Verse 6
6. Ye are sons As the minor does not cease to be a son upon attaining his majority.
The Spirit of his Son Not merely in the rationalistic interpretation ”the temper of a true Christian” but the divine Spirit indwelling. So Bishop Pearson: “Here the Son is distinguished from the Father, as sent by him; and the Spirit of the Son is distinguished from the Father, as sent by the Father after he had sent the Son. And this our Saviour hath taught us several times. John 14:26; John 15:26. Hence we conclude that the Holy Ghost, although he be truly and properly God, is neither God the Father nor God the Son.” So also Mr. Locke: “He could not be called the Spirit of the Son any otherwise than as proceeding from the Son; so that it is evident he proceeds from the Father and the Son.”
Into your hearts See note on Romans 8:26.
Crying It is the very Spirit itself which in our hearts utters the cry. Not only is there a groaning, (Romans 8:26,) as for a deliverance, but there is a cry, as ascending from our hearts to the Father on high.
Abba, Father Both the popular Hebrew and the Greek form of the name are given in undoubted symbol; we think that both Jew and Gentile are united in this blessed co-sonship with the Son. In the heart of either alike the indwelling Spirit sendeth up the filial cry. Yet this mode of double wording arose from the fact that Hebrews largely spoke two languages, and Greeks would, in approximate Christianity, often become Hebraized. Schoettgen is quoted by Lightfoot as giving a specimen of the title my lord, addressed in both Hebrew and Greek by a Jewish woman to a judge. Compare Mark 14:36, and Romans 8:15.
The word abba, signifying father in Hebrew, is the original of the ecclesiastical terms abbot, abbe, and abbey, in modern European languages.
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