I think the reason for the bad news in verses Romans 8:5–8 was to make clear why the law weakened by the flesh could not do what had to be done. So he gets down to Romans 8:5–8. He says, “Here’s what I meant by ‘weakened by the flesh.’ The law couldn’t do those things because the mind of the flesh is so insubordinate to God. When it meets the law, it produces law-breaking, not law-keeping.” Therefore, the only hope in the universe was that the Son of God would be sent into the world (Romans 8:3). I think that’s how it all hangs together. It’s all meant to give you tremendous confidence that there’s no condemnation for you in spite of the fact that there’s a war going on between Spirit and flesh in your life because Christ has done the decisive work of taking our sin upon him in his flesh. So here we are at Romans 8:9. Our goal is to get through Romans 8:25 in this session.

The Spirit of Christ

Romans 8:9 says:

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit . . .

So all that horrible stuff that was spoken about inability in Romans 8:5–8 is not true of you in Christ. He continues:

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.

What’s the difference between being it in you and you in it? My understanding of that would be to paraphrase it like this, “You however are not in the sway and control of the flesh. You are in the sway and the current of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, if he’s in you.” So if he’s in you, you are in his control. That’s my paraphrase to make sense out of the “in you” and “in him.” He continues:

Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him (Romans 8:9).

Whoa, there’s a shift from “Spirit of God” to “Spirit of Christ.” That’s interesting. Why? Why would he do that? Clearly, the logic demands that they be the same Spirit, right? This is just chock full of Trinitarian implications. But why would he do it? Why the shift? He’s free to do that. The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are the one Spirit of God and Spirit of Christ. He is relating “is not in him” to “belong to him.”

When I think of the phrase “belong to him,” how did I come to belong to him? How did you become His possession? Which triggers in your mind 1 Corinthians 6:19, which says, “You are not your own. You were bought with a price, so glorify God in your bodies.” In Paul’s mind, to belong to Jesus is to be bought, out of slavery, out of the flesh into Christ. So this language of belonging to him is Jesus language in Paul’s mind. Maybe that’s why he shifted to “Spirit of Christ.” That’s a guess. I don’t know. I’m just happy to say “Spirit of God” and “Spirit of Christ” are one Spirit, and anyone who has the Spirit of God is in the Spirit and his sway so that you’re walking according to the Spirit. And anyone who has that Spirit — call it Christ, call it God — belongs to Jesus.

Christ in Us

Then he says:

But if Christ is in you . . . (Romans 8:10)

He shifts from “Spirit of God” to “Spirit of Christ” to “Christ.” Amazing. Why would he do that?” Follow the logic. These are all the same being. He says:

If in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you . . . (Romans 8:9–10).

They all have to be the same. The flow of thought doesn’t work unless they’re the same. This shifting to Christ here triggers us to think of what John says:

The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you (John 14:17–18).

Jesus himself taught the apostles, “The Spirit that’s coming is me. When he’s there, I’m there.” Otherwise, what would the promise at the end of Matthew mean? He says, “I will be with you to the end of the age. But I’m going to send you another comforter to be with you and in you. That’s me.” That’s the way Paul’s talking here, right? It’s the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ. And now he introduces death, which sends up a little warning. It’s going to get bleak in this chapter. It’s going to get really bleak and glorious.

Glory in the Face of Death

There’s no naivete in this chapter about how well it’s going to go for Christians. It is not going to go well in this life for Christians. So now suddenly on the agenda is a warning lest you think because you are redeemed, because your sins are paid for, because you’re delivered from the power of the law of sin, because the Holy Spirit is in you, you skip death. You don’t skip it, which means we are saved in stages. Do you have that category in your mind?

Your sins right now couldn’t be more forgiven than they are. Your righteous standing before God could not be more perfect than it is. But you’re going to die, which was a consequence of sin and the fall. So that part of the consequence has not been overcome by the cross. So let’s read it:

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

And you could say, “Well, I thought you took care of the sin problem on the cross?” His answer would be, “I did. But you will benefit from it in due time. Your sins are gone. Righteousness is provided. Wrath is removed. Everything decisive to secure your future is done. It is finished. But the last enemy will be death and we’ll do that later. You’re going through it.” It’s sobering and he means for it to be sobering.

The Spirit is Life

But the Spirit is life because of righteousness. There’s a big question again, whose righteousness? I have zero problems saying Christians are really practically righteous and need to be. If you don’t put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit, you go to hell. We’ll get to that at Romans 8:13. Real righteousness happens. We do walk by the Spirit. We do bear the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, and kindness. If we don’t, we don’t have the Spirit. This could be my righteousness in principle. Is it?

Or it could be God’s righteousness in Christ counted as mine, which is part of the teaching of Paul in Philippians 3, 2 Corinthians 5:21, early parts of Romans 4, and 1 Corinthians 1:30. It’s the glorious doctrine of Christ’s finished work counted as mine — both his atoning death and his perfect life counted as mine. It could be that. Which is it? Again the way you answer something like that is by trying to follow the thought because one of the answers I don’t think will work here.

It says, “The Spirit is life.” I think that is a good translation by the way. The old translations used to say, “Our spirits are alive because of righteousness.” That’s not theologically false, but the main argument is that this word is not “alive,” it’s life. It’s just a little awkward to say our spirits are life. It’s not awkward to say the Spirit is life, because we already said he’s the Spirit of life back in Romans 8:2. So I think this is a good translation. Paul says:

The Spirit is life because of righteousness (Romans 8:10).

Now, that means if you take righteousness to be my righteousness lived out, the argument goes, “The reason the Holy Spirit is at work in you with life-giving power is that you have become righteous.” That just totally doesn’t work. It doesn’t work on Paul’s terms. You might make it work. It just doesn’t work. Because he said, “The Holy Spirit was poured out because Christ died for us so that we would be righteous.” That’s Romans 8:3–4 and the logic between them. So my answer here is that this is God’s righteousness. This is not my lived out righteousness. This really is justification. This is imputation here.

Raised by the Spirit

Romans 8:11 says:

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

So take heart, you must die, and you will live again. Your body will not be thrown away. We are not platonists who want to be set free from the body. We don’t want to be naked. We want our bodies and we want them glorious, and you’re going to get it. I want it to be covered with hair on top, not so much saggy and fewer wrinkles and better eyesight. I don’t want my wife complaining about my hearing anymore. I’d like to just be so amazing that you would be tempted to worship me. Because it says in Matthew 13:43 that we will shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father. You can’t look at the sun. You can’t look at the sun until your body is glorified. So you’ll have to have glorified eyes to see me.

That’s Romans 8:18–25, so I shouldn’t be talking about it. But it’s here. This is resurrection. So he introduces death in Romans 8:10, and then he lifts that burden from us in part by saying, “He’ll raise you, so take heart.” You can see what I’m skipping here.

Never Debtors to the Flesh

After all that amazing work of Christ on the cross and the work of the Spirit in our lives and the promise of resurrection, Paul says:

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh (Romans 8:12).

You don’t owe the flesh anything. It has done nothing but ruin you, defeat you, and prepare you for everlasting torture. Don’t live to the flesh. Why would you live for your murderer? You don’t owe it anything. Don’t get up in the morning and yield to your killer. We are debtors. And you would expect him to finish the sentence, saying, “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh but to the Spirit.” And he never gets around to that. Paul does this several times. It kind of breaks off and he doesn’t finish his parallel, which would cause you to ask why. And the why is pretty significant here. Something comes to his mind. I believe divine inspiration works incarnationally, that God doesn’t cause Paul never to have rabbit trails in his thinking, he just guards the rabbit trails so that they’re always true. He says:

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh (Romans 8:12).

A War on the Flesh

Now, instead of saying, “But to the Spirit, to live according to the Spirit,” which is what you would expect, he just stops that and feels the need to say something shocking and urgent about why you better be vigilant against your flesh. Because how easy it would be for you to say, “He died for me. I’m perfect in Christ. My resurrection is guaranteed. Those of me justified he glorified. I’m home free. There’s no fight and no danger.” It would be easy to go there as a nice Protestant lover of the doctrine of imputation like me, and he won’t let me go there.

I can remember taking Romans in the seminary and being shocked by Romans 8:13. Shocked. I just had been so oblivious to the flow of thought up until then. Up until I was 22, I thought of the Bible as a string of pearls. I loved them. Pearls served me well, and I never noticed they were chains. It’s a chain. It’s not a string of pearls. It’s a chain with links of brass and steel, and it’s pretty shocking a lot of times. So there I was staring at this. The reason you better not live according to the flesh is “if you live according to the flesh, you will die” (Romans 8:13). What does that mean?

It doesn’t mean physically die because everybody physically dies. And he just said you’re going to physically die and then be raised. So it doesn’t mean physically die. What does it mean? It means forever. It means hell. It means judgment. It means wrath. And he says, “Brothers.” Everything in your theological mind rises up and says, “You shouldn’t talk that way to brothers.” The whole part of this chapter is security. Those who he justified, he glorified. You are rock solid-safe, you who are elect. Yes, you are. It is the point of the chapter. Boldness, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. But if you don’t kill the deeds of the body, you’re going to hell, brother. That’s true. I preach that way.

I believe every pastor should look out on his congregation and warn them they could go to hell because Paul does. Pastors who don’t create a sense of urgency in their people about what their lives mean and what’s at stake in their lives aren’t doing their job. If you say, “Well, how can that work?” Romans 8:30 says:

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Nobody falls out. No predestined person fails to be called. No called person fails to be justified. No justified person fails to be glorified. You are absolutely secure. And if you live according to the flesh, you will go to hell.

Holding Tensions Together

Now, one of the ways people do theology is that they see things that look like they are in tension and they throw one of them away to make it work. That’s a bad idea. The problem is with your brain, not the word of God. And until you take three, four, or five years to work on that, I’m not going to encourage you that you’ve done your job when you throw one of them away. If you can’t figure that out, just preach it. Preach it. Teach it. Teach it to your kids.

Here’s the way I put the two together. So you have absolute certainty for God’s elect over here — all the predestined called, all the called justified, all the justified will be glorified, no dropouts. And here’s a warning to the brothers that says, “If you live according to the flesh, you will go to hell.” It’s not contradictory. Because if you live according to the flesh, you show that you have the mind of the flesh, and you are not in the Spirit and were never born again and are not among the elect.” Which turns Sunday morning into a pretty serious moment. I really believe that.

I used to say to people, “Every one of my sermons is a salvation sermon. I’m keeping people saved. My preaching is an instrument of God to preserve the elect.” And one of the ways you preserve the elect is to talk like Paul talks. You tell them, “If you live according to the flesh, you go to hell.” If you are elect and you’re full of the Holy Spirit, you hear that, you tremble, and with fear and trembling, you work out your salvation and go to heaven. That’s the way he keeps you. It’s not automatic. It’s vital. It’s living. That was the point of last night. The Word of God is used by God to keep you. And one of the ways he keeps you is with warnings.

If pastors say, “I can’t give warnings to my people like this because they’ll start being afraid of falling short,” I would say they’re supposed to be afraid of falling short and the fear sends them flying to the gospel and to Jesus. So if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But what’s the alternative? I don’t want to die. This may be among the most important things we’ll see:

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8:13).

Yes, you will, which means we need to come to terms with what in the world that means. What is putting to death the deeds of the body?

Putting to Death the Deeds of the Body

First of all, what are the deeds of the body? Everything is a deed of my body, right? What about using my body to take soup to a neighbor? Don’t put that one to death. What is he talking about? Back in Romans 6:13, he says:

Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness . . .

So sin is the real culprit here, not the body. Sin is the real culprit. And what does sin do in us? What do the old remnants of the flesh and the old man, the old nature that’s trying to war against the Spirit, do? It takes my hand. It takes my eyes. It takes my sexual inclinations. It takes my body and tries to make it an instrument of sinning in the world. Kill those. And the way you kill them is by going for the root, which is why John Owen, who wrote a whole book on this verse called The Mortification of Sin, said, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” That’s a perfect paraphrase.

Be killing sin or it will be killing you. And he said “be killing sin” not “the deeds of the body” because he knew the root of the body’s problem. The body’s just flesh. It’s skin. It has no moral quality. That’s not a moral thing. There’s bone and there’s blood and there’s skin. That’s not moral. Moral is my sin, making this punch you. That’s moral, and therefore if you’re going to fight that deed, you go for sin or you don’t go for anything.

So how do you do that? He tells us how. He says, “By the Spirit.” Oh, how precious and important is life in the Spirit? By the spirit. How would you do that?

By the Sword of the Spirit

I’m going to take you on a little quick sequence of thought. This is one of the most important little sequences of thought in my life. This is how I try to live my life. Here’s the first clue. Ephesians 6:17–18 says:

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God . . .

Now, why do I go there? Because it said, “But to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit.” Okay, I’m going to kill something. In the armor of Ephesians 6, there’s only one weapon for killing. You usually don’t kill people with a shield or a helmet. You kill people with a sword. You kill the devil with a sword. And the sword is the sword of the Spirit. And it is the word of God. So that’s my first clue.

Paul is saying, “Kill sin. Kill the temptations to be selfish. Kill the temptations to be greedy. Kill the temptations to be covetous. Kill the temptations to be lustful. Kill the temptations to be violent. Kill them. Kill them by the Spirit.” Well, he’s God, I don’t wield him. What do you mean “by the Spirit”? He’s God. He picks me up. I don’t pick him up. That’s the way I struggle with these verses. No, you don’t pick him up, but you pick his sword up. When you pick up his sword, he’s at work mightily. So that’s the first clue.

Hearing with Faith

Here’s the second clue. There’s the sword right there in front of you. It’s the word of God. What do you do with it? Galatians 3:5 says:

Does he who supplies the Spirit to you (that’s crucial) and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith . . .

Now I have the hearing, which is the word, and I have faith. So what do you do with the word? You have the Spirit. He’s got a sword. It’s the word. Use it. How? Trust it. Isn’t that what it says? By hearing with faith the Holy Spirit is supplied. That verse is just about as important as it gets in the Bible, as far as living goes. I want the supply of the Holy Spirit this afternoon in dealing with some tough issues so that I don’t sin but rather be used by the Spirit to bear fruit. I want the just requirement of the law fulfilled in love this afternoon, not selfishness and anger and greed and mean-spiritedness and fear and self-pity. I want all that stuff dead. So Holy Spirit, how do I get you? It’s right there.

He who supplies the Spirit. How does he do it? He does it by hearing with faith. Hearing with faith. Hear what? Word? It’s the word of promise, the word of God, and the word of the gospel. Hear it. But when you hear it, the way you wield it to kill Satan and sin is, “I trust you. I trust you.”

Through Sanctification by the Spirit

The next clue is 2 Thessalonians 2:13, which says:

But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.

That is a paraphrase of what I was trying to say about how security and warnings relate. We are saved through being changed. I grew up in a tradition where eternal security was as mechanical as it could be. Pray to receive Jesus when you’re six and you’re going to heaven. You can live like the devil. It’s not through sanctification. I didn’t see in 25 years that nobody is saved except through sanctification. Nobody. There is a holiness without which you will not see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). I never saw that. That’s what we’re talking about right now. The sanctification of putting to death sin so that you don’t die but live, be saved, happens how? By the Spirit and belief in the truth. It’s all there.

The Spirit has a sword, you wield the sword by trusting it. You will know the truth and truth will set you free (John 8:32). Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth (John 17:17). It’s only if you believe it.

Contentment Through Truth

Here’s an illustration. This is Hebrews. So what I’m going to do now with Hebrews is just give you a glimpse of how that works. We’re just illustrating how Romans 8:13 happens. If you put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit, you will go to heaven. If you live by the flesh, you will go to hell. That’s urgent. We need to know this. We need to live this or we perish. We’re not mechanical. I don’t care if you prayed a prayer when you were six. You can perish if you give all the evidences by living according to the flesh, you’re not his. You don’t belong to him. This is urgent. People need to feel urgent about this.

These are the most important things in the world. And most people live their lives as though nothing was big and horribly real and unbelievably important. Day by day, hour by hour, it is. So here is how you do it with the temptation to steal because you love money. All right. I want to kill the deed of the body called “stealing” and I need to do it by killing covetousness, which is the sin underneath stealing. Here’s how it happens:

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Do you believe that? Does he supply the Spirit to you right now (to free you from the love of money) do so by works of the law — “I can do this” — or by hearing that with faith? There’s no doubt what the answer is. He says, “I will never leave you,” so we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper. I will not fear what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:6). I am free from the craving for money to have more security because I’ve got a promise. I’ve got a word from God. I’ve got a sword with which to slay covetousness if I believe it. That’s how you live your life.

What’s the temptation you face this afternoon, tomorrow, or when you go home? What temptation is there to sin, to greed, to anger, to covetousness, to lust? What are your besetting temptations? You have to kill them. This isn’t perfection. We’ve made that clear in the first hour. We’re not talking about perfection. We’re talking about a bonafide, new direction of warfare by which you are getting victory over sin. It’s not perfectly, but significantly enough that you see, “I’m in dwell by the Holy Spirit who enables me to put sin to death.” How are you going to do it? This I commend to you is how you kill sin.

Led by the Spirit of God

We’ve been on Romans 8:13. He could have skipped it and just said, “We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, but we are debtors to the Spirit, to live according to the Spirit.” He didn’t say that. He introduced one of the most troubling, shocking, important warnings in the Bible, Romans 8:13. It’s worth a book. John Owen, thank you. Why is it that if you put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit, you will live? Why is that? Paul continues:

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (Romans 8:14).

Does that logic work? Oh, it works. Do you see it? Sons of God don’t die. They get glorified. They are heirs of God. Sons are heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him. We don’t die eternally. We die physically. We don’t die eternally and sons of God don’t die. All who are led by the Holy Spirit are sons of God, therefore . . . If I were giving you an exam, that would be my question. Finish that. Therefore, everyone who puts the deeds of the body by the Spirit doesn’t die.

Here’s the necessary premise that needs to be stated. Being led by the Spirit is the evidence that you’re a son of God. Sons of God don’t die, therefore, if you are led by the Holy Spirit, you won’t die because you’re a son of God. Therefore, if you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Therefore, I conclude that “led” here means, led into war with sin. It doesn’t mean marrying the right person. That’s not what’s going on here. Being led by the Spirit to have the right job, led by the Spirit to go to the right ministry, led by the Spirit to marry the right person on, and on and on, this is not the point. The connection between Romans 8:13–14 demands this logic. Let me paraphrase it: “If you by the spirit put to death sin, you will live because everybody led to put sin to death is a child of God and they don’t die.” That’s the logic.

The Witness of the Spirit

So here’s the implication: If you have the Holy Spirit, you hate sin. It’s one of the marks of the witness. We have another “for” here. I just cannot emphasize enough what I discovered when I was 22. And you may discover here that biblical writers argue. They don’t string verses together. They argue. Verses argue for verses. Propositions argue for propositions. And under the inspiration of God, that means it matters to see it. God ordained that we would think about the words “for” and “so” here. Paul says:

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear . . . (Romans 8:15).

This is how you know that those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God because you didn’t receive the spirit of slavery. God doesn’t make slaves, but sons:

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15).

You might wish — I would wish — that the very reality of slavery didn’t exist, pre-Civil War slavery, sexual slavery today, histories of slavery, and all the horrible, horrible abuses of people through chattel slavery. You would wish that didn’t exist, but it does exist. And one of the reasons is so that God could say, “I don’t make slaves, I make sons.” God is saying, “I am creating a family, not a slave force.” That’s awesome.

He created the universe to create a family for himself and have his Son as the older brother. And the Spirit that he’s given us cries out, “Abba, Father,” and that reality is named in Romans 8:16, which says:

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God . . .

What does that mean? What does that refer to? There are at least two things in this passage I think it refers to. The witness of the Spirit with your spirit that you are a child of God is, number one, the awakening of a cry that says, “Daddy.” And I think the word “cry” is important. You can program a computer to say, “Abba Father, Abba Father.” That’s no proof that the computer is a child of God. Do you see the issue? And humans can say, “Abba Father,” and on the last day hear him say, “I never knew you.” That’s why I think he used the word “cry.” He could have just said “say.” He said, “Cry (krazō). Because he meant, “It’s going to be real.”

And the word “Abba,” as you know, is a term of endearment and intimacy and preciousness, and “father” is a massively strong, helpful, supplying, protecting term. So you have to cry and you have this “daddy” word here and then you get this massive, “I care for my children.” You have all that. And when the Holy Spirit produces that in you, it’s a witness that says, “You’re mine. You are mine. My child.” Here’s another way to say it, Jesus said, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 18:3). So behind this word “cry” here is a genuine spiritual change from self-sufficiency to childlikeness: “I need a daddy.”

If you from your heart feel like, “I’m not insubordinate to God anymore. I don’t have a spine of steel. My neck is no longer stiff. My forehead is no longer brass. I’m just a little, needy baby. I need somebody to take care of me. I don’t have any pretensions anymore about being smart or strong. I just need God as my father.” That is the Holy Spirit’s witness. That’s the first thing it means — an authentic, humble, childlike dependent cry to God to be your father. It says, “You are my Father, I need you.”

Evidence of a Righteous Life

The second meaning I think is to realize that what a witness does is give evidence. That’s the first evidence we saw, namely the awakening of that cry. The second evidence that I see in this text is what I mentioned earlier in Romans 8:13–14. Those who are led by the Spirit of God put to death the deeds of the body. If the Holy Spirit is in you, he bears witness to his being there and your being a child of adoption by virtue of creating hatred for sin. So you have these two very different emotions that are created in the born-again heart. One is a little child, a little tender, meek, helpless child that says, “I need my daddy.” And the other is a lion that says, “I hate you sin. I’ll kill you all day long.”

I look for that in people. I look for that combination. I don’t like namby-pamby people. And I don’t like people who are only kill, kill, kill, with no tenderness about them at all because the Holy Spirit’s witness in you does both. One of the reasons it’s so powerfully evident that you’re a child of God is that just like Christ puts together diverse excellencies (to use the words of Jonathan Edwards), human beings led by the Spirit produce diverse excellencies. We are warriors and we hate sin, our sin. I’m talking about our sins. We don’t just get bent out of shape about the world’s sin. I expect the world to do wicked things. This born-again man, if you raise that inclination of the flesh, I’m cutting your head off — at least I’m trying to lean on the Spirit that much.

Heirs of God with Christ

Romans 8:16–17 continues:

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Take a deep breath and be amazed. You really do need to pray as you read the Bible that God would give you the capacities to be amazed. That’s what the Psalmist does: “Open my eyes that I may behold wonders (not just facts) out of your law” (Psalm 119:18). I see facts and black marks every time I open my Bible. I don’t see wonders every time I open my Bible because I’m blind much of the time. So pray right now. God, help me to see this.

If you are a child of God, you are an heir of God. Do you have any emotions corresponding to that at all? How much does he own? And also we are fellow heirs with Christ, the very Son of God, fellow heirs. It’s like with your wife. Peter said, “You are fellow heirs with the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7), and now you see your fellow heirs with God the Son, both of you. Before we go to the word “provided,” what are you going to inherit? Romans 4:13 says:

The promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world . . .

So you’re going to be an heir of the world. Jesus said, “Blessed of the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). So you get the world. This is 1 Corinthians 3:21–23:

So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

He owns all things. And because we belong to Christ, who owns all things, and because God owns all things, we own all things by way of inheritance. We will come into this inheritance of the world and glorification. You see that at the end of Romans 8:17. We will be glorified with him. We’ll see more of that later.

Provided We Suffer

Then there is this word “provided.” Here’s another one of these big ifs, just like Romans 8:13 said, “If you put to death the deeds of the body, you will be glorified.” Here it says, “If you suffer with him, you’ll be glorified.” Here is another if, which raises the huge question like, “Oh, do I need to go out and make some enemies real quick?” Do I have to have a persecution quotient today to hold my assurance up. That’s a good question. It is a good question. What kind of suffering does he have in mind here? Is there a degree of suffering? A measure of suffering? That’s a really big question.

The right way to answer a question like that is to think in concentric circles. Start with the immediate context and ask if there is a clue in the context.

Groaning with the Spirit

So let’s go to the next paragraph. The last one we’ll look at in these last few minutes. The next verse, after saying, “You will inherit the world and glorification with Christ if you suffer with him,” says:

For I consider that the sufferings (zero reason to go elsewhere to connect this word) of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 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 (Romans 8:18–23).

So you put that together. In Romans 8:18–23, what’s the suffering? Persecution is not even mentioned in that paragraph. I’m sure it’s included. What’s mentioned is we live in a world where you can count on it. You’re going to groan, waiting for the redemption of your bodies. In Moore, Oklahoma, there was a man who cut a woman’s head off yesterday. That’s going to happen. That’s going to happen. And when it comes, we will groan, though maybe not long. And the reason we will groan is because that’s what can happen to bodies that are not yet redeemed. You won’t be able to cut my head off in heaven. It will be indestructible. A body is sown in weakness and raised in power. Nobody can kill me on the other side, but here, I can die of cancer, ALS, leukemia, and beheading.

It’s all the sufferings of this present time, which means that when he says, “Provided you suffer with him, you’ll be glorified with him,” he isn’t saying, “Now, go out and make sure you get your quotient of pain today.” He means it’s coming. And if you suffer it with him in reliance on him for his glory received from his hand as your sovereign surgeon and therapist, you’ll make it. But if you make suffering an occasion to get in God’s face and tell him off and say, “If that’s the way you treat your children, I’m out of here,” you will perish. It really matters how you deal with suffering, really matters. He says, “provided you suffer with him,” not against him. If that’s the case, you will be glorified.

The Glory to Be Revealed

Paul continues:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God (Romans 8:18–19).

Oh, so the glory that is about to be revealed to us is our glory. That’s in no sense a belittlement or a diminishment of the centrality of the glory of God. It just means that God means to share it. That’s what Romans 8:17 said. You will be glorified with him. Paul says, “I consider that the sufferings of this present world are not worth comparing.” What’s going to happen at that moment when we are glorified with him as the sons of God, and we come into being like suns in the sky that nobody can look at, that will make it all worth it. That’s what he means.

It’s the revealing of the sons of God. But notice something else in Romans 8:19. The creation is waiting — like tiptoes waiting — with eager longing for that. And I had in my mind for years that God would make a new creation like a playground and then he would fit me for that. Well, in a sense that’s right, but it’s the other way around. That’s what makes this so off-the-charts incredible. It’s the other way around. The creation is waiting with eager longing until we shine like the sun and all the galaxies say, “Can I get in?” That is amazing.

The Freedom of the Children of God

Paul continues:

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly . . . (Romans 8:20).

The creation didn’t want to have famines and pestilence and earthquakes and tsunamis and viruses and Ebola. The creation was subjected to horrible futility and bondage to corruption “not willingly, but by the will of him who subjected it” (Romans 8:20). Who’s that? I used to say, “Well, it was Adam or the devil.” That won’t work because of the word “in hope.” There’s only one person who could subject it in hope. Paul continues:

In hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Roman 8:20–21).

He said it twice now. First, he says, “The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19). And he says it again now here, “The creation is going to be set free from its bondage to corruption” (Roman 8:21). This verb “obtain” is just a preposition in the Greek, which means “into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” You get your freedom from sin and freedom from bondage and freedom from suffering and freedom from groaning and a glorious glorification with Jesus, and then the universe jumps in to share it.

The creation will be set free from its corruption and obtain your freedom, your glory as the children of God. You need to pray hard when you read that.

Creation’s Labor Pains

The best is yet to come. Romans 8:22 continues:

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

The “for” goes back and explains why the creation will come into the enjoyment of the freedom of the glory of the children of God. The reason is because its groaning is not the throes of death, but labor pains. That’s the argument. You watch a woman whose child is stillborn and a woman who’s almost ready to give birth to a live baby, they may sound exactly the same. It hurts. Paul is clarifying, “What is this that we’re looking at? What is this horrible, horrible world that we’re looking at?” Death throes, universe collapsing into meaningless nothingness? Or is it birth pains? And he’s crystal clear. The groaning of this awful world is the groaning of birth pains. Where do you get that? Jesus.

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains (Matthew 24:6–8).

Paul didn’t make that up. There are earthquakes, including 250,000 people dead after the tsunami. What’s the meaning of that? They’re birth pains. That’s what they are. Paul continues:

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.

You can almost see it in English, when he says, “Not only the creation, but we ourselves.” It’s really emphatic in Greek — even we. And you can hear what he’s doing. He’s talking to prosperity gospelers. Seriously. He’s talking to people who thought, “Well, sure the world has to groan. Sure, the creation has to groan. But the king’s kids don’t have to groan. We have the Spirit. We have the cross. We have the righteousness. We have the inheritance. We have the power. Our wives don’t miscarry. Our cattle don’t die. And we get our pickup truck.”

You don’t. He says, “even we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit.” Yes, we do have the first fruits. The rest is coming. Our position is secure. But even we who have the first fruits groan because we’re waiting. Life is a wait. We don’t have it now. The prosperity gospel’s main problem is over-realized heaven. Heaven is later. Now is the time for suffering, groaning, aching, cancer, beheadings, and dying. We are being counted as sheep to be slaughtered. We’re being killed all day long. What’s this prosperity crap? No. We suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him.

We wait for our adoption. You’re already adopted, aren’t you? Yes we are. But the full experience of it is coming. The redemption of our bodies, that’s what we want. I don’t want my body to be an instrument of unrighteousness. I don’t want it to be an agent of sin. I’m tired of its yielding to the law of sin. Well, take heart because you will be saved.

Waiting with Patience

Here’s the final verse:

For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope.

Now, he’s talking to these same people again. If you can see all the power, if you can see all the healing, if you can see all the prosperity, you don’t need to hope. He says, “Now, hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees.” I’m telling you, you’ve been saved in hope not saved in seeing. We walk by faith and not by sight. Again, he says:

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Romans 8:25).

We wait patiently in the hands of our sovereign God.