Romans 8:16

And his spirit in us talks to our own spirits, and he tells us, “That is right, you really are God’s kids.”

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

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

In Context

15God didn’t give you his Holy Spirit to make you frightened of him. No, he gave you his spirit to make you his kids. You are not like a prisoner that has to work for a cheeky boss, and that boss makes him frightened all the time. No way. You have God’s spirit in you, so you can talk to God and say, “Dad, you are my own good father.”

17We joined up with Jesus Christ, God’s son, so we are part of God’s family now, and we will get some of the good things that God gives to his son. But people gave Jesus a lot of trouble, and they will give us a lot of trouble too, because we belong to him. Yes, we will get trouble, and we will get good things too.

Read all of Romans 8

Cross References

Romans 8:23And we get trouble too. We are Christians, and we have the Holy Spirit in us, but we still get trouble. God gave us that Holy Spirit to show us a little bit of the good that will come later. But right now, we get pain and problems too. So we just wait for God to fix everything up and to really make us his family. Then he will give us new bodies, just like he promised us.

Ephesians 4:30Don’t make the Holy Spirit sad. Remember, he is in you. God gave him to you so that you can be really sure that you belong to God, and that one day God will set you free from everything bad.

1 John 4:13We can be sure that we are joined up with God, and he is joined up with us, because God put his spirit in us.

Matthew Henry on Romans 8:11-17

The Believer's Privileges. ( a. d. 58.) 10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the… Read the whole commentary →

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