In his translation of Rom 8:14-16, Trinitarian apologist Imad N. Shehadeh rendered v. 16 slightly differently:
For all who are being led by the
Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery
leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by
which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies to our spirit
that we are children of God. (Rom 8:14-16)
Commenting on the use of “to” instead of “with,” Shehadeh notes
that:
Here the translation “testifies to
our spirit” of v. 16 replaces NASB’s “testifies with our spirit.” At
issue, grammatically, is whether the Spirit testifies alongside of our spirit
(dat. of association), or whether he testifies to our spirit (indirect object)
that we are God’s children. If the former, the one receiving this testimony is
unstated (is it God? or believers?). If the latter, the believer receives the testimony
and hence is assured of salvation via the inner witness of the Spirit. The
first view has the advantage of a συν-
(sun-) prefixed verb, which might be expected to take an accompanying
dat. of association (and is supported by NEB, JB, etc.). But there are three
reasons why πνευματι (pneumatic)
should not be taken as association: (1) Grammatically, a dat. with a συν- prefixed verb does not necessarily indicate association. This,
of course, does not preclude such here, but this fact at least opens up the
alternatives in this text. (2) Lexically, though συμμαρτυρεω (summartureo) originally
bore an associative idea, it developed in the direction of merely intensifying μαρτυρεω (martureo). This is surely
the case in the only other NT text with a dat. (Rom 9:1). (3) Contextually, a
dat. of association does not seem to support all to testify to our being sons
of God [Cranfield, Romans, 1:403]. In sum, Rom 8:16 seems to be secure
as a text in which the believer’s assurance of salvation is based on the inner
witness of the Spirit. The implications of this for one’s soteriology are
profound. The objective data, as helpful as they are, cannot by themselves
provide assurance of salvation; the believer also needs (and receives) an
existential, ongoing encounter with God’s Spirit in order to gain that familial
comfort” (NET Bible notes). An added support to this are the parallel concepts
of the leading of the Spirit (8:14) and the crying of sons (8:15). (Imad N.
Shehadeh, God With Us and Without Us, 2 vols. [Carlisle, U.K.: Langham
Global Library, 2018], 1:15 n. 5)
