Verse by Verse

¹⁶ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

Himself — the Holy Spirit is a person

with our spirit — not “to our spirit.” A continuation of verse 15, “we cry Abba, Father.” This is our spirit, but it is produced in us by the Holy Spirit.

children — Greek word teknon from tikto, to beget, “born ones” — like the Scottish word “bairn.”

¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.

spirit of bondage — a spirit possessed by and characteristic of slaves

adoption = son-placing. The place and state of a son given to one to whom it does not belong by natural descent.

In Galatians 4:6 (And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.), the Spirit says this. Here is is said by those who are enabled by the Spirit.

Abba (Aramaic) — unreasoning trust (not the same as Father), filial confidence, communion, obedience — the love and intelligent trust of a child.

The adoption of children, as we speak of it in English today, refers to the taking in of other people’s children. This is not the meaning of the Greek huiothesia, for according to Galatians 4:1-7 this “placing as sons” affected those already children. This is not to imply, of course, that a stranger could not also be taken in and given a place as a full-grown son, but the point is that “adoption” here does not refer to mere acceptance into the family, but to a declaration of full sonship, with all its rights and privileges — and responsibilities.

In the life of the Hebrew boy there came a time “appointed of the father,” when “adoption” proceedings took place and the boy was declared to be the son and heir of the father.

Before that time he had been a son, indeed, but “under tutors and governors.” He had been told what he must and must not, what he might and might not, do. In this he differed nothing from a servant.

But finally the “time appointed” arrives! He is growing up now. It is assumed that he will no longer need overseers to keep him in check. There has come to be a natural understanding and co-operation between father and son. And so the “adoption” proceeding take place: a declaration, public and official, that the lad now enters into all the rights and privileges of full sonship.

Such is the meaning of the word adoption as used in the writings of Paul. How all this opens up the meaning of Romans 8:15. True, we Gentile believers were once strangers and aliens, graciously taken into the family of God, but a careful examination of the above and related passages on “adoption” will clearly reveal that more than present-day adoption is meant. — Stam, page 193-194.

¹⁴ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

led — implies cooperation with the one doing the leading — “walk after the Spirit” (verse 4).

they — emphatic, they and none other

sons — refers to the dignity of the position and the moral character consistent with it.

The filling of the Spirit isn’t automatic for Christians. It is a goal to be obtained by grace through faith as we allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit.

• And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).

• For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law (Galatians 5:17-18).

There are two families and two fatherhoods in this world. We were once in the foul family of Adam, and we are now declared to be the sons of the living God through the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit. We have been made partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4); we have been made alive who were once dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). We who were once children of the darkness are now made children of the light (Ephesians 5:8). We who were once children of wrath, children of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2-3), are now the objects of the divine affection, and are children of His love, and children of faith and obedience. We are, in short, children of God. — Barnhouse, page 65.

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To put it simply:

1. In the past, fellowship with God depended upon obedience to the Law.

2. In the present dispensation, grace and faith are elevated to their highest place. Grace provides the needed help of the Holy Spirit, and this help is appropriated by faith. we are neither simply commanded to obey God, nor does the Holy Spirit arbitrarily take control and “cause” us to obey. Rather God’s people enjoy fellowship with Him as they yield themselves to the leading of the Spirit.

3. In the future, when our Lord reigns on earth, the Holy Spirit will control the people of God and “cause” them to obey His will (Ezekiel 36:24-27). — Stam, page 191.

¹² Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

¹³ For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

In Romans 7:4, “mortify” (put to death) is the act of God through the death of Christ. The same word here is the believer’s responsibility, but the power is from the Holy Spirit.

We owe nothing to our flesh. It brings death — and so we are under no obligation to it. Nor can we live with an “I can’t help it” attitude to sin.

I cannot stress too strongly that this portion of the epistle is in a stream of teaching that is addressed to those who have been born again, have been made alive in Christ, and have gone on with God to spiritual knowledge. There have been commentators who have taken the next portion of our text and twisted it far from its possible meaning. We now read, “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die.” Those who have attempted to refer this passage to the second death nullify all that has gone before concerning the nature and certainty of justification by faith apart from the works of the law. The death that is mentioned here cannot, in any exegesis that recognizes the advancing nature of the revelation of truth in the epistle, be interpreted as referring to the second death. Paul has little more than finished the declaration that “there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” And are not the objects of this revelation here addressed as “brethren”? To interpret this passage as referring to the second death would make it read, “Brethren, if ye live after the flesh ye shall not be brethren any more”; or, “Possessors of eternal life, if you live after the flesh, your eternal life will shrink to six-months life, or ten-year life.” Or it would be made to read, “Justified ones, you shall become unjustified”; “born ones, you shall be unborn.” To state the matter thus is to refute the idea. The death that is mentioned here is not separation from God for eternity. — Barnhouse, page 52.

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We should realize that just as the verdict of condemnation does not make a sinner more evil, so the verdict of justification does not make the believer more righteous. — Barnhouse, page 53.

¹¹ But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

from the dead — from among the dead

Jesus — one of only two places (the other is 3:26) where the single name is used. Here it is used as the One who is a pledge of all that is secured in Him for believers.

quicken = The reference is not to the impartation of some special energy of life and power to our bodies in the present state, but to the effect upon them of the shout of the Lord at the time of the Rapture (see Romans 7:24; 1 Thessalonians 4:17; Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Corinthians 15:52-53). — Vine, page 117.

by His Spirit — should be “because of His Spirit.”

Scripture does not speak of the Holy Spirit as the One who will raise the dead and change the living saints. He is not the means but the cause … The power that wrought in Christ is the power that will accomplish the quickening of our death-doomed bodies (Ephesians 1:18-20). — Vine, page 117.

The quickening is now. The Spirit is now enabling us to overcome the flesh — therefore verse 12.

⁹ But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

¹⁰ And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

The Holy Spirit is both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ.

• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).

• That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love (Ephesians 3:16-17).

• Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates (2 Corinthians 13:5).

The indwelling of the Spirit is the indwelling of Christ Himself.

We live in dying bodies, but our spirits are secure eternally in life because of the righteousness of Christ.

In contrast, God sees our sinful bodies as already dead.

⁷ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

⁸ So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

The mind of the flesh is antagonistic against God. It refused to be controlled. The tense indicates an ongoing normal condition, not of indifference, but of hostility.

neither can be — inherently in its nature — But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God (James 4:4).

But there is hope — Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby (Ephesians 2:15-16).

⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit

⁶ For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

flesh, carnal — the old nature

mind = habit of thought, total interest — not understanding. It’s the same word translated “set affections on” in Colossians 3:1-3.

peace — not reconciliation but the enjoyment of it

Christians can be dead as far as experiencing the fruit of the Spirit — dead experientially

Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light (Ephesians 5:14).

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting (Galatians 6:8).

The death spoken of in Romans eight must be understood as the loss of a life that is dedicated to God and blessed in Him on earth. There are many Christians who have physical life, and who go about their tasks, even religious tasks, but who are not rejoicing in the great triumphant realities that are available for us, but which remain unclaimed and unused. Life, in this passage, is nothing less than the abounding triumph of the believer in the joy of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Anything less than this, when it is possible, is death. Death, then, in this passage, is the living existence of a born-again believer on a spiritual level that is lower than that which God has designed for us. When this is understood the passage returns to its place in a logical sequence and becomes a powerful exhortation to high and holy Christian living. — Barnhouse, page 30-31.

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I was somewhat puzzled when I realized how many times the word “things” was being used by the Holy Spirit in presenting this teaching to us. “The things of the flesh … the things of the Spirit” are found in our text. And in Corinthians we have “the things of a man,” “the deep things of God,” “the things that are freely given to us of God.” We are reminded that “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit,” but that “he that is spiritual judgeth all things” (1 Corinthians 2:10-15). In Colossians we are exhorted to “seek those things which are above,” to “set our affection on things above and not on the things which are on this earth” (Colossians 3:2). It would not be difficult to extend this list.

I think the explanation lies in the fact that while the great central truths are the same for all men, and the life of Spirit carries all believers in the same general direction, God is so diverse in His dealings with al His children that no two of us pass through the same experience. I am beginning to believe that I have a different concept of “the things of God” from anyone else, and that every believer has his own experience of these divine “things.” When we understand this we will be very hesitant about judging any other man, but will learn that the Lord is leading each individual in ways that are His own, forming Christ in us within the boundaries of our responsibility, exalting Himself by the great diversity of His dealings with us. — Barnhouse, page 35.

³ For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,

⁴ that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

It was impossible for the law to 1) give freedom from condemnation, 2) justify, or 3) impart life by means of the flesh. The Law itself is perfect, but it couldn’t achieve its end because the flesh is weak (Romans 6:19).

sending His own Son — from glory to the world via the Incarnation. “Son” is stressed to show Christ’s power and greatness in contrast to the Law’s weakness — And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight (Colossians 1:21-22).

likeness — form. More than simple resemblance. He was in reality flesh, but without sin — identification and contrast.

and for sin = and as an offering for sin (Romans 3:25). A propitiation, not an atonement. (An atonement, or covering, describes Old Testament sacrifices.)

condemned sin — by the example of His life and by His crucifixion

righteousness of the Law — all it demands as right

fulfilled in us, not by us — It is the work of God in us, accomplished by the Holy Spirit.

walk — entire activity of a believer’s life

spirit — renewed inward man through whom the Holy Spirit operates.

1 Corinthians 1:30-31 — But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

God doesn’t give us the power to live righteously, but does it in us and for us when we walk after the Spirit.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

“who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” — This phrase isn’t in the original manuscripts.

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17)

therefore — pointing back to chapter 7, but also to everything said since Romans 3:19.

no condemnation — “no” is heavily stressed in the Greek. This is a judicial matter.

• To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6).

• And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power (Colossians 2:10).

condemnation — same as in Romans 5:16-18. The judgment for sin passed to all men from Adam.

Spirit of life = Spirit who gives life — It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life (John 6:63). The law of the Spirit is stronger and supersedes the law of sin and death.

“In Christ Jesus” goes with “hath made me free” — In Christ, the believer is set free — And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life (1 John 5:11-12).

free — the tense indicates a definite time in the past

law of sin and death — see Romans 7:13, 21, 23, 25

It would be just as impossible to condemn Christ as it would be to condemn a man who is now in Christ.