The Spirit Of AdoptionSample

What the Holy Spirit does is He shows us the things of Christ. Remember Jesus said that in the Upper Room? He will show you the things of Christ. Why? Because it’s only as you look at Christ that you see the full representation of God. It’s only as you look at Christ you understand what godliness, holiness, sanctification is, and as you gaze on that all-absorbing perfection in human form, that becomes the model and the standard to which the Spirit of God forms you. 

So when somebody says, “I’m anointed by the Holy Spirit,” they ought to look a lot like Christ. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in every believer. The goal of the Holy Spirit is to produce sons of God who have a family resemblance who are like their Father and like their Brother, Jesus Christ, who is not ashamed to call them brother.

That’s the goal of the death of Christ and the resurrection. The goal of the death of Christ, the goal of the resurrection, was to go back to heaven having provided sufficient atonement and send the Holy Spirit. The goal of the death of Christ, the resurrection, was to send the Holy Spirit for the purpose of regenerating, sanctifying, and glorifying those who believe. 

It’s about family and it’s about family resemblance that we’re talking here, and if you go back with me to Romans 8 (we finally got there), you will see that the main theme here is that the Holy Spirit is doing the work of adoption.  

You have the reference to sons of God in verse 14. You have the reference to adoption as sons in verse 15. And then you have the reference to sons of God or children of God again in verse 16. This is about being in the family, about this covenant relation to God that makes you a member of the family. And the work of the Holy Spirit is to make you look like the rest of the family, like your Father and like your perfect Brother.  It’s about family likeness.

This gift of sonship is the highest privilege of redemption and the primary work of the Holy Spirit. John Calvin a great man of God said this is the primary work of the Holy Spirit. It is.  

Can I be so bold as to say even His work of inspiring the Scripture was a means to accomplishing His work of sanctifying and glorifying a people? The Scripture is a means to an end and not an end. This is the end.  

It is the highest privilege of redemption to become a son of God, and it is the primary work of the Holy Spirit to make sons of God by regenerating them, glorifying them, and in the middle, sanctifying them so that their testimony is believable. That’s why we’re here. 

Well, this is powerful and foundational truth. We should know this. It’s not only here in Paul’s writing to the Romans, but he makes a similar reference to the urgency and the importance of understanding this at the end of chapter 6 in 2 Corinthians when he says, “‘Come out from their midst and be separate,’ says the Lord” and He’s borrowing that, of course, from Isaiah. ‘“And don’t touch what is unclean and I’ll welcome you and I’ll be a Father to you and you’ll be sons and daughters to Me,’ says the Lord almighty.”  

God is making a family. God is redeeming a family. God is regenerating a family— listen—who will be able to demonstrate His glory by the image of God that is in them.  In order to restore the image of God, we have to be re-created. We have to be reborn.  And that’s what regeneration and new birth is all about. 

Remember: YOU BELONG TO THE FAMILY OF GOD!