Study Desk

it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God;

that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

and not all of Abraham's children are his true descendants; but "It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you."

This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants.

Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac.

"And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,' there they shall be called children of the living God."

And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, "Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved;

I am not writing this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

For the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking; rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults.

In return—I speak as to children—open wide your hearts also.

Here I am, ready to come to you this third time. And I will not be a burden, because I do not want what is yours but you; for children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children.

for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.

in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.

And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,

Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery.

Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.