I ask you to hear me with an open mind and an open heart. Culture has impacted me, too-although I’m sure that it has not impacted me as much as it has impacted you: I’m from southern California, where there is precious little culture!
The topic of this essay is “The Witness of the Spirit in Romans 8:16.” I will offer both an interpretation and several implications from this text. Now that I have succeeded in stepping on everybody’s toes, let me proceed. Ironically, many who were leaders in the Bible church movement are now spearheading the signs and wonders movement. The second brand of evangelical is more a product of postmodernism-even before postmodernism was in vogue: personal experience reigns supreme.
(And too often there are particular pet views that are unshakeable, in spite of the evidence to the contrary.) One lady in my church touched the heart of the problem when she facetiously declared, “I believe in the Trinity-the Father, Son, and Holy Bible.” Truth is prized more than love interpretation takes the place of application. Sometimes in our zeal to be biblical we forget what it means to be spiritual. This is true even in many so-called “Bible churches.” “Bible” becomes a synonym for a particular set of interpretations about the Bible. The first is, to some degree, a product of the Enlightenment in which reason reigns supreme. Ironically, both brands, I believe, mimic culture. Still, it is true that we have two very different brands of evangelical Christianity today. Perhaps I have exaggerated the portrait just a bit. One church sees Christianity through primarily cognitive lenses the other, through emotional lenses. The name says it all: “Bible Church” “Holy Ghost Cathedral of Praise.” One church spends the majority of its time studying the Bible another spends most of its time praying and singing. It’s like being back in Corinth: “I’m of Paul” “I’m of Apollos” “I’m of the Bible” “Yes, but I’m of the Holy Spirit.” This is not just an issue of authority, but even of how one defines what it is to be a Christian, both individually and communally. Non-charismatic evangelicals typically give their allegiance to the word charismatics, to the Spirit. Among these are the crisis of the Spirit and the word. The Church at the beginning of the 21 st century is facing several crises, many of them of its own making. Consider this introduction as the saddle burr. Introductionīy way of introduction to the discussion of Rom 8:16, I want to talk about a larger issue. There are also implications for perseverance of the saints and for believers working at the highest levels of scholarship (e.g., it is dangerous to think that mere exegesis will give one certainty ultimately, a vibrant relation to God through the Holy Spirit must be at the heart of loving God with one’s mind). One implication of this is that we have assurance of salvation not just because of the word of God but also because of the testimony of the Spirit to our hearts. The passage thus is affirming that the Holy Spirit has an ongoing witness to our inner being.
A comprehensive examination of the usage of summarturevw in Greek literature, as well as other exegetical evidence, leads to the conclusion that this verb means “bear witness to” in Rom 8:16.
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