Unlimited: Adoption to Sonship
Jan 9, 2023 525
rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship (Romans 8:15b).
The Spirit of God we have received is our spiritual DNA. Just as our physical DNA attests to our earthly parentage, so too the Spirit within us attests to our legitimate identity as sons and daughters of God. Not only that, but it points to what we will become!
Paul is referring here to a practice that was well known in Roman society. If a man had no son, he was allowed to adopt another person to be his heir. This adopted son was usually of lower status and could be a beloved slave in his household whom he had freed in order for him to be his son and heir.
We have been adopted into God’s family.
It is significant to understand that we are not natural sons and daughters, because we are naturally alienated from God. We have been adopted into his family. This reflects that way in which we are saved. We are never of ourselves righteous or worthy. God’s righteousness is credited, or imputed, to us. All of this is reflected in the powerful words of the apostle John:
But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God (John 1:12–13, NLT.)
Spiritual Application
Have you entered into this reality yet? How does it transform your outlook on life?
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