Who is Your Father?

(Romans 8:12-17)

If God is your Father, you have inherited an indescribable fortune.

God:

1. We are debtors (Romans 8:12-13)

   1. Debt is understood in the common use, a person indebted to someone, figuratively it means a delinquent, and morally a transgressor against God.
   2. NOT obligated to the flesh (12) (the word flesh is plainly our skin, or our body, it is used in the Bible as meaning our human nature.
   3. Then another “for” (13)

2. We are Sons and Daughters (Romans 8:14-17)

   1. We are debtors to the Spirit, to live as Christ did
   2. (“For”)The leading of the Holy Spirit is the proof we are children (14)
   3. (“For”)Not the spirit of slavery
   4. But the Spirit of Adoption (Adoption was not practiced in the Jewish world. Paul gets this analogy from the Greco-Roman world. The Spirit you received at salvation was the consciousness that you were adopted by God. In adoption, all previous relationships are severed. The new father exercises authority over the new son and the son enters into the responsibilities and privileges of the natural son.
   5. We cry Abba, Father!The word “Abba” was used primarily within the family circle.
   6. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit