Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20080120.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Romans: Charter Of God's Salvation Grace
Part IV: The Sanctification Of The Justified By Faith Through Grace, Romans 6:1-8:39
E. Utilizing The Believer's Relationship To The Indwelling Holy Spirit, Romans 8:1-39
2. Utilizing The Holy Spirit's Power For Life On God's High Plane
(Romans 8:12-17)
  1. Introduction
    1. Many believers live spiritually defeated lives when it is so unnecessary according to Romans 8:1-39. There, the Apostle Paul clarified how depending on the indwelling Holy Spirit gives believers the victory.
    2. In Romans 8:12-17, Paul described how dependence upon the Holy Spirit produces life on God's high plane of fulfillment in the spirit, a great motivation for us to rely on the Spirit in daily living:
  2. Utilizing The Holy Spirit's Power For Life On God's High Plane, Romans 8:12-17.
    1. Having established in Romans 8:1-11 that a believer can live free of his sin nature's control by relying on the Holy Spirit, Paul stated in Romans 8:12 how believers are obliged not to live by the sin nature!
    2. Paul explained this statement of the believer's obligation in Romans 8:13 as follows:
      1. Living by means of the sinful nature produces a lifestyle of experiential spiritual death, Romans 8:13a.
      2. Now, by such "death" is not meant a positional death where one loses his soul's salvation, for Romans 8:1 teaches the believer is unconditionally eternally secure [as explained in our last lesson], cf. Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament, p. 470.
      3. However, if the believer puts to death the deeds of the sinful nature by relying on the Holy Spirit, he will experience spiritual life in great fulfillment just as God wills for him, Romans 8:13b.
    3. Accordingly, that life is very rewarding and fulfilling as Romans 8:14-17 describes (as follows):
      1. Those believers who are being led (present tense) in their walk by the Holy Spirit as they rely on Him enjoy their positional adoption (huiothesias) status, or God's official son-placement that gives them "the same privileges as natural-born sons," Ibid., p. 471; Romans 8:14.
      2. Because of this special relationship to God the Father, the believer does not need to approach God as a slave would his owner, trembling in fear, but, through the Holy Spirit's enabling and prompting, he can actually refer to God by the term of endearment, "Abba, Father" as follows (Romans 8:15):
        1. When Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans, He used Koine Greek, the language of commerce in the Roman Empire that united the empire's many people groups.
        2. Then, Hebrew was the predominant language of the Old Testament, with a few passages containing Aramaic or Aramaic loan words due to the exposure of the Jews involved with Aramaic peoples.
        3. However, the term, "Abba" is not the Greek or Hebrew word for "Father," but the Aramaic word, the word a typical Jew in Israel in Paul's era would use of his father arising out of the fact that the Jews had brought Aramaic back with them from the Babylonian Captivity as their native language.
        4. So, when Paul said that we by the Holy Spirit call God, "Abba," he referred to the most intimate term of endearment Jewish children in Israel knew, much like a child today would say, "Daddy"!
        5. Hence, in the Holy Spirit's control, Paul implied the believer knows the most intimate communion with God the Father that equals [and spiritually surpasses] what he has with an earthly father!
      3. On top of all this, Romans 8:16 subjectively convinces the believer in fellowship with God that he is a tekna, Greek for "born one", one of the inner circle of children truly related to the Father, Ibid.
      4. Being thus a "born one", the believer is assured he inherits with Christ as a coheir all of the spiritual blessings His Wonderful Savior inherits from the Father, Romans 8:17. In other words, all the spiritual blessings God the Father has granted to His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, belongs to us who are in Christ, and we enjoy them in our experience if we walk by means of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God!
Lesson: We believers are obliged to live independent of our sin natures and dependent upon the Holy Spirit's power, for failure here is not only wrong, but dreadfully unfulfilling, and succeeding by faith is deeply spiritually fulfilling and enriching in the most intimate ways possible!

Application: May we choose to boycott the sinful nature by faith, leaning on the Holy Spirit to enjoy abundantly fulfilling spiritual intimacy with God the Father in a life lived on His personal plane!