April 30 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"You have received the Spirit of adoption" (Rom. 8:15).

Devotional

The Spirit of God is the Spirit of adoption. There are two essential features which identify him as such.

First, he imparts the nature of the Father to all the children of the family. In this there is a big difference between a human and a Divine adoption. When a man adopts a child, he can only confer his name and his inheritance upon him. But when God adopts, to his name and inheritance he adds the Divine nature imparted in regeneration. Thus, in the words of our Lord, we become noticeably the children of "our Father in heaven" (Matt. 6:9).

Second, having begotten the nature of the Father, he then breathes the spirit of the child into the heart.

He inspires a filial love. The love that glows in the believer's heart is the affection of a child to its parent. It is not a servile bondage. It is a filial and free spirit. Oh sweet and holy emotion! How tender and confiding, how clinging and child-like it is! Such ought to be our love to God. He is our Father; we are his children. Why should our love to him not be marked by more of the exquisite tenderness, the unquestioning confidence, and the calm repose of a child reclining upon a parent's breast?

The Spirit of adoption also inspires a child-like fear of God. Love and fear are twin graces in the Christian character. The Holy Spirit is the Author of both. And both dwell together and cooperate in the same renewed heart. It is not the dread of the servant of which we speak, but the holy trembling of the child. It is a filial, loving, and reverential fear.

A child-like trust in God also springs from the Spirit of adoption. The trust of a child is implicit, affectionate, and unquestioning. Upon whose counsel may he so safely rely as a parent's? In whose affection may he so fully confide as a parent's? Upon whose faithfulness may he so confidently trust as a parent's? God is your Father, O child of a divine adoption! Let your trust in him be the result of the relationship you sustain. It admits you to the closest intimacy. It invites you to the most perfect confidence. You never have a need, or an anxiety, or a grief, which is not all his own. His adoption of you—an act of his spontaneous and most free grace—pledged him to transfer all your individual interests to himself.

To these we must add a filial obedience—"If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). Obedience, whether to the Savior's precepts or to the Father's laws, is the sign of love. And love is the spring of obedience. "All that the LORD has spoken we will do" (Ex. 19:8) is the language of that heart where the Spirit of adoption dwells.

As new born babes desire the breast
to feed, and grow, and thrive;
so saints with joy the gospel taste,
and by the gospel live.

With inward gust their heart approves
all that the Word relates;
they love the men their Father loves,
and hate the works he hates.

Not all the flatt'ring baits on earth
can make them slaves to lust;
they can't forget their heav'nly birth,
nor grovel in the dust.

Not all the chains that tyrants use
shall bind their souls to vice;
faith like a conqueror can produce
a thousand victories.

Grace, like an uncorrupting seed,
abides and reigns within;
immortal principles forbid
the sons of God to sin.

Not by the terrors of a slave
do they perform his will,
but with the noblest powers they have
his sweet commands fulfill.

They find access at ev'ry hour,
to God within the veil;
hence they derive a quick'ning power,
and joys that never fail.

O happy souls! O glorious state
of overflowing grace!
to dwell so near their Father's seat,
and see his lovely face.

Lord, I address thy heav'nly throne;
call me a child of thine,
send down the Spirit of thy Son
to form my heart divine.

There shed thy choicest loves abroad,
and make my comforts strong;
then shall I say, "My Father, God,"
with an unwavering tongue.

(Isaac Watts, 1674–1748)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.