Skip to content

Add your phone number?

Optional. Nothing is sent unless you choose it.
The Historic Faith
Sign in

Jumpstarter 4 of 10

Ideas to help restart your discussion
Romans Commentary Chapters 1-8  /  Romans 8:14-18 Our Adoption as Children of God  /  Discussion Questions
All Questions
Question 4
The lesson contrasts a “spirit of slavery to fear” (Israel under the law) with serving God “out of love, not out of fear”; how do you distinguish “fear that has punishment” from the kind of sobriety Jesus and Paul use when warning about falling away?
Another way to ask: How can you tell the difference between fear of punishment and the serious warnings Jesus and Paul give about falling away? How do you keep the right kind of seriousness without living scared?

Direct Answer In the transcript, “fear that has punishment” is a daily motivation style—obeying mainly to avoid immediate penalty—whereas Christian sobriety is compatible with love and includes taking warnings seriously without living in constant dread. Love removes the slavery-type fear, but does not cancel consequences for unrepentant disobedience.

Support from Transcript:

  • Paul says we have not received “the spirit of slavery to fear,” which the lesson ties to Jews “under the law.”
  • Explanation: as children, “we serve Him out of love, not out of fear,” citing 1 John: “perfect love casts out fear because fear has punishment.”
  • Origen: in adoption “we do nothing out of fear of punishment. Rather, we do all for the love of the Father.”
  • Yet the transcript holds warnings as real: “both Jesus and Paul give us many warnings about falling away.”
  • It also affirms punishment is possible: unrepentant trampling of commands brings “divine punishment,” and such a person “needs to fear the punishment to come.”
Discussion Follow-ups What would it look like to take warnings seriously while still saying, truthfully, “fear is not what motivates us”?

Jumpstarter 4 of 10
Back Questions Next