Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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Where are we to find our identity as Christians? Everyone outside the church tells us to find our identity in ourselves. But should we, as Christians, continue to find our identity in ourselves?

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 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!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” (Rom 8:14-16 ESV)

In the verses leading up to this passage, we learned what it means to be led by the Spirit of God. It means to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. It practically means that we put to death the deeds of the body, our old sinful nature. It’s impossible to be a saved individual and not be led by the Holy Spirit. Think of yourself as a cup. Before you trusted in Christ, your cup was empty. The Holy Spirit didn’t live in you. But once the Holy Spirit comes in, your life is different. You have different properties and have a purpose.

Jesus pointed out that not everyone who calls on Him will be saved (Matthew 7:21). Jesus was clear in who would go to heaven. “The one who does the will of my Father.” Of course, we don’t want to say that our works save us. Where’s the balance? It’s found in Romans 6:1-4 – grace took care of our sin, so that we might not live in it anymore. It means that we are now able, because of the Spirit inside us, to glorify God with our lives.

The text tells us that if we are being led by the Spirit, we are sons of God (v. 14). This passage reminds us of the special relationship we have with God because of His Spirit. He is our Heavenly Father. We are His children. This is where our identity comes from. God tells us we have worth. God tells us He loves us. God draws us into relationship with Himself.

It’s interesting that our relationship with God as Father isn’t based on a decision we made long ago. It’s based on the Spirit in us, guiding us, today. Now, the only way to have the Spirit in us is to have made that decision to trust Christ. Follow the line of thought here: trusting in Christ means that the Holy Spirit lives in us, which means that we ought to be led by the Spirit, which means that we are sons of God.

Being children of God, then, means that we are different from what we were before. We are no longer characterized by sin, but by holiness and righteousness, as our Father is. We have a new confidence, not in ourselves, but in God (v. 15). We are no longer slaves to sin, we have been made righteous in Christ. This doesn’t mean we will never fail again. Rather, it means that when we do fail we don’t have to be stuck in failure. We’ve been set free from the bondage of sin.

Being set free from sin by God’s grace, now, we should not fear falling from His grace. There’s a healthy fear in which we must test ourselves to make sure we trust God not only with our lips, but with our lives. But don’t take this too far. We have been saved so that we might be free from fear. Our faith doesn’t rest on our works. We should not fear that based on our works God will reject us. If God is our Father, we can have confidence in Him, that He will in His power protect our faith and use us in His Kingdom.

As adopted children of God, we can know that we are loved. Adoption is such a beautiful picture of what God has done for us. We were spiritual orphans because of our sin. When we were helpless, God made us part of His family. Now, because of God’s kindness to us, we are able to cry out to God. Who else would we cry to? God is more wise and more powerful than any other. Being our Father, He will protect us.

But how can we know that we are His children? The affirmation given in verse 16 is that the Spirit will impress this truth upon our soul. We might over spiritualize this, though. The Holy Spirit doesn’t whisper to our spirit, “Hey, you’re God’s child.” No, the Spirit confirms to us that we are God’s children when we live by the Spirit. It happens as we see the fruit of the Spirit evidenced in our lives. It happens as we trust Christ daily and grow in our faith. The effect is that the more we grow in our faith, the more confident we will be that we are God’s children, and the more God will show Himself to us as the Father.

I’m not saying we are any more saved as we grow in our faith. Christ saved us once for all when we trusted in what He did for us on the cross. We can be absolutely confident in God’s grace based upon the Word of God alone. But as we walk with God, we discover the fullness of His love. As we walk with God, we more fully realize the close relationship with Him in which we relate to Him as Father and child. We grow to understand the depths of His love. We grow to love Him more day by day.