The Spirit of Adoption (Romans 8:14-17, Jeremiah 31:1-14)
Rev. David Huffman, May 18, 2025Part of the Series On Romans series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
To be adopted into the love of a father is a weighty thing, since the son is given all the rights and privileges of an heir. Adoption is the highest privilege of the gospel. The idea of God’s family is contained in adoption: fellowship, heir, loved by God, etc. There is a link between justification and sanctification. God commands us to “be holy for I am holy,” (Leviticus 11: 45). Yet God aids us in this as a loving heavenly father. The Sons of God are led by the Spirit (vs. 14), and they seek to please God. In Christ, they can please God, and He rejoices and delights in His children. With the Holy Spirit, the Sons of God put to death the deeds of the flesh. We are reminded that before redemption, we are dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 1). By nature, we are children of wrath. In John 8, we are told that the Jews may be of the blood of Abraham, but because they rebelled, their father is instead the devil. We see this contrast in 1 John 3: 10; as Sons of God, we love God and also our brothers. What a marvel it is to be Sons of God—can you say that? If we are Sons of God, we enjoy holiness of life, led by the Holy Spirit. Adoption is a liberating gift, one that we cannot earn; it is a gift of grace. Paul uses the word “adoption” five times. Adoption by grace is not natural to us. In God’s family, all are adopted. God chooses His adopted sons not for anything in them; solely because He has loved them from before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1). By grace, we share filial feelings of affection. We want to call God our father. He is ready to receive our confession, and He doesn’t cast us out when we stumble. The Holy Spirit unites us to our Father, whom we appeal to as “Abba,” a personal, intimate appellation. The meaning is more, “My dear Father…”. We cry this when we are needy and seek help and deliverance. We receive assurance of God’s love through the testimony of the Holy Spirit to our own spirit. Our heart resonates with, “I am His/He is yours.” We are co-heirs with Christ, having been raised and seated in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2: 6), just like Christ. We enter the throne room with our great high priest and elder brother.
Peter says that we participate in the divine nature. If we are to experience this, we must go through the hardships of life, living the cruciform life, called to take up our cross and follow Him. We persist even in the face of persecution and painful death. Even so, do you see God as your loving father and help in trouble?
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Romans 8:14–17 (Listen)
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 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!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 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.
(ESV)
Jeremiah 31:1–14 (Listen)
31:1 “At that time, declares the LORD, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.”
2 Thus says the LORD:
“The people who survived the sword
found grace in the wilderness;
when Israel sought for rest,
3 the LORD appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
4 Again I will build you, and you shall be built,
O virgin Israel!
Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines
and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
5 Again you shall plant vineyards
on the mountains of Samaria;
the planters shall plant
and shall enjoy the fruit.
6 For there shall be a day when watchmen will call
in the hill country of Ephraim:
‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion,
to the LORD our God.’”
7 For thus says the LORD:
“Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,
and raise shouts for the chief of the nations;
proclaim, give praise, and say,
‘O LORD, save your people,
the remnant of Israel.’
8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country
and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
among them the blind and the lame,
the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together;
a great company, they shall return here.
9 With weeping they shall come,
and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back,
I will make them walk by brooks of water,
in a straight path in which they shall not stumble,
for I am a father to Israel,
and Ephraim is my firstborn.
10 “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
and declare it in the coastlands far away;
say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,
and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’
11 For the LORD has ransomed Jacob
and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
12 They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and over the young of the flock and the herd;
their life shall be like a watered garden,
and they shall languish no more.
13 Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
and the young men and the old shall be merry.
I will turn their mourning into joy;
I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
14 I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,
and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
declares the LORD.”
(ESV)