Romanos 8:15

‘For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, “Abba, Father”.'

This is a call for them to recognise that they have not been called as servants (who were often beaten) but as sons (something made clear by Jesus in the parable of the prodigal son - Lucas 15). Left to their own ideas they might well have seen themselves as ‘slaves of God', cowering before a despotic Master (a regular feature of life in those days), but the fact that Jesus taught them that they could call God ‘Father' demonstrated otherwise. His point was that God did not want them to look on Him as a stern Master, but as a loving Father. This idea is thus firmly rooted in the teaching of Jesus about God as a loving Father. It is further supported by the idea lying behind ‘no longer do I call you servants, but I have called your friends' (Juan 15:15) and by His stress on the fact that it was He Who had chosen them (Juan 15:16). God did not see them merely as servants, but as those who had been chosen by Him.

In Gálatas 4:1 reference is made to ‘being held in bondage under the rudiments of this world' as a situation which is remedied when God ‘redeems those who are under the Law that they might receive adoption as sons'. In that case both bondage and adoption are therefore mentioned. But simply to apply this would seem to miss the main point of the verse which has in mind previous bondage to the Law..

‘Adoption as sons' (huiothesia). This has reference to the Greco-Roman practise of the ‘adoption' of a son, in some cases when he became full grown, and therefore able to take on responsibility, so that he might be the heir (the idea actually lies behind Génesis 15:2).

Despite Gálatas 4 then, there is good reason here for seeing ‘bondage' as referring to the bondage of the Law from which they have just escaped by being accounted as righteous. The point is that the Spirit Whom they receive will not take them back again under the bondage of the Law so that they once more live in craven fear under that Law. Rather He will bring them into a state of adoption under their Father in which they cry ‘Abba Father', the tender cry of a child to its father, and live openly and joyfully in His presence. The freely open cry of ‘Abba father' is deliberately in direct contrast to the quivering slave who fears to say anything. It is a hugely significant cry, a cry of trust and confidence, and of assurance that the Father will hear.

‘The Spirit of bondage.' This term is basically a term describing what is non-existent as it is describing what the Holy Spirit is NOT and what we have NOT received. He is not a Spirit of bondage but a Spirit of adoption..