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“ . . . you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:15-16 NRSV). The divine Holy Spirit and the human “spirit” cooperate in the working of the “Spirit (or ‘spirit’)” of “adoption” (v. 15) in the life of the believer. The term “spirit” in the Bible when used for the human spirit can refer to anything we think or feel, our likes or dislikes, how we look at things, our view of events or people, our state of being at any moment, whether gentle, fearful, powerful, or any possible range of human desires, emotions, or experiences. This article examines the critical work of the Holy Spirit, who works amid all our groaning in life to occupy our human spirit with the transforming reality that nothing will be able to separate us “from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (vv. 38–39).
Richard E. Averbeck (Wed,) studied this question.