Abba (Aramaic), Rom
Intro: The most rewarding job I have ever had: Father. Teaching, talking, fishing, riding bikes in the breeze, praying, making memories, disciplining.
v. 15, Adopted
The spirit of adoption, (Gr huiothesia) or sonship, enables us to enter into a relationship with God the Father that the unbeliever can never experience.
Michael Reagan, whom Reagan adopted in 1945, said his father never treated him differently. "I was the chosen one; I was the lucky one," he said. "In all of his years, he never mentioned that I was adopted, either behind my back or in front of me. I was his son."
Mt 3:7-9, JB told the S and P God
could make stones children of Abe; Mt 1-12, Jesus ministry was to
Adoption is used in three different ways in Romans.
Here it refers to the consciousness of sonship which the Holy Spirit produces in the life of the believer.
In
In 9:4 it looks
back to that time when God designated
In Galatians 4:5 and Ephesians 1:5, the word means “son-placing”—that is, the act of placing all believers as mature, adult sons with all the privileges and responsibilities of sonship.
In the NT adoption never means what it means in our society—to take a child of other parents as one’s own.
Father
Jesus used this
word in his own prayers (Mk
While we may hesitate to use such familiar English words in addressing God, the truth remains that He who is infinitely high is also intimately nigh.
The word abba is an Aramaic word which was never used by the Jews in addressing God (scribes washed)
But when the Holy Spirit dwells within us, our relationship to God the Father is such that we may address Him as freely as we would our own father.
v. 16, Children of God (not slaves)
Sonship
implies reception into God’s family, with all the privileges and
responsibilities of adult sons (Rom
It is of great significance that Paul used the olive tree for his example. Fruit trees that are grafted will produce the fruit of the grafted branch regardless of the root. You can graft Granny Smith apple branches onto a crabapple tree, and the grafted branches will continue to produce Granny Smith apples while the rest of the crabapple tree will still produce crabapples; thus you would have two different apples produced by the same tree.
The good olive tree is just the opposite. The root of the good olive tree will cause any grafted wild olive branch to produce the fruit of its good root. What a beautiful example to us. Paul used the olive tree to show us that no matter what tree we are taken from, if we are grafted into the good olive tree of the God of the Bible, then all of the branches will produce the same fruit as that of the good olive tree root.
There is a contrast to be drawn here between the life of a servant and the life of a son.
When Paul says that we have not received the spirit of bondage he is saying that when the Spirit of God dwells in us we are not treated by God as servants but as sons (cf. I Cor 2:12; II Tim 1:7).
We do not fear God as the slave fears his masters. Rather we love Him as a son loves his father.
The slave does his
master’s bidding because he knows he will be punished if he does not. But to
him in whom the Spirit of God dwells, to him there is no element of fear that
can intrude into his service for the Lord (1 Jn
The son is on entirely different footing than the servant.
Those living under law are like minor children, bossed around as if they were servants, and shadowed by the fear of punishment. But when a person is born again, he is not born into a position of servitude. He is not brought into God’s household as a slave. Rather, he receives the spirit of adoption; that is, he is placed in God’s family as a mature son. (Gal 4:1-7)
v. 17a, Heirs of God
A new convert does not have to wait a certain time before he enters into his spiritual inheritance; it is his the moment he is saved
All that the Father has is ours. We have not yet come into the possession and enjoyment of all of it, but nothing can prevent our doing so in the future.
v. 17b, Joint Heirs with Christ
Because we are no longer servants
but sons, we then are rightfully the heirs of God. But more than that, we share
in the inheritance of Christ Jesus because we will inherit by grace the glory
which is His by right (Jn
v. 17c, If we suffer with Him, we will be glorified with Him.
When Paul adds, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together, he is not making heroic suffering a condition for salvation. Neither is he describing some elite inner circle of overcomers who have endured great afflictions. Rather, he sees all Christians as being co-sufferers and all Christians as glorified with Christ.
Of course, there are some who suffer more than others in the cause of Christ, and this will result in differing degrees of reward and glory. But all who acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior are seen here as incurring the hostility of the world, with all its shame and reproach.
The greatest shame we may endure for Christ here on earth will be a mere trifle when He calls us forth and publicly acknowledges us before the hosts of heaven.
Elsewhere Paul
speaks of our present sufferings as light afflictions which are only for a
moment, but he describes the glory as an exceeding and eternal weight (2 Cor.
If we could only appreciate the glory that is to be ours, we could count the sufferings along the way as trivia!
Together
Summarturei
Sunklaronomoi
Sumpaschomen
Sundoxasthosen
Concl: The most rewarding job I have ever had: Father. Teaching, talking, fishing, riding bikes in the breeze, praying, making memories, disciplining.
God wants the same with you.