{"id":1765,"date":"2010-06-09T20:44:17","date_gmt":"2010-06-10T02:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1765"},"modified":"2010-06-09T20:44:17","modified_gmt":"2010-06-10T02:44:17","slug":"romans-816-the-holy-witness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-816-the-holy-witness\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 8:16 – The Holy Witness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 8:16 – The Holy Witness<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Holy Spirit is the true witness of our salvation.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The words \u201cbears witness<\/span>\u201d is from summarture\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which is made up of sun<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201ctogether\u201d or \u201cwith\u201d and marture\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto testify\u201d or \u201cto give witness.\u201d Hence summarture\u014d<\/span><\/em> means \u201cto testify jointly\u201d or \u201cto give witness together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the previous verse we were told that we who are saved have the Spirit of adoption and because of this adoption we can call God our Father our \u201cDaddy.\u201d In the secular world today it is often said that we are all brothers and sisters or we are all God\u2019s children. According to the Bible this is not true. Also, there are many supposed Christians who claim that God is their father when He is not. This was also true in Jesus\u2019 day. As He taught in the temple, this is what He had to say to those who claimed to be believing Jews:<\/p>\n

Jesus said to them,<\/span> “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.<\/span> Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.<\/span> You are of <\/span>your<\/span><\/em> father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. <\/span><\/span>(John 8:42-44a<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

So, if there were so many deceived ones then, and many today who think that God is their Father, how can we tell for sure that we are saved and God is our Father? The current verse tells us how. We know that we are saved, that we have been adopted by God the Father, because He has given the Holy Spirit exclusively to His children. The Spirit is not only our seal and the guarantee of our inheritance; He is also the only true witness of our salvation and adoption by God. That\u2019s what the current verse says.<\/p>\n

So exactly how does the Holy Spirit \u201cbear witness with our spirit?\u201d The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit in those still, quiet moments, when we sense the peace that only He can give. A peace that passes all understanding, a peace that exists in the midst of trials and tribulation. It is that calm assurance that we have submitted to the Father and we have committed to do His will above our own. We have accepted His grace in the form of the blood of Christ because we believe that Jesus died to pay for our sins, and He rose again from the grave. It\u2019s that assurance that we are saved! It\u2019s the Spirit\u2019s witness.<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you know for sure that you are saved? Have you experienced the Holy Spirit bearing witness with your spirit?<\/p>\n

If so, you are a genuine, guaranteed child of God. If not, then perhaps it\u2019s time to fall on your knees before the God of all creation, confessing your sinfulness, and asking Him for salvation, submitting yourself to your Lord and Savior:<\/p>\n

Because if you confess the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the<\/span> dead, you shall be saved. For with the<\/span> heart one<\/span> believes unto righteousness, and with the<\/span> mouth one<\/span> confesses unto salvation.<\/span>(<\/span>Romans 10:9, 10<\/span><\/strong>)<\/span><\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2010 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 8:16 – The Holy Witness The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, Truth to Learn The Holy Spirit is the true witness of our salvation. Behind the Words The words \u201cbears witness\u201d is from summarture\u014d, which is made up of sun, meaning \u201ctogether\u201d or \u201cwith\u201d and marture\u014d, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[931,254,262,932,125],"class_list":["post-1765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bears-witness","tag-holy","tag-holy-spirit","tag-summartureo","tag-witness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-st","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}