Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.” Although the language in this verse is simple, it is one of the greatest verses in the entire Bible and contains three important matters. First, this verse mentions the Spirit. It is significant that Romans 8:16 does not use the term the Spirit of God, as in Genesis 1:2, or the Holy Spirit, as in Matthew 1:18. Second, Romans 8:16 mentions our spirit. The Spirit and our spirit may not be commonly used terms among Christians today, but in Romans 8 Paul uses these terms to express a special point concerning our spiritual experiences. The third wonderful matter in Romans 8:16 is the children of God. The Spirit, our spirit, and the children of God are three great things.
We may feel that it is extraordinary and prestigious to be a child of the president of the United States of America, but we need to realize that it is much greater to be a child of God. There is a witness, a testimony, between the Spirit and our spirit, that we, children of Adam and fallen sinners, are now children of God. This testimony involves a divine birth. We are children of God not by adoption but by birth. Becoming a child of God through the divine birth is not merely a doctrine but a fact. We were originally born of Adam, but as believers we also have been born of God and have thus become children of God. This is confirmed, witnessed to, by the Spirit with our spirit.
Becoming a child of God is not something we accomplish by accepting certain doctrines with our mind. The witnessing of the Spirit that we are children of God is not with our mind but with our spirit. Two years after I was saved, I read The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. In this book the Christian pilgrim must have a certificate to enter into the Celestial City. As soon as I read this book, I began to wonder whether I had received such a certificate and even began to doubt whether I was truly saved. Although my mind was darkened and did not understand properly at that time, something deep inside me confirmed that I was a child of God. That was the witnessing of the Spirit with my spirit.
The Spirit witnesses with our spirit not that we are spiritually powerful or gifted but that we are children of God. Not every believer is a spiritual giant or a great apostle, but we are all children of God. Being a child of God is a matter not of power, gifts, or impact but of the divine life. When we were born of God, we received the divine life. Those who are born of human parents surely possess the human life. Every living thing possesses the life of that which has begotten it. Because we are born of God, we possess the divine life and are children of God.
From my youth, I have studied the Bible and have read many spiritual books about the Bible. Most of the books I read in my youth said that the focus of the Bible is Christ. However, after reading the Bible for many years, I began to realize that to say Christ is the center of the divine revelation is doctrinally correct, but it is not experientially adequate. If we care for the practical experience of God in Christ through the Spirit, we will find that the focus of the Bible is that the Triune God, according to His eternal purpose, is dispensing Himself into us to form a bride. Experientially speaking, this is the central thought of the Bible.
In order for God to dispense Himself into us, He first needed to create the universe with man as the center. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” In God’s work of creation the Spirit of God played the greatest role (v. 2). The Spirit of God took action to create everything. Man was the last item in God’s creation, and God created man in a very special way. First, God created man in His own image (v. 26). In order to create man, God took Himself as the model, the mold, the pattern. The word image in verse 26 reveals that God’s intention in creating man was that man would become God’s expression. Everything God did in His work of creation was for the purpose of having man as His expression.
Genesis 2 reveals another spiritual aspect of man’s creation. Verse 7 says, “Jehovah God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” The Bible reveals that the breath of life God breathed into man became man’s spirit (cf. Prov. 20:27; 1 Thes. 5:23). Thus, man was created in the image of God and with a spirit. Man’s spirit came directly from God’s breathing. Our body is made of dust and is not close to God, but our spirit comes from the breath of God and is very close to God. When God breathed the breath of life into man, this breath from God became man’s spirit. Therefore, the human spirit is a special matter and a most wonderful thing.