1 John 4:13

4:13 By this ¹  we know that we reside in God ²  and he in us: in that he has given us of his Spirit. ³ 

Romans 8:9-17

8:9 You, however, are not in ⁴  the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. 8:10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but ⁵  the Spirit is your life ⁶  because of righteousness. 8:11 Moreover if the Spirit of the one ⁷  who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ ⁸  from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you. ⁹ 

8:12 So then, ¹⁰  brothers and sisters, ¹¹  we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh 8:13 (for if you live according to the flesh, you will ¹²  die), ¹³  but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. 8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are ¹⁴  the sons of God. 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, ¹⁵  but you received the Spirit of adoption, ¹⁶  by whom ¹⁷  we cry, “Abba, Father.” 8:16 The Spirit himself bears witness to ¹⁸  our spirit that we are God’s children. 8:17 And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ) ¹⁹  – if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.

Galatians 4:5-6

4:5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. ²⁰  4:6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who calls ²¹  “Abba! ²²  Father!”

[4:13]  ¹ tn Again whether the referent of the phrase ἐν τούτῳ (en toutw) (1) precedes or (2) follows is a problem. This time there are two ὅτι (Joti) clauses which follow. The first is an indirect discourse clause related to γινώσκομεν (ginwskomen) and giving the content of what believers know: “that we reside in him and he in us.” The second ὅτι clause is epexegetical (or explanatory) to the ἐν τούτῳ phrase, explaining how believers know that they reside in God and God remains in them: “in that he has given us of his Spirit.”

[4:13]  ² tn Grk “in him.” Context indicates that the pronoun refers to God (see 4:12).

[4:13]  ³ sn The genitive of his Spirit here, like the phrase in 3:24, probably reflects a partitive nuance, so that the author portrays God as ‘apportioning’ his Spirit to individual believers. This leads to the important observation that the author is not particularly interested in emphasizing (1) the ongoing interior witness of the Holy Spirit (which is what the passage is often understood to mean) but is emphasizing (2) the fact that God has given the Spirit to believers, and it is this fact that gives believers assurance of their relationship to God. In other words, it is the fact that the Holy Spirit has been given to believers, rather than the ongoing interior testimony of the Holy Spirit within the believer, which is the primary source of the believer’s assurance.

[8:9]  ⁴ tn Or “are not controlled by the flesh but by the Spirit.”

[8:10]  ⁵ tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.

[8:10]  ⁶ tn Or “life-giving.” Grk “the Spirit is life.”

[8:11]  ⁷ sn The one who raised Jesus from the dead refers to God (also in the following clause).

[8:11]  ⁸ tc Several mss read ᾿Ιησοῦν (Ihsoun, “Jesus”) after Χριστόν (Criston, “Christ”; א* A D* 630 1506 1739 1881 pc bo); C 81 104 lat have ᾿Ιησοῦν Χριστόν. The shorter reading is more likely to be original, though, both because of external evidence (א² B D² F G Ψ 33 Ï sa) and internal evidence (scribes were much more likely to add the name “Jesus” if it were lacking than to remove it if it were already present in the text, especially to harmonize with the earlier mention of Jesus in the verse).

[8:11]  ⁹ tc Most mss (B D F G Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï lat) have διά (dia) followed by the accusative: “because of his Spirit who lives in you.” The genitive “through his Spirit” is supported by א A C⁽*⁾ 81 104 1505 1506 al, and is slightly preferred.

[8:12]  ¹⁰ tn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.

[8:12]  ¹¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[8:13]  ¹² tn Grk “are about to, are certainly going to.”

[8:13]  ¹³ sn This remark is parenthetical to Paul’s argument.

[8:14]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “For as many as are being led by the Spirit of God, these are.”

[8:15]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “slavery again to fear.”

[8:15]  ¹⁶ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).”

[8:15]  ¹⁷ tn Or “in that.”

[8:16]  ¹⁸ tn Or possibly “with.” ExSyn 160-61, however, notes the following: “At issue, grammatically, is whether the Spirit testifies alongside of our spirit (dat. of association), or whether he testifies to our spirit (indirect object) that we are God’s children. If the former, the one receiving this testimony is unstated (is it God? or believers?). If the latter, the believer receives the testimony and hence is assured of salvation via the inner witness of the Spirit. The first view has the advantage of a σύν- (sun-) prefixed verb, which might be expected to take an accompanying dat. of association (and is supported by NEB, JB, etc.). But there are three reasons why πνεύματι (pneumati) should not be taken as association: (1) Grammatically, a dat. with a σύν- prefixed verb does not necessarily indicate association. This, of course, does not preclude such here, but this fact at least opens up the alternatives in this text. (2) Lexically, though συμμαρτυρέω (summarturew) originally bore an associative idea, it developed in the direction of merely intensifying μαρτυρέω (marturew). This is surely the case in the only other NT text with a dat. (Rom 9:1). (3) Contextually, a dat. of association does not seem to support Paul’s argument: ‘What standing has our spirit in this matter? Of itself it surely has no right at all to testify to our being sons of God’ [C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:403]. In sum, Rom 8:16 seems to be secure as a text in which the believer’s assurance of salvation is based on the inner witness of the Spirit. The implications of this for one’s soteriology are profound: The objective data, as helpful as they are, cannot by themselves provide assurance of salvation; the believer also needs (and receives) an existential, ongoing encounter with God’s Spirit in order to gain that familial comfort.”

[8:17]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “on the one hand, heirs of God; on the other hand, fellow heirs with Christ.” Some prefer to render v. 17 as follows: “And if children, then heirs – that is, heirs of God. Also fellow heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.” Such a translation suggests two distinct inheritances, one coming to all of God’s children, the other coming only to those who suffer with Christ. The difficulty of this view, however, is that it ignores the correlative conjunctions μέν…δέ (men…de, “on the one hand…on the other hand”): The construction strongly suggests that the inheritances cannot be separated since both explain “then heirs.” For this reason, the preferred translation puts this explanation in parentheses.

[4:5]  ²⁰ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”

[4:6]  ²¹ tn Grk “calling.” The participle is neuter indicating that the Spirit is the one who calls.

[4:6]  ²² tn The term “Abba” is the Greek transliteration of the Aramaic אַבָּא (’abba’), literally meaning “my father” but taken over simply as “father,” used in prayer and in the family circle, and later taken over by the early Greek-speaking Christians (BDAG 1 s.v. ἀββα).