14. The true children of God are those who let God’s Spirit lead them.
15. The Spirit that we received is not a spirit that makes us slaves again to fear. The Spirit that we have makes us children of God. And with that Spirit we say, “Father, dear Father.”
16. And the Spirit himself joins with our spirits to say that we are God’s children.
17. If we are God’s children, then we will receive the blessings God has for us. We will receive these things from God together with Christ. But we must suffer as Christ suffered, and then we will have glory as Christ has glory.
18. We have sufferings now. But the sufferings we have now are nothing compared to the great glory that will be given to us.
19. Everything that God made is waiting with excitement for the time when God will show the world who his children are. The whole world wants very much for that to happen.
20. Everything that God made was changed to become useless. This was not by its own wish. It happened because God wanted it. But there was this hope:
21. that everything God made would be set free from ruin. There was hope that everything God made would have the freedom and glory that belong to God’s children.
22. We know that everything God made has been waiting until now in pain, like a woman ready to give birth.
23. Not only the world, but we also have been waiting with pain inside us. We have the Spirit as the first part of God’s promise. So we are waiting for God to finish making us his own children. I mean we are waiting for our bodies to be made free.
24. We were saved, and we have this hope. If we see what we are waiting for, then that is not really hope. People do not hope for something they already have.