Romans 8:14-15

“ For all they who are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received a spirit of bondage to fall back into fear; but ye have received a Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry: Abba, Father! ” ῞Οσοι, literally: “ as many as there are of them who are led...they are ”...The for refers to the promise: ye shall live. It is impossible for one who is a Son of God, the source of life, not to live. Now he who gives himself to be guided by the Spirit of God, is certainly a son of God. The thought expressed in this verse may be understood in two ways. Does Paul mean that living according to the Spirit is the proof that one possesses the rank of a child of God? In that case this would follow from the grace of justification; and the gift of the Spirit would be a subsequent gift coming to seal this glorious acquired position. In favor of this view there might be quoted Galatians 4:6: “ Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts.” But it must not be forgotten that Paul is not here speaking of the gift of the Spirit, but of the believer's surrender to His influences. The reference therefore is to a more advanced stage of the Christian life. The other possible meaning is this: “Ye have a right to the title of sons as soon as ye let yourselves be led by the Spirit.” And this meaning evidently suits the context better. Though one become a son by justification, he does not possess the filial state, he does not really enjoy adoption until he has become loyally submissive to the operation of the Spirit. The meaning is therefore this: “If ye let yourselves be led by the Spirit, ye are ipso facto sons of God. ”

Meyer gives the pronoun οὐτοι, they, an exclusive sense: “they only. ” But we are no longer at the warning; the apostle is now proving the: ye shall live (for). The restrictive intention is therefore foreign to his thought, he is making a strong affirmation.

In the term ἄγονται, are led, there is something like a notion of holy violence; the Spirit drags the man where the flesh would fain not go. The verb may be taken in the passive: are driven, or in the middle: let themselves be driven.

The intentional repetition of the word God establishes a close connection between the two ideas: obeying the Spirit and being sons. A son obeys his father. The term υἱός, son, implies community of nature and all the privileges which flow from it; consequently, when God is the father, participation in life.

The apostle gives in what follows two proofs of the reality of this state of sonship: the one, partly subjective, the filial feeling toward God experienced by the believer, Romans 8:15; the other, objective, the testimony of the Divine Spirit proclaiming the divine fatherhood within his heart, Romans 8:16.