https://youtu.be/6RvivcNhsYA
In our verse by verse study of Romans last time we were working on the words "Abba the Father" in the last phrase of Rom 8:15;
We noted that when Paul figured out the concept of adoption in this verse, he shouted out "Abba" (Father) that is in the Hebrew language and then he went back to the Greek language that he was writing in, and used the Greek word "Pater" (Father) with the article "ho" (the) making it monadic so it refers exclusively to God the Father.
Paul was Jewish even though he was also a Roman citizen. He is recognizing for the first time as a mature believer the great detail of God's plan and he is using the Roman system of inheritance to describe it.
Adoption has the connotation of great blessing. It means plan, purpose, power, blessing, privilege and eventually glory.
So here is the expression of this incredible plan, this relationship that we have with God. Gal 4:6;
Doctrinal Truth in the stream of consciousness of the heart of the believer's soul enables the believer to understand just how awesome God's plan is for every individual believer in Jesus Christ.
Expanded Translation Rom 8:15; "For you have not received again a life of slavery for the purpose of fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, by which we keep shouting, Abba, the Father."
"Abba" is the customary Aramaic title for God. We see this word used in Mark 14:36; when our Lord Jesus Christ was contemplating His death on the cross the next day and He said to God the Father: "Abba, Father, all things are possible with you; remove this cup from me: yet not what I will, but what you will."
He says Your plan, Father, not mine. He recognized that the justice of God the Father had a plan to take all of the personal sins committed by the entire human race during the course of human history and to impute them to Him on the cross for judgment.
When He said "Abba" to the Father, He made it clear to the Father that He understood the plan. Abba, then, is what the mature believer who has maximum personal love for God the Father says because he understands God the Father's plan from consistent daily intake of God's Word of truth that results in complete and total confidence in God at spiritual maturity,
The mature believer understands God's plan so he understands what must happen for him to fulfill God's will in his life in order to receive the great blessings that will come his way as a part of God's plan.
These direct blessings from God include spiritual blessings, material blessings, blessings by association, historical impact, and blessings from the imputation of undeserved sufferings in life.
If a believer is ever going to be related to actual reality God's Word of Truth must come into their life. It must be specifically related to their life, not just as an academic subject but also as an integral part of their internal personal life.
Rom 8:16; "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit" - the nominative neuter singular subject "pneuma"(spirit) refers to God the Holy Spirit. The nominative neuter singular from "autos" (himself) is an intensive pronoun that refers to an individual so we say "himself."
The definite article "ho" also makes it monadic so it is a specific reference to God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.
Plus the present active indicative from the compound verb "summartyreo" "sym" is the preposition "syn" (with); "martyro" (martyro) means to testify, to bear witness it also means to confirm or testify in support of someone or something).
"The Spirit himself confirms along with" is a good translation. This is a historical present tense referring to present time.
The active voice: the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb, along with the doctrinal content of the human spirit that also testifies doctrinal truth along with the Holy Spirit.
Paul is telling us that God the Holy Spirit plus the human spirit is inserting the reality of doctrinal truth into the believer's life because doctrinal truth does not only reside in the heart of the believer's soul but it also resides in the human spirit because the human spirit is how God the Holy Spirit gets doctrine in the heart of the human soul.
The Holy Spirit takes the doctrinal truth that resides in the human spirit and turns it into a reality factor. The instrumental of association from "pneuma" (spirit) is the human spirit is used again to refer to the location where doctrinal truth resides for insertion into the heart as reality as well as for building up the soul with God's Word of absolute Truth.
Next is the genitive possessive plural from the personal pronoun "hemeis" (our): "The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit." This describes a mutual testimony that fulfills the principle of 'In the testimony of two or three witnesses a fact shall be established.'
We see here that reality is established by the testimony of God the Holy Spirit combined with the doctrinal content of the human spirit. This is the combination that is necessary for establishing reality as well as being the means of the believer's advance to spiritual maturity.
The filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit plus doctrinal truth resident in the believer's human spirit builds up the heart of the believer's soul and establishes God's Word of Truth as the believer's reality under the principle of you are what you think.
A believer cannot face reality properly unless they face it from the God's viewpoint. God's viewpoint demands the insertion of doctrinal truth into any given circumstance or situation.
A passage related to this is 1Cor 2:12-16; "But we have not received a cosmic spirit, but the spirit (human spirit) from the source of God; in order that we might have permanent knowledge of things (doctrines) having being graciously given to us under the authority of God."
v13 Which things (doctrines) also we communicate by categories, not by teaching from the source of man's wisdom (human IQ), but by teaching from the source of the Holy Spirit, combining with the human spirit to teach spiritual phenomena (through a spiritual apparatus: GASP)."
v14 "But the soulish man (the unbeliever) cannot receive things (doctrines) from the Spirit of God; for to him they are foolishness (he has no frame of reference for them), and he is not able to understand them because they are discerned (perceived) from the source of the (human) spirit."
v15 "But the spiritual man (the believer with GASP) perceives all doctrines, but he himself is discerned under the authority of no one (doctrine in the human spirit cannot be evaluated by human viewpoint thinking)."
v16 - "For who has come to know the Lord's mind (God's Word of Truth), who shall instruct him? But we keep on having the mind of Christ (God's Word of Truth)."
God's Word of Truth is the mind of Christ. God's Word of Truth can only be learned by means of the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, and this doctrinal information becomes resident in the human spirit as well as the heart of the believer's soul.
God's Word of Truth in the human spirit causes us to have the necessary two witnesses for the insertion of Jesus Christ's reality into our thinking.
Rom 8:16; "that we are children of God," the conjunction "hoti" (that we) with the present active indicative of the verb "eimi" (are).
The perfective present tense describes the continuation of the fact that every believer in Jesus Christ is and continues to be a child of God the Father. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb by constantly being a child of God.
The indicative mood is declarative, so it is a fact of reality the accusative plural direct object is the Greek word "teknon" (children) that refers to a child in relationship to parents refers to the fact that every believer in Jesus Christ is the child of God the Father but positionally every believer by adoption is also "huios" (an adult son).
Experientially believers in Jesus Christ start out as "teknon" (children) "of God."
Awareness of our family relationship with God the Father is established by two sources of testimony: the filling of the Spirit and God's Word of Truth in the heart of the believer's soul.
Expanded Translation Rom 8:16; "The Spirit himself testifies together with our human spirit, that we are children of God."
We see from this that the reality of all spiritual phenomena is the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The subject that is taught by the Holy Spirit is God's Word of Truth.
The reality comes from that doctrinal truth that is resident tin both heart of the soul and the human spirit. Bible verses that explain the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit include John 14:26;John 16:12-15; 1Cor 2:9-16; and 1John 2:27.
Reality about our relationship with God, our purpose in the plan of God, the mechanics of God's plan, and our objectives for life on this earth after salvation, originate from the transfer of God's Word of Truth from the page of the Scripture into the heart of the soul through the human spirit of the believer in Jesus Christ.
The teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit does this when the believer listens to God's Word of Truth being communicated by the spiritual gift of pastor teacher.
Reality from doctrine becomes the basis for confidence and security in our relationship with God. The reality of God, the integrity of God, the plan of God, blessings from God, all come from God's Word of Truth that is resident and circulating in the human soul and human spirit.
God's Word resident in the soul and the spirit is the reality of the believer's relationship with God in time, as well as the above and beyond the imagination blessings from God in eternity.
Therefore the believer walking through this life is in full time Christian service as an ambassador for Christ and a royal priest so there is no substitute for Bible doctrine resident in the soul and the spirit through the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit from its communication by those with the spiritual gifts of communication.
There is no way for it to get into the heart of the soul apart from the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
Illustrations for "In the concept that from the testimony of two witnesses it (a fact) is established" are found in Deut 17:6; Deut 19:15; Matt 8:16-17; 2Cor 13:1.
In the testimony of two witnesses: the Holy Spirit takes the Word of God and inserts it into the heart of the human soul through the human spirit.
The two witnesses are the Holy Spirit and the human spirit. The testimony of the two witnesses is God's Word of Truth. By that joint testimony God's reality is inserted into our circumstances of life.