There’s only 3 people on earth who can say they are my son. There are some good things about being my son. And these 3 boys receive these good things simply because they are my sons.
If you were my son, you would get them too. If I adopted you as my son, they would be yours, too, just as much as they belong to Jeremy, Timothy, and Rory. And of course, Ash and Kath benefit as well, although perhaps not in all of these things.
If you were my son, you would get to live in a beaut house with me. You would get to watch Mr Bean and Johnny English and Star Wars and all sorts of movies with Hobbits and Dragons and Superheroes with Powers. You get to recite lines from my favourite movies. If you were my son, you’ld get to learn about cricket, and soccer, and to listen to cricket on the radio. If you were my son, you have the opportunity of following the mighty St George Dragons in the NRL. You get pool games at your birthday party. You get liberal computer privileges and grow up with chock-a-block bookcases all around you, so pretty soon you learn to read and type. You get a guitar and have opportunities to play it. If you were my son, you’ld get to try and rumble me to test whether you’re as strong as your dad yet. And sometimes when you’re little and had a bad dream or nightmare, if you were my son you’ld get to crawl into my bed and have a cuddle, just because you wanted one. And of course, if you were my son, you would grow up in church, with the bible, hearing about how God loved us and sent his son to die for us and rise again so we can go to heaven. That’s the good stuff about being my son.
There’s some not so good stuff. You might have superwide feet that makes it expensive to buy shoes. You might lope as you walk, have a sway back, and poor posture. You might inherit a baldness gene. You might easily end up a few kilos north of your BMI. You might not be so good with a screwdriver, a welder, or a saw. Maybe you will be more messy than organized, or more late than early. You might have to put up with a dad that bin-dives for cans. You will get asked to hang clothes on the line, to clear the table, to pick up your dirty clothes. You might get yelled at or a smacked bottom or sent to your room and lose screen privileges. You might have expectations on you that other kid’s don’t have. But all of that comes with being my son, and in a relationship with me.
Of course, it is possible that someone here might share in those privileges. That would happen if Kath and I adopted you. Under legislation in the Australian states and territories, there is a process to legally adopt a child. Adoption is the legal transfer of a child from the old family to the new family. The legal ties to the old family are severed. The adopted child becomes a full member of the adopting family. He or she would take a new surname. They share in the inheritance of the new family with any natural born children. A new birth certificate is issued, in the case of local adoptions. And the natural parents no longer have any rights over the adopted child.
How many adoptions do you think there were of Australian-born children in the two years of 2012 to 13? Any guesses? A: 210. (https://www.aihw.gov.au/adoptions/)
Do you know how many adoptions of Australian born children there were in 1970-1? Almost 10,000[1]! The supply of Australian born children has dramatically fallen away. Why the difference? The social acceptance of single mums keeping their children, reliable contraception, the effectiveness of IVF and assisted reproduction, and, sadly, abortion on demand. (http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/pubs/factssheets/2012/fs201202/fs201202.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoption_in_Australia).
There are probably 80 to 90 thousand abortions a year in Australia, not including those pregnancies terminated by the ‘morning after’ pill (http://www.lifenetwork.org.au/_blog/Abortion_in_Australia/post/How_many_abortions_occur_in_Australia/)
Well, the numbers of adoptions of Australian-born children to Australian families have dramatically tailed off over the last 40 years. But the number of sons God is adopting is rising day by day, year by year. Every time someone comes to trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, God’s family grows. Paul says ‘You are all sons by faith in Christ…. There is neither jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’.
Every believer in Christ: slave, free, rich, poor, male, female, young, old, is a child of God, indeed, a son. The hour a person believes, an adoption takes place. They are transferred into the family of God. And they are not just children, but sons. Being a Son is important, because sons inherit in 1st century culture. God is their father. Jesus is their brother. And they will inherit the universe, the new heaven and the new earth. They are privileged beyond any other human being on the face of the earth.
Our passage today is Romans 8:1-17. And Paul shows us three things.
First, we were freed by our brother, the Son of God. We are no longer condemned, but justified by Jesus. That’s verses 1 to 4. Jesus Christ has ended our slavery to sin and death. The debt has been cancelled by the Lord Jesus Christ’s sinless life and sinbearing death. We are freed by our brother, the Son.
Second, we are inhabited by the Spirit of God. That’s verses 5 to 13. Every Son of God has the Spirit of God. So we all bear the family likeness. The Spirit changes the way we walk and live.
And third, we are now adopted by God, Our Father. That’s verses 14 to 17. You are adopted into God’s family. You are ‘sons of God’ like your brother Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You are not a slave, but a Son. And Jesus will share his inheritance, as well as his Father, with you.
First of all, we were freed by the Son of God, our brother. Paul leaves Romans chapter 7 a divided and conflicted man. The very last verse shows that this conflict Paul experiences occurs after his salvation, after grasping hold of his deliverance by Christ. Chapter 7 verse 25:
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin (NIV).
Paul in his mind loves God’s law. He loves God’s good commandments. He loves God’s commands because he has God’s Spirit. He is led by the Spirit to love God’s commands (Gal 5:17).
But his sinful nature, his flesh, is an unruly beast. The law was ineffective and unable to deal with his flesh, his sin. God’s law only showed that his sin was there. And so, God’s good law condemned Paul. But praise be to God, God did something about this. Verse 3:
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.
The law, the commands of God, only saves those who keep them. “Do this and you shall live.” The law saves by doing. “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.”
But we are sinful to the core. Our sin made the law weak, and unable to save us. Weakened by our sinful natures, God’s law can’t give us life, and raise us from the dead.
But God did something. God acted. God sent his Son, verse 3:
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did…
The law was powerless but God is all powerful. With humans, salvation is impossible, but all things are possible with God. God was appalled at our lack of righteousness, so his own arm worked salvation. So God sent his son with a dual purpose and a dual work.
First, God sent his son in the likeness of sinful man. Jesus Christ was like us, in that he was fully human. But unlike us, in that he never sinned. Jesus Christ was made like us in every way, except sin. Fully human, but sinless, Jesus lived the perfect life. Jesus completely obeyed the law’s commands and precepts. The law was not weakened by Christ’s flesh, because when Christ came in the flesh, he never sinned. And Christ earned or merited the justification of the law, “Do this and you shall live”. Christ did the law, and kept the law, and so Christ lived, as shown by his resurrection from the dead. It was impossible for death to hold him, because Christ kept the law’s command.
And second, Christ also bore the law’s curse. Don’t do this and you shall die! “Cursed is everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law.” Well, Christ died, and his death, in verse 3, is described as a sin offering. Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous. God the Father sent God the Son to be the lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. Christ, by his death, removed God’s wrath that was hanging over us and our sins. He wiped out our sins, cancelled our debt, and satisfied God’s just outrage at our unrighteousness and injustice.
And now we are justified. We are no longer condemned. We have no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Just as Jesus was vindicated by his resurrection, so we are vindicated and justified by his resurrection and union with him. Our sins are blotted out. Righteousness is imputed and credited to our account through the obedience of the one man, Jesus Christ. And all of that comes to us by faith in Christ.
But every one who is justified by the Son of God is also inhabited by the Spirit of God. Christ Jesus is our righteousness. But the Spirit is our life. And our lifestyle is changed by his indwelling presence.
Now, I have been told that I have a distinctive walk. I didn’t know it was distinctive, because I can’t see it. I’m just doing it. But I know how my dad walked. I can visualize him walking across the park from the station carrying his briefcase: kind of head down, heavy foot fall, loping along. And I see one of my sons walking, and he walks the same way. Head down, loping along, heavy footfall. And then, I observed myself for a few seconds on TV last year. “Hey, I walk like my dad. My son walks like me, with kind of a head down, heavy footed lope. The family lope has carried through the generations.
Well, there is also a manner of walking amongst the people of God. The last part of verse 4:
…Who do not live [literally, walk] according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit.
The family of God do not walk according to the flesh, the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit.
The family of God, the children of God, receive the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of Christ, who is Christ in us, who is the Spirit of the Father. The Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit dwells in the believer in Christ. You see that in verses 9 to 11. Paul uses the name of each person of the Trinity interchangeably. The Spirit dwelling in you means Christ is dwelling in you, means the one who raised Christ from the dead, the Father, is dwelling in you. If you have one member of the Trinity, you have the whole Trinity.
But we are still divided and conflicted. The indwelling of the Spirit doesn’t do away with the flesh, but empowers us to fight and kill it. You see the conflict in the Christian, carried over from chapter 7, in chapter 8 verse 10. A literally translation of Chapter 8 verse 10 would read:
The body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Our sinful flesh still clings to us. That is shown by the fact that Christians still die. So our body is dead because of sin.
However, we have the Spirit. Everyone with faith in Christ has the Spirit. You cannot have Jesus Christ as your Lord except by the Spirit. The Spirit is life, we are told in verse 8. Verse 10, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
The Spirit in the Nicene Creed is called “the Lord, the giver of life”. The life-giving power of the Spirit is shown by Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead. And Jesus was raised from the dead because he was righteous. According to Isaiah 53:11, Jesus is the just one who is justified by seeing light after the suffering of his soul. Jesus’ was justified and vindicated by his resurrection. Jesus’ justification in his resurrection is a court-approved righteousness. And that righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, tested and approved by God through the resurrection, comes to everyone who has the Spirit. So we have peace with God, verse 6:
The mind of sinful man is death but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.
The mind of the Spirit is to know we have peace with God. The Spirit makes us believe that our sins are wiped out. The Spirit consoles our fears. The Spirit convinces us that God will not condemn us for our many sins, but that Jesus has set us right. So because of the Spirit, we can serve God with a quiet mind because of the forgiveness of sins and the righteousness of Christ
And so consoled and comforted by the Spirit, we are given something to do. Because of the reality of our indwelling sin and our flesh, there’s some knife work needs doing. Verse 13:
For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
Because we have the Spirit of God, and we have the consolation and comfort of forgiveness, we are to kill off the practices of the body. The Christian must fight with and against his own body of death and sin. In the words of Jesus, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. Christian, stand and fight! Verse 13, “put to death the misdeeds of the body.” Do not tolerate sin, but kill it off. Adopt holy violence against your sinfulness. And by so doing, we take on the family likeness of our big brother Jesus, who came in the likeness of sinful flesh, but knew no sin. We become more and more like Jesus, which is what the Spirit of Jesus does.
Now, in my study, I have a pin board covered with cards and drawings that my sons have made for me. I think my mum still has a portfolio of drawings I did as a kid. And if I went to your houses, there would probably be fridge doors covered with children’s drawings. They show that you are a parent or a grandparent. And you readily accept them from the hands of your children.
[Although I always wonder how mums and grandmas keep taking them, but there always seems to be the same amount. I think there must be a discrete back door for them as well as an open front door.]
You receive from their hands your children’s art not because of its objective artistic quality. Such scribble will never be hung in the national gallery. You take them because you love your children and your grandchildren, and so you accept their work, even though it is infantile, childish, half-completed, and “not like a bought one”.
The person controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. But God is pleased with you, if you belong to Christ, because you are children of God.
The heavenly voice said of Jesus at his baptism, “This is my beloved Son, of whom I am well pleased”. Before you had the Spirit, God would not have said this of you. You could not please God. You were an enemy of God.
But now you are a child of God, and you please him. And God doesn’t look at our offerings and service of him strictly as they deserve. He looks at them like a loving and tender-hearted father. Verses 15 to 17:
For you did not receive a Spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
The Spirit of adoption makes known to us that our sin has been forgiven. He gives us a clear conscience. And the Spirit enables us to recognize that God is no longer an angry judge but our loving father.[2] We dare to call God Father because of the Spirit of God. The intimate Aramaic word ‘Abba’, speaks of intimacy and security, tenderness and respect.
Not only is your sin wiped away, although that is true, not only are you justified by faith, though that is true, but God gives you an even higher blessing. You are invited into the family. You are adopted as a Son. You and I were by nature objects of wrath, sold into slavery to sin. And God brings us into the very center of his family. You are a co-heir with Christ, and will inherit a share along with him.
And Jesus loves his Father so much, and loves us so much, that he is not ashamed to call us brothers. He wanted to share with us the glory of his Father into all eternity. He became what we are, so that we might become what he is. He became the Son of Man, so that we might become sons of God. That was the incarnation. And then he took our sin, so that we might take his righteousness. That was the atonement.
And when he returns we will be as he is. He rose from the dead. We too will rise from the dead. That will be the great day of the general resurrection, and the redemption of our bodies. And so we will all share in his glory.
Galatians 3:26 says:
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Romans says, “you are justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Rom 3:28). Being justified by faith, we have peace with God and no condemnation. Your sins are wiped away and you have been given the righteousness of Christ. That’s all true. But there’s more. There’s a higher status than justification. You are not just forgiven and righteous. You are adopted and given an inheritance. Not only is it “no Condemnation”. It is “this is my beloved Son, whom I love, with whom I am well pleased”. You are a child of God, loved by him. You are a Son of God, and will inherit from him. You are brought into the family by faith. You are united to Christ and become a Son of God in your faith union with the Son of God.[3] So rejoice, realize your high calling, and keep killing off the sinful nature.
Let’s pray.
[1] ‘Since overseas adoptions made up only a small proportion of all adoptions until the mid 1980s, the decline since the 1970s can be attributed to the fall in the number of Australian-born children available for adoption. The major turnaround in the number of adoptions after 1972 occurred at a time of rapidly changing social attitudes surrounding the plight of young unmarried mothers. The introduction of the Supporting Mothers' Benefit in July 1973 meant that single parenting for young unmarried mothers became a realistic option, thus reducing the pressure to relinquish their child for adoption. The turnaround also occurred at a time when attitudes and laws relating to the termination of unwanted pregnancies were changing. The conditions under which a pregnancy could be terminated were relaxed in Victoria in 1969 and New South Wales in 1972 (the two most populous States in Australia)’: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/2f762f95845417aeca25706c00834efa/c14cbc586a02bfd7ca2570ec001909fc!OpenDocument
[2] Trumper (2001), 104
[3] Institutes, III.15.6