How Do We Know?
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. Romans 8:16-17 NASB
Testifies – Sometimes Paul is just obtuse. Peter thought so. I agree. Why can’t he just be plain and simple? Take these verses, for example. Now, we know that he’s trying to get to the point that nothing can pull us away from the love of God, and we know he’s trying to assure the Gentile followers of the Messiah within the Jewish world of Rome that they are fully accepted. But what he says here is so problematic that we hardly dare comment. These verses have been used to justify such theological diversity that it should be quite clear no one really understands what he intended.
Consider the word “testify.” The Greek is the verb symmartyréō. Nothing exotic about the grammar. Third person, present, active, indicative. The “Spirit” (notice the translator’s capitalization) “himself” (the Greek is αὐτό which can be translated as masculine, feminine, or neutral—i.e., itself—the translators choose the masculine because of their Trinitarian doctrine, but it isn’t essential and I doubt it’s Pauline). So, a few technical problems, but easily understood. Not so with symmartyréō. You must have noticed the “martyr” part of this Greek verb. We think of “martyr” as someone who is killed for his beliefs, but the Greek simply means “witness.” You go to a school play to watch your child perform her part. You’re a mártys, a “witness to the facts,” nothing more sinister than that. But our word is combined with σύν (sun) to produce “witness together with.” Lots of theological mileage has been made of this word. Read carefully H. Strathmann’s comment in TDNT (IV, p. 570):
symmartyreín is a common term for “to bear witness with” others, and then, more generally, “to confirm,” or, with the dative, “to agree.” Paul has the term in Rom. 2:15 for the confirmatory witness of conscience. The same usage occurs in Rom. 9:1: Paul’s conscience, in the Spirit, confirms his concern for Israel. In Rom. 8:16 it is the Holy Spirit who adds his confirmatory witness to our spirit that we are children of God. In this last verse “our spirit” is probably not just the soul but the ego as it is shaped already by God’s Spirit, so that the statement of faith that this ego makes is confirmed by God’s Spirit.[1]
Does Paul really say that the Holy Spirit adds his confirmation to our egos? Aside from the suspect wording, there’s a bigger problem. You see, such a confirmation, no matter how it is made or by whom, is entirely private. There are no bells and whistles, no doves descending, no lightning bolts, not even a gentle whisper. So anyone who claims to have internal confirmation from God about his or her status is immune from critical examination. If the “Spirit” witnesses with me, who’s to say it isn’t true? In fact, how can Paul himself claim, “But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him”? Frankly, how would he know?
You see the problem? If confirmation of my status with God is simply God’s internal declaration (whatever that means) that I belong to Him, then no one is in a position to challenge that. I know I’m saved because I know it, and God tells me so. End of story.
But is it the end? I don’t think that’s what Paul meant, despite his rather loose language here. Paul is always about Torah obedience. Paul is always about outward signs of inward change. Paul never endorses the primacy of private spiritual experience. He’s a community man, seeped in Jewish thinking and practice. You simply can’t get away with claiming God’s grace if you don’t demonstrate it in the way you live.
This, of course, is the watershed of Christianity—grace without law—thanks to Luther and others. If Paul is thinking Jewishly, then law and grace are intimate bedmates. You can’t have ḥannûn without ḥesed (Exodus 34:6) because both are essential characteristics of God Himself. If we read this verse as if it drives a wedge between the spiritual and the physical, we have simply read Paul as if he were named Martin. Much to our woe.
There is a reason Paul wanted the Messianic Gentiles of Rome to know about symmartyreín, but it wasn’t to help them fight the Jewish idea of obedience. What reason do you suppose he really had in mind?
Topical Index: symmartyreín, witness with, martyr, Romans 8:16-17
[1] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (p. 570). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
