Question: Can we be sure God won’t give up on us?
Answer: Yes, because God loves us as His children.

Sensitive people, who are deeply conscious of their many failures because they too often allow their sinful nature to get the upper hand, may ask, “How can God keep accepting me?” Paul answered this by assuring us that God is patient because we have been made members of His family. In Christ we have become God’s children—His daughters and sons. Because of this father/child relationship, Paul assured the Roman believers that they didn’t have to live in the kind of fear they had when they were trying to earn favor with God by works. They now had a new relationship with God.

In Romans 8:12-17, Paul spoke of a new intimacy with God, a new source of assurance, and a new attitude toward suffering.

 

God encourages us to call Him “Daddy.” After repeating his strong warning that people who live under the domination of their sinful nature will die in their sins, Paul added:

But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 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” (vv.13-15).

He wants us to look upon Him as Abba, the term Jewish children use for “Daddy.”

Yes, we have a high calling: to put to death the misdeeds of the body. But this is not a command to belittle ourselves or hate our bodies and their normal desires. It means rejecting those behaviors that are improper for a child of God. And because we are God’s children, we must see all anxious fear as out of place. We parents would be hurt if our children lived in fear of us. So is God. He wants us to look upon Him as Abba, the term Jewish children use for “Daddy.” He proved His love for us in giving His Son to become our Savior through the humiliation and pain of the incarnation. He knows we are weak and frail and understands when we fail (Ps. 103:13-14). He stands always ready to forgive like a loving father and willing to help if we turn back to Him. For that reason, we can dismiss all anxious fear.

 

God assures us that we are His children. As members of God’s family indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we also have a new source of assurance—the constant witness of that same Spirit. We read, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (8:16).

The testimony of the Holy Spirit is an inner affirmation by the Spirit of God to our own spirit.

Some believers declare that they have absolute certainty about their salvation and their standing because God spoke to them in an audible voice. But they are a definite minority, and they are wrong if they think that an audible word from God is what Paul had in mind. The testimony of the Holy Spirit is an inner affirmation by the Spirit of God to our own spirit. John Wesley described it this way:

An inward impression on the soul, whereby the Spirit of God directly witnesses to my spirit that I am a child of God; that Jesus has loved me and given Himself for me; and that all my sins are blotted out, and I, even I, am reconciled to God (Sermons I, pp.124-125).

As we reflect on the wonder of all that God has done for us and yield ourselves to obey Him, our inner spirit responds to God in awe, worship, and adoration.

All of this is in beautiful harmony with a promise Jesus made on the eve of His crucifixion:

Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show Myself to him (Jn. 14:21).

How wonderful that this inner certainty is available to all believers, whether highly educated or barely able to read!

To the degree that we participate in Christ’s suffering, to that same degree we will revel in His glory.

A Christian scholar who had been educated in some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the United States and Europe wrote a book on the witness of the Holy Spirit in which he pointed out that spiritual certainty must come from God. He knew all the philosophical arguments for the existence of God, the evidence for the authenticity of the Bible, and the reasons for belief in Jesus Christ. But he said that an uneducated believer could have an inner assurance just as strong as his. The witness of the Spirit of God with the human spirit has nothing to do with advanced scholarship. To use an old maxim in a new manner: It’s not how much you know, but Who you know.

 

God calls us to look beyond our suffering. Having the assurance of being sons and daughters of God changes our attitude toward all of life’s circumstances. We begin to see everything from the perspective of eternity. Paul wrote:

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 (8:17).

Christians who live in circumstances of affluence and liberty cannot fully appreciate this verse. But it had great significance for the Christians in Rome and for multitudes of persecuted and harassed believers through the ages. Participation with Christ in suffering during this life brings participation with Him in joy during the life to come!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor who dared oppose Hitler and was executed by the Gestapo just days before the Allied victory, believed this wholeheartedly. While in prison he wrote these words:

For while it is true that only the suffering of Christ Himself can atone for sin, and that His suffering and triumph took place “for us,” yet to some, who are not ashamed of their fellowship in His body, He vouchsafes the immeasurable grace and privilege of suffering “for Him,” as He did for them (From Beacon Bible Commentary, pp.178-179).

To the degree that we participate in Christ’s suffering, to that same degree we will revel in His glory. When we know this, we can suffer triumphantly.