Here are three facets of our relationship with God as our Father as they appear in Romans 8.
Released from Shame
Romans 8:11 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
When you become a child of God, you are emancipated from your sin and shame. Your actions and attitudes, your past are still a part of your story, but they aren’t what shapes your soul where your true identity lies. They no longer have a say on your worth or value. They cannot provide commentary on your status as a child of God.They may be part of your life, but they aren’t part of who you are in Christ! God wants to take off your coat of shame and put on your coat of son-ship!
Life in the Spirit, life as a Child of God, means that we live to do the will of our Father in Heaven which is addressed in verses 5-9 of Romans 8. When we become children of God, we no longer carry our shame and we also drop our personal agendas and live to express the will of God.
Resigned from Self
True children of God live not to control their own lives, but they seek to be controlled by the Spirit of God rather than by their sinful, fleshly desires. Notice that verse 8 says that those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. Shouldn’t pleasing God be important to His children? When we seek to exert our will and do what we desire to do or what seems best to us, we will be able to experience and accomplish what we can do. But when we submit to God in all things and seek to do His will alone, we will be able to experience and accomplish what God can do!
Romans 8:14: because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Those who are led by the Holy Spirit are sons of God. You have to be humble and vulnerable and pliable and coachable to be led by the Holy Spirit. That can only happen as you resign from self.
15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Finally, after we have been released from our shame and we resign from our will, we are ready for sonship and all of the benefits that come from being a Child of God which include an amazing inheritance.
Ready for Sonship
As sons and daughters of God we live without fear. There is no fear in life. There is no fear in death. This is the power of Christ in us as children of God. We have access to God in a special relationship. We call him, “Abba, Father” just like Jesus did on several occasions. The relationship He had with God the Father, is now ours.That is a WOW, isn’t it? We don’t have to fear God or the consequences of sin because Jesus faced them for us.
And not only is the relationship that Jesus and the Father share also available to us, but the text says we are co-heirs with Jesus. Everything that is His, including His authority and victory and the splendor of heaven belong to us as well. All that the Father did for Him and provided for Him, He will do for us and provide for us. What an awesome reality!
Would you like to be released from shame? Are you willing to willing to resign from being the CEO of your life and allow God’s Spirit to do a work in you? If so, you are ready to have the full experience of son-ship or daughter-ship. Step into the sonship and daughtership that awaits as a child of God.
