Romans 8:14 says “All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.”
Note to the ladies reading this – the use of “son” is status, not gender and you’ll see as you read on. :-))
So since all Believers are given God’s Holy Spirit upon their trust in Jesus, why then aren’t we all given the status as God’s sons?
From a spiritual perspective, son status is available for the taking. But as Believers we have to trust God that we actually are sons and respond accordingly. Otherwise if we do no apprehend our position as sons then we will be seen as servants due to fear and our lack of faith.
The key words in this verse are “led by”. We must be led by God’s Spirit; not just HAVE God’s Spirit.
Since because of Christ there is now no condemnation (no death sentence)
for those who trust in Jesus, then we should set fear on the shelf; we should not take on the attitude of a servant who obeys his Master out of fear. Rather we should take on the attitude of a son who obeys his Master out of love.
Paul has spent much time in Romans explaining the frustrating conundrum that Believers face: we live with both God’s Spirit and the spirit of an evil inclination living side-by-side within us, so we find ourselves constantly pulled in opposite directions. That is, at times we disobey God and sin even though we know better; even though God’s Spirit is dwelling within us and we have The Law written on our hearts.
As Believers we have the challenge of more or less retraining ourselves. We must learn to be led by God’s Spirit rather than to be led by the spirit of our evil inclinations, the spirit of our former Master. Such a thing is an ongoing process that requires determination and perseverance.
What is that evil inclination that I speak of: It’s the three common things in mankind: The Lust of the Eyes, Lust of the Flesh and Pride of Life.
Why are these evil inclinations in God’s eyes?
Lust of the Eyes is coveting and coveting is a strong obsession to have something, and it dominates our entire being until we have it and is Idolatry because we are focusing our attention and desire on something other than God.
Lust of the Flesh is sexual immorality. God has setup and ordained the sexual relationship between a man and woman to be within the bounds of marriage. Any sexual activity outside of this is immoral. Let’s just leave it at that. One of God’s 10 commands given to Moses was “Thou shall not commit adultery”. God wants to protect our marriages and has put a fence around it with this command.
The Pride of Life is giving into our own will and desiring the glory of what we accomplish and making ourselves into a god instead of giving glory to the Most High God.
Will we give into these lusts at times through weakness? Yes, but over time, we can overcome them.
There is an old saying about how to change behavior: “fake it until you feel it.” That is, you know what you ought to do (the good right thing) even though you sure feel like doing something else (the evil wrong thing). So do the right thing, even if not entirely sincere, until doing the right thing is what your inner self WANTS to do.