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For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
Romans 8:14 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.
  • KJV For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
  • BSB For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
  • NKJV For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
  • NASB For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons and daughters of God.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

All who are led by God's Spirit are the children of God. The Spirit's guidance marks out God's true family.

Overview

Paul defines the children of God as those led by His Spirit. This leading is the Spirit's ongoing direction toward holiness and away from the flesh. Such Spirit-leading is both an evidence of sonship and a comfort to those who follow it.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 21

  • Gal 5:18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
  • John 1:12But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name:
  • Gal 3:26For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus.
  • Gal 5:16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.
  • Ps 143:10Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.
  • Rev 21:7He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son.
  • Gal 5:22–25But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
  • Rom 8:16–17The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God;
  • 1 Jn 3:1See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.
  • 2 Cor 6:18I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
  • Rom 8:5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
  • Gal 4:6And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”
  • Isa 48:16–17“Come near to me and hear this: “From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it happened, I was there.” Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, with his Spirit.
  • Rom 8:9But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.
  • Hos 1:10Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured or counted; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’
  • Eph 5:9for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,
  • Rom 8:19For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
  • Rom 9:8That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as heirs.
  • Prov 8:20I walk in the way of righteousness, in the middle of the paths of justice;
  • Eph 1:5having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire,
  • Rom 9:26“It will be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ There they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (7)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Romans videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Romans 8:14YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on RomansMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.

How Romans 8:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.