ローマの信徒への手紙8:12-17 Romans 8:12-17,
「この霊こそは、わたしたちが神の子供であることを、わたしたちの霊と一緒になって証ししてくださいます。
（ローマ8:16）
「神の子とする霊」であり「御子の霊」である聖霊によって、私たちは父なる神様に向かって「お父さん」と親しく呼びかけ、祈ることができるのです。しかし、それは私たちの主体性がまったく失われてしまって、いわば我を忘れた状態になるということではありません。もちろん、時には我を忘れた状態になって一心に祈ることもあるでしょう。しかし、「わたしたちが神の子供であることを、わたしたちの霊と一緒になって証ししてくださいます」ということは、私たち一人ひとりの「自分」つまり人格的な主体性が、聖霊と結ばれた状態で保たれているということです。ここにも、神の霊が、私たちの中に神の子として自発的に父なる神様に従う意思を育ててくださるということが表れています。
私たちが自発的に父なる神様に従うことができるのは、神の国における永遠の命を受け継ぐことが約束されているからです。17節には「もし子供であれば、相続人でもあります。神の相続人、しかもキリストと共同の相続人です。キリストと共に苦しむなら、共にその栄光をも受けるからです」とあります。「キリストと共同の相続人」ということは、キリストが父なる神様から受けたものを、私たちも受け継ぐということです。そして、キリストが父なる神様から受けたものとは、朽ちることのない永遠の命です。
エフェソの信徒の手紙の1章13節と14節でパウロは次のように記しています。「あなたがたもまた、キリストにおいて、真理の言葉、救いをもたらす福音を聞き、そして信じて、約束された聖霊で証印を押されたのです。この聖霊は、わたしたちが御国を受け継ぐための保証であり、こうして、わたしたちは贖われて神のものとなり、神の栄光をたたえることになるのです。」「この聖霊は、わたしたちが御国を受け継ぐための保証」とありますが、「保証」と翻訳されているアラボーンというギリシャ語は、代金の一部分を前払いすること、すなわち手付金を意味しています。聖霊は、永遠の命を受け継ぐ神の子たちに対して、いわばその手付として父なる神様から与えられているのです。そして、先ほどから申し上げておりますように、父なる神様から与えられた聖霊なる神様によって私たちは神の子としての身分を保障され、この聖霊なる神様の導きによって、父なる神様の名を読んで交わることができるのです。 （5月21日の説教より）
It is the season of Pentecost again this year. On the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the Jewish Passover when Christ was crucified, died and rose again, the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples who were praying in Jerusalem. This is commemorated on the Day of Pentecost. Pentecost derives from the Greek word pentēcostē (πεντηκοστή), which means the 50th.
The events of the Day of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2 are very dramatic. On that day, the Holy Spirit descended from heaven on the disciples in Jerusalem and they began to speak of God’s saving works. And when the apostle Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, preached powerfully about the cross and resurrection of Christ, 3000 people were baptised in one day and came to believe in Christ.
But the work of the Holy Spirit is not only such a dramatic thing. According to Reformer John Calvin, “The Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ effectually binds us to himself” Institutes of the Christian Religion Book 3, Chapter 1,1). In other words, we can receive the grace of Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. First, by the work of the Holy Spirit, we are given faith. Then, by the work of the Holy Spirit, we are justified, our sins are forgiven and we are made children of God. Furthermore, we are cleansed and sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit and will be led towards perfection. In the first place, faith in Christ itself is given by the work of the Holy Spirit, as in 1 Corinthians 12:3 Paul says, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.”
In the work of the Holy Spirit, today I would like to consider especially the grace of being made a child of God. Those who believe in Christ, are accepted as righteous and have their sins forgiven, are given the status of children of God. And those who have been given the status of children of God are made more and more fit to be children of God by being sanctified and led towards perfection. To give you an idea of what grace it is to be made a child of God, I would like to begin with the confession of a person, which was published in a Christian magazine.
This person was studying in a seminary to become a pastor of a church. However, for some reason, he did not feel close to God the Father. One day, just before graduation from seminary, he was alone in the library reading a book and praying. For some reason, within minutes, a blank feeling began to spread in his heart. Then, without thinking, he uttered, “God, I am afraid of you.” Nevertheless, as he prayed earnestly, then the words to God came out from him, “You raise a sword in one hand and beckon me with words of love in the other, and your bosom is not a place where my soul can rest.” This reminded him of an event that happened to him in the summer of his sixth year at primary school.
This person was the youngest of three siblings, and in the summer, the eldest brother, who had gone away, came back home. Whenever the eldest brother came back to his parents’ house, he always played around with his friends. And that afternoon, too, he was playing volleyball with his friends in the junior high school gym. When it was time for dinner, this person went to call his eldest brother at his father’s request, but the eldest brother was a man of his own pace, so he did not come back. After a long time, the eldest brother came back wiping his sweat off. When the eldest brother came back, the father was in the garden, but he pushed down his anger and asked him, “Why had you not come home when you were called for dinner?” The eldest brother mumbled something in a low voice, but at that moment the father shouted in anger and raised the axe which he had on hand over the eldest son’s face. The eldest brother was startled and fled, running into the bathroom and locking it from the inside. The father chased after the eldest son and stood in front of the bathroom, but the mother stood in front of him and defended the eldest son. The father stood there for a while with his axe raised, but eventually said nothing and left.
(SHIGETA Toshihito, “Katate-ni Tsurugi, Tatate-ni Ai-no Kotoba: ChiChi-naru Kami-no Futokoro-ni Ikou-made,” in Hyakuman-nin-no Fukuin May 1999, Translated by MIYOSHI Akira)
Recalling this incident again made this person realise that until then he had been looking at “Heavenly Father” in the image of “physical father.” And as he continued to read the Bible in his search for the “True Father,” he came to the conclusion of John 1:18: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” When this person thought of the Son Jesus resting in the Father’s bosom, he felt an indescribable warmth welling up in my heart. In this way, this person met the image of “True Father” in heaven. Then, strangely enough, he was also able to remember the loving side of his “physical father.”
Verses 14 and 15 of today’s Scripture passage read as follows.
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!”
Here we are told that the Holy Spirit given to Christians is not “the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,” but “the Spirit of adoption as sons,” i.e., the Spirit who makes them children of God. By “the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,” Paul is probably referring directly to the legalistic teaching of salvation by keeping the Old Testament law, and the Greek and Roman idolatry of believing in gods created by human beings according to their own desires.
Paul writes in Galatians 4:8-9 as follows.
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?
This warning probably reflects the reality that the Galatian churches were inclined to the false teaching that full salvation can only be attained by undergoing the ritual of circumcision as prescribed by the Old Testament law.
The example of the person I mentioned earlier is another example of a person who lost the joy of being a child of God because of the fear that God would not save him if he did not keep the law. He confesses the pain that because of the trauma he suffered as a child, he could only picture God the Father as a terrifying one who “raised a sword in one hand and beckoned with words of love in the other” though he believes in God the Father. In a broad sense, such thoughts could also be included in “the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.” Not only that, but modern cults that brainwash people and try to manipulate them by telling them that they will go to hell if they abandon this religion, is also included in the broad sense of “the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.” The characteristic feature of these cases is that they force people into slavish obedience. The point is that they dominate a person like a slave, without fostering the person’s willingness to do so.
On the contrary, however, the Spirit of God nurtures in us a spontaneous will as a child of God. The Spirit of God is paraphrased as “the Spirit of adoption as sons,” i.e., the Spirit that makes us children of God, and we are told that by this Spirit “we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” The word “Abba” means “father” in the Aramaic language spoken by Jesus Christ. The word is said to derive from the Aramaic words “Abba,” i.e., “papa,” and “Imm,” i.e., “mamma,” which children would first say when they are weaned. However, in Christ’s time, not only infants but also adult sons and daughters would say “Abba” to their fathers. What is important is that this was a casual way of expressing familiarity with the father.
The Spirit of God causes a spontaneous feeling in the heart of the Christian to call God in Heaven Father in a friendly way. It is the same feeling that Christ himself had when he called God the Father “Abba.” It would also be in the same spirit as the Lord’s Prayer, which Christ taught us to call “Our Father, who art in heaven.” Interestingly, the invocation “Abba, Father” also appears a little earlier in the Galatians passage quoted earlier. In Galatians 4:6 Paul says: “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” It is “the Spirit of his Son,” i.e., the Spirit of Christ who was sent into our hearts, that cries out “Father” in our hearts.
In today’s passage, Romans 8:16, Paul writes: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Through the Holy Spirit, we can call out intimately to God “Father” and pray. But this does not mean that we lose all our identities and become, so to speak, self-forgetful. Of course, there are times when we forget ourselves and pray with all our heart. But “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit” means that each of us keeps our “self,” i.e., our personal identity, united with the Holy Spirit. Here, too, it is expressed that the Holy Spirit develops in us the will to follow God the Father spontaneously as a child of God.
We can spontaneously obey God the Father because we are promised to inherit eternal life in the Kingdom of God. In verse 17 Paul says: “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.” Being “fellow heirs with Christ” means that we inherit what Christ received from God the Father. And what Christ received from God the Father is life everlasting and incorruptible. In Ephesians 1:13-14, Paul writes as follows.
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
According to a Greek lexicon, The Greek word translated “guarantee,” arrabōn (ἀρραβών), means payment of part of a purchase price in advance, i.e., a deposit. The Holy Spirit is given by God the Father as a deposit, so to speak, for the children of God who will inherit eternal life. And, as we have said, God the Holy Spirit, who is given to us by God the Father, secures our status as children of God, and through the guidance of God the Holy Spirit, we can call the name of God the Father and commune with him.
In this light, those who have been made children of God through faith in Christ are not slaves, but have been given the Spirit of the Son of God and are of free status. They are those who have been given the exalted status of inheriting eternal life in the Kingdom of God. As free and exalted, each one of us lives in spontaneous obedience and responsibility to God the Father. We have been given the Spirit of the Son of God so that day by day we can walk in fellowship with our Heavenly Father. Let us therefore cherish in our relationship with God and with each other the joy of being children of God who have received the Holy Spirit and are assured of the status of children of God, heirs of the Kingdom of God.
The Westminster Confession of Faith, a 17th century English summary of Reformed Christian teachings, teaches that those who believe in Christ and are made children of God are though chastened by God the Father, “yet never cast off,” and “inherit the promises, as heirs of everlasting salvation.” Let us live our daily lives, deeply remembering that as God’s children we are made heirs of eternal salvation.