For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these
are sons of God. ¹⁵ 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!" ¹⁶
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children
of God, ¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ 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.

Today we move into the spectacular and scary promise of verse
17. Spectacular because it says that all the children of
God are his heirs – we will receive the inheritance of God,
and there is no greater inheritance in the universe. And
scary because verse 17 says that we will have to suffer in
order to receive it. "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."

How the Spirit Testifies that We Are Children of God

But first let's review the main point of the previous verses.
Verse 16 says, "The [Holy] Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit
that we are children of God." If you belong to Jesus Christ, as
verse 9 says, you have the Spirit of Christ. And what does he do in
you? He testifies that you are the child of God. How does he do
that? We saw at least two ways from last Sunday's text.

First, we saw the connection between verses 13 and 14. "If by
the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of
God." So we concluded that one of the things the Spirit does to
show that you are the child of God is lead you, that is,
lead you into war with sin so that by his power you put to death
the deeds of the body.

Second, we saw from verse 15 that the Spirit gives rise to the
cry "Abba, Father!" Verse 15b: "You have received a spirit of
adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!'"
Notice the words "by which." This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
When believers in Jesus find rising in our hearts the cry, "Abba!
Father!" this is the testimony of the Spirit that we are the
children of God.

Let's see this in relationship to 1 Corinthians 12:3. There Paul
says, "No one speaking by the Spirit of God says, 'Jesus is
accursed'; and no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy
Spirit." In other words, the Holy Spirit bears witness with our
spirit when we cry, "Jesus is Lord!" But that is not the only cry
the Spirit prompts in our hearts. Another is, "Abba! Father!" In
other words, the Spirit produces two profound changes in us toward
God: One is a humble demeanor of submission: Jesus, the Son of God,
is my Lord, my Master; I am his subject; he is my ruler, my
sovereign. And the other is the joyful, bold, childlike demeanor of
confidence: God is my Father.

Jesus is my Lord! God is my Father! That is the humble,
hope-filled cry of the Spirit-indwelt Christian. And out of this
humble confidence we are led "by the Spirit" to make war on our sin
and put to death all that does not exalt our Lord and honor our
Father.

Verse 17: Our Spectacular and Scary News

Now in verse 17 Paul gives us added reason to exult over the
truth that God is our Father. And don't miss this. Clearly Paul
wants us to rejoice! You don't tell someone spectacular news about
his future if your aim is to discourage him. And verse 17 is
spectacular news. Yes, it has a scary side to it. Almost all good
news does. But that doesn't take away from how spectacular this
verse is. In fact it probably adds to it.

"If [you are] children, [you are] 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." There are two great truths in this
verse: one is that we are going to receive a great inheritance,
including our own glorification; and the other is that we are going
to have to suffer in order to receive it.

Our Great Inheritance

Let's take them one at a time and ponder what they mean for us.
First, then, you are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ and
you will be glorified with Christ.

What is the inheritance promised here? As you face the pleasures
and the pains of what remains of your life here on earth, what are
you hoping for beyond all this? Do you have a hope beyond this life
that makes the present pleasures look smaller than the present
pains look manageable? This is what Paul had. He wants us to have
it. You see it in verse 18: "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." Paul wants us to share this tremendous
hope: the inheritance on the way to us is so great that it makes
every trouble in life seem small by comparison. What is this
inheritance?

There are at least three aspects to the inheritance.

1. The World

First, the inheritance is the world. Romans 4:13, "The promise
to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the
world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness
of faith." In other words, if you share the faith of Abraham, then
you are a fellow heir with him, and the inheritance, Paul said, is
"the world."

If you are an heir of God, then you will inherit what is God's.
And God owns the world. Psalm 24:1 "The earth is the Lord's, and
all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it." So if the
earth is the Lord's and everything in it, then the heirs of the
Lord will inherit the earth and everything in it. In Psalm 2:8 God
says to his Son, "Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as
Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your
possession." And if we are fellow heirs with the Son, then we shall
inherit the nations.

Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 3:21-23, "For all things
belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or
life or death or things present or things to come; all things
belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to
God." What is our inheritance? The world. The earth and all that is
in it. The nations. All things.

But practically what does that mean? At least it means this:
that everything that exists will serve your happiness. Nothing will
have the final prerogative of trumping your joy. "All things are
yours" means that even the negative things – Paul mentions
life and death in 1 Corinthians 3:22 – will serve
you in the end. In the end God does not merely defeat every enemy
of your good, but turns enemies into servants. "Tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword" – we don't just conquer, we "more than
conquer" (Romans 8:35-37). All things are yours – life
and death – all things are yours. All things will serve your
everlasting joy.

2. God Himself

Second, the inheritance is not only the world, but God himself.
In fact, if we said that our great inheritance was mainly the
things God had made, and not God himself, we would be idolaters.
Consider Romans 5:2b: "We exult in hope of the glory of God." In
other words, the great joy of our hope is that one day we will see
and savor the glory of God himself. And lest you think that his
glory is something different from God himself, consider verse 11 of
that same chapter, "And not only this, but we also exult in
God through our Lord Jesus Christ." "In God!" Not the gifts of
God. And not in this verse even in the glory of God, but in
God.

The great high hope of the Christian church is described in
Revelation 21:3 like this: "Behold, the dwelling place of God is
with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and
God himself will be with them as their God." This was the capstone
of the hope of the Old Testament saints, even thought they had
strong hopes for a land of their own. Psalm 73:25-26, "Whom have I
in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My
flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever."

This is our great inheritance: the Lord himself! O how we need
to cultivate a great taste for him and his fellowship. If he is not
precious to you, what a stranger you are to your inheritance! If
you love his gifts, think on how wonderful the giver must be. And
think what an insult it is to take a gift from someone's hand and
delight in it more than you delight in the giver. God himself is
our portion. We were made for him. And all the good things that he
has made for us are meant to reveal more of him and send our hearts
singing to God (1 Timothy 4:1-5).

3. Redeemed and Glorified Bodies

Third, there is one more aspect of our inheritance found in the
following verses in Romans 8, namely, redeemed and glorified
bodies. The reason this is so crucial is that if we are to enjoy
the world and all that is in it, and if all these good things are
not to compete with God and become idols, then we must have bodies
capable of deeper, higher, fuller joys than we presently have. And
we must be rid of all the pain and crying and tears of this world.
So Romans 8:22-23 says, "For we know that the whole creation has
been groaning
together in the pains of childbirth until now. And
not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits
of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as
sons, the redemption of our bodies."

This is a key part of what it means in Romans 8:17 to be
glorified. We will share in the glory of God in the sense that we
are enough like him (conformed to the image of his Son, Romans
8:29) to enjoy him and all his gifts the way he does. It will all
be from him and through him and to him, and our joy will be full
and his glory will be unmistakably central.

So our inheritance as children of God includes at least this:
the world and all that is in it; God himself as our final and
ultimate portion and reward; and new, glorified bodies that can
enjoy more fully and deeply God and his gifts with no hint of
idolatry.

Suffer with Him in Order to Be Glorified with Him

Which leaves now one more question: what does it mean that we
must suffer with Christ in order to be glorified with him in this
way? Remember what the text (Romans 8:17) says: "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."
Our glory with him – our inheritance – is conditional
upon our suffering with him.

Jesus said it. Luke 9:23, "If anyone would come after me, let him
deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Paul said
it. 2 Timothy 3:12, "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ
Jesus will be persecuted." The author of Hebrews said it. Hebrews
12:6-7, "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises
every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you
have to endure. God is treating you as sons." Peter said it. 1
Peter 4:13, "To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ,
keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His
glory you may rejoice with exultation."

No pain, no gain. No cross, no crown. No suffering, no
inheritance. That's the way it is. And if you ask, "What kind of
pain? Is it just persecution he's talking about? Or is it other
miseries we face in this life?" I answer from the following verses
in Romans 8 that it is all the groaning that comes with the
futility of this fallen age – persecution, calamity, disease,
death. Any suffering that you meet on the road to heaven and endure
by trusting in Jesus. Any hardship that might destroy your faith
and lead you away from God. Read Romans 8:18-25 and see for
yourselves. We will look at it next week.

Why? Because Suffering Works the Perseverance of Faith

But I close by asking why. Does Paul tell us why suffering must
precede glory? We can give at least part of the answer. It's found
in Romans 5:3, "And not only this, but we also exult in our
tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance."
There's the clue: Suffering, or tribulation, works endurance or
perseverance. Perseverance of what? Faith. How? By knocking the
props of self-reliance (and trust in things and people) out from
under us, and making us rely more on God (see 2 Corinthians
1:8-9).

If there were no afflictions and difficulties and troubles and
pain, our fallen hearts would fall ever more deeply in love with
the comforts and securities and pleasures of this world instead of
falling more deeply in love with our inheritance beyond this world,
namely, God himself. Suffering is appointed for us in this life as
a great mercy to keep us from loving this world more than we should
and to make us rely on God who raises the dead. "Through many
tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).

There is no other way. Do not begrudge them. They are hard to
bear. I know they are. But if you keep your inheritance before you,
and if God gives you the grace to see what Paul calls "the riches
of the glory of his inheritance" (Ephesians 1:18), then will you
not say with the apostle, "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"?

My Carriage Is Broken!

Picture this life as a journey on your way to receive a
spectacular inheritance. It will protect you from idolatry and make
all your burdens lighter, and quiet all your murmurings.

Here's the way the old John Newton put it:

Suppose a man was going to New York to take possession
of a large estate, and his [carriage] should break down a mile
before he got to the city, which obliged him to walk the rest of
the way; what a fool we should think him, if we saw him ringing his
hands, and blubbering out all the remaining mile, "My [carriage] is
broken! My [carriage] is broken!" (Richard Cecil, Memoirs of
the Rev. John Newton, in The Works of the Rev. John
Newton, Vol. 1 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1985),
p. 108.)

Amen.