We are continuing our study of the doctrine of assurance, using the 18th chapter of the 1689 Baptist Confession as our guide. We are in the middle of the second paragraph, where the Confession names three grounds of true assurance:
This certainty is not merely an inconclusive or likely persuasion based on a fallible hope. It is an infallible assurance of faith founded on the blood and righteousness of Christ revealed in the Gospel. It is also built on the inward evidence of those graces of the Spirit about which promises are made. It is further based on the testimony of the Spirit of adoption, witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God. As a fruit of this assurance, our hearts are kept both humble and holy.
We have looked at the first ground, the blood and righteousness of Christ revealed in the gospel. Last time, we considered the second ground, the inward evidence of those graces of the Spirit about which promises are made. Now we come to the third: the testimony of the Spirit of adoption.
That language comes directly from Romans 8:15–16, though Paul’s fuller thought begins a few verses earlier:
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:12-17)
The question before us is simple enough to ask, though not always simple to answer: What is the testimony of the Spirit of adoption? How does the Spirit witness with our spirits that we are children of God?
We should begin by saying what it is not, because this doctrine can be misunderstood in more than one direction.
On the one hand, some Christians are tempted to reduce assurance to little more than logic or rationality. You may remember the Puritans’ use of syllogism. A syllogism takes two propositions and draws a conclusion from them. For example, proposition one says, “The Bible says believers are saved.” Proposition two says, “I believe.” The conclusion follows: “Therefore, I am saved.”
That is true, as far as it goes, but there is a way to misapply it. Imagine a man who made a profession of faith twenty years ago but has hardly lived like a Christian ever since. He may use that syllogism to give himself a false hope. Without any inward evidence or testimony of the Spirit, he may say to himself, I professed faith. I believed. It happened on this date, and the Bible says all who believe will be saved. Therefore, I must be saved.
The problem is that true justification is always accompanied by sanctification and the indwelling of the Spirit. The Confession names three grounds of assurance, not one. Its authors were careful not to present these grounds as either-or. Assurance is founded on the blood and righteousness of Christ, and also on inward evidence, and also on the testimony of the Spirit. If a person truly believed and was justified by faith, he would also see the fruits of sanctification and the indwelling of the Spirit.
On the other hand, some think of the Spirit’s witness as an emotional surge or spiritual impression detached from Scripture. This is the person who says, “I know I am saved because I feel it.”
Do you remember Ignorance in The Pilgrim’s Progress? Christian asks him, “Why, or by what, art thou persuaded that thou hast left all for God and heaven?”
Ignorance replies, “My heart tells me so.”
Christian says, “The wise man says, ‘He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.’”
Ignorance quickly replies, “This is spoken of an evil heart; but mine is a good one.”
Christian then does his best to convince Ignorance that he should not rely on his heart alone for assurance. He eventually says, “Except the Word of God beareth witness in this matter, other testimony is of no value.”
In other words, the heart may say, “I must be saved,” but what happens when we examine ourselves in light of Scripture? What happens when we put ourselves through the tests found in John’s first epistle? Despite what the heart may say, would we pass the test?
The Spirit is not going to speak to your heart through special revelation and tell you something that contradicts the Word of God. If we think the Spirit is telling us we are saved, but we do not believe in the true Christ, do not love His commandments, do not love His people, still love the world, or are not persevering in the faith, then whatever voice we are hearing is not of God or His Spirit. The Spirit will not and cannot contradict the Bible.
The Spirit’s Witness in Balance
Here is a brief summary to hold these truths together:
The Spirit of adoption bears witness with the believer’s spirit, ordinarily by applying the Word, illuminating Christ, strengthening faith, teaching the soul to cry to God as Father, and confirming the graces He has already worked in the heart.
The Spirit does not replace Christ. He does not replace Scripture. He does not replace self-examination. Rather, the Spirit brings Christ near through the Word and helps believers recognize His own work in the soul. That is, in short, the testimony of the Spirit of adoption.
Before we go further, we should remember something fundamental about the Holy Spirit. Most Christians are comfortable speaking about the Father and the Son, but the Holy Spirit can seem vague, distant, or impersonal. Perhaps this was even worse when we commonly referred to Him as the Holy Ghost. Even the word Spirit may sound less personal to us than Father or Son.
But pay attention as you read the Bible, especially Romans 8. The Bible does not speak of the Spirit as a force, an atmosphere, a mood, or a mere feeling. He is a Person. He is a He, not an it. In Romans 8, He knows, wills, speaks, grieves, helps, intercedes, and bears witness.
So when Paul says the Spirit Himself bears witness, he is not suggesting that assurance comes from a religious feeling rising up inside us. This is God, the Holy Spirit, personally acting in the believer. It is not a hunch. It is not a mere feeling. It is the Spirit at work within us. He, not it, is at work within us.
Romans 8 in Context
Romans 8 places a real emphasis on the Spirit. Paul refers to the Spirit something like twenty-seven times in Romans, and at least two-thirds of those references are found in this chapter.
But before we look directly at verses 15 and 16, we should consider the context. Romans is a letter. Paul did not intend for a single verse, or even a single chapter, to stand on its own.
In chapter 1, Paul exposes the guilt of the Gentile world. Humanity has suppressed the truth about God, exchanged His glory for idols, and come under His righteous wrath. In chapter 2, he shows that the Jew is no better and that possessing the law does not justify anyone. God judges impartially. Then, in Romans 3, he concludes that all have sinned and are under condemnation. Into that hopelessness, Paul announces the good news of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
In Romans 4, he proves that this has always been God’s way of salvation by pointing to Abraham, who was justified by faith before circumcision or the law. Chapter 5 celebrates the blessings of justification: peace with God, access into grace, hope of glory, and reconciliation through Christ. In chapter 6, Paul answers the charge that grace encourages people to sin. Those united to Christ, he says, have died to sin and been raised to walk in newness of life.
Then, in Romans 7, Paul explains the believer’s relationship to the law. The law is holy and good, but it cannot conquer sin because we cannot keep it. The law can expose sin. It can condemn us. But it cannot deliver us from sin. So the chapter ends with Paul crying out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). Then comes the answer: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25).
Up to this point, Paul has dealt with how we can be saved, how we can be justified before God. He has spoken extensively about God the Father and God the Son, but comparatively little about God the Spirit. That changes drastically in chapter 8.
Chapter 7 ends with the believer’s struggle. We have been raised to walk in newness of life, but we still contend with the flesh. When Paul opens chapter 8, he is not ignoring that tension. He has already admitted the problem. Sin still clings to the believer. The flesh still resists. The law still exposes. The conscience still feels conflict. Paul is not ignoring any of that. But it is almost as though he looks past the struggling believer and right to Christ.
And here is what he says: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
At this point, the people of God let out a collective sigh. In this letter, Paul spends two and a half chapters showing how guilty we are. Then he lifts us up by showing how we can be justified. We can be reconciled to God. We can have peace with God. Even more than that, we are freed from bondage to sin in this life. But then comes chapter 7. Paul essentially says, “Yes, you are free, but you will continue to struggle with your sin until your dying day.”
So our shoulders slump, and we begin to groan within ourselves. Then Paul says, “Wait a minute. I am not finished. If you are in Christ Jesus, there is now no condemnation.”
Paul does not say “less condemnation.” He does not say “no condemnation one day in the future.” He does not say “possibly no condemnation, depending on whether you hold yourself together.” No, it is no condemnation. Zero. None. Ever.
Why? Because God has done what the law could not do. God sent His own Son in the flesh, and He condemned Him in the flesh for our sin. Condemnation has already fallen, but it did not fall on believers. It fell on Christ. Sin was judged. God did not simply ignore it. Condemnation was executed, but it was executed on Jesus Christ.
So when Paul begins this section on the Spirit’s role in salvation and the Christian life, he essentially does what the Confession does. He grounds everything in the blood and righteousness of Christ. That is why the believer is not condemned. But Paul does not stop there. The Christian life is not merely a forgiven life. It is a Spirit-indwelt life. It is life under the reign and power of the Spirit.
In verses 1 through 17, Paul deals with the personal implications of salvation. There is no condemnation for those in Christ. There is freedom from the law of sin and death. Believers walk according to the Spirit. Their minds are set on the Spirit. The Spirit dwells in them. The Spirit puts sin to death in them. Then Paul calls Him the Spirit of adoption because He bears witness that we are children of God.
In verses 18 through 39, Paul widens the lens. Creation is groaning under the weight of sin’s consequences. Believers are groaning too. Yet the Spirit Himself intercedes with groanings too deep for words. Finally, Paul reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So when we come to verses 15 and 16, Paul is not addressing a secondary doctrine. This lies at the center of his argument. Believers are justified before God through faith. In Christ Jesus, we no longer face condemnation. Yes, we still struggle with the flesh, but we are secure in Christ. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. Paul is teaching the eternal security of believers, but how do we know that security personally and individually?
The same Spirit who sets us free, indwells us, leads us, mortifies sin in us, helps us in our weakness, intercedes for us, and will one day give life to our mortal bodies is the same Spirit who assures us that we are, in fact, the children of God saved by His grace.
No Condemnation and the Spirit-Indwelt Life
It is helpful to hear Paul’s words again from the beginning of the chapter:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:1-8)
Notice how Paul points to the believer’s justification and then his sanctification. First, we are set free. There is no condemnation. Then what happens? The believer walks not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Believers set their minds on the things of the Spirit, not on the things of the flesh. True living faith works itself out in the way we live. As James asks, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith [or that kind of faith] save him?” (James 2:14).
The answer is no, because that is not genuine faith. “Faith by itself,” James says, “if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17). It is not a living faith. It is a dead faith. It is a non-existent faith.
Paul continues:
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:9-11)
In short, the Spirit’s indwelling and influence throughout the entirety of the Christian life, all the way to final resurrection, is inevitable. The Spirit is not, as some have suggested, a bonus to Christianity. He is not a second blessing reserved for the unusually advanced believer. He is not given only to the spiritually elite. Every true Christian has the Spirit of Christ. To belong to Christ is to have His Spirit. To be united to Christ is to be indwelt by the Spirit. There is no such thing as a justified believer left orphaned without the Spirit.
Furthermore, if the believer has the Spirit, he will be led by the Spirit to bear that “inward evidence of those graces of the Spirit about which promises are made.” That is the second ground of our assurance. Paul is addressing all three grounds of assurance in this one chapter. The justified are sanctified, and the sanctified are indwelt by the Spirit, and when all three are combined, we can know that we have eternal life.
Paul then says:
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:14-15)
Paul is not suggesting that believers never fear. We are often assaulted by doubts, temptations, accusations, and seasons of darkness. Just read the Psalms. Psalm 42, Psalm 77, and Psalm 88 sound as though they were spoken from the bottom of the darkest pits. We do face fears, but not the kind of fear an unbeliever should properly have.
Before we are in Christ, fear makes sense. If a man is still in the flesh, still under sin, still under condemnation, still trying to establish righteousness by his own obedience, then fear is perfectly reasonable. The law condemns him. His conscience accuses him. Death is waiting for him. Judgment stands before him. In short, it is slavery to fear.
But that is not what the Spirit gives believers. The Christian life is not meant to be lived as though God were still our enemy.
Rome says that a Christian cannot have assurance of salvation because assurance would be presumptuous. It would be the sin of pride to presume you are saved. And there are many others who, despite what their theology says, act as though they believe the same thing. They treat uncertainty as a mark of humility. They think the safest posture is to never receive comfort. If only I were saved. If only God would let this poor sinner into heaven one day. I have heard preachers say this right before preaching an entire sermon on the eternal security of God’s children. What they are effectively saying is, you are eternally secure in Christ, but you are not allowed to know it or enjoy it.
But that runs completely contrary to what Paul says here. Paul stands with John, who essentially said, “I want you to know that you have eternal life.” Paul says we have not received “the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.” Fear of what? Fear of a wrathful God. Fear of condemnation. Fear of judgment. Instead, we “have received the Spirit of adoption as sons.”
What does that mean? It means the Spirit causes us to know that we are no longer condemned, but fully and completely welcomed into God’s family. And will He ever kick us back out? Absolutely not. Read the rest of the chapter. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Or go back to the beginning of the chapter. There is now no condemnation. The thrust of the entire chapter is the believer’s assurance of salvation.
Paul uses similar language in Galatians 4:
When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:4-7)
Notice the order. The Father sends the Son. The Son is born under the law. The Son redeems those under the law. The redeemed receive adoption. Then the Father sends the Spirit into their hearts, and the Spirit teaches them to cry, “Father!”
The Spirit of adoption is not separated from the redeeming work of Christ. The Spirit does not say, “Forget the cross. Forget the promises. Forget the righteousness of Christ. Pay no attention to whether you are bearing the fruit of eternal life.” He does not say, “Look for special revelation.” No, the Spirit brings the work of Christ home to our hearts. Our assurance is entirely Trinitarian: the Father adopts, the Son secures adoption, and the Spirit applies adoption and bears witness to it.
When I say the Spirit bears witness to our adoption, I do not mean He gives us a mere understanding of theoretical adoption. This is not the Spirit alerting us to the fact that some people are adopted. This is deeply personal, so much so that the Spirit causes us to cry out, “Abba! Father!”
That is not the reading of a doctrinal statement. That is the cry of a child who knows he has a Father and knows his Father loves him. The cry may be weak. It may come through tears. It may come with a trembling voice. But as we heard from Pastor Jon on Wednesday, it is a cry that knows, “I must go and tell my Father. I know He will listen. I know He cares.” That child may even know he is receiving the Father’s discipline, but he also knows his Father disciplines him out of love. See Hebrews 12.
Think again of those psalms. Psalm 77 groans in the night. Psalm 88 ends in darkness. And yet, who are these men crying out to? They are crying out to God, their Heavenly Father.
But why do they cry out to God? How do they know to do this? Paul says, “You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:15–16).
The Spirit Bears Witness With Our Spirit
This is the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit. It is not self-persuasion. It is not someone standing in front of a mirror, repeating “God accepts me,” until he finally feels better about himself. This is the Spirit’s testimony, joining itself to the believer’s renewed understanding, conscience, affections, and faith. He is not bearing witness against Scripture or apart from Christ. He is not bearing witness in contradiction to the very graces He Himself has produced in the believer. Paul says, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit.”
There is almost a double testimony here. The believer says, “I receive Christ. I grieve over sin. I love the Father. I want holiness. I cannot live without my Lord.” And the Holy Spirit, by and with the Word, confirms what He Himself has worked in the believer. The Spirit says, “To that I say amen. You are a child of God.”
When we understand the Spirit’s role here, we avoid two errors. The first is the error of making assurance mere self-analysis. A person can know the right doctrines. He can formulate accurate syllogisms. He can know God’s promises. But the best theologian in the world cannot reason himself into heaven. The soul needs the Spirit to bring the promises home.
The second error is making assurance an unsupported inward impression. We cannot claim to be children of God, no matter how we feel, if we refuse the true Christ, reject repentance, despise holiness, or neglect the church. The Spirit is not going to contradict the Word of God.
In other words, the Spirit affirms the first two grounds of assurance as stated in the Confession. He will not operate apart from them. He will not give us a sense of assurance apart from, first, “faith founded on the blood and righteousness of Christ,” and second, “inward evidence of the Spirit’s graces.”
Still, we may wonder, How exactly does the Spirit bear witness? Do we hear a voice from heaven? Must there be some sort of special revelation?
In the next paragraph, the Confession says, “With the enabling of the Spirit to know the things freely given to them by God, they may attain this assurance using ordinary means appropriately without any extraordinary revelation.”
If not an extraordinary revelation, then how does the Spirit bear witness?
Through the Spirit, we enter into the sense of sonship which Jesus experienced in the context of our humanity; we therefore have experiential evidence of our adoption. Knowing this we also come to realize the implications of our new status: we are children of God, brethren of Christ (cf. Rom. 8:29) and therefore heirs together with him (8:17). All this [is] set in the quasi-legal context of the dual testimony of the believer’s spirit and the Holy Spirit which (according to Old Testament law) establishes the truth in the mouth of two witnesses (Dt. 19:15). But even more striking than the logical implications is the experiential phenomenon: it is in the cry that God’s children utter that the Spirit bears witness.
The believer trusts in Christ for salvation. That is ground number one. Then the believer’s spirit recognizes God’s Spirit at work in him through various graces—faith, repentance, obedience, love for the brethren, and so on. That is ground number two. As for ground number three, the Spirit comes along and gives a hearty “Amen” to the first two grounds.
And how does He do this? Ferguson says, “It’s in the cry of ‘Abba! Father!’ itself.” The fact that we turn to God as Father, not merely as Judge, King, or Lord, but as Father, is the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit.
Ferguson continues,
The fact is that the Christian’s own spirit does display an awareness of sonship, as the rest of the New Testament makes clear (e.g. 1 Jn. 3:1ff.), amazing though this is. The problem is that this awareness is often weakened, and God’s children may even find themselves doubting their gracious status and privileges. What Paul is saying, however, is that even in the darkest hour there is a co-operative and affirmative testimony given by the Spirit. It is found in the very fact that, although he may be broken and bruised, tossed about with fears and doubts, the child of God nevertheless in his need cries out, ‘Father!’ as instinctively as a child who has fallen and been hurt calls out in similar language, ‘Daddy, help me!’
Humble and Holy Assurance
The Spirit’s role does not stop at giving us assurance. In verses 2 through 13, He transforms us. In verses 14 through 17, He assures us. In verses 18 through 27, He sustains us. In verses 28 through 39, He secures us. His entire ministry serves God’s unbreakable purpose of bringing every child safely to final glorification, so that nothing can separate us from Christ.
But let’s end where this paragraph of the Confession ends. It says, “As a fruit of this assurance, our hearts are kept both humble and holy.” Here, the authors cite 1 John 3:1–3:
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)
True assurance humbles the believer because every ground of assurance is from God. And true assurance makes us holy because, as John says, “Everyone who thus hopes in [God] purifies himself as He is pure.”
