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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Romans 8:16 - 8:16
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The Spirit itself - It should be “Himself” (see on Rom 8:26).
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children - “are children”
of God - The testimony of our own spirit is borne in that cry of conscious sonship, “Abba, Father”; but we are not therein alone; for the Holy Ghost within us, yea, even in that very cry which it is His to draw forth, sets His own distinct seal to ours; and thus, “in the mouth of two witnesses” the thing is established. The apostle had before called us “sons of God,” referring to our adoption; here the word changes to “children,” referring to our new birth. The one expresses the dignity to which we are admitted; the other the new life which we receive. The latter is more suitable here; because a son by adoption might not be heir of the property, whereas a son by birth certainly is, and this is what the apostle is now coming to.