The Spirit of Adoption

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; bit ye have received the Spirit of Adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Romans 8:15

Sinful man has every natural reason to fear facing his Creator.  The awfulness of transgression should not be lost on us, and the hatred of God for the sins of man is terrible beyond description, but through Jesus Christ all of this is changed.  to the soul that accepts by faith the life of Christ as his own, the bondage of fear is immediately removed.  Was it not prophesied that he would set at liberty the captive?  This is true, gloriously true, and instead of the bondage of fear, we have the Spirit of adoption.  What a beautiful word!  It signifies that though of a different family by nature we are recipients of divine love and have been transplanted into the kingdom of heave by an act of free grace.  

An adopted one does not earn his way into the affection of his parents nor is there anything to recommend him as a member of the family by nature.  He was and is, according to Scripture, "an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, without God and without hope in the world."  His only hope is in divine favor unmerited and undeserved, and this is how it came; this is the Spirit of adoption, this is the Spirit of Christ!  What else could have made Him leave heave and all its glories to walk in the valley of the shadow of death for thirty-three years?  What else would make Him persevere to drink the cup when He could have shunned it and returned to His kingly throne?  It was the Spirit of adoption, Christ's love for man, that led Him all the way to the cross.