A Spirit of Adoption

The Spirit is God’s silent partner in God’s relationship with us. The Spirit actively works to make God’s salvation — the transformation of our hearts and minds, conforming us to the image of Jesus — a reality in our lives.

One of the foundational things the Spirit does in our lives is to change how we view and relate to God. The Spirit cultivates a spirit of adoption in our hearts. Paul spoke of this change of spirit in his letter to the Romans: “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba, Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:15—17).

The spirit of adoption is the spirit of a small child who, living with an unquestioned confidence in her parent’s love, confidently calls out “Daddy! Momma!”  The spirit of adoption is a spirit of deep, unquestioning trust. It creates freedom and boldness in our relationship with God. See Hebrews 4:14—16. There is no hesitancy or fear in it. It is an inner attitude that leads us to run quickly to God for help, confident in God’s love for us. Living out of a spirit of adoption, we naturally turn to God with all that life brings us. The spirit of adoption is a spirit of glad dependency. Like a child, we know God will provide and guide … and we trust that provision and guidance. Such a spirit allows us to live as God’s partners in what God is doing in the world. It transforms our relationship with God to one of mutual inter-dependency: God relying on us as God’s partners doing God’s work while we rely on God for all we need to do that work.

But there is more to the spirit of adoption. It is a spirit filled with love for God. It is our love responding to God’s love for us. It is the love of a child for his father and mother.

Deep, unquestioning trust — freedom and boldness — glad dependency — mutual inter-dependency — reciprocal love — such is the spirit of adoption … and so much more!

The opposite of the spirit of adoption is a spirit of fear (Romans 8:15). Living out of fear, we hide from God as the man and the woman hid from the LORD God in the story of the garden (Genesis 3:8). Fearing judgment and condemnation, we don’t want to be known or to be found out. We don’t want to face how we fail to measure up. Fearing rejection and abandonment, we strive to do what we think is pleasing to God so God will accept us. Paul called this a spirit of slavery (Romans 8:15). If we were honest with ourselves, we would recognize that, deep within, we fear God. We are afraid to be known by God. We are afraid to trust God. We don’t want to be dependent on God. We naturally rely upon our own wisdom and understanding. Such is the story of the garden in Genesis 3 … as well as the story of our lives. 

A spirit of fear is based in merit-based thinking. It functions out of an earning-deserving mentality. Deep down, we believe we get what we deserve. A spirit of fear is tied to a deep awareness that we fail to measure up. No matter how good we are or what we accomplish, we know deep inside that we still fall short of expectations. We fail to measure up to what is expected. We expect to be judged, condemned, and punished for not being good enough.

In contrast to the spirit of fear, the spirit of adoption is grounded in grace. It is the settled assurance that God’s love for us is unconditional. It flows out of who God is — God’s character — rather than in response to who we are or what we do. The Spirit cultivates the spirit of adoption in our hearts by teaching us to rest in God’s grace. We live by faith in the unconditional nature of God’s love. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love” (1 John 4:18).

The Spirit cultivates within us a spirit of adoption. Everything else flows out of this foundational way of viewing and relating to God.