https://youtu.be/RamUdx502-Y
In our verse-by-verse study of Romans we are working on the first phrase of Rom 8:16; "The Spirit Himself testifies with."
This verse is telling us that actual 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 actual reality as well as being the means of the believer's advance to spiritual maturity from God's Word of Truth.
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 every circumstance or situation in life.
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: (God's GASP system).
v14 "But the soulish man (the unbeliever) cannot receive the things (doctrinal truth) of the Spirit of God; for to him they are foolishness (because 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 (that is dead)."
v15 "But the spiritual man (the believer with GASP) perceives all doctrines, but he himself is discerned under the authority of no one (doctrinal truth in the human spirit cannot be evaluated by spiritually dead unbelievers."
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 that teaches the human spirit, and this doctrinal information becomes resident in the human spirit as well as in the thinking of 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 actual 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 by adoption. 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 and to the fact that every believer in Jesus Christ is the child of God the Father but positionally because of adoption every believer is also "huios" (an adult son).
Experientially believers in Jesus Christ start out as "teknon" (children) "of God" but positionally as heirs they are "huios" (adults).
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 human spirit that is also in 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.
Our understanding of the actual reality regarding our relationship with God, our purpose in God's plan, how God's plan works, and our objectives for life on this earth after salvation in God's plan, originate from the transfer of God's Word of Truth from the pages of the Scripture into the heart of our soul by God the Holy Spirit through the human spirit into the heart 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 when it is 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 from 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 some comprehension of 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 Jesus 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 the concept "that from the testimony of two or more 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 actual reality is inserted into our viewpoint of our circumstances of life.
Rom 8:17; is a transitional verse that deals with two subjects. The first sentence deals with relationship; the second sentence is the transitional sentence that starts out with undeserved suffering as a source of blessing to the mature believer that ends up with glory.
"But if children, also heirs" the postpositive conjunctive particle "de" (but) connects ideas together.
Paul is going to take all of these incredible ideas that he has described in the first part of the chapter and put them together with something that seems to be contradictory, antithetical and incongruous.
He is going to put them together with undeserved suffering for blessing.
In order to get into this properly we must have one more sentence that emphasizes fact that we are related to God in a very special way, and that we are dealing with God's perfect justice that is never ever unfair.
Next is the conditional particle "ei" (if) that introduces the protasis of a first class condition that is an assumption from the viewpoint of actual reality.
The supposition is based on a statement from the previous two sentences: that all believers are children of God the Father that sets up a first class condition of "if" that is assumed to be true.
There is no verb in this sentence so it is elliptical. An ellipsis applies to any concept that is not fully expressed grammatically that leaves it up to the reader to supply the necessary self-evident omission.
Generally the omission is the verb "to be" that must be supplied as is the case here, the present active indicative of "eimi" (are) is missing so we add it and so far we have "but if we are."
Plus the predicate nominative plural from "teknon" (children), the word refers to a child that is under the authority of his tutors, his parents; the child in a time of learning and comprehending so it is describing "children" in the sense of being under authority and having a lot to learn.
The first class condition indicates that is what we are and the adjunctive use of the conjunction "kai" translated (also instead of and).
Then the natural result of being a child under the authority of parents and being adopted at the same time, the predicate nominative plural of "kleronomos" (inheritors) in the plural so every believer in Jesus Christ is an heir or an inheritor of God.
Plus the genitive singular of relationship from "Theos" (God) so this heirship or inheritance is "of God."
God the Father is in view. Then a second "de" (but), or "on the other hand." Then a predicate nominative plural from a compound noun, "synkleronomos" (syn = a form of the preposition "with"; kleronomos = inheritor or heir), "fellow inheritors," plus an ablative singular of "Christos" (Christ)."
So we have "But if, on the one hand, we are the inheritors or heirs of God the Father, and on the other hand we are fellow inheritors or heirs with Christ."
The instrumental case is normally used to express means but the ablative case can be used when the source in implied as it is here.
In this case since Christ is the source the ablative case is used so we have "with Christ." Christ is the source and the means of our inheritance or heirship with God the Father, and this emphasizes the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the concepts involved with the baptism of the Spirit but especially current positional truth.
We see here that not only does the doctrine of heirship come into view, but again such doctrines as positional sanctification, God's royal family, the baptism of the Spirit, and current positional truth.
Heirship demands the blessings of inheritance. To be the heir of the God of the universe requires comparable blessing from inheritance.
These blessings are available as a part of God's plan. The only thing missing is that God's justice cannot impute these blessings of inheritance until there is capacity for them.
Heirship is related to the concept of blessing from God's justice in time and in eternity. The imputation of God's perfect righteousness at salvation is the predicate for God's justice providing direct blessing to believers in Jesus Christ from God's integrity.
All direct blessing from God's justice is made as real direct imputations from God's justice to God's imputed righteousness in the believer in Jesus Christ. To be a fellow heir and inheritor with Christ demands blessing, but that blessing demands capacity.
Capacity for this blessing only comes to those who have Bible doctrine resident in their soul and their spirit. Capacity for blessing in eternity from God's justice is a series of a fortiori principles that begin with and is predicated on the judicial imputation of God's perfect righteousness at salvation.