14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
Paul will bring
the role of Father, Son, and Spirit into a unique discussion of the life of the
children of God. He will focus upon relationship. It may well be that is the
best way for us to discuss the Christian view of God as Trinity. We adopt our
favorite position of prayer. We are trying to get in touch with God. We also know
that that God within us is prompting us to pray. We also know that we know God
through Jesus of Nazareth. This Jesus is also the risen Christ who is with us
and helping us to pray. This three-fold life of God is part of the life of the
prayer of the Christian.[1]
Thus, all appearances to the contrary, God is one. The mystery beyond us, the
mystery among us, and the mystery within us unite as one mystery. We have an
interior life known to us and those to whom we choose to reveal that interior
life. We could call this the Father. We also have a face that reflects this
interior life. We could call this the Son. We also have an invisible power to
communicate who we are with others. We could call this the Spirit. Yet, people
experience us as one.[2]
In a sense, the Trinity is a dynamic community defined by love. To see one is
to see all. To dance with one is to dance with all. Adoption into the family of
God includes the invitation into the divine circle of love.[3]
Defining the Trinity may be beyond human capacity. However, relationships, as
mysterious as they are, are so much a part of who we are. We are social
creatures. It may well be that the best way to understand the Trinity is
through relationship. This teaching of the church is precious. God (as Father)
reveals who God is (in Jesus Christ), and becomes the life-giving presence of
God in the world and in our lives (the Spirit).
In 8:14-17, the
distinction between those who "live according to the flesh" and those
who live "by the Spirit" becomes even more graphic. 14 For all who are led by the
Spirit of God are children of God. Paul encourages those whom the Spirit
has freed to participate in the life of the Spirit. The believer continues to
struggle in this age with the ancient problem of the flesh. The flesh is weak. It
exerts its power over humanity by introducing a form of bondage to it. The
weakness of the flesh shows itself in enticing humanity away from the
life-giving Spirit. It shows weakness in its reliance upon finitude and the
self. The flesh represents the totality of our life decisions to rely upon the
isolated self. Yet, the life in the Spirit Paul is discussing in Chapter 8
offers a new possibility. Recalling Genesis 2, Paul reminds us that the Spirit
of God gave life to a lump of clay. Paul himself could refer to his own
physical disability as a sign of the weakness of the flesh. Life lived passionately
within this weakness is life under the shadow of death. The edifice of human
life, defined by the weakness of the flesh, is questionable. Living within the
weakness of the flesh is still a possibility for those in Christ and in the
Spirit. Yet, to do so is a form of slavery when living in the freedom of the
Spirit is also a possibility.[4]
Paul affirms that the Spirit will lead believers personally without
extinguishing their unique personality. The Spirit will lead them to a life
that finds fulfillment and completion that involves freedom, faith, and love.[5]
Such leadership is like that of a pilot guiding the ship.[6]
Thus, the Spirit is not a blind force. Paul has experienced this personal
leadership of the Spirit. Paul is reminding us that the real human struggle is
between spirit and flesh. Sin is a malevolent force working against the good of
the individual. Struggles against sin will not succeed without divine help. For
that reason, Paul will speak of human weakness more than of human sinfulness.[7]
15 For you did not receive a
spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of
adoption. Paul will use the contrast between being a slave and being part
of a family. As believers, the Spirit adopts us into the family of God. The
Spirit is the seal and guarantee of participation in the family of God. One has
authentic freedom in this family.[8] The idea of adoption has in the background
the notion of the chosen quality of Israel and the Jewish people. Paul
reaffirms this chosen status of the people of God, but focuses upon the Spirit
as the active agent who brings this special place in the heart of God into
effect.[9]
Contrary to contemporary understandings about the way families form, in
antiquity the birth of a child to a husband and wife was not enough to ensure
the infant the care and protection of the family. To bring a child fully into
the family, the father needed to accept the infant, invariably in a ritually
determined manner. For instance, the Jewish rite of circumcision brought the
boy into the family of Israel . Absent
such a decision on the part of the father, a child would not have a family and the
parents would leave the child outside to starve.[10]
This sense of family formation is what appeals to Paul. Adoption into the
family of God provides Christians with the strength to overcome the weakness of
life in the flesh. The divinity of the emperor became a political and cultural
matter around 40 AD, adopting the successor as a son in a futile attempt to
secure political stability. [11]
For Paul, divine adoption meant divine protection. The adoption
becomes a reality in the life of the believer through the experience of the
Spirit. For the
Romans, war established divinity. The Old Testament has a few references to the
king of Israel as the son of God (II Samuel 7:14 ;
Psalm 2:7; 89:26 ff.), but both the Old Testament and later texts extend the
category to include the whole of Israel ,
the righteous and martyrs as sons of God.[12]
Peace flowed from justice and righteousness rather than war.[13] The
authentic freedom we find in the Spirit is by the one who grants this freedom
by not only liberating us from fixation on our own ego and lifting us above our
own finitude. The Spirit becomes lastingly ours as the Spirit gives us a share
in the sonship of Jesus Christ. “Spirit of adoption” refers to the Spirit as
the seal and guarantee as well as a partial realization of the new status. Animated by God’s Spirit, Christians cannot
have an attitude of slavery, for the Spirit sets one free. Christians have thereby won out over the
anxiety of death and the fear of slavery.
Adoption is the special status of Christians before God.[14]
A sign of this
adoption is that we can refer to God in the same way Jesus did. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” Jesus
called him Abba,[15]
Father, and we can do so as well. Children are in intimate communion with the
loving parent. Paul appropriately focuses on the communicative power of the
gift of the Spirit. When we cry “Abba! Father!” this is the passionate cry of
the child of God. It is also a most intimate designation of God – “daddy!” It
is the designation that Jesus used, when in agony in Gethsemane, he prayed,
“Abba, Father, with you all things are possible; remove this cup from me” (Mk
14:36). The cry “Abba, Father!” is probably that liturgical form that the early
Christian community used in its prayers when it gathered. The community prays
“Our Father in Heaven” (Mt 6:9b) in the Lord’s Prayer, and thus cries “Abba!
Father!” How does the child communicate intimately with the parent? The child
speaks through the language that the parent has taught. How do we, as beloved
children of God, communicate with God? The Spirit helps us to communicate. What
is prayer but communication with God? The free life of the children of God is
the work of the Spirit sent into their hearts. Crying Abba means they are not
slaves, but children, living before and with their Father. If being "in
the spirit" makes us adopted children of God, we are also fully brothers
and sisters with Christ.[16]
16 It is that very Spirit
bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. If so, as part
of the Body of Christ, as one “in Christ,” one has this personal experience of
the Spirit. Such experience has an emotional quality, a form of ecstasy,
illumination, inspiration, or intuition. Paul will part company with those who
seem to suggest a purely intellectual faith. The Spirit integrates emotion,
reason, and will. The Spirit transplants the Christian into a sphere of
behavior one characterize as freedom of the children of God. In that sense, the
Spirit becomes a personal center of action residing outside the individual. The
Christian lives outside the self as weakened by the flesh and thus lives in the
power of the resurrected Jesus and in the Spirit. The Spirit living within
believers has its basis in believers having the ground or foundation of their
lives outside the weakness of self and flesh and therefore in the Spirit.[17]
Of course, as I John 4:1 reminds us, this personal experience of the Spirit
does not absolve us from testing the spirits.
Paul is
envisioning a struggle. The struggle unites humanity with the rest of creation.
Yet, the struggle is no longer an indication of futility. Because of Jesus
Christ, the struggle has meaning and significance. Thus, 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. As children of God who participate in Christ, believers share
in the destiny of Jesus as defined by his cross and resurrection. The struggle
is a sure sign that something new is happening. Paul is careful to add that the
hope of destiny with Christ comes at the cost of identifying with the Christ
who suffered: if, in fact, we suffer with
him so that we may also be glorified with him. Paul makes it clear that
believers suffer with Christ. How does this happen? For many believers, we
prayerfully reflect upon the cross, its suffering, pain, and judgment,
recognizing that one innocent man died for us, who are weak and guilty. For
some followers of Jesus, the suffering extends to receiving persecution from
the hands of governments who fear followers of Jesus. Further, each of us has
our pain to bear simply because we lead a human life. If we love God, aware
only of the roughness of the divine hand, we have indeed gone deeper in our
walk with God. Such personal pain and affliction is a reminder of the
sufferings of the present time. While this life may bear a hint of eternity, it
always remains debatable and ambiguous.[18]
Paul makes clear that salvation in Christ means undoing the work of Adam,
restoring humanity to the purpose of God. What God has in view, beginning with
the call of Abraham, is the reversal of the fall of Adam and of its
consequences. The analysis of the human condition as in Adam that began in 1:18
has its culmination in the restoration of humanity as children of God.
Redemption is the completion of creation, and humanity is part of that
creation. We see our present suffering in the shadow of the Day of Jesus
Christ. The time in which we live and suffer is the present time. The future
will reveal the glory or beauty of the end of humanity. In this sense,
Christianity is “thoroughgoing eschatology,” as redemption remains a hope. The
believer will live by this hope. We must desire nothing higher or better than
hope.[19]
This passage has
an influence upon how Christians view God and upon how Christians view their
life with God. I would like to discuss both.
This passage is
influential in the formation of the doctrine of the Trinity. Paul is not
beginning a metaphysical discussion of the Trinity with his readers. In this
chapter, Paul refers to Christ as the Son (verse 3). Christians live their
lives by and through the Spirit (of Christ, God, Holy Spirit). Abba, Father,
has adopted us into the family of God as children. Paul is opening a discussion
of the Christian experience of God. The intent is to not to create an
unsolvable puzzle, but to bring clarity.
As more Muslims come to the United States, the Trinity is
the primary teaching of the church against which the Koran argues. It
repeatedly says, “God does not have a Son.” In fact, in the Jewish, Christian,
and Muslim dialogues in which I have participated, this is one place where Jews
and Muslim unite against Christians. The charge against Christians is
polytheism. As I had occasion, I shared with them that you have shown is that
you have not taken the time to understand what Christians believe concerning
God or how they actually experience God on the other.
Here is why you should care. We baptize “in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” We affirm the Apostles’ Creed
and the Nicene Creed, both of which have their basis in the Trinity. When we
serve Holy Communion, the prayer of Great Thanksgiving begins with the Father
as creator, the Son as redeemer, and ends with the Holy Spirit as the giver of
life. Now, Christians do not teach about God the way they do because they have
a fascination with the number three. You see, Christians affirm the oneness of
God. Yet, because of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, and because of the
gift of the promise of the Father, Holy Spirit, Christians also affirm the
loving fellowship that the one God experiences as the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. We do not know God as written in a Law. We do not know God as
written in Arabic because that is the language of God. Christians make the
paradoxical claim that universal truth has appeared at a particular point in
history, in a Jewish man, Jesus of Nazareth. Christians pay attention to the
way God was present in Jesus of Nazareth to shape their view of God and to
understand the ways of God in the world. In particular, the resurrection of
Jesus of Nazareth confirms, for Christians, that Jesus is whom the New
Testament claims he is – the Son of God, in relationship with the Father,
creator of all and the God of Israel, and in relationship with the life-giving
Spirit. Further, the loving fellowship of the Triune God overflows in creation
and in the invitation to human beings to join in their loving fellowship.
We affirm great things about Jesus so regularly that we
forget how extraordinary they are. A new group, all Jews, gathered in the name
of Jesus, not because he was an effective political leader, a persuasive
teacher, or a military leader, but because they experienced him as the source
of a life that transforms human life. He was Messiah, Lord, and Son of God. As
such, the church invites people to live their lives centered in serving Jesus
Christ. Such a center will transform and enrich the way people serve the plan
of God for the salvation of the world.
Many have tried over the centuries to explain a concept
that the Bible itself does not define clearly. After all, the word trinity
does not even appear in the biblical text. You may have learned such analogies
in Sunday school. The Trinity is like water — H2O — which can be a gas, a solid
or a liquid but is still and always H2O at a molecular level, or the egg with
its yolk, white and shell, or the executive, judicial and legislative branches
of government, or they learn St. Patrick’s cloverleaf metaphor. You can
probably think of a lot more of these, all trying to explain the concept of how
one entity can also be three.
The mathematical approach is also attractive, the
equilateral triangle being the most popular math symbol for the Trinity.
All these metaphors and explanations, though, fall short.
Despite our best efforts at explaining the Trinity, a full understanding seems
to elude even those of us who have been lifelong churchgoers. Church history
itself reveals an eclectic and often violent debate over the metaphysics of the
whole thing.
However, here is a thought. Trying to offer definitions of
God may be the problem in our understanding of the Trinity, rather than
offering the possibility of a solution. Trying to use definitive terms to
describe God is a bit like nailing Jell-O to a tree — eventually the thing
falls apart.
I want to explore with you another approach that recognizes
the power of relationships. Think of the most loving relationships you have in
your life. Please, define it precisely for me, right now. Think of the most
joyful experience you have ever had. Define it precisely for me now. In fact,
reflect upon the most meaningful, life-changing experience you have had in your
life. Please, define it precisely for me. My point, of course is that you
probably cannot. God created us in the image of God. Such experiences bring us to the limits of
human language. What I am suggesting is that God is more like that.
Paul sees God at work in a uniquely relational way, both
within God’s own nature and with humans. Paul shifts the language to
relationships. The Father adopts those who live by the Spirit as children of
God and makes them co-heirs with Christ. They actualize their glory or beauty through
suffering.
John of Damascus, one of the early church fathers who lived
during the late seventh and early eighth centuries, avoided the normal
definitions and calculated reasoning about the Trinity and came up with a
different term for the oneness and threeness of God — perichoresis,
which loosely translated from Greek means “circle dance.” In other words, we
understand the Trinity as a circle — a dynamic community defined by love. To
see one is to see all — to dance with one is to dance with all, where the
divine realm invites us into the circle and into a love relationship where we
see God face to face, as children hold hands and dance with loving parents.
The truth is that we will probably never understand the
Trinity by trying to define it. Even Paul, one of the most prolific writers and
theologians of his day, refuses to become too precise. The only way we will
really “get” the Trinity is to join the circle and live into that relationship.
This teaching has become increasingly precious to me. If
God is, it makes sense that God would reveal whom God (Jesus) and that God,
creator of life, would be the life-giving presence in the world and in your
life (Spirit).
I care about this teaching of the church. It reflects upon
the teaching of Paul. I think Paul is suggesting that if we accept the
invitation to join the loving relationship that defines Father, Son, and
Spirit, it will make all the difference.
This passage influences
how Christians view their life with God. They are children of God. They are heirs
with Christ. Yes, we are heirs to the beauty and glory that awaits us. I could think of many
treasures of the church. Rembrandt did a painting called, “The Prodigal Son.”
Another painting is St. Joseph the Carpenter. Yet, you do not have to go to the
Louvre, the richest of museums, to see them. You do not need to visit the State
Hermitage to view the greatest art treasures in the history of the church. If we
want to see the church's greatest art treasures, we need to look all around us.
We need to open our eyes to the acts of service, the acts of grace, and the
acts of compassion going on all around us by heirs of Christ. Jesus said it:
"I
was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I
was a stranger, and you took me in; I needed clothes, and you clothed me"?
The Spirit may well have inspired Michelangelo,
Rembrandt and Rouault. Paul lets us know that the Spirit is at work within us.
God sent Jesus to be born in
you. In the words of onetime Methodist, Vincent van Gogh, "Christ is more
of an artist than the artists; he works in the living spirit and the living
flesh; he makes men instead of statues." God is calling the church to be
the greatest art treasure. God is calling Christians to be the church's
greatest art treasure. In the words of Ephesians 2:10, "For you are God's
workmanship" (NIV). In other words, "You are God's masterpiece."
Alternatively, as some translations render it, "You are God's poem"
and others, "You are God's handiwork," which really means, "You
are God's artwork."
You are God’s work of art. I
encourage you to reflect upon your story. You as a work of art are still in
process, on the way to the destiny appointed by God and revealed in Christ.
"He's quite a piece of
work." Yet, God says precisely that of you and of me. The Spirit at work
in us says that we are indeed a piece of work, God's work. You, me and those
around us are works in progress that God is creating for his glory. Let us
recognize the genius of the Holy Spirit in each of us and be open to the brush
strokes of the Spirit in our daily lives.
In
Manhattan, Woody Allen says to Mariel Hemingway, "You're God's answer
to Job. You would've ended all argument between them. He would've pointed to
you and said, 'I do a lot of terrible things, but I can also make one of these.'
And then Job would've said, 'Eh, okay. You win.'"
[1] C.
S. Lewis, Mere Christianity. “An
ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get
into touch with God. But if he is a Christian he knows that what is prompting
him to pray is also God: God so to speak, inside him. But he also knows that
all real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the Man who was God — that
Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him. You see
what is happening. God is the thing to which he is praying — the goal he is
trying to reach. God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him on — the
motive power. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to
that goal. The whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually
going on in that ordinary act of prayer.”
[2]
Frederick Buechner, This is from Wishful
Thinking. “The much-maligned doctrine of the Trinity is an assertion that,
appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, there is only one God. Father, Son
and Holy Spirit mean that the mystery beyond us, the mystery among us and the
mystery within us are all the same mystery ...
“If the idea of God as both Three and One seems farfetched and
obfuscating, look in the mirror someday. There is (a) the interior life known
only to yourself and those you choose to communicate it to (the Father). There
is (b) the visible face, which in some measure reflects that inner life (the
Son). And there is (c) the invisible power you have which enables you to
communicate that interior life in such a way that others do not merely know
about it, but know it in the sense of its becoming part of who they are (the
Holy Spirit). Yet what you are looking at in the mirror is clearly and indivisibly
the one and only you.”
[3] John
of Damascus, one of the early church fathers who lived during the late seventh
and early eighth centuries, avoided the normal definitions and calculated
reasoning about the Trinity and came up with a different term for the oneness
and threeness of God — perichoresis, which loosely translated from Greek
means “circle dance.” In other words, we understand the Trinity as a circle — a
dynamic community defined by love. To see one is to see all — to dance with one
is to dance with all, where the divine realm invites us into the circle and
into a love relationship where we see God face to face, as children hold hands and
dance with loving parents.
[4]
Barth, Romans, 291-95.
[5]
Pannenberg, Jesus God and Man, 176-77,
Systematic Theology, Volume II, 316.
[6]
Chrysostom, homily on Romans.
[7]
(Krister Stendahl, Paul Among Jews and Gentiles [Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 1976], 40-52).
[8]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
III, 130.
[9]
Barth, Romans, 298.
[10]
(Pamela Eisenbaum, “A remedy for having been born of Woman: Jews, Gentiles and
Genealogy in Romans,” Journal of Biblical Literature, 123/4 (2004),
671-702).
[11]
(John Dominic Crossan Jonathan
Reed New York Julius Caesar Emperor Caligula proposed erecting a statue
of himself in the Temple in Jerusalem . At the same time, in an often futile
attempt to secure political stability, the emperors adopted as sons those they
wished to succeed them.
[12]
(James D. G. Dunn Christology in the Making: A New Testament Inquiry into
the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation (Grand Rapids, Mich.:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989), 14-16).
[13] Isaiah
11, for instance, opens with a description of the just king, one who “with
righteousness ... shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of
the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the
breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked” (Isaiah 11:4,). Jesus proclaims this messianic agenda at Nazareth (Luke
4:17 ff.). He takes on the prophetic
charge “to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the
year of the LORD’s favor, when debts are forgiven, and the day of vengeance of
our God; to comfort all who mourn” (Isaiah 61:1-2).
[14]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
III, 130.
[15] The
Aramaic cry abba as used by Jesus in
the moment of his supreme earthly confidence in God, was a cry cherished in
prayer by early Christians in memory of Jesus
himself. Many NT interpreters regard the
Aramaic abba as an instance of ipsissima vox Iesu. Such a mode of address for God, abba, is
unattested in the OT. The cry
"Abba! Father" -- which newly adopted sons and daughters may now
legitimately call out -- itself demonstrates the closeness of a believer's
relationship to God. The Aramaic "Abba" was, of course, Jesus ' own favorite divine address. Paul 's letter reveals that early Christians had
quickly taken to using this address as well.
[16]
Barth, Church Dogmatics, II.2 [37.3],
604.
[17]
Pannenberg, Jesus God and Man, 177.
[18]
Barth, Romans, 301.
[19]
Barth, Romans, 302-314.
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