September 14 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Rom. 8:16).

Devotional

As to the great truth thus witnessed to by the Spirit, do not suppose that the testimony is intended to make the fact itself more sure. Rather, it is simply to confirm your own mind in the comfortable assurance of it.

Your actual adoption cannot be more certain than it is. The predestinating love of God and the everlasting covenant of grace secures it to you. Your union with the Lord Jesus confirms it to you. The Holy Spirit of promise seals it to you. "He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will" (Eph. 1:5).

It is not for the benefit of your fellow-creatures, then, that the Spirit bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. Still less is it for the satisfaction of God himself. It is for your assurance and comfort. The testimony is to confirm your own faith, and to console your own heart.

How, then, does the Spirit witness with your spirit? Not by visions and voices; not by heats and fancies; nor by any direct inspiration or new revelation of truth. Far different from this is the mode of his testimony. We may gather from the measure of light granted us that he first implants within the soul the germ of spiritual life, which then, beneath his culture, produces the fruit of "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal. 5:22–23). From these you may deduce your adoption.

If, for example, you, with all lowliness of spirit, and after much prayerful inquiry, discover that, more or less, some of these effects of the Spirit's operation are developed in your experience, then it is no presumption in you, honestly and humbly to conclude that you are a child of God. This is the Spirit's witness, and you cannot deny it without willful blindness, nor reject it without positive sin.

The breathing of the renewed heart after holiness supplies another illustration of the mode of the Spirit's testimony. The panting after conformity to Christ is the Spirit's inspiration. Where it exists, therefore, it evidences that you are a child of God.

Thus, by begetting in you the Divine nature, by producing in you spiritual fruit, and by breathing in your soul a desire for holiness, the Spirit witnesses to you that you are born of God. By shedding abroad God's love in your soul, by sprinkling your conscience with the atoning blood, by endearing the Savior to your heart, by leading you more simply to rest in his finished work, yes, to rest in him, by creating and increasing love to the members of the one family, and fellowship with whatever is holy, heavenly, and useful, he thus bears witness to you that you are a child of God.

Gracious Spirit, Dove Divine,
let your light within me shine;
all my guilty fears remove,
fill me full of heav'n and love.

Speak your pard'ning grace to me,
set this burdened sinner free;
lead me to the Lamb of God,
wash me in his precious blood.

Life and peace to me impart;
seal salvation on my heart;
breathe yourself into my breast,
Earnest of immortal rest.

Let me never from you stray,
keep me in the narrow way,
fill my soul with joy divine,
keep me, Lord, for ever thine.

(John Stocker, 1777; mod. LEW, 2009)

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 2011.