Life, liberty, and the pursuit of Holiness: The Spirit by whom we cry"Abba"

Romans 8:14-17

Romans 8:14-17 ESV

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 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!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Rev. Dan Whang

We don't all have good pictures of fathers in media and even in our own lives. Some of us may have had less than good relationships with our earthly fathers.

Preceding our passage, Paul talks of killing and fighting sin in our lives. How sin is out to kill us. Here, Paul lays out a greater motivation. We are introduced to the spirit of adoption. We are the same as the physical relations.

The counter point is slavery. They live in fear, with actions done out of duty, and a relationship based on performance.

Children are different. They are entitled to an intimate relationship with the family. They will always have a place in the family. They act out of love. We are children of God.

Abba is an intimate term for father. It denoted intimacy and respect. How have you addressed God, our heavenly father? If your prayers are not in this spirit, you are missing out.
The Spirit empowers us to call God,Abba. It cries out with us and for us in our battles with sin. Galatians 4:6-7 also speaks of this.

Application / Lessons

We are able to cry out to God and pray to Him about anything and everything.

Joking, anecdotes, little things, big things... More than just asking for things or blessing.

Crying out Abba gives us tremendous power to put our sins to death and truly change.

We are empowered by God. What can we not do? He wants us free from sin, what can stand in His way?

Our father can discipline us for our good.

Hebrews 12:6-8

God shows us our sin so that we can grow. So that we become more like Him.

We must treat others in the family of God with grace as fellow adopted children of the same Father.

We are all adopted. Not of our own merit. Of grace. We are a single family in Christ. We are united in hope and in our faith. We are all heirs of a heavenly inheritance who can forsake the world for Him.