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God’s Spirit Witnesses with Ours

Octavius Winslow courtesy of Matthew Blair, octaviuswinslow.org/biography

Today's Devotional

The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God—Romans 8:16.

Three important things are involved in these words—first, the Witness—then that with which he witnesses—and lastly, the great truth to which he witnesses.

First, “the Spirit itself bears witness.” The great business of making known to a poor sinner his acquittal in the high court of heaven, and his adoption into the King’s family, is entrusted to no inferior agent. No angel is commissioned to bear the tidings, no mortal man may disclose the secret.… Be satisfied with no witness to your “calling and election” but this.… He only can make known the secret of the Lord to those who fear him; all other testimony to your sonship is uncertain, and may fearfully and fatally deceive.

The second thing to be observed in the declaration is—that with which he witnesses—the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit.” It is a personal testimony—not borne to others, but to ourselves—with our spirit.” The adoption of the believer into the family of God is so great a privilege, involving blessings so immense, for beings so sinful and in all respects unworthy, that, did not their heavenly Father assure them by his own immediate testimony of its truth, no other witness would suffice to remove their doubts and quiet their fears, and satisfy them as to their real sonship.…  He who says that he has this witness, but who still remains “dead in sins,”—a stranger to faith in the Lord Jesus—to the renewings of the Holy Spirit—in a word, who is not born of God—is wrapping himself up in an awful deception.…

The last particular is the great truth to which he testifies, “that we are the children of God.” The Spirit is emphatically spoken of as a Spirit of adoption. “For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” … Now it is the peculiar office of the Spirit to witness to the adoption of the believer. Look at the blessed fact to which he testifies—not that we are the enemies, the aliens, the strangers, the slaves, but that we are “the children of God”…

About the author and the source

Octavius Winslow (1808–1878) was an ardent evangelical preacher who served in the United States and in Great Britain. In addition to many books that emphasized the life and work of Christ, he wrote morning and evening devotionals. 

Octavius Winslow. Evening Thoughts. 1858.

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