Heirs of God (Romans 8:16-18)
INTRODUCTION:
We have been in Romans 8 for six weeks already, two weeks before we took a break of 5 weeks for Christmas, and then four more weeks to bring us to our seventh Sunday in this chapter. So far in this chapter we have learned that God has freed believers from sin and death and declared them to never be condemned for their sin, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, we learned that we are enabled to fulfill God’s law, that we have received a new nature or a transformed inner being, we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit for victory, we have received a spirit of adoption, and the Holy Spirit confirms our adoption as God’s children, and today we will see that because we are God’s children we are His heirs and co-heirs with Christ and one day we will be glorified.
God’s Word when speaking of salvation speaks of several parts or stages, such as regeneration, new birth, justification, sanctification, and glorification. And though these various parts can be distinguished, they can never be separated. They must all exist for salvation to be complete, they cannot and do not exist separate from one another, all of them together make up God’s sovereign work of redemption. Justification is the beginning of God’s work of redemption in us and it ends in glorification. Once it has begun God will carry it through to completion, and nothing can cause it to stop and not be completed. John MacArthur commenting on an observation made by Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote, “salvation cannot stop at any point short of entire perfection or it is not salvation.”[1] Glorification is that entire perfection that he was speaking of, and Paul said basically this same thing to the church in Philippi, he wrote in Philippians 1:6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6, NASB95)[2] This morning we are going to look at what it means to be heirs of God and share in Christ’s inheritance and be glorified as He is glorified. Let’s pray and then we will turn to our passage for this morning.
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans 8:16-18. We have already looked at verse 16 but I will add it to our reading so that we do not begin in the middle of a sentence. Please stand if you are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word. Follow along as I read.
Romans 8:16-18,
“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:16–18, NASB95)[3]
These verses are tied closely to those preceding them that we looked at over the last two weeks. Our inheritance is closely related to our adoption as sons of God. “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also…” (Romans 8:16–17a, NASB95)[4] The “if” in the beginning of verse 17 is not an “if” of possibility or doubt, but an if, then, it speaks of reality. It could also be translated as “because.” It could read, If the Spirit of God testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, then as His children we are His heirs also. Because the Holy Spirit is our witness to our adoption, we then are indeed the children of God, as God’s children we are also His heirs.
As I said the last two weeks that Paul’s treatment of our adoption as children of God matches up more with Roman law and tradition than Jewish. This should not surprise us since Paul is writing to believers in Rome. Because of his extensive treatment of Jews and the Law in the former chapters there were doubtless many Jewish believers in the church in Rome, but if their families had been in Rome for several years, then they would have been as familiar with Roman law and tradition as with Jewish. We know from our study of Genesis and other Old Testament books that in Jewish inheritance customs the eldest son would usually receive a double portion of the father’s estate. In Roman tradition the father could choose to give more to one child than to the others, but normally the children received equal shares of the estate.
As God’s children and heirs we receive our inheritance from God, we who have put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, agreeing with God that we are helpless sinners unable in any way to make ourselves acceptable to God, but believing that Jesus Christ makes us acceptable to God by dying as our substitute, paying the full penalty for sin and suffering God’s wrath against sin on our behalf, believing that He was buried and that He rose from the dead on the third day victorious forever over sin and death. When we come to God in this way we are justified by faith and adopted into God’s family as His children and heirs. This inheritance is God’s supreme glory and it is His alone to give and to those who have become His children and heirs through faith in Jesus Christ, God the Father sovereignly gives what is His to His children without exception.
Think about this inheritance that we are to receive as heirs of God, we determine the value of an inheritance by the worth of the one who gives or leaves an inheritance to his children. A wealthy man leaves a valuable inheritance to his heirs, a poor man may leave no inheritance at all to his heirs. But for the believer, our inheritance is from God who is the Creator, Sustainer, and Owner of all of creation and not only is our heavenly Father the source of our inheritance, but He Himself is our inheritance. God is the most wonderful of all that is in creation. When we dwell with Him for eternity the fact that we will be in the eternal presence of our God will be the greatest blessing of all. This is what we have to look forward to as heirs of God. Let us echo the words of the psalmist in Psalm 73:25, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.” (Psalm 73:25, NASB95)[5] Nothing can be more precious for the heir of God then to dwell in the presence of our heavenly Father for all eternity, there is nothing that I desire more than being in God’s presence.
CO-HEIRS WITH CHRIST (Romans 8:17b)
Paul does not stop with us being heirs of God, but he goes on to explain that we are fellow heirs or co-heirs with the true Son of God, Jesus Christ. As fellow heirs or co-heirs we share in everything that the Lord Jesus Christ inherits. In Ephesians 1:3 Paul writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” (Ephesians 1:3, NASB95)[6] and jumping down to the end of verse 10 and into verse 11 we read, “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,” (Ephesians 1:10b–11, NASB95)[7] What is this inheritance that we will share in with Christ? In Hebrews 1:1-2 the author writes, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” (Hebrews 1:1–2, NASB95)[8] These verses say that God the Father appointed Jesus Christ, His Son, heir of all things and because we are fellow heirs with Christ, we too are certain to inherit all that He inherits.
This is were Paul’s parallel of our adoption and being heirs according to the Roman law and tradition breaks down, because according to Roman tradition each child would receive an equal share (fraction) of the whole amount, but for those who are adopted children and heirs of God, we will receive the full inheritance with the Son. As John MacArthur writes, “Everything that Christ receives by divine right, we receive by divine grace.”[9] Jesus illustrated this truth in a parable that He told that is recorded for us in Matthew 20:1-16. He tells of a landowner that goes out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard and they agreed to work a denarius, which was a day’s wages. Four more times this landowner went to the marketplace, at 9 am, noon, 3 pm and 5 pm and each time he hired workers and sent them to work in his vineyard. The last workers hired only worked one hour. When quitting time came the landowner sent the foreman to pay the workers and told him to pay those who were hired last first and on down until the workers hired first were paid last. The foreman began paying those hired last and he gave them each a denarius on down to those hired first they also were paid a denarius. Those who were hired first began to grumble that they were paid the same as those hired last. But the landowner reminded them that they had agreed to work for a denarius and if he desired to be generous to those who only worked an hour, it was his money and he could do with it as he pleased. So will our inheritance be in heaven, with the same graciousness as the landowner, who represents God, all who serve Christ will receive the same eternal inheritance, regardless of differences in each person’s service. We will one day enter heaven and forever be in the presence of God, it will be an eternal joy to be there with Him and as the apostle John says, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is. We will be glorified as He is glorified.
Do you long for this moment, are you looking forward to Christ’s return with eagerness? This is our hope and we should be longing for His return, the final redemption of our bodies, the completion of our salvation when we will be glorified like He is glorified, when we will share in all the glories of heaven and of earth that are ours because we are fellow heirs with Christ. But as we eagerly wait for His return we should not be idle, but faithfully serving the Lord as the Holy Spirit directs us and empowers us to do the will of the Father, sanctifying us by producing His fruit in us and as we carry out the works God has prepared for us to do. Both the apostle Paul and the apostle John speak of our resurrection unto life, when we will receive are glorified bodies and both connect with that hope our sanctification and our faithful service. Paul at the end of 1 Corinthians 15, that great chapter on the resurrection, after describing our future resurrection or rapture ends the chapter in verse 58 saying, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 15:58, NASB95)[10] The therefore of this verse is to look back, it is like Paul was saying, in light of your future resurrection or rapture, persevere and keep being faithful in the work of the Lord, both ministries of the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification. John writes in 1 John 3:2 that when Jesus Christ returns that we will be like Him, we will receive our glorified bodies like His own, and this is our hope, our anticipation and John goes on and writes in verse 3, “And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:3, NASB95)[11] Again how do we purify ourselves, by being led by the Spirit and walking in the Spirit and allowing Him to do His work of sanctification in us, as we cooperate with Him in bearing His fruit in our lives and doing the work of the Lord as He directs and empowers us.
GLORIFIED WITH CHRIST THROUGH SUFFERING (Romans 8:17c)
Notice that neither Paul nor John said that when we do this the Christian life will be all ease and comfort. In the end of verse 17 of Romans 8 Paul says just the opposite of that, after declaring that we are fellow heirs with Christ, he writes, “…if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” (Romans 8:17c, NASB95)[12] Paul alluded to this in that last verse of 1 Corinthians 15, he told us to be steadfast and immovable, in other words, don’t give up, stand your ground and persevere. The only reason we would need to be steadfast and immovable is because of suffering. This is not something that we want to hear, and it is not something that we tell people when we share the gospel message, but we should tell them so that they can count the cost of following Christ. Paul in this verse is telling us that the present proof of our ultimate future glory comes through suffering on our Lord’s behalf. Paul calls it suffering with Him.
Remember this present world system belongs to Satan, he is the one who reigns over it and he hates God and he hates God’s people. Because this is true it is inevitable that God’s people will suffer, and that suffering will come in the form of persecution which can be anything from mere verbal abuse as one extreme and martyrdom at the other extreme. No true believer who truly desires to live for God, to live out his faith and walk by the Spirit is exempt from mockery, scorn, ridicule, or any other form of persecution. We have not known persecution in this country like believers in some other countries face, but I believe if our nation continues to go the route that it is going now we are going to learn what if means to suffer for our faith more than just being simply mocked or scorned or ridiculed. But this suffering is proof that we truly belong to Jesus Christ and that our hope of heavenly glory is not in vain, as Paul said in that last verse of 1 Corinthians 15, knowing that our toil is not in vain for the Lord, because through that toil that will produce suffering, Paul tells us that ultimately we will be glorified with Christ in His glory.
Jesus warned the apostles of the hatred of the world because they identified with Him. Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:12, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Timothy 3:12, NASB95)[13] Peter also said the same thing in his first epistle that was our Scripture reading for this morning, he wrote in 1 Peter 5:10, “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” (1 Peter 5:10, NASB95)[14] In other words, Peter is saying that suffering is a vital part of our spiritual growth to bring us to spiritual maturity. Our suffering in this life will result in our reigning in glory with Christ, our suffering in this life in Christ brings glory to God. Why does God allow His children to suffer? One reason is because suffering separates those who truly belong to the Lord and those who only profess to belonging to the Lord. When we suffer in this life it reflects the true condition of our soul. God allows suffering because it either drives us to Him in dependence or is drives us away from Him showing that we never truly knew Him. It is another evidence of true salvation. I believe that very soon even in this country that those who take a biblical stand for Christ will suffer, I believe we are going to be persecuted and unfortunately some of this persecution will come from those who profess to know Christ but by their deeds they deny Him.
OUR SUFFERING COMPARED TO OUR FUTURE GLORY (Romans 8:18)
Suffering is inevitable but Paul does not leave us there but calls us to consider, a word in Greek that refers to a numerical calculation, but used figuratively as Paul does here to reaching a settled conclusion, to come to an understanding of the facts through careful study and reasoning. What Paul wants us to understand is the settled conclusion that he has come to, and that conclusion is that any suffering that we do for the sake of Christ is a small price to pay for the gain of glory that will be ours because of our suffering. Paul in this final verse for this morning says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18, NASB95)[15]
The word used in this verse translated “sufferings” is the same word that is used of Christ’s sufferings. Jesus Christ is our supreme example of suffering for righteousness’ sake. His suffering was out of obedience to God the Father so that the plan of redemption might be accomplished. The author of Hebrews speaks of the obedient suffering of Christ when he writes in Hebrews 2:10, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.” (Hebrews 2:10, NASB95)[16] The author of Hebrews is not saying that Jesus Christ was imperfect until He suffered, because He was perfect in His divine nature, and through His obedience to the Father His human nature was proved to be perfect, which included suffering so that He might bring many sons to glory. If Jesus Christ had not been obedient to the Father to go to the cross than the plan of redemption would have never been accomplished, but Jesus Christ was obedient to the Father’s will being subject to Him and through His sufferings He became an understanding High Priest for those who put their faith in Him and through His obedience He established perfect righteousness to be imputed to those who believe. Because Christ suffered in obedience to the Father we suffer in obedience to Christ. But only those who know Christ and have experienced His work of saving grace in their lives have hope when they suffer, we have great hope that one day our suffering will be over and we know that our suffering was not in vain, but that it will actually add to our eternal glory. Our sufferings will seem so trivial when compared to the glory that will be revealed to us. Paul told the Corinthian believers in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16–18, NASB95)[17] Any affliction or suffering, or persecution that we receive will pale in comparison to the glory that will be ours for all eternity. Suffering is inevitable for the believer who makes a biblical stand for Christ, God Word declares this to be true, but that suffering is producing an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond even comparing the two with each other. God your Father loves you and wants to you to be pure as Jesus Christ is pure and purification comes through suffering for Christ’s sake.
CONCULSION:
Paul started out this passage reminding us that as children of God we are also heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Then he spoke of our sufferings with Christ, something that the world tries to avoid, but our sufferings with Christ mean that we will also be glorified with Christ. The health and wealth gospel or the prosperity gospel that is so popular in our world today because it does not have any suffering or adversity, instead it promises ease and comfort and wealth and health if you have enough faith. This is the good news that the world wants to hear, and it is a worldly gospel that is false, this is not the gospel found in Scripture, but found only on the lips of false preachers, wolves in sheep’s clothing. The good news of Jesus Christ announced by Jesus Christ and preached by Paul and the apostles includes the promise of suffering for His sake. So you must count the cost when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, because anyone who desires to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, but the suffering of this world do not compare with the glory that will be revealed to us. Let me close with a quote from John MacArthur, “As followers of Christ, our suffering comes from men, whereas our glory comes from God. Our suffering is earthly, whereas our glory is heavenly. Our suffering is short, whereas our glory is forever. Our suffering is trivial, whereas our glory is limitless. Our suffering is in our mortal and corrupted bodies, whereas our glory will be in our perfected and imperishable bodies.”[18]
[1]MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Romans 1-8. Chicago, IL : Moody Press, 1991.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[9]MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Romans 1-8. Chicago, IL : Moody Press, 1991.
[10]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[12]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[13]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[14]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[15]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[16]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[17]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[18]MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary–Romans 1-8. Chicago, IL : Moody Press, 1991.