Romans 8:16 KJV
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit,
that we are the children of God
Other translations
New International Version
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
New Living Translation
For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.
English Standard Version
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
Berean Study Bible
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
Berean Literal Bible
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
King James Bible
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
New King James Version
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
New American Standard Bible
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,
Amplified Bible
The Spirit Himself testifies and confirms together with our spirit [assuring us] that we [believers] are children of God.
Study
The Spirit itself beareth witness
What is the nature of this concurrent testimony?
It would seem to be something of this kind.
- The self-consciousness of the believer assures him of his sonship.
- The relation in which he feels that he stands to God he knows to be that of a son.
But, besides this he is aware of an eternal objective cause for this feeling. That cause is the influence of the Holy Spirit.
This passage makes it clear that the Apostle, in spite of the strongly mystic tone of his language elsewhere, never confuses the human and the divine.
The sin of the world is a false confidence, a careless, complacent taking for granted that a man is a Christian when he is not.
The fault, and sorrow, and weakness of the Church is a false diffidence, an anxious fear whether a man be a Christian when he is.
- There are none so far away from false confidence as those who tremble lest they be cherishing it.
- There are none so inextricably caught in its toils as those who are all unconscious of its existence and of their danger.
The two things, the false confidence and the false diffidence, are perhaps more akin to one another than they look at first sight.
Their opposites, at all events – the true confidence, which is faith in Christ; and the true diffidence, which is utter distrust of myself-are identical.
But there may sometimes be, and there often is, the combination of a real confidence and a false diffidence, the presence of faith, and the doubt whether it be present.
Many Christians go through life with this as the prevailing temper of their minds
- A doubt sometimes arising almost to agony, and sometimes dying down into passive patient acceptance of the condition as inevitable
- A doubt whether, after all, they be not, as they say, ‘deceiving themselves’; and in the perverse ingenuity with which that state of mind is constantly marked, they manage to distil for themselves a bitter vinegar of self-accusation out of grand words in the Bible, that were meant to afford them but the wine of gladness and of consolation.
Now this great text which I have ventured to take, not with the idea that I can exalt it or say anything worthy of it, but simply in the hope of clearing away some misapprehensions, is one that has often and often tortured the mind of Christians.
They say of themselves,
- I know nothing of any such evidence:
- I am not conscious of any Spirit bearing witness with my spirit.’
Instead of looking to other sources to answer the question whether they are Christians or not, and then, having answered it, thinking thus, ‘That text asserts that all Christians have this witness, therefore certainly I have it in some shape or other,’ they say to themselves, ‘I do not feel anything that corresponds with my idea of what such a grand, supernatural voice as the witness of God’s Spirit in my spirit must needs be; and therefore I doubt whether I am a Christian at all.’
I should be thankful if the attempt I make now to set before you what seems to me to be the true teaching of the passage, should be, with God’s help, the means of lifting some little part of the burden from some hearts that are right, and that only long to know that they are, in order to be at rest.
‘The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.’
The general course of thought which I wish to leave with you, may be summed up thus: Our cry ‘Father’ is the witness that we are sons.
That cry is not simply ours, but it is the voice of God’s Spirit. The divine Witness in our spirits is subject to the ordinary influences which affect our spirits
Greek
The ☆ τὸ (to) ☆ Article – Nominative Neuter Singular ☆ The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.
Spirit ☆ Πνεῦμα (Pneuma) ☆ Noun – Nominative Neuter Singular ☆ Wind, breath, spirit.
Himself ☆ αὐτὸ (auto) ☆ Personal / Possessive Pronoun – Nominative Neuter 3rd Person Singular ☆ He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.
Testifies with ☆ συμμαρτυρεῖ (symmartyrei) ☆ Verb – Present Indicative Active – 3rd Person Singular ☆ To bear witness together with. From sun and martureo; to testify jointly, i.e. Corroborate by evidence.
Our ☆ ἡμῶν (hēmōn) ☆ Personal / Possessive Pronoun – Genitive 1st Person Plural ☆ I, the first-person pronoun. A primary pronoun of the first person I.
Spirit ☆ πνεύματι (pneumati) ☆ Noun – Dative Neuter Singular ☆ Wind, breath, spirit.
That ☆ ὅτι (hoti) ☆ Conjunction ☆ Neuter of hostis as conjunction; demonstrative, that; causative, because.
We are ☆ ἐσμὲν (esmen) ☆ Verb – Present Indicative Active – 1st Person Plural ☆ I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.
God’s ☆ Θεοῦ (Theou) ☆ Noun – Genitive Masculine Singular ☆ A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.
Children ☆ τέκνα (tekna) ☆ Noun – Nominative Neuter Plural ☆ A child, descendent, inhabitant. From the base of timoria; a child
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