Audio commentary on this verse

Note 29 at Rom. 8:14: Being led by the Spirit of God is the ultimate standard whereby we may know someone is a son of God. This raises the question, "If you aren't led by the Spirit of God, are you not born again?" It is true that everyone who is not born again is not led by the Spirit of God and everyone who is born again is led by the Spirit of God but that needs some explanation.

First, there are varying degrees of being led by the Holy Spirit. No believer is following the leading of the Lord as much as he could be and if an absolute standard was applied to this verse, no one would qualify to be a son of God. With this in mind, believers have been led by the Spirit to some degree, in making Jesus their Lord if nothing else.

Second, being led by the Spirit does not cause us to be a son of God, but being a son of God causes us to be led of the Spirit. Every believer does have the Spirit of God to lead him but that doesn't mean every believer heeds His leading (see note 3 at Jn. 10:3, p. 299). In context, Paul has just spoken about denying the flesh through the power and leading of the Holy Spirit. Now he is simply pointing out that every Christian has the leading of the Holy Spirit available to accomplish this.

Note 30 at Rom. 8:14: Some people have tried to make a distinction between being a "child of God" and a "son of God." They say a "child of God" is any born-again believer while a "son of God" refers only to a mature Christian. This looks good on the surface but further study will reveal there is no difference.

In Galatians 4, these same terms are used and "son" or "sons" is applied to all believers. Galatians 4:6 says, "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father" and Romans 8:9 says, "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Since every believer has to have the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9) and every son of God has the Spirit of God's Son in them crying, "Abba, Father" (Gal. 4:6), then we can clearly see that every born-again believer is a son of God. Therefore, these terms are used interchangeably and no doctrine about different levels of maturity can be drawn.