Romans 8:16 “Voices”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁶The Spirit Himself testifies with/to our spirit that we are children of God,

This one verse is so filled with the sunshine of heaven, it is hard to even know where to begin enjoying its warmth!

The Spirit Himself! What an unspeakable gift of our Father’s love! Our Lord would have you and me to be assured that in fact we are His, that we have been adopted, that we have been welcomed into His family, that we are dearly loved children, but by what means would He communicate this truth to us? All through the Bible, He has sent angels to minister to His people. In this world, He has even raised up apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers to enlighten us. However, when it comes to this matter of our adoption, He will have no lesser messenger than His very own Holy Spirit! The third Person of the Trinity!

The Spirit Himself bears witness to us that we are children of God! I recall a couple I knew years ago, named Phil and Nancy. They had adopted two small boys who were brothers, which was a wonderful act of love and kindness on their part – not only to give the boys a home and a family, but to take on both so as not to separate them! The father Phil confided in me, however, that his biggest challenge was simply to convince the boys they really were adopted. Already in their short little lives, they had apparently been bounced around from one foster home to another. Now, they lived in constant fear they’d be “sent back.”

How would anyone convince a child they’ve truly been adopted? Not by sending them a letter. Not by asking a good friend to speak to them. There’s only one way – to take them in your arms and tell them again and again and again, “You’re my child. I love you. I will always love you. We are now your family and always will be!” You do it yourself. So does God. The Spirit Himself bears witness that we are children of God. “Behold, what manner of love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God!”

This particular message is so important God Himself delivers it to our hearts. Like those two boys, our Father longs that we should embrace His love, that we should live in the full assurance we won’t be “sent back.” And may I suggest, one reason it takes the blessed Holy Spirit Himself is because the task itself is a spiritual battle of monumental proportions? We are of our father the devil. We look too much like him. We act too much like him. Our hearts are painfully aware we bear far too much of his image, that we have no rightful place in the family of God. Only by faith can we know and believe that we have passed from death to life. Can I suggest that very faith is precisely a point where “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”?

I suspect it is true for every one of us, if we are painfully honest, we find it very hard to believe I really am adopted, that I really have been made a full-fledged child of God. There is a voice inside of me saying, “It just can’t be. You? Ha! God wouldn’t want you. Even if He did adopt you, now He’s having second thoughts. Why on earth would He want a failure like you in His family???” Even as I type, I feel in my heart the very cold, dark, hopeless chill of those words. I only type them because I suspect they’re true of you too. And that said, we both need to face those thoughts, know they come straight out of the pits of hell, and say, “No! Abba, Father! I have no hope but my Father’s love. He says I’m His child and I will not listen to those voices! I couldn’t even cry ‘Abba, Father!’ if it weren’t for His Holy Spirit dwelling in my heart. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen!” Then I need to snuggle my heart back into the Father’s lap, feel His strong arms around me, and simply choose to believe Him. He says I’m loved…so I am. My Father says so.

Once again, I would suggest that exact point is a spiritual battle of monumental proportions and it takes nothing short of the Third Person of the Trinity dwelling in our hearts, the Spirit of Adoption, to give us the faith to believe. Let us put on that armor of God and live as dearly loved children!

Then it is interesting the verse says, “His Spirit testifies with/to our spirit…” There is a lot of scholarly debate whether it should be translated “with” or “to.” Personally I’m not sure it really makes any difference. I just want to notice it is our spirit. Bible teachers get all bent out of shape about how we’re made, and how many parts there are to us, with all the different terms out there "body, soul, spirit, mind, heart, flesh, …” I would assert it simply isn’t that complicated. What is there at death? There is a body and a spirit. My body stays here on earth to molder back into dirt while my spirit goes to be with the Lord. “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” That is a wonderful thing, but realize it isn’t natural for us. We are not supposed to be disembodied spirits. And so, when it’s all over, what does Jesus do? He raises my body from the dirt and I once again become a complete human being – a spirit living in a body.

In fact, my spirit is the real me. When you look into another person’s eyes, it is their spirit you are seeing. When they speak, it is their spirit you hear. Our bodies are just tools which allow us to live in this material, created world and interact with each other. Now, because the body I live in is an Adamic, fallen body, it somehow carries with it its spiritual corruption and creates this awful enigma inside of me which the Bible calls my flesh – not just the body itself, but its fallen, Adamic nature as well. However, in spite of all that evil, we should understand my spirit is still me, the real me. I am inside here. Sin is not who I am. Sin and my sinfulness are a wart on the reality of who I truly am. If I die covered with those warts, there is only one place to put me – in hell. However, Jesus died to take away those sins. By faith I must believe that His blood has washed away those warts and God now sees me as my spirit – the real me. And so His Spirit testifies to/with our spirit – the real us – that we are in fact children of God. Don’t fail to appreciate this amazing truth, that God knows who you really are, He can (because of Jesus) look past those warts and see you for who you really are, and His Spirit speaks directly to you.

Finally, notice what He tells us, that we are “the children of God.” Now, we should note, all along the way, even this chapter in Romans has been talking about how we’ve been made “sons” (and therefore “daughters”) of God.” The Greek word behind it is in fact “sons.” However, here in verse 16, what the Holy Spirit assures is that we are “children.” Sonship can be simply a legal term. A person is a son, if for no other reason, because he is the biological offspring of his parents. The word “children,” however carries with it a sense of affection. In English, it can be just another legal word for offspring, but even in our language today, I think we would acknowledge that there is more of affection in “child” than there is in “son.”

I think it very interesting, here in verse 16, that what His Spirit testifies to/with our spirit is that we are children of God. Let us not miss the affection He intends us to hear! God did not simply appear at our door one day and serve us papers informing us we’d been legally adopted – then turn around and walk away. Oh, no. He reached down and picked us up and hugged us and kissed us and threw us in the air and caught us and told us over and over, “You’re my child now! I love you!” “The Lord your God in the midst of you is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over you with joy; He will quiet you with His love; He will joy over you with singing” (Zeph. 3:17).

So we’re back to “Abba, Father!” Our salvation is no cold, legal matter. It’s not just that our sins have been forgiven. God sends His very own Spirit to dwell within us and to allow us, by faith, to know and enjoy all the warmth and love of actually being His children!

May we listen to His voice, and not the others!