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The sin of the world is a false confidence — that a man is a Christian when he is not. The fault of the Church is a false diffidence — whether a man be a Christian when he is. The two are perhaps more akin than they look. Their opposites, at all events — the true confidence, which is faith in Christ; and the true diffidence, which is distrust of self — are identical. But there often is the combination of a real confidence and a false diffidence. Now this text is one that has often tortured the mind of Christians. Instead of looking to other sources to ascertain whether they are Christians or not, and then thinking thus, That text asserts that all Christians have this witness, therefore certainly I have it in some shape or other; they say, I do not feel anything that corresponds with my idea of the witness of God's Spirit, and therefore I doubt whether I am a Christian at all. Note —

I. OUR CRY "FATHER" IS THE WITNESS THAT WE ARE SONS. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit." It is not that my spirit bears witness that I am a child of God, and that the Spirit of God comes in with a separate evidence to say Amen; but that there is one testimony which has a conjoint origin; from the Spirit of God as true source, and from my own soul as recipient and co-operant in that testimony.

1. So far, then, as the form of the evidence goes, you are not to look for it in anything parted off from your own experience, but you are to try and find out whether there be a "still small voice," no whirlwind, etc., but the voice of God taking the voice and tones of your own heart and saying to you, Thou art My child, inasmuch as through Me there rises, tremblingly but truly, in thine own soul the cry, Abba, Father.

2. Then with regard to the substance of it, "The Spirit itself," by means of our cry, Abba, Father, "beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." The substance of the conviction is not primarily directed to our relation or feelings to God, but to God's feelings and relation to us. The two things seem to be the same, but they are not. Instead of being left painfully to search amongst the dust and rubbish of our own hearts, we are taught to sweep away all that crumbled, rotten surface, and to go down to the living rock that lies beneath it. There is all the difference in the world between searching for evidence of my sonship and seeking to get the conviction of God's fatherhood. The one is an endless, profitless, self-tormenting task; the other is the light and glorious liberty of the children of God.

II. THAT CRY IS NOT SIMPLY OURS, BUT IT IS THE VOICE OF GOD'S SPIRIT.

1. Our own convictions are ours because they are God's. Our own spirits possess them, but our own spirits did not originate them. This passage with Galatians 4:6 puts this truth very forcibly. In the one text the cry is regarded as the voice of the believing heart; and in the other the same cry is regarded as the voice of God's Spirit. And these two things are both true; the one would want its foundation if it were not for the other; the cry of the Spirit is nothing for me unless it be appropriated by me. And the whole doctrine of my text is built on this one thought — without the Spirit of God in your heart you never can recognise God as your Father. There is no ascent of the human desires above their source.

2. But if this principle be true it does not apply only to this one single attitude of the believing soul, it comprehends the whole of a Christian's life. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit" in every perception of God's Word, in every revelation of His counsel, in every aspiration after Him, in every holy resolution, in every thrill and throb of love and desire. Each of these is mine, inasmuch as in my heart it is experienced" and transacted; but it is God's, and therefore only has it come to be mine! And if it be objected that this opens a wide door to delusion, here is an outward guarantee. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God." The test of the inward conviction is the outward life, and they that have the witness of the Spirit within them have the light of their life lit by the Spirit of God, whereby they may read the handwriting on the heart, and be sure that it is God's and not their own!

III. THIS DIVINE WITNESS IN OUR SPIRITS IS SUBJECT TO THE ORDINARY INFLUENCES WHICH AFFECT OUR SPIRITS.

1. The notion often prevails that this Divine witness must needs be perfect, never flickering, never darkening. The passage before us gives us the opposite notion. The Divine Spirit, when it enters into the narrow room of the human spirit, condescends to submit itself to the ordinary laws and conditions which befall our own human nature. Christ came into the world Divine, but the humanity He wore modified the manifestation of the Divinity that dwelt in it. And not otherwise is the operation of God's Holy Spirit when it comes to dwell in a human heart. There, too, working through man, it "is found in fashion as a man." The witness of the Spirit, if it were yonder in heaven, would shine like a perpetual star; here in the heart on earth it burns like a flame, not always bright, wanting to be trimmed, and needing to be guarded from rude blasts. Else what does an apostle mean when he says, "Quench not the Spirit," "Grieve not the Spirit"?

2. And the practical conclusion that comes from all this is just the simple advice, Do not wonder if that evidence vary in its clearness and force. Do not think that it cannot be genuine because it is changeful. There are heavenly lights too that wax and wane; they are lights, they are in the heavens though they change. You have no reason to be discouraged because you find that the witness of the Spirit changes. Watch it, and guard it, lest it do. Live in the contemplation of the person and the fact that it calls forth, that it may not, You will never "brighten your evidences" by polishing at them. To polish the mirror ever so assiduously does not secure the image of the sun on its surface. The only way to do that is to carry the poor bit of glass out into the sunshine. It will shine then, never fear.

(A. Maclaren, D.D.)

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KJV: The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

WEB: The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God;