Spirit,Spirit of Adoption,and the Love of God

Holy Spirit and Human Spirit

The terms for “spirit” and even “(Holy) Spirit” in both the Old Testament (Hebrew ruakh) and the New Testament (Greek pneuma) are also words for “wind” or “breath” (cf. English “ pneum onia” and “ pneuma tic”). In fact, in about 40% of its occurrences, the Old Testament Hebrew word “spirit” (ruakh) means “wind, breath,” not “spirit” as we use the term in the church today. ⁴ Psalm 1:4, for example, speaks of the wicked being “like chaff that the wind (ruakh) blows away.” ⁵ Similarly, in the Greek New Testament, “. . . the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath (pneuma) of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming” (2 Thess 2:8).

The famous vision of dry bones in Ezekiel 37 uses the same word (ruakh) for life giving “breathe” (ruakh) entering into the dry bones so they come alive (v. 5). This breath comes from all four “winds” (ruakh plural, vv. 7–10). The whole point of the image is the Lord’s promise, “I will put my Spirit (ruakh) in you and you will live” (v. 14), meaning in context that Israel will be restored from its exile in Babylon by the Spirit of God.

Jesus used the same image when Nicodemus came to him at night in John 3. The Pharisee did not understand what Jesus could mean when he said, “you must be born again” (or ‘from above’; vv. 3–4, cf. v. 7). Jesus explained further saying, you must be “born of water and the Spirit,” by which he recalls John the Baptist’s explanation that he himself had come baptizing in water and calling them to the Messiah, who would baptize with the Holy Spirit (John 1:33). In his engagement with Nicodemus, therefore, Jesus drew on the Ezekiel 37 play on words between spirit and wind, “The wind (pneuma) blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit (pneuma)” (John 3:8). Nicodemus still did not “get it,” so Jesus rightly asked him, “You are Israel’s teacher, . . . and do you not understand these things?” (v. 10), as if to say, “you are a recognized Rabbi, and yet you do not know and understand what Ezekiel 37 is all about? How can this be!?”

In other passages, we see the special relationship God’s Spirit has in the life of the believer through the spirit of the human person. 1 Corinthians 2:10b-12 draws out the correspondence between the divine Spirit of God and the human spirit of a person who has come to Christ:

“. . . The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.¹¹ For who among men knows the thoughts (lit., ‘the things’) of a man except the man’s spirit (lit. ‘the spirit of the man’) within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts (lit., ‘the things’) of God except the Spirit of God . We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God , that we may understand what God has freely given us” (Greek charizomai, ‘given by grace’).

Here, the “spirit” of the man knows the deep things of the man; that is, his inner thoughts, feelings, attitudes, etc. (v. 11a). Similarly, the “Spirit” of God knows the deep things of God (vv. 10b and 11b). Since believers in Jesus have received the Holy Spirit, we can understand “what God has freely given us” (v. 12); namely, what God has provided for us in our reception of the gospel by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (see the focus on the gospel and the Spirit in vv. 1-10a).

Paul goes on to say, “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words” (v. 13, NIV and similarly NLT; lit. “comparing spiritual things to spiritual things”). The ESV renders the last clause “interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual” and, similarly, the NRSV, “interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.” This refers to God’s hidden wisdom of the ages (cf. v. 7); namely, “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived—the things God has prepared for those who love him— these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit” (vv. 9-10a NIV). Thus within us, in our human spirit, God has given us the Holy Spirit to enable us to grasp the things that God has prepared for those who love him.

The human spirit is an important topic in both the Old and New Testaments. Unfortunately, it has not generally received the attention it deserves in our basic theology textbooks, where it is often relegated to the dichotomy versus trichotomy discussion. However, there has been a significant ongoing discussion of the nature and workings of the human spirit in works that focus on theological anthropology. Among these, the most helpful essay I am aware of is Kevin Vanhoozer’s essay on “What Exactly Does Spiritual Formation Form?” ⁶

Jesus drew upon the biblical term for “spirit” at the point of his physical death on the cross when he said, according to Luke 23:46, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit (pneuma),” which is an expression from Psalm 31:5a, “Into your hands I commit my spirit (ruakh).” Jesus was referring to his own human spirit. The parallel in Mark 15:37 puts it differently, retaining the close link between “breathe” and “spirit” discussed above: “With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last” (i.e., ‘breathed out, exhaled; expired’; Greek, exe pneu sev, related to pneuma cf. John 19:30). We learn from James 2:26, “. . . the body without the spirit is dead . . .” The human “spirit,” therefore, refers to the human person as he or she who remains alive when the body dies. ⁷

The Old Testament uses “spirit” (ruakh) for the human spirit about 120 times. ⁸ Sometimes it refers to the vitality of life: “the spirit of their father Jacob revived” (i.e., ‘became alive’ Gen 45:27b), when he heard that Joseph his son was still alive. Contrast Josh 5:1, when the people of Canaan “heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage (lit., ‘there was no longer spirit in them’) to face the Israelites.” Similarly, when the Queen of Sheba saw all of Solomon’s wisdom and his royal court, “she was overwhelmed”; literally “there was no longer breath (or ‘spirit,’ ruakh) in her” (1 Kgs 10:5b).

Sometimes “spirit” (ruakh) refers to moral or spiritual character: “My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you” (Isa 26:9). Sometimes it refers to capacities of mind and will: “the skilled workers to whom I (God) have given wisdom” (lit. ‘a spirit of wisdom’; Exod 28:3). In other cases, it refers to a person’s disposition: for example, “if feelings (lit. ‘a spirit’) of jealousy come over her husband” (Num 5:14), and “their resentment (‘spirit’) against him subsided” (Judg 8:3). Proverbs 16:18-19 tells us, for example, a “haughty (‘high’) spirit” comes before a fall, in contrast to being “lowly in spirit.” Proverbs 17:22 refers to a “crushed spirit,” and according to Prov 14:29, “Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered (lit. ‘short of spirit’) displays folly.”

From these various references, we get a sense of what the Bible means by the human “spirit.” It can apply to all kinds of things we are thinking, feeling, or contemplating. In the New Testament, for example, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come in love and with a gentle spirit?” (1 Cor 4:21). In 2 Tim 1:7 he writes, “. . . for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (ESV). Mark 2:8 tells us that Jesus perceived “in his spirit” that some were thinking he was a blasphemer, and then in 8:12, he “sighed deeply in his spirit” (ESV) when the Pharisees asked him for a sign in order to test him. In her Magnificat, Mary said, “my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:47). At the distress and weeping over the death of Lazarus, Jesus “was deeply moved in spirit and troubled” (John 11:33b).

The list goes on, but the point is clear. The term “spirit” in the Bible when used for the human spirit refers to whatever is happening within the person. It can refer to anything we think or feel, our likes or dislikes, how we look at things, our view of events or people, whether of ourselves or others, our wisdom or foolishness, our state of being at any moment, whether gentle, fearful, powerful, perceptive, self-controlled, discouraged, in despair, etc.. The human spirit knows all these things in every human person, and the Holy Spirit knows all this within God. Moreover, we have received the Holy Spirit within us; that is, within our human spirit. It is because of this that we can truly understand and take into our human spirit the reality of all that God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor 2:7-13, cited and discussed above).

Like the wind, the Spirit of God is a powerful force, and it is especially in the human spirit as God intends us to experience the full force of the Spirit in our lives (Rom 8:15-16). Another way to say this is that the point of the direct contact between God’s Holy Spirit and us is between God’s Spirit and our human spirit. This is where and how the core of God’s transforming work takes place in us. As Jesus put it, “Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them” (Mark 7:15). It works from the inside out.

“Spirit of Adoption”

The translation of the Greek word “spirit” (pneuma), referring either to the Holy “Spirit” (upper case) of God or the “spirit” (lower case) of a human person is sometimes disputed in Romans 8:4-17. The Greek text does not distinguish between the upper and lower case, which raises a matter of contextual interpretation. In the NIV, Romans 8:10 says, “But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness” (see similarly, e.g., KJV, NRSV, and ESV). NASB has human “spirit,” highlighting the correspondence between the human “body” and the human “spirit” in the verse, “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness” (NIV and NRSV put this rendering in the margin).

Romans 8:15 is even more difficult. The NIV has “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’” (Aramaic Abba means “the father”). “Abba, Father” is the cry of a child who knows their father and cries out to him in confidence, joy, or need. The NIV capitalizes both occurrences of “Spirit.” The ESV has, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons,” capitalizing the second but not the first. The NRSV rendering is “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption,” as does NASB, putting both in the lower case. The commentaries also dispute this matter in vv. 10 and 15. ⁹

No matter what they do with vv. 10b and 15b, however, virtually all translations and commentaries read (Holy) “Spirit” in v. 16a and (human) “spirit” in v. 16b: “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (NIV). The first pneuma clearly refers to the work of the Holy Spirit and the second says that the Holy Spirit does his testifying work with “our spirit,” referring to the human spirit. There is debate among scholars about whether “testifies with” (Greek summarturei) means the Holy Spirit and human spirit both together testify to our adoption as the children of God, or whether the point is the Holy Spirit testifies to and assures our human spirit that God has adopted us as his children. ¹⁰

In my view, both are true. When a person comes to Christ as his or her savior, she or he receives the Holy Spirit (see, for example, Acts 2:38-39 and 1 Cor 12:13). Within the person, the indwelling Holy Spirit works confidence in our human spirit from the start, and, furthermore, continues to convince and assure us of our adoption to God as his child from that point forward. As believers we may already be convinced of our status as children of God in our human spirit, something that bears upon us as we go forward in life, but the vicissitudes of life and our own temptations, weaknesses, and corruption require the ongoing testifying work of the Holy Spirit in and with our human spirit, carrying us along in our walk with the Lord. Thus, we walk by the Spirit.

Galatians 3–4 follows the same pattern. “After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” (Gal 3:3). We start by the Spirit and the same work of the Spirit continues through our life as we walk by the Spirit. As in Romans 7, the issue of the OT Law versus the Spirit is at stake (see also Gal 3:15-29 and more on this below). Again, like in Romans 8:15-17, Paul moves on from the law to “adoption to sonship” (Gal 4:5) and the work of the Spirit, the cry “Abba Father,” and the move from slavery to being “God’s child” and “heir” (vv. 6–7). The parallel is unmistakable, although the two passages are not saying all the same things in the same ways. ¹¹

As noted above, scholars dispute the rendering of “a spirit” or “the Spirit” of “adoption” in Romans 8:15b. A more literal rendering of the verse will be useful in our discussion here: “For you have not received a spirit of slavery again unto fear, but you have received a spirit (or ‘a Spirit’) of adoption by which we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’” On the one hand, there are strong contextual reasons for taking the second pneuma to mean the Spirit of God. ¹² Verse 14 refers specifically to the divine Spirit: “. . . those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God,” which leads directly into v. 15. Similarly, v. 16 refers first to the Spirit of God and then the human spirit: “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” It is indeed the Holy Spirit that is the “Spirit” who makes us the adopted children of God, based on what God did for us through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross (Rom 8:1-3). It is the Spirit who gives us life in Christ: “through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death” (v. 2).

On the other hand, some scholars argue that “a spirit of slavery” in the first part of the verse must somehow also refer to the Holy Spirit. As in the NIV, they paraphrase the line, “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again.” ¹³ This is a dubious rendering of v. 15a, which says literally, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery again unto fear . . .” A contrast between receiving a human spirit of slavery and a (or ‘the’) Holy Spirit of adoption makes perfectly good sense in the context. As noted above, the human spirit is quite clearly in view in v. 16b, so it is not out of place in the passage as a whole. In fact, the grammatical parallelism and correspondence between the expressions “spirit of slavery” and “spirit of adoption” in v. 15 suggests to some scholars that they both refer to a human disposition; that is, in the latter case, a “spirit” of adoption in the human person. ¹⁴ As shown above, the human spirit is an important element in the lives of people in the Bible.

The term “adoption” (Greek huiathesia) appears here in Romans 8:15 and two more times in the immediately following context. In his remarks on the groaning of the world in which we live, Paul tells us, “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship , the redemption of our bodies” (v. 23). Then again, adoption comes first in Paul’s Romans 9:4-5 list of the benefits the church inherited from God’s work with Israel: “Theirs is the adoption to sonship ; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. ⁵ Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen” (Rom 9:4-5). As he moves on to his new topic in Romans 9–11, Paul does not leave the importance of adoption behind but, instead, makes it foundational to his ongoing argument.

The other two appearances of adoption in the New Testament are also in Paul’s writings. We have already introduced the close parallelism between Romans 8:15-17 and Galatians 4:4-7. According to Galatians 4:5, God sent his Son “to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship ” (Greek huiathesia). As in Romans 8, the following verse refers to “the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father’” (v. 6), so we are no longer slaves, but children and heirs of God. Then in Ephesians 1, “in love” (v. 4b) God “predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” (v. 5). Here we have a combination of expressions that goes back not only to Rom 8:15 but also Rom 8:27-29 (treated in the introduction).

These are the only five appearances of the term “adoption” in the New Testament. It does not appear in the LXX translation of the Old Testament. It does not seem to correspond to any underlying Old Testament Hebrew expression and is not found in second temple Jewish sources. ¹⁵ It seems that the Greek term appears first as a literary expression in the first century BC, although related expressions for adoption are known from earlier times in Greek sources. Adoption was a common institution among the Romans in NT times, however. ¹⁶ This suggests to me that Paul is using “adoption” as a culturally loaded Roman concept that would facilitate their grasp of the gospel message in the Roman context.

A modern example of this kind of cross-cultural tactic would be Don Richardson’s use of the “Peace Child” concept of the tribes in Irian Jaya as a redemptive analogy for a way of communicating the gospel in that context. The warring tribes had a practice exchanging young children in order to make peace between them. The analogy consists in God giving Jesus his Son to us in order to make peace with us. Also, the following context in Rom 9:6-9 refers back to Abraham as the father of his physical descendants, but “not all who are descended from Israel are Israel (v. 6).” Instead, “it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring” (v. 8), referring to those who have Abrahamic faith, and thus including the adopted Gentiles, grafted in to the kingdom tree (see Romans 11). ¹⁷

Romans 9:4 also suggests that, in Paul’s view, even though the term “adoption” does not appear in the Old Testament, the Israelites knew that God considered them to be his adopted children, even his firstborn and heirs. Consider, for example, Exodus 4:22-23, where God told Moses to speak to Pharaoh in these terms: “ . . . This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, ‘Let my son go, so he may worship me.’ But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’” Pharaoh’s refusal, of course, led eventually to the final plague, the original Passover (Exodus 11). See also, for example, Deuteronomy 14:1; 32:19-21; Isaiah 63:16; 64:8; Jeremiah 3:19; Hosea 11:1. ¹⁸

Romans 9:4 puts adoption first in the list of benefits to the church from God’s work with Israel because this was the culmination of the argument in Romans 5–8. Paul started the section with justification by faith in Romans 5 (note 4:25 and then 5:1, 9, 16) and then moved on in Romans 6–8 to explain and illustrate how to live the life of the one justified by faith: “What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!” (Rom 6:1-2a). In v. 15 he makes a shift to “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!” (v. 15). He gives two illustrations: (1) we are no longer slaves to sin but to God and righteousness (6:15-23), and (2) we are no longer bound by marriage to the law since we have died and death sets one free from marriage (7:1-6).

The next unit begins again with “What shall we say then?” (7:7). This is the same expression as in Romans 6:1, and it signals a shift in the text: “Is the law sinful? Certainly not!” ¹⁹ The Old Testament law is not the real problem. On the one hand, as Paul put it, “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. . . . the law is spiritual . . .,” present tense (Rom 7:12, 14a, emphasis mine). It has always been good, it is good now, and it will always be good into the future. On the other hand, no law can change a human heart, not even God’s law . That is simply not in the nature of what “law” does: “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin” (v. 14). In other words, the problem is really with the sinful “flesh” of the human person, not the law itself.

Here is where Paul begins his argument about the contrast between the “spirit of slavery” and “the Spirit (or ‘spirit’) adoption” referred to in Rom 8:15. Since the early centuries of the church, there has been an ongoing debate about the general background of the argument in Romans 7:7-25, especially vv. 14–25. ²⁰ Some scholars have argued that Paul was referring to himself in his unsaved condition when he wrote, for example, “what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (v. 15b). Similarly, in v. 19, he wrote, “I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” Others think he is referring here to his battle with sin as a Christian. Some take a mediating position, suggesting that it refers to those who are under conviction for their sin but have not yet put their trust in Christ.

In my view, this debate has distracted us from the point Paul is actually making here. He is talking about how the dynamic of living by the law works whether you are a Christian or a non-Christian. He is treating the law generically in terms of its inherent dynamic if one attempts to live by means of it as the driving force in their life. The “I” in this passage is a rhetorical way of putting himself and all of us together in one group that includes all of humanity, believer or not. Anyone anywhere at any time who takes the law to be the driving force in her or his life is doomed to this kind of tangled up experience. Paul reflects back on this when he writes later: “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do” (Rom 8:3a ESV).

So the law is good, but it is also weak. The law is weak because it has no power to change a human heart. Conversely, the driving force in the life of the believer is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is strong precisely because it indwells us and works in our heart by testifying with and in our human spirit that we are the adopted children of God. The general purpose of testifying is to convince someone of something. The core work of the Spirit of God in our human spirit, therefore, is to convince us ever more deeply and broadly in our human spirit that we are the adopted children of God. As we get more and more convinced of this in our human spirit by the indwelling Holy Spirit, our human spirit witnesses with the Spirit to our adoption.

There is a Greek legend of the “cutting of the Gordian knot.” As the legend goes, in the days of Alexander the Great (the 300’s BC) there was a town in the hinterlands called Gordius, after the name of its king. In that region, there was a widely known oracle associated with a cart that was bound to a yoke with a knot that no one could untie (there were no ends visible and it was tied very tightly). This is the “Gordian knot.” The oracular tradition was that whoever could untie it would become the ruler of all Asia. When Alexander came up to Gordius he learned of the traditional oracle and responded by drawing his sword and cutting through the knot with one fell swoop. Thus, he would become the conqueror and ruler of all Asia. From this we get the expression “cutting the Gordian knot,” referring to one drastic action that accomplishes everything that is necessary.

Our struggle with sin in our lives reaches its peak in the tangled-up knot we all experience in our lives, as Romans 7:14–25 articulates. But in Romans 7:25-8:4, Paul tells of another “cutting the Gordian knot.” On a cosmic scale and for all eternity, in one fell swoop through his death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus cut through the Gordian knot of sin that has each of us tangled up in ourselves. One can even feel the twisted knot in Romans 7:14-25. Then comes the fell swoop of God’s sword in 8:1, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” God does not try to untie the knot, and neither should we. Even though we are not rid of sin in our life, we can move on “because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death” (v. 2). We are unable to untie the knot anyway . . . it is too tangled-up. Moreover, as far as God is concerned, the knot does not exist. It has already been completely severed by Jesus Christ who became a sin offering for us to set us free: “ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh” (v. 3).

Instead of messing with the knot, God has called us to get on with walking by the Spirit. He condemned sin in the flesh, “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (v. 4). There is an ongoing dispute over the meaning of “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us.” Some scholars take this to mean that the meeting of the requirement has been accomplished for us by what Jesus did as a sin offering. ²¹ It is forensic. This is true, of course, theologically, but the verse goes on to talk about how we live as believers “who walk . . . according to the Spirit” (ESV). This hardly suggests that the meeting of the requirements of the law is forensic or positional in this context. It is primarily personal, an experiential, relational reality of how we live our lives in Christ by following the lead of the Holy Spirit.

The other view, therefore, is that Jesus became a sin offering for us (v. 3) with the purpose of enabling our pursuit of the righteous requirements of the law in our lives as believers, by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. ²² If we walk by the Spirit, we will fulfill the law, as God intended that his people would do. The following verses support this interpretation. For example, according to v. 7, “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.” The corresponding opposite is that only the mind governed by the Spirit can submit to the law. This, of course, is in accordance with the New Covenant promise that God would put the law of Moses in the minds and write it on the hearts of believers (Jer 31:33).

In sum, there are three main stages or steps in this passage. First, there is living under the condemnation of “the law of sin and death” (Rom 7:7-24). Second, there is living into the reality that, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). This is “because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death” (v. 2). Third, not only has God delivered us from condemnation, he has gone so far as to adopt us as his children, so we are “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (v. 17). We are not merely saved from the fires of hell; we will inherit the very kingdom of God.

As explained above, the theme of divine adoption continues through Romans 8 and into chapter 9. As for now, today, even in the midst of our groaning in this life, we “have the firstfruits of the Spirit, . . ., as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship , the redemption of our bodies” (Rom 8:23). As Jesus cried out “Abba, Father!” in his distress in the garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:36), we cry out to our Father God the same way in our own groaning and distress (Rom 8:18-30). Furthermore, we eagerly look forward to the fullness of our redemption and adoption in the glorification that is to come: “those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (Rom 8:30). ²³

The Love of God in the Spirit of Adoption

Romans 8:31 introduces the rousing conclusion to his argument: “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (cf. also 6:1 and 7:7 for “What then shall we say . . .”). The most immediate reference of “these things” would be the previous few verses that emphasize just how entirely God has committed himself to “those who love him” (v. 28). Some scholars also suggest that vv. 31–39 conclude the argument of the larger section, Romans 5–8, ²⁴ or even the whole letter up to this point. ²⁵ In any case, the focus of vv. 31–39 is to make the point that he introduces in v. 31b, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” The answer to this question is this: absolutely no one and nothing!

God has adopted us and made us joint heirs of his kingdom with Jesus his firstborn son (vv. 15–17). As his adopted children, none of the groaning in vv. 18–25 can separate us from God’s love because the Spirit is groaning for us to the Father with groans that our own words cannot express (v. 26). This is according to the will of the Father (v. 27), who will work it all out for good results in the lives of those who love him (v. 28). He does this by using everything we experience to conform us to the image of his Son. He has set us all on this path (v. 29). All those he has set on this path he calls, justifies, and glorifies (v. 30). Thus, it is Trinitarian. All three persons of the Godhead are directly involved and occupied with it.

The Holy Spirit, in particular, is working it in us; that is, in and with our human spirit: “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (v. 16). As noted above, in a manner of speaking, this is “the point of direct contact“ between God and us that empowers and implements God’s will and work in our life based on what the Son has done in offering himself as a sin offering for us (v. 3). The Spirit of adoption convinces us ever more deeply in our human spirit that we are the adopted children of God. The more convinced we become, the more our human spirit testifies within us along with the Holy Spirit, creating a “spirit of adoption,” by which we cry out “Abba Father.”

God intends that this spirit of adoption would overwhelm us amid our groaning. This is what Romans 8:31-39 extolls. These verses are not strictly poetic, but the renowned eloquence of these verses lends them the quality of a hymn – a hymn to adoption. ²⁶ This is rhetorically and theologically a powerful, highly charged passage. These verses exhibit a certain parallelism in expression. They are rhythmic, picturesque, and vivid. Paul intends that these verses capture the sensitivity and the imagination of anyone who knows God through Jesus Christ his Son. They make an impression that goes beyond regular argumentation and persuasion. The Holy Spirit works this into us so that it occupies our human spirit. In this way, the work of the Holy Spirit and human spirit come together in those whom God has adopted as his children.

The rhythmic quality of the passage manifests itself in two ways and in two parts. First, there are the repeated, terse, and pointed, questions and answers in vv. 31–37. Second, and finally, vv. 38–39 pull the full effect of adoption together in the repeated “neither” (Greek oute) phrases in vv. 38–39, sealed with the final clause: nothing in all creation “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Using the NIV translation and inserting the key Greek particles in parentheses, I have arranged the passage below in an attempt to capture some of the rhythm, repetition, and piercing terseness of the passage. Comments follow each unit.

If God is for us,

It starts with the Father’s commitment to us. God is for us, not against us, and who can stand up against God? He did not even spare his own eternal firstborn Son in his commitment to our redemption, but, instead, gave him up for us, and will “graciously give us all things” as our joint inheritance with his Son (v. 32).

Who (tis) will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

Here is another good question. The Father certainly will not accuse us of anything since he has gone to such extremes to justify us. There is no leftover charge to bring. There is certainly no one who can stand up against the judicial decision that God already issued when he justified us.

Who (tis) then is the one who condemns? No one.

There is no one who can condemn us to judgment for our sin. The very Son of God, who died for the forgiveness of our sin as our sin offering and cut the Gordian Knot for us, actually stands at the right hand of God in the heavenly court interceding on our behalf. The Father has already rendered his decision, and the Son’s work is ongoing.

Who (tis) shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Even our harsh experiences in life cannot separate us from the love of Christ. On the one hand, we face trouble and hardships of various kinds in this life simply because we live as groaning people in a groaning world (cf. vv. 18–25). This is a reality for every person. On the other hand, trouble and hardship come to us because we know the Lord and suffer along with Christ under rejections, persecutions, and abuses directed at us (cf. v. 17b).

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Here the passage explodes with a highly charged conclusion that pulls all the contingencies of life together, and says that none of them “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing and no one from death to life, nothing from the spiritual realm, no powers above or below, and nothing from anywhere or anyone in this created cosmos can do anything that will separate us from God’s love.

Summary and Conclusion

The OT law always has been, and always will be, good, holy, righteous, and spiritual (Rom 7:12, 14). This is not up for debate. Jesus gave us two great commandments: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself” (see Matt 22:37-39 and parallels). He then added this: “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (v. 40). In other words, this is what the OT law was all about all along and from one end to the other. There are many who do not read the law this way, which means they read it wrongly. Jesus says it; Paul preaches it. ²⁷

Yes, it is true, the law is “good,” but, at the same time, it is also “weak.” It is God’s guide to a good and holy life, but it has no power to conquer the sin that is in me so that I live according to the standard it sets: “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin” (Rom 7:14). I am enslaved – all tangled up, in my sinful self – and I cannot untangle myself (vv. 15–24). “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” (v. 24b). The answer is that God has done it for me in Christ (Rom 7:25-8:4). If I am “in Christ Jesus,” God has adopted me as his child, and he has given me the Holy Spirit as the “Spirit of adoption,” so that I no longer have “a spirit of slavery” in my human spirit, but a “spirit of adoption” (Rom 8:15-16).

This article began by reviewing the usages of “spirit” in the Bible when it refers to the human spirit. The “spirit” of a person is what remains of them when their body dies. It is who we are whether embodied or not. The human spirit consists of what we think, how we feel about things, our moods, our likes or dislikes, our perspective in life, our view of events or people, whether ourselves or others. Our spirit can be wise or foolish. It refers to our internal state of being that determines the kind of person we are. Our spirit can be gentle, fearful, angry, powerful, perceptive, self-controlled, discouraged, in despair, etc. It can apply to all varieties of things that we are thinking, feeling, or deciding.

If we are in a troubled state of mind (i.e., in our ‘spirit’), we can still know and feel the effects of the fact God has adopted us as his children and nothing can separate us from his fatherly love. This is the spirit of adoption. God may discipline us for our correction and our good, but he will not turn against us. Other people may betray us, but not God. Other people may hate us, but God loves us. We may hate others, but the Holy Spirit works in us so that we even love our enemies, as God did when he sent his Son to die for us: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8; cf. Matt 5:43-48). We may even hate ourselves, but God’s loving posture toward us never changes. The fruit of the Spirit’s work in us is “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Gal 5:22-23). The spirit of adoption consists of these kinds of qualities.

The gospel is always good news to every one of us because, in our fallen condition, amid our groaning, there are always ways and places within us that the gospel has not yet touched. We are still looking forward to glorification. We are not there yet. In the meantime, the Holy Spirit is constantly working to see that all the nooks and crannies of my human spirit eat, breathe, and drink a “spirit of adoption.” We worship God from this “spirit.” There is absolutely nothing from anywhere or on any level in this entire cosmos that can separate us from the love of God. The more deeply we are convinced of this in our human spirit by the Holy Spirit, the more there is nothing left to do but go love God and people. Nothing else makes sense to me anymore! I lose track of the other things that tend to tangle me up in my own passions and the darkness and groaning of this world.

Christians are first of all and above all, worshippers, and worship is about getting impressed with God. It is about getting impressed with who he is, what he has done, and what he has done for us. The problem we face is this: in our tangled up fallen fleshliness, we are so often impressed with the wrong things. The point is this: what we are impressed with is what we live for. This is why worship can be such a powerful transforming practice in our lives, some would say the most powerful of all Christian practices.

I have in mind here something more than Sunday morning worship, although such worship experiences can contribute immensely to the life of an individual Christian and a community of faithful believers. The Spirit and spirit of adoption discussed in this essay, however, is about seeing God while looking life squarely in the face. It is about becoming more and more impressed with him amid the ongoing groaning’s in our lives (Rom 8:18-30). We do not leave life behind to worship God. The Psalms make this clear. We have praise and thanks Psalms, but we also have lament and repentance Psalms, and various other kinds. All of them can bring us to God from one place or another in our experience.

The Holy Spirit is working a spirit of adoption in us that can take over our lives, moment by moment, day by day. We can get so impressed with God’s unending and overwhelming love for us that we lose interest in the other things we have been living for. This loosens the grip that our “flesh” and the groaning world have on us, and sets us free to go into daily life occupied in our spirit with the fruit of the Spirit. Against such there is no law (Gal 5:23-24). This crucifies “the flesh with its passions and desires” (v. 25). This is what it means to walk by the Spirit. This is the core of the “spirit of adoption.”

At an important turning point in his ministry, Jesus came face to face with the skepticism and rejection of his people (Matt 11:1-24). At that time, he turned to the Father, praising him for the way he was working his plan among the least wise and most needy, and the fact that the Father had committed the whole plan to Jesus himself. No matter what others thought of him, God the Father had made Jesus the Son the only way to know God (vv. 25–27). Then he turned to “the weary and burdened” and said “come to me . . . and I will give you rest” (v. 28). For these people, the yoke was hard and the load was heavy, and they knew it. Only such people would hear his invitation. In their receiving rather than rejecting Jesus, he would be “gentle and humble in heart” toward them, making the yoke of life easy and the load light (v. 30). Jesus does not want to load those people down who come to him. He wants to lighten them up. He wants them to find in him “rest” for their “souls” (v. 29). ²⁸ As the “Spirit of adoption,” the Holy Spirit testifies in and with our human spirit so that we live out of a “spirit of adoption.” Nothing can separate us from the love of God. In this, there is “rest for the soul” even in the midst of the groanings of life.