Romans 8:9-15: a reflection

9But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. 10If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. 12So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. 15For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Paul draws a sharp line here between two ways of relating to God. You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, he says, but the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. Two different spirits, two entirely different relationships: the cowering servant afraid of the master, or the child who runs to a father.

Notice that word Abba. It is the intimate, family word a child uses for a father, closer to Papa than to a formal title. Paul says that is the cry the Spirit puts in you: not the careful, fearful approach of a slave hoping not to be punished, but the trusting approach of a beloved child who belongs. If your relationship with God is mostly fear, mostly the anxious sense of a master to be appeased, Paul says that is not the Spirit you were given.

And notice what stands behind this. The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you and gives life to your mortal body. This is no small presence. So today, if you have been relating to God as a frightened servant, listen for the deeper cry the Spirit is putting in you. You are not a slave bracing for punishment; you are an adopted child who can run to God and say, Abba, Father. Live from that, not from fear.

Father, you have given me the Spirit of adoption, not a spirit of fear. Teach me to come to you not as a frightened servant but as your beloved child, crying Abba, Father, and to live from that belonging.