Gospel Prism

Stanley Tretick was President Kennedy’s photographer, who often took pictures of the president and his kids. He’s known for one famous photo in particular. While Jackie was away in Greece, President Kennedy was in the oval office working while his son, John Jr. played under his desk. Tretick took the photo which is one of the most enduring pictures of Kennedy’s years as president. You really do get mesmerized by the photo. Here is probably the busiest and most important man in the whole world with a young child running around in the office under his feet. I am sure if someone said, “Uh, Mr. President, don’t you think you should ask John to play somewhere else?” he would have responded, “He’s my son. He can play here.”

And that is no different than our God and our prayers. Why do you think God listens to and even considers answering your prayers? Do you think it is due to your obedience to Him? Is it because you are finally good enough? Is it because you are really fervent in your prayers? Perhaps it’s because you scream and bang the ground when you pray? Is it because you have a good system to pray? No, what if I were to tell you that the JFK picture is a great parallel to God’s desire to answer our prayers? God listens and responds because in Christ, you are His son and daughter. He loves to listen to your prayers. And considering that God is far greater than any president, and far busier since millions of people are speaking to Him at once with all sorts of prayers from prayers of joy to prayers of heartbreak, God still says to us, “He’s my son/daughter. I want to listen to him/her.”

The key phrase is that God listens to us IN CHRIST. This is why our second value is prayer as Gospel-enabled communication as adopted children. God is infinitely more loving, more gracious, more kind, more generous than any earthly parent could ever be. And towards His children, He simply loves to listen and always answer their prayers. But of course, this assumes that we are His children to begin with. And so, I wanted to take a look at our text today from Romans 8:15-16 and ask a few questions: 1) What does it mean to be a son? 2) How do we know we are sons? and 3) How should our sonship affect the way we pray?

What Does It Mean to Be a Son?

So first, what does it mean to be a son? According to verse 15 which says: “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons,” it means we are no longer slaves. To be a slave in Roman society was to mean one had no rights and essentially, no personal identity. Gaius, the Roman jurist noted that a “slave was a res, a thing, a chattel to be owned, bought, and sold. As such, a person in slavery could not contract a legal marriage, represent himself in court, or inherit; slaves were not regarded as having any kin [so slave families could be broken up and sold in separate parts because their kin was not ‘really’ family] and were often subject to more severe punishments than their owners for criminal acts.” (ISBE, Vol. 4, 544) That is, there was a time when our lives were ruled and owned by the power of sin and self-centeredness. It was so strong that its grip over all of us was unbreakable. We were enslaved to love sin, to cherish rebellion against God. And the primary means by which the spirit of slavery is manifested is by self-righteousness, that somehow our works, our obligations make us good enough or moral enough to give us the self-value and worth we long for in our hearts. That is, instead of depending on God to be our identity, we rely on ourselves. This is why Paul notes we were all slaves to sin at one point (Rom 6:16-17). And such a person is bound by fear. Why?

Well, when your self-worth and value is completely dependent on what you achieve for yourself, should you mess up just once, everything can come crashing down. You can lose everything. This week Bear Stearns, the prestigious, historic investment banking firm which once had a stock price of about $160/share is now trading for about $2/share. Those who worked for Bear Stearns had their wealth essentially in the company, trusting that the stock value of the firm would always be high when they retired. But some Bear Stearns employees have literally lost tens of millions of dollars in the company and with it all of their life savings for retirement. People who once believed they could live the high life and do nothing and kick back and retire are literally afraid that they will have nothing and will need to get part-time jobs in their old age. Fear rests in self-preservation and self-righteousness. When you depend on others’ or yourselves to determine your self-worth and value, when something changes your circumstances, such as bankruptcy, or being diagnosed with cancer, or a geographic relocation where you fail to make friends, or a new life stage where things are quite difficult, when our security does not rest in Christ but in ourselves, we become afraid of rejection, disappointment, frustration, loss, grief, etc. As a son, you are cherished, accepted, valuable, worthy, special not because of what you think of yourself, or what others think of you, but because of what God thinks of you because of His Son. This does not bring about fear, but delight.

To be a son not only means we are no longer slaves, but we are adopted according to v. 15. Most of us were not physically adopted and thus, we might not appreciate just how significant the idea of adoption truly is. But one person who does understand adoption is pastor and seminary professor Robert Petterson (This story is told by Robert Peterson in his book Adopted By God, 41). He was conceived by an unmarried woman and his siblings and he moved from foster home to foster home. They were physically and sexually abused in one home, even forced to eat and drink from a dish on the floor like a dog. He was adopted and yet none of his other siblings were, for which he didn’t understand why. His adopted parents chose Bob’s picture out of a book of children available for adoption. Now he is married with a family he loves, a beloved pastor, and a professor at a seminary. Also, after the Petterson’s died, they left their whole estate to him making him a millionaire. This really is a good picture of what biblical adoption is.

In biblical times, the adoptee took on a whole new identity. Regardless of his or her previous state, whether he had debts, whether a child was a beggar, whether he was considered vile and worthless by the world, he entered his new family as if he was reborn into it. And this is no less true regarding our spiritual state as adopted children of God. God chose us “not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy” (Titus 3:5). John wonderfully states in 1 John 3:1: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” John’s words are ones of amazement. Another way to put it is, “We should be blown away by God’s gracious love.” God didn’t choose lovable good people. He chose us as we had no love for Him, and in every way, wanted nothing to do with Him. And yes, this includes all of us. We were once all utterly-self-serving, self-dependent, and self-righteous. We wanted and still struggle with self-worship. But God still called us to Himself.

But not only are we no longer sons, not only are we adopted into His family, but we are heirs according to verse 17. I have intentionally used the word ‘son’ to describe all of us, including women, not because I am a male chauvinist, but rather to make a point. In Biblical times, sons were given the rights to the inheritance. And so when I use the word ‘son,’ I use it to describe all children of God, men and women, because I want you all to know that you are not only son by name, but you are given the full inheritance of being a ‘son’ of God. Paul gives us a glimpse into what this will be like in Ephesians 2:6-8 when he says that we “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” So inherent in the word ‘son’ is also the word ‘heir.’ Moreover, everything that Jesus Himself receives as God’s Son will also be ours as fellow heirs. Author Don Mazat even makes the point that this glory is not simply for the future, but readily available for us now. He writes:

In Christ we are already seated in heavenly places. In Him we have a solid, weighty, and positive identity that constantly raises our minds from the passing assurances and positive platitudes of this world to the heavens where we hear the promise of One who has issued us with these ‘new papers.’ Instead of concentrating on our shame, or denying it, we accept it and then exchange it for Christ’s integrity. For God has made Jesus Christ our wisdom, our righteousness, our holiness, and our redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). (Don Matzat, “A Better Way: Christ is My Worth” in Power Religion (p. 259) edited by Michael Scott Horton)

And this leads to the fact to be a son is not only that we are no longer slaves, not only that we are adopted, not only that we are heirs, but greatest of all, our Lord, Savior, and God Jesus Christ is our brother. Hebrews 2:9-11 makes this incredible statement: “But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. 10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.” Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters because He suffered and died so that He might taste death for every sin, every act of self-righteousness, every push to self-worship and self-glorification, every act of mind, heart, and spirit that repulses at God who created us out of joy and delight for Himself for our joy and delight. The significance of Jesus being our brother through His atoning work is eternally far-reaching, and one that as we shall see, radically must influence, affect, and transform the way we speak to a good, gracious, but holy and just God.

So I hope you can see what it means to be a son. The second question then is this, “How do I know that I have received the Spirit of adoption as sons?

How do we know that we have received the Spirit of adoption as sons?

We know when we hate sin (v. 13) and when we pray (v. 15). [when we have the Spirit (vv. 15-16), when and we long (groan) to go home (Rom 8:23).] First, we hate sin. As verse 13 pronounces, by the Spirit we “put to death the deeds of the body.” Sons are fully aware of their sin. They understand John when he says: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8). They recognize that they have a body of death (Romans 7:24) that loves sin and need rescue. And John makes this amazing statement in 1 John 5:16-17: “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life…All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.” In other words, Christians continue to sin but it does not lead to the loss of their salvation. Christians, sons, recognize how deeply sinful they are, how rebellious their hearts are toward God, but how gracious God is. And because of this children of God are active in their desire to hate and kill sin. They are active in putting to death the deeds of the body. They are aware of the deceitfulness of sin as described by the writer of Hebrews 3:12 when he warns that our hearts could actually be hardened by the deception of the love of sin. And children of God because they hate sin, are actively pursuing ways to guard against sin. As we learned last week, children of God love God’s Word and reflect on it and memorize it to keep from sinning (Psalm 119:9-11). Sons encourage one another to love the Gospel and its great news so that the allure of sin is actually lessened (Heb 3:12-14). Sinclair Ferguson comments:

We have been born again into a new family, and the power of the Father of that family, the likeness of the Elder Brother in it, have been bestowed also upon us. Yes, we sin and fail. But our lives grow in the settled direction of righteousness and holiness, because that is the nature of the family disposition given to us, and that is the direction in which our Elder Brother guides us. (Sinclair Ferguson, Children of the Living God, 44-45)

Also, when we pray, we express our sonship as adopted children in ways that are inexpressibly wondrous. The fact is, God provided His Son so that we can be sons according to Romans 8 and Galatians 4:4-5 where Paul writes: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” This is the Gospel. God had a plan to save people. He sent His Son to live the life we lived, to undergo every human hardship, to be tempted in every way and yet without sin, so that He might pay the penalty of every act of self-centeredness and rebellion we commit against God. And so through this act, He not only bore the punishment of our sins, but He clothes us with His righteousness (Rom 3:21-24; 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:26-29). And what is the result of all this? As sons, children of God, we can cry out to God, “Abba Father!” We can communicate with God as if Jesus Himself was communicating with the Father! God accepts our prayers as if Jesus Himself were praying to God. Here is how astounding the doctrine of justification, that God declares you righteous in Christ, truly is. When God listens to us in prayer, it is as if His beloved Son is making that prayer.

How does this happen? Let’s go back to Romans 8 and Galatians 3. Paul writes in Rom 8:15, “but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons,” and then in verse 16, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” He also writes in Galatians 4:6: “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” The wondrous promise of God through His Gospel is that because we are now sons, the Holy Spirit dwells in us. And so when you pray to the Father, you are heard because of the work of His beloved Son and your prayers are effective because the Holy Spirit testifies on your behalf with your spirit in prayer. The Triune God is actively at work every time you pray!!!
John Owen gives this powerful picture of what prayer looks like in light of Romans 8. I’ll summarize his illustration. Imagine a trial. There is a judge. A person makes a claim, produces evidence, and pleads his case. His adversaries do everything possible to invalidate every shred of evidence, every word spoken. In the midst of the trial, a person of known and approved integrity comes to the court and gives full testimony on behalf of the claimant, which literally stuns and silences the mouths of the adversary. The claimant is so overjoyed and enthralled. So it is in the case of prayer in light of Romans 8 and Galatians 4. A person puts in his plea before God, that he is a child of God and belongs to God’s family. He produces evidence of his faith and shows God that through Christ, he should be heard. But Satan does all that he can to accuse him of every sin that makes him ineligible to be heard. Sin and the law seems to find his evidences of faith to be terribly lacking. His faith is put into question. Why should God hear this person’s pleas and prayers at all? But in the midst of this plea, the Comforter (the Holy Spirit) comes and with a word of promise, a look to the finished work of Christ on the cross as the basis of acceptance of this sinner, overwhelms Satan’s now feeble lies. The plea is certain and good. This plea is accepted because of the witness of the Comforter that he is a child of God.

Oh how good our God is. There is nothing that He has not taken care of for the Christian to call out to Him in time. He makes certain that we are heard because of His very Spirit working deep in our hearts to cry out to God at all times, “Abba Father.” And in this, we know with deep certainty that we will be heard all of the time. We might not always receive the answer we think we should receive, which if you trust God should mean that we know His way is ultimately for our greatest joy, but God will always answer our prayers because of His Son by His Spirit.