We studied in Romans 5 and verse 12 that when Adam sinned, we all sinned. And so we are identified. in Adam. And so the scripture says that we are conceived in iniquity. And so by nature, we are under the condemnation.
Now notice what it doesn't say. It does not say that for the believer there are no mistakes. It does not say for the believer there is no sins. There is no failures because believers sin. We all stumble in many ways.
The one who says he has no sin is a liar, and he's calling God a liar. John will write in his first epistle. Welcome to Search the Scriptures, the Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Carl Broge. Senior Pastor of Community Bible Church in Beaufort, South Carolina.
Today's sermon is entitled, Adopted into God's Family from the book of Romans, chapter 8. Verses 14 through 17. Today, we will learn about our spiritual birthright. and the three realities of adoption. Dr.
Broge explains what it means to be called sons and daughters of God. And emphasizes that being led by the Holy Spirit. is evidence of our relationship with him. Let's join Pastor Carl now. As he begins, would you take God's word this morning, please, and turn to the book of Romans, chapter 8?
Romans 8. It's our custom here at Community Bible Church typically to take a book of the Bible and go through it chapter by chapter and verse by verse. Occasionally, we hit the pause button and we spend a little bit of time maybe on a special focus or series. And so, right now, we've been on a series on our identity in Christ. How do you think about yourself?
Well, it's either based on what God has revealed in Scripture or maybe what the world or your family or someone else has taught you. And so part of growing up in Christ is to have our minds renewed. And so we did an introductory message on justification from Romans 3, but the identification truths in this great epistle are largely underscored in Romans chapter 5 through 8. We're right now in the 8th chapter. And Romans 8 is one of those chapters that you just can't get enough of.
At least I can't. I was planning to do 8, 9, maybe 10 messages on this chapter alone. Let me bring you into the contrast between this chapter and the 7th chapter. If you remember in Romans 7, Paul's focus has been on the law. When you step into Romans chapter 8, his preoccupation is with the Spirit.
Up until this time, the Holy Spirit has scarcely been mentioned. We saw his mention in chapter 5, where it speaks of the Spirit who's been poured out in our hearts. The love of the Spirit has been poured out in us. And then in Romans 7, we saw another brief mention that we're not to serve in oldness of letter, but in newness of the Spirit. But when you come to the eighth chapter, he seemingly is everywhere 19 times.
In the course of 27 verses he has mentioned. And of course, Paul is contrasting the struggle that he wrote of in the seventh chapter. With the power that is available to the believer here in the eighth chapter. Remember, the chapter and verse divisions are artificial. And so don't let those distract you.
If you remember in Romans 7 and verse 15, he said, For what I am doing I do not understand. I am not practicing what I would like to do. I am doing the very thing I hate. You've known that maybe. You've experienced that.
And then in Romans 7 and verse 19, he said, For the good that I want, I do not do, I practice the very evil that I do not want. And so God led him to write of this struggle that he had as a believer, not as an unbeliever. We saw he's writing his struggle as a believer. that we might find encouragement in freedom And a growing preoccupation with the Spirit of God who wants to give us the victory of chapter 8. We want to begin reading in verse 14 where we left off.
So if you'll follow along in your Bible, for all who are being led by the Spirit of God, These are our sons of God. for you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again. But you've received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself testifies with our Spirit that we are children of God, and if children heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may be glorified with Him.
Now, again, I want to remind you of the context now and the focus here in the eighth chapter. We've already done a number of sermons. He's dealing with our birthrights. If you're born into a human family, there are certain birthrights that you might receive by virtue of the fact that you have a dad and mom, and now you're a member of their family.
Well, when you're born again into God's family, there are certain birthrights. that the Spirit allows us to know and experience. And so one of, again, the emphasis here is on God the Holy Spirit.
Now there are heretics in our day. who deny the Doctrine of the Trinity, or they deny that God. The Son, God the Father, and God the Spirit are co-equal and co-eternal.
So you have Oneness Pentecostals. Maybe the spearhead of that movement would be T.D. Jakes. Who says, well, the Father becomes the Son, the Son becomes the Spirit, the Spirit becomes the Father. And even when confronted some years back in a ministry that was known as the Elephant Room, he refused.
To deny that position. Here's a classic diagram if you attend our discovery class. Our 45-week course, which is available online under searchthescriptures.org as Basic Discipleship. This is an ancient diagram. This circular model that you have seen in the Discovery class is a fifth-century diagram that they found etched on the floor of an old church.
And notice God is in the center, God is the Father, God is the Son, God is the Holy Spirit. Then, around the edge, of course it was in Latin: the Father is not the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not the Son, the Son is not the Father. They're co-equal, co-eternal. We spent some serious time on that diagram.
Now do I believe that I have a grasp fully. On the doctrine of the Trinity? Of course not. My finite mind cannot totally comprehend the infinite God. But I believe in the doctrine of the Trinity because the Bible reveals it.
It's well been said that the man who denies the Trinity will lose his soul. The man who tries to comprehend the Trinity will lose his mind. But 19 times in 27 verses, Is mentioned. If you study Hebrews the 10th chapter, you'll discover that it was God the Father who. Who authorized salvation.
It was God the Son who achieved or acquired salvation. And God the Holy Spirit applies it to your life. The Father said, How will salvation be accomplished? Here is how it will be accomplished. And the son said, I will accomplish it.
And he steps out of eternity pass and incarnates himself in human flesh. And the Spirit of God said, I'll make it real. As he generates a human body in Mary's womb and brings together the eternal deity. Of the Lord Jesus with perfect sinless humanity as He opens up our blind eyes, convicts us of sin, righteousness, and judgment. And then when we believe, we are indwelled by Him.
And so when we are saved, when we are born again, there are certain birthrights that we can claim. The very first one is found in Romans 8 and verse 1, and that is that there's no condemnation.
So he moves from the cry, wretched man that I am, In Romans 7, 24, To verse 1 that says, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That's a liberating truth for every believer. And the basis for your being able to claim this is that you are in Christ Jesus. We studied in Romans 5 and verse 12 that when Adam sinned, we all sinned. And so we are identified.
in Adam. And so the scripture says that we are conceived in iniquity. And so by nature, We are under the condemnation.
Now notice what it doesn't say. It does not say that for the believer there are no mistakes. It does not say for the believer there is no sins. There is no failures because believers sin. We all stumble in many ways.
The one who says he has no sin is a liar, and he's calling God a liar, John will write in his first epistle. But when you recognize there's no condemnation, as Titus 2 and verse 12 affirms, while the grace of God has appeared for all, because Jesus died for all, it teaches us, that is, those of us who have believed. To deny ungodliness and worldly desires.
So there's no condemnation. We spent a whole message on that. Secondly, there is a wonderful liberation. We read in verse 2 of this second birthright: for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Again, this privilege is only for those who are a second time in Christ Jesus. It would be one thing for God simply to forgive us. It's quite another thing for God to free us. He not only forgives us, He frees us. And so just as there are physical laws that govern the physical universe, so there are spiritual laws that govern your relationship with God.
And so we saw at the end of verse 2: the law of sin and death. That is our innate tendency. to do what is wrong. But we saw that because again we sinned in Adam that we're born with this innate tendency. You can't say, well, it's Adam's fault.
No, when Adam sinned, you sinned with him. And so man is born with the inclination to sin. But there's a second law that we studied, and it's the law of the Spirit of Life. Which refers, as we saw, letting Romans interpret Romans and the rest of Scripture interpret Scripture, it refers to the indwelling presence of God the Holy Spirit. And so, just as an airplane is pressed to the ground by the law of gravity.
As it moves down the runway, the law of aerodynamics can take over and it can be free from the law of gravity. And so while we are subject on the one hand to the law of sin and death, as we learn to walk and live in the Holy Spirit, we can experience a new freedom. Again, a whole message on that. Third, we saw beyond the birthright of no condemnation and this new liberation, there is an exciting obligation, and that's underscored in verses 3 and 4. Notice, for what the law could not do, Weak as it was through the flesh, that is through the sin nature, God did.
Sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin, he condemns sin in the flesh.
Now please note, God did not send his Son in sinful flesh. Because he's the virgin conceived Son of God. He was sinless. He knew no sin. In him was no sin.
He was tempted always as we are, yet without sin. Nor does the text say that he came in the likeness of flesh. That's the heresy of docetism. John in his first epistle. He writes first, second, third, John, and Revelation.
Those are the last books. to be completed by the Apostle John towards the end of his life. Docao means to appear, to seem like. And so the Docetists said that Jesus appeared like he was in human flesh, but he really wasn't in human flesh. And so he addresses that heresy in his first letter.
No, the text is very clear that he came in the likeness of sinful flesh, because the flesh of the Lord Jesus was real. And the flesh of the Lord Jesus was sinless. And he came, notice, as an offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. That is, in the flesh of the Lord Jesus, that was both real and sinless.
He became the object of God's wrath and punishment. And so the judgment we deserved fell upon a substitute, and his name is Jesus.
Well, why did he do all of this? Look at verse 4.
Sow that. Here's the reason.
Sow that. The requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
So, why did the Father send his Son? Not just so that we could be justified, declared righteous. But that we might be sanctified. And so we've seen there are three tenses of salvation. We've been saved in the past from the penalty of sin, we're being saved in the present.
From the power of sin, that's called sanctification, and someday we'll be glorified. Justification, and glorification take place in a split second. Sanctification is this process. And so, verse 4 is very important because it teaches us three major truths about holiness. First, that holiness is one of the purposes for Jesus dying.
The ultimate reason. God became a man and died for you was not simply that you might not be condemned to hell. But one of those reasons is that you might reflect his character. Again, in the words of Paul, so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. Notice what it does not say.
It does not say that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled by us. Because without him, we can do nothing. We are bankrupt. And part of growing up in Christ is to recognize that the same bankruptcy you admitted when you came to Jesus for salvation. It's the same bankruptcy we need to continue admit in sanctification.
So there's this new obligation that we have. That the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us as we walk not in our own power but by the Spirit's power. Then the fourth birth rate that we studied came in verses 5 through 13, and it's this new glorious inhabitation. Verse 9, if you remember, plainly teaches that the distinguishing characteristic that sets the believer apart from the unbeliever is that we have God the Holy Spirit living in us. They may have God the Holy Spirit working on them.
Which is essential to their conversion, but He lives in us. Notice: you are not in the flesh. But in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you, but if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.
So, unlike any Old Testament, Old covenant. The word testament, diapheke. Or covenant are equal terms.
So our Bible is basically divided into the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. And so, unlike any old covenant saint, they did not have the Holy Spirit indwelling in them, sealing them for eternity. And so Jesus said, I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper that he may be with you how long? Forever. It's one of the.
Many verses that affirm our eternal security. He doesn't come and leave where you're lost and then you need to be born again a second time. Just as there's only one physical birth, there's only one spiritual birth. And we saw, if you remember, and this is important, that there's two words for another.
Now, in English, we have one word. And the Greek New Testament, there's two. There's the word another alos, which means another of the identical kind. And then there's the word another that means another of a different kind. The word another of a different kind is the word heteros.
And so it comes into English in words like heterosexual. Two different sexes or heterodoxy, unlike our. Teaching that is to be orthodox. to teach something that is different or false is heterodoxy. And so then there's this word ahlos that means another of an identical time kind.
If you remember in the kingdom parables of Matthew 13, when the nation officially formally rejects the Lord Jesus. As the promised Messiah in Matthew 20. God gives us the kingdom parables, and He describes that interim period. We call it the church age. In terms of how God will work until Christ comes back again.
And all the way through that series of parables, he uses the word another, allos. In other words, he is linking each of the parables. There's a similar teaching from one parable to another. They are linked together because they are of the same kind. By contrast, in Galatians 1, you find both words brought together.
Paul is dealing with false teachers who had come into the Galatian church. who could not throw a true believer off in terms of their justification, but he could mess them up on their sanctification.
So he says, I'm amazed that you're so quickly deserting him. who called you by the grace of Christ. For another, and it's the word heteros. And so some English translations say for a different gospel, for a heteros gospel, which is not really an allos gospel, one like the one that I preached and delivered to you. And it's no different today.
There are people say classically would be a Joel Osteen. He preaches Another gospel. He does not preach the gospel of the New Testament. Either he nor Kenneth Hagan or Kenneth Copeland and scores of others, they preach another Jesus. But the average Christian is so doctrinally illiterate they can't tell the difference.
And so they're preaching a heteros gospel. And so Jesus says, I'm going to send another, an alos, another one exactly like myself. And that's why he can say in John 14 and verse 18: I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.
So here is a promise. Jesus is simultaneously coming to us while physically he is absent. How is that possible? Because as Romans 8:9 said, he is going to send another one just like himself. He is called in Romans 8, 9, if you remember, the Spirit of Christ.
Now, in a technical sense, as we studied in a previous message, who indwells us? God the Father dwells us, the Bible teaches. God the Son, Christ in you, the hope of glory, and God the Spirit. You can't really separate the members of the Trinity. It's like who gave you a spiritual gift?
Well, Romans 12 said, God the Father gave you a spiritual gift on your spiritual birthday. Ephesians 4 said, God the Son gave you a spiritual gift. 1 Corinthians 12 through 14 underscores the Spirit.
Well, which member?
Well, you can't dissect God, though there may be an accent, certainly. On the Spirit in the giving of gifts, just as there's an accent on God the Father in the creation of the world. And so he's going to send another one. I'm not going to leave you like a fatherless orphan. And so if you remember, one of the titles for the Messiah in Isaiah 9 is that he is the everlasting father.
Now that brings us into the context. It's been a month nearly since we've been here, so I felt like the review was important, but the review is always important because you need to hear things over and over and over again before it typically settles in.
So we're going to focus on verses 14 through at least the first half of verse 17, where he gives us another birthmark. Not only is there no condemnation, not only is there a new liberation, not only is there an exciting obligation, not only is there this glorious, wonderful inhabitation where we are a temple of the Spirit. But there's new adoption. There's an intimate adoption. And so the title of the message on the bulletin and is on your note-taking outline, as you can see, is Adopted into God's Family.
And I want us to think about three realities of New Testament adoption. Roman number one there is: adoption brings the spirits leading. Adoption brings the Spirit's leading.
So, Paul describes our adoption with all of its implications in verses 14 through 17. And first, I want us to think about how this adoption brings the spirits.
Now, as I read these verses, what immediately stands out to me in each of these four verses is that God's people. people are designated as children or as sons. Paul teaches that this is a spiritual birthmark. You might want to circle the family terms. Look first at the word sons in verse 14.
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Now it is a generic term. When we say men are sinful, we're not saying that women are not. And so in the NAS 2020, it puts in italics and daughters, meaning those words and daughters are not part of the original Greek text, but they're implied in this generic word. Notice verse 15, the word sons is repeated. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons.
Underline that.
Sons, as sons, by which we crowd Abba, Father. Notice the term children in both verses 16 and 17. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, heirs also.
So, as we think about how the Holy Spirit makes this adoption possible, it's important that we define some terms. What does it mean? As sons and daughters to be adopted by God. What exactly is the New Testament definition of adoption?
Now please know that the word adoption is seldom used in the Bible. It's never used in the Old Testament except in a negative way, where maybe the people of Israel adopted the pagan idols of the nations around them, but in terms of adoption, It's a New Testament term. The Jews for a reason obviously did not practice adoption. Because God was keeping the nation pure, because through the nation of Israel, Jewishness is determined by the father, not the mother. But through the nation of Israel the Messiah would come.
When you come into the New Testament, the word adoption is found just five times, three times here in Romans. in chapters 8 and then again in chapter 9, and then once in Ephesians, in Ephesians 1, and a fifth time in Galatians chapter 4.
So when we think of adoption, we think typically in a Western mindset, Of transferring one child from one family into another. But understand a first century reader understood much more than that. In fact, there was a formal ceremony. where you're biologically born son. would quote unquote be adopted or inducted into manhood.
And so they had a special ceremony in which you did that, where he received the full rights of the family and of Roman citizenship. In the same way, adoption into the family of God means that we've been inducted into God's family with all of heaven's rights and citizenship. And we're going to see that in a moment.
So, Roman adoption would be done even with your own biological children. And it could also be done, of course, with a child that is not your own. But you have brought them into your family. In either case, there were three primary implications of Roman adoption. First, and you should jot these down because this will help you to understand New Testament adoption more fully.
The adopted person lost all the rights from his quote-unquote old family and gained all the rights of the new family. That was the first aspect. And so, in the most binding legal way as possible, He literally, especially if he was not bloodborn, had a new father. Secondly, the old life of the adopted person was completely wiped out. All of his debts, for instance, were canceled.
And third, when adoption took place in the first century, the adopted son or daughter received the right to carry on the name of the new family. And to share in the family's inheritance. In fact, history records that this ceremony was so binding and complete that when Emperor Claudius wanted to adopt Nero. Nero was not his bloodborn son. But he wanted to adopt Nero, that Nero, who of course becomes a very wicked leader and leads in the Neronian persecutions around 68, 69.
Nero, nonetheless, would receive all the rights to lead as the emperor. He would succeed him on the throne.
Now again, they're not related in any way at all. In fact, Claudius had a biological daughter by the name of Octavia. Later on, when Nero falls in love, with Octavia. in order to strengthen his hold on the throne. He wants to marry Octavia.
And interestingly, under the Roman Senate, as history records, because they were not related by blood, they had to pass legislation to allow it.
Now with that background, let me ask you a question. Were you born into God's family? Or were you adopted into God's family? And of course the answer is yes. Both are true.
The Bible teaches you were born into God's family. And you are adopted into God's family. Spiritually speaking, we are born again into the family of God. Legally speaking, we are adopted into the family of God. And both descriptions are true.
And when you get a handle on both aspects, it will really. Excite your heart and mind. If you enjoyed today's message, you can order a CD or DVD copy by calling Search the Scriptures. At eight seven seven. 787 seven four seven eight and requesting program Our Identity in Christ 017.
Maybe you have a question that you would like to ask Dr. Broge personally. You can do that tomorrow between 11 and noon Eastern. in his live colon program, The Bible Line. You can also listen to the Bible line online at wagp.net.
We hope that you will join us tomorrow. as we continue to search the scriptures. Yeah.
