Romans 8:16-17

“ The Spirit itself beareth witness to our spirit, that we are children of God. Now if children, then heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him. ”

The asyndeton form (the absence of a connecting particle) between Romans 8:15-16 indicates here, as always, profound emotion; it announces the more forcible reaffirmation of the same fact, but presented in a new aspect. The expression αὐτὸ τὸ πνεῦμα does not signify the same Spirit (τὸ αὐτὸ πνεῦμα), but the Spirit Himself, as the immediate organ of God. All who are not strangers to the experience of divine things, know that there is a difference between a state formed in us by the Divine Spirit, and expressing itself in the form of prayer (Romans 8:15), and the language in which God answers us directly by means of the Spirit. This difference comes out in the following passage, when the apostle expressly distinguishes the groaning of the Spirit Himself in those who have received the first-fruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:26), from their own groaning (Romans 8:23). We observe a similar difference in the life of Jesus Himself when it is He who says: my Father (Luke 2:49, et al.), or when it is God who says to Him: Thou art my Son (Luke 3:12). So, in this case the apostle means that we are sons of God, not only because our heart cherishes a filial disposition toward God, and inspires us with the cry of love: my Father; but and this is still more sublime because from the heart of God Himself there comes down the answer by the voice of the Holy Spirit: my child. It is not only our arms which are stretched out to take hold of God who gives Himself to us in Christ, but His at the same time which embrace us and draw us to His bosom.

The σύν, with, in the verb συμμαρτυρεῖν, to bear witness with, should evidently preserve its natural meaning: “bears witness conjointly with our spirit,” the feeling of which was expressed in Romans 8:15. But the dative: τῷ πνεύματι ἡμῶν, to our spirit, is not to be regarded as the regimen of σύν, with (“bears witness with our spirit ”); it is our spirit which here receives the divine testimony. The term τέκνον, child, differs from υἱός, son, Romans 8:14, in this, that the latter expresses rather the personal dignity and independence, the official character of the representative of a family, while the second has a more inward sense, and indicates rather community of life. In the one what is expressed is the position of honor, in the other the relation of nature.