Today’s passage: Romans 8:12-17
Helpful thoughts:
- We are no longer bound or enslaved to our sin.
- If a person says they are a Christian but they are living in bondage to sin…if there is no struggle for repentance and change and no growth over time, it would be right for them to doubt their salvation.
- We should interpret the idea of being led by the Spirit in the context of this passage.
- It is contrasted with bondage to sin. Being led by the Spirit and being obedient to the Word of God are synonymous.
- To think of being led by the Spirit as having a holy sense of direction or special utterances would not fit in this context.
- If a person is trying to tap into the authority of God to do, or to coerce others to do ungodly things, that is evil.
- In Roman law, adopted children were promised all the rights of naturally born children. Those rights included inheritances that were given once the child was full grown.
- Child of God, God has chosen to give you His fatherly love and everything that comes along with being his heir.
Questions to consider:
- How does the idea of adoption’s full benefit coming at maturity coincide with passages like Philippians 1:6 and 1 John 3:2? When will we reach full maturity and receive this full inheritance as God’s children?
- If someone is trying to say they are being led by the Spirit to do something, or to say something and it does not agree with what Scripture says, what is really happening? Why can you be confident in saying “No” to that person or those people, even to rebuke them? Do you need special seers to know how to follow God? (2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:3)
- Considering the context of this chapter, how does verse 16 work? How does the Holy Spirit bear witness or testify to our inner man that we are God’s children? What changes do we see in our thinking, affections, desires and actions that give us assurance of our salvation?