Romans 8:9, in Galatians 4:6, the Spirit of his Son, there is the phrase again, the Spirit of Christ and what does he do, he cries, abba. Father in your heart, the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit who makes you know God as your Father. That is not a feeling you have to manufacture, it is the Spirit’s own testimony and that is how you know, not by auditing your performance, by the Spirit’s witness that God is your Father. But Paul does not stop there, because he knows that some people will still be afraid, they will say, but what about the word if? Paul says, if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ. If, that sounds conditional, that sounds like a warning and it is.
What most people never realize about that word if, Greek scholars point out that Paul writes that if in a particular way, it is the kind of conditional that assumes the condition is already true, it is not Paul saying, I wonder whether you have the Spirit, it is Paul saying, since you have the Spirit, this is who you are, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. The if is not a threat hanging over your head, it is a definition of the people Paul is writing to and he is writing to believers, he is not trying to make them doubt, he is trying to make them sure, and that is the heart of the whole chapter 8 of Romans.
Romans chapter 8 is not a chapter designed to make you anxious, it is a chapter designed to settle you, it opens with no condemnation, it closes with nothing able to separate you from the love of God and in the middle, it tells you how you can know you belong, the Spirit dwells in you. Consider where you have been, Paul uses two names for one Spirit and the second name is the key, that name comes from a promise Jesus made in an upper room that he would send the Spirit to be with his people forever, the Spirit’s first work is the most intimate thing in Romans chapter 8, crying, abba, Father, in your heart so you know God as your Father. Two names, one promise, one cry and now the question is, how did this Spirit get to you, because the answer is bigger than you think.
What most people never realize about that word if, Greek scholars point out that Paul writes that if in a particular way, it is the kind of conditional that assumes the condition is already true, it is not Paul saying, I wonder whether you have the Spirit, it is Paul saying, since you have the Spirit, this is who you are, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. The if is not a threat hanging over your head, it is a definition of the people Paul is writing to and he is writing to believers, he is not trying to make them doubt, he is trying to make them sure, and that is the heart of the whole chapter 8 of Romans.
Romans chapter 8 is not a chapter designed to make you anxious, it is a chapter designed to settle you, it opens with no condemnation, it closes with nothing able to separate you from the love of God and in the middle, it tells you how you can know you belong, the Spirit dwells in you. Consider where you have been, Paul uses two names for one Spirit and the second name is the key, that name comes from a promise Jesus made in an upper room that he would send the Spirit to be with his people forever, the Spirit’s first work is the most intimate thing in Romans chapter 8, crying, abba, Father, in your heart so you know God as your Father. Two names, one promise, one cry and now the question is, how did this Spirit get to you, because the answer is bigger than you think.
