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Originally Posted by Sons to Glory!
Was rereading this thread - what a great discussion and back & forth regarding this great mystery of Christ and the church!
When I came to this last post by OBW (Mike), I read it a few times. Sorry Mike, but your point doesn't hold water and I can't agree that there's no connection between the two verse - there's something much more going on here than what you allude to!
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I think you misunderstood what I was saying. The two passages might have a connection, but that connection does not make what they are saying the same thing.
Related? Maybe or even probably.
The same? No.
Why not the same? Because the mere presence of the word "spirit" does not make it about the same thing. Neither does the reference to crying "Abba, Father" make both passages simply the same.
In the first verse, the word spirit is clearly a reference to the Holy Spirit (and the translators agree because they render it as "Spirit"), and therefore about God himself, in the Spirit, being sent into our hearts and crying out. But in the second instance, the word spirit makes an unspecific reference to something about our being without direct reference to the Spirit or Christ. It is more like a statement about our attitude, sense, feeling, etc. Of course the kind of attitude that would cry "Abba Father" does not simply arise in us from nowhere.
So there is a connection because it is our regenerated being — however you want to describe it — that has any desire or ability to call God "Father" or "Abba." And it might be that Paul simply made a similar reference in two different places in two different ways. But even if that is so, the contexts of the two passages are making different overall statements, therefore these cannot simply be presumed to be the same just because of similarities. My point was not to refuse any connection of thought, but to look at the passages in their separate contexts and see what overall statement was being made rather than just rushing to make them simply the same. Having a lot of "more of the same" is not necessarily an important (or good) thing. Instead, seeing the complex revelation of God is.