Or, “you did not receive.” The Greek may be understood as referring particularly to the beginning of the Christian life, when the believer is reconciled, justified, and reborn. At that time God sends His Spirit into the heart (Gal. 4:5, 6).

 It is evident that Paul is referring neither to the human spirit nor to the divine Spirit. He is making a more general use of the term “spirit” to express a mood, habit, or state of feeling. Hence, the expression may be translated “a consciousness of bondage,” “a sense of servitude,” “a slavish spirit.” Compare “the spirit of jealousy” (Num. 5:14, 30), “the spirit of heaviness” (Isa. 61:3), “the spirit of whoredoms” (Hosea 4:12), “a spirit of infirmity” (Luke 13:11), “the spirit of meekness” (1 Cor. 4:21), “the spirit of fear” (2 Tim. 1:7), “the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6).

 The bondage, or slavery, which throughout this epistle is contrasted with the liberty of the sons of God, is the bondage of sin (Rom. 6:6, 16, 17, 20; Rom. 7:25) and of death as the consequence of sin (ch. 5:21).

 This implies a relapse into the state of fear in which the Christian lived before he became a believer. The person who is still under law and in bondage to sin (ch. 6:14) is haunted by forebodings under a sense of unpardoned sin (see Rom. 1:32; cf. Heb. 2:14, 15). When the Holy Spirit is received this wretched state terminates. The Spirit brings life and love and freedom from fear (1 John 4:18), with the assurance that instead of being slaves we are sons and heirs.

Gr. huiothesia, literally, “placing as a son.” There is some difference of opinion as to whether the phrase “the Spirit of adoption” is a reference to the Holy Spirit as producing the condition of adoption, or to the spirit that is characteristic of those who are admitted into this relation of sonship. Compare the phrase “the spirit of bondage.” If Paul is speaking here of the consciousness, or sense, of adoption, “spirit” should be spelled without a capital, which is the case in a number of versions. The Holy Spirit is, of course, the One who brings about this awareness of sonship. The consciousness of adoption brings the feeling of affection, love, and confidence such as children have toward their parents, not the servile, fearful spirit of slaves toward their masters.

 It seems that the Jews did not have the practice of adoption, but it was not uncommon among the Greeks and Romans. Paul’s use of this term would therefore be clearly understandable to his readers in Rome. He uses this expression elsewhere in his epistles to describe the typical adoption of the Jewish nation (ch. 9:4), the actual adoption of Jewish and Gentile believers as the children of God (Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5), and the perfected adoption of believers in the future state of glory (Rom. 8:23).

 Adoption is the taking and treating of a stranger as one’s own child, and Paul applies the term to Christians because God treats them as His own sons, even though by nature they were strangers and enemies (Rom. 5:10; Col. 1:21). This implies that, since we by nature had no claim on God, His act of adopting us is one of pure sovereign love (John 3:16). It also implies that, as adopted sons, we are now under His protection and care and that, in loving gratitude, we ought to manifest the spirit of children in willingly obeying Him in all things (see on Rom. 8:12).

Literally, “in which we cry.” It may also be translated, “when we cry,” in which case the words would be connected with the following verse, as they are in some versions (see RSV). If the other connection is followed, Paul is saying that the cry is prompted by the consciousness of adoption as God’s sons. The word translated “cry” usually means a loud cry expressive of deep emotion.

 The first word is a transliteration of the Aramaic, the language commonly spoken by the Jews in Palestine. The second is translated from the Greek, a language also understood by many Palestinian Jews. The giving of the word “Father,” first from Aramaic and then from Greek, reflects the bilingual character of the people to whom Christianity came. But there seems to be no definite explanation of the reason for the repetition. It appears once in Mark (ch. 14:36), and Paul uses it again in Gal. 4:6. Some have suggested that the Greek was added by Paul and Mark simply to explain the meaning of the Aramaic term to their Greek-speaking readers. However, other commentators point out that all three of the passages where this repetition occurs are strongly emotional and that therefore the repetition may indicate intensity of feeling.