of us are this morning regarding our justification and the salvation we have been given by God. We want assurance that our salvation is genuine because something far more valuable than a watch is at stake – our eternal destiny, and our present hope and confidence, rest squarely on the genuineness of our salvation.

And that is the scope and intent of Romans 8! In the first part of this chapter, Paul gives three evidences that assure a person of the genuineness of their salvation.

• First, such people are experiencing a freedom from the controlling power of sin that once dominated them.
• Second, this new controlling power is coming from the Holy Spirit, who indwells them. And anyone who has the Spirit can be fully confident that they are no longer under condemnation.
• However, the third evidence Paul offers is that people who are no longer under condemnation joyfully and gladly embrace a holy obligation from God.

I. A Holy _________________ (8:12-13)
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.

• In 1:14, we learned that we have a sacred obligation (debtors) to share the gospel with the nations and to preach the same gospel to ourselves as Christians. We are obligated to announce or declare the good news of the gospel to people who don’t know Christ and to those who do!
• In 8:12, we learn that we have a second obligation – to live (shape our lives) according to the gospel! We are obligated to display the transforming power of the gospel through a life that is being changed by its power and shaped by its values, responses, and priorities.
• We are not obligated or under compulsion to allow the flesh to determine how we live, what we do, and why we do it.
• We have been given the freedom and the ability to live according to the Spirit, with the assurance that we will live eternally!

1. We have the ability and the obligation to put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit.
2. The Spirit in us is the “Spirit of life” (8:2).
3. There is a kind of life that leads to death, and there is a kind of death that leads to life!

II. A Stunning _________________ (8:14, 17a)
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. . . and if sons (children), then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

Paul goes on to reveal two stunning realities that are true of every one who is led by the Spirit of God:

1. These people are the “sons of God” (8:14)
2. These people are the “heirs of God” (8:17)

So what does it mean to be “led by the Spirit of God”?

1. Whatever it means, it happens consistently and constantly as a way of life (present tense).
2. Whatever it means, someone else is doing it to you (passive voice).
3. Whatever it means, when it is true, it is the assurance of our present identity and future inheritance!

“Led by the Spirit”– you are consistently allowing the Spirit of God to lead you – to direct you, to bring you to a place or a state, and to enable you to arrive there and to maintain your place there.

• How is the Spirit of God leading you in this context?
• Negatively put, He is leading you to mortify the deeds and desires of your body – those aroused and incited by your flesh.
• Positively implied – He is leading you toward a life of progressive, consistent holiness.
• And the point he is making is this: Unsaved people never live this way (even if they are outwardly moral).
• And so when you meet someone who is consistently putting the sinful deeds of the flesh to death in his life, you know that they belong to God because they have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them.

But how do I really know this is actually true of me?

III. A Comforting _________________ (8:15-17a)
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

1. They have received the Spirit of Adoption
2. They enjoy a Paternal Relationship with God
   In Biblical adoption, you get three things:
   1. A new identity – “sons and daughters of God”
   2. A new intimacy – “Abba; Father”
   3. A new inheritance – “heirs of God”
3. The Spirit bears Witness within them.
   Here is how it plays out in daily life: a) The empowering ministry of the Spirit, by which we kill the sinful deeds of our body, confirms; b) the presence of the Spirit in our lives – that He truly resides in us – which confirms; c) that we are sons of God; and d) the ongoing work of the Spirit witnesses (it constantly testifies – present active ind.) to our fearful, timid, and sometimes insecure spirit that we are in fact children of God.
4. Present Childhood leads to Full Sonship and future glory

IV. A Surprising _________________ (8:17b)
provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

1. Assurance of Future Glory
2. Necessity of Present Suffering

Conclusion:

There is no condemnation – therefore, there is no need for us to live in ongoing spiritual defeat.  That is wonderful.  However, that is not the only reason we lack assurance.  Back to our opening illustration of the Rolex watch – now that we know the watch we have been given is genuine, how do we know that it is telling us the right time?

It is one thing to be confident that we are no longer under God’s condemnation; it is another to be confident that there is no separation from God – especially when He seems distant, silent, or even absent in our present circumstances!

The present suffering Paul mentions is often excruciating – painful, prolonged, and often unexplained. If it goes on long enough and is debilitating enough, we grow weary, discouraged, and fearful, wondering about the very real silence and apparent absence of God in our circumstances.

And this is why we need a different kind of assurance – that there will be no separation from God, and thus no need to be discouraged.