All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons and daughters. 15 You didn’t receive a spirit of slavery to lead you back again into fear, but you received a Spirit that shows you are adopted as his children. With this Spirit, we cry, “ Abba, Father. ” 16 The same Spirit agrees with our spirit, that we are God’s children. 17 But if we are children, we are also heirs. We are God’s heirs and fellow heirs with Christ, if we really suffer with him so that we can also be glorified with him.
Ralph K. Hawkins (Ph.D., Andrews University) is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Averett University in Danville, Virginia, and is a research associate with the Horn Archaeological Museum in Berrien Springs, Michigan. (as of 5/25/12 KA)