Ive read some folks take on adoption and our inheritance with Christ as something that is conditional. They would readily render Romans 8:17s if so be as proof-positive that indeed your joint-heir-hood with Christ is an imputed status based on you suffering with Him. If is a small word, but can introduce a myriad of different meanings and intentions. For example, If it snows, Ill make a snowman. (making the snowman is predicated upon it snowing) If Im sweating, then it is hot. (here, it is using the evidence of sweating to infer the reality of heat) If it were true that the sky is red, then plan photosynthesis would function differently. (here, Im assuming something for the sake of argument to make a point about the arguments ramifications) These arent the only examples, but when we read Romans 8:17, how can we be sure as to which if idea Paul had in mind? Is Paul saying that joint-heir status is predicated upon suffering? Is Paul saying that suffering is simply evidence of your joint-heir status? Or, is Paul making a presumption to make a further argument? There are some who take the first option and view themselves in Christ, but yet there is a better position to attain to. Is this reality? Are there two dimensions, as it were, in Christ? The Greek has different conditional statements and use different words for if to indicate which type of statement is being used (as demonstrated above in the English examples). The Greek word ei is the word found in Romans 8:17 and that condition is the 2nd English example from above. Our suffering is evidence of our status as joint-heirs of Christ, which all believers experience. Lets think about this a little more. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. Youll note that the then heirs is being further defined after the semi-colon. This heir is an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ. Paul is using the second form of the if statement I mentioned above. In verse 16, Paul says that the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Therefore, if it is true that we are children of God, then it is also true we are heirs. Why? Is a child automatically an heir? No - not until the appointed time of the father to declare the child has left childhood and is now counted as a son, mature to make his decisions without the need of a tutor lording over him. This graduation would conclude the son to be worthy of being an heir of the father. Paul shows this in Galatians 4. So, why would Paul make the wild claim that a child (teknon in the Greek) is automatically an heir? (which is usually reserved for sons (uios). What would make it possible to make that jump? What if the child is joined to the heir of all things? What if that child is joined to the Son?...and so much so that the child loses his identity to himself and assumes the identity of the Son? You have your answer right there. If it is true that we are children of God, it is also equally true that we are heirs - in what capacity? - we are heirs of God (the Father) by being made joint-heirs with Christ (the Son). The whole idea of inheritance and being an heir is familial - namely, the relationship between the father and the children. Paul writes in Colossians that our lives are hid with God in Christ. Our union with Christ is so real, that Paul says we have become members of his flesh and of his bones (Ephesians 5). If Christ is the heir of all things (being the Son of the eternal Father), and we are fused in union with the Son, then what would that make believers? We would be heirs of the Father in the same manner in which Christ is an heir of the Father and in that status, we would be joint-heirs with Christ. Both the believer and Christ are heirs together of the Father. Paul then finishes the verse with the same if statement idea. If it is true that we are children, then it is also true that we are heirs, and therefore, it is further true that we suffer with Him for the express purpose of being glorified TOGETHER. Christ experienced suffering and then was glorified. Being in union with Christ affords the believer that same reality. The believer, however, while still in our unredeemed bodies, will still experience the suffering, but knowing the reality that we, in the mind of God, are already glorified together with Christ, we can patiently wait the redemption of our bodies. That redemption is called adoption in Romans, but the idea of adoption is centered on being promoted. We think of this as signing some forms and after a long probation period, the adoption agency grants the child to the adopting parents. However, what we have in Christ is not a crucible we must pass to be counted worthy of the inheritance. Christ conquered that crucible named Calvary and named Death. Therefore, as He is the glorified Son, we to are promoted to that very same status. Thats the idea of adoption. As we suffer in life, we are waiting the promotion (adoption) of our bodies to that same glorified state.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 19:55:02 +0000
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