Obtaining Your Inheritance, Manifest Sons

Robert I Holmes

Romans chapter eight gives us a wonderful view into the mind of God, and covers the subjects of sonship, inheritance and maturity. It covers the process, the results and the roads that lead away from sonship. It outlines for us the fields and farms of our inheritance too.

Jesus leads us through

Paul starts his thoughts by looking at Jesus - our safe harbour from condemnation, the harbinger of the law of the Spirit of life setting us free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:1,2). The One clothed in our own flesh, walking just as we do, and offered as a sacrifice for sin, to fulfil the law. That law is not only fulfilled for us, it is fulfilled in us - who walk according to the Spirit (vs 4).

The first port of call for inheritance is "a mind set on the Spirit" which results in life and peace flooding our souls (vs 6). The second portion is that our "spirit is alive because of righteousness" (vs 10). Thirdly, "The Spirit will also give life to your mortal bodies" (vs 11). Living life by the Spirit is the key here. That's good news for those of us in the later half of our earthly lives. more life for your body!

"All who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons (huios) of God". It is possible to have the Spirit and not be a son, because you are not being led by Him. If you live life according to the desires of your flesh, you are not a son, but a slave to sin (vs 12,13). It is possible to have the Spirit, heal the sick, raise the dead and go to hell (Matt. 7:21,22). If we have the Spirit, we must set our mind on the Spirit and be led by the Spirit. Then we demonstrate that we are His children.

"You have not received a spirit of slavery again to fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption (huiothesia) as sons" (vs 15). Yes you have passed through the adoption ceremony, and your spirit cries "Abba father". The Spirit testifies within you, that you are a child of God. "And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ" (vs 17a). Now that is good news.

Now for the kicker.

Everything has been fine up to this point, but now Paul takes a dramatic turn. He says "if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him" (vs 17b). The Son suffered. It was his path to glory. Death is the path to resurrection. Pain is the pavement to power. Suffering is the road to glory. There's no testimony without the test and the moan!

"The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed (apokalupto) in us" (vs 18). That word revealed is to uncover, to reveal, to unveil. It is a past or present tense. That glory is inside of you, and growing. It is for now, it is for the present time - not for heaven.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor 3:17,18 NKJV). The NIV says into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord.

This glory that Paul speaks of is not some transcendent glory, some heavenly thing seen only by the Spirit. It is not the glory of an angel, or the glory of a spiritual body. This is a tangible glory, prepared for sons, lead by the Spirit! But it is unveiled, revealed, uncovered by suffering.

Creation is waiting. for you!

"The anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing (apokalupto) of the sons (huios) of God" (vs 19). Now pause a moment and ask yourself what creation is. Everything that waits for the mature sons of God, revealed in their moment of suffering.

Consider the creation: the heavens and the earth, light and darkness, the waters above and beneath, the seas and the land, plants and seeds and fruit, the stars and the moon, the fish and the birds, the animals and insects and then God made man. Last of all and the crowing glory of the created order.

Consider the commands man was given. "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over it" (Gen. 1:28). A five fold calling: to flourish, to expand, to fill, to subjugate and to have dominion.

Consider the spheres of labour man was given: 1. God took man and gave him a garden to cultivate and to keep (Gen. 2:15) 2. God brought every creature to man, to be named by him (Gen. 2:19) 3. God gave man a partner, a wife (Gen. 2:24) 4. God gave them power to have a family (Gen. 4:1)

Creation is waiting for every son of God to engage in these spheres of labour. The place you will express your portion of the five fold calling is in creation. Your marriage, your family, the things over which you have domino (the power to name) and our sphere of work.

The result of sin

"Creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in the hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the glorious freedom of the glory of the children of God" (Rom. 8:20,21). Now that is amazing. Man sinned, man fell and so creation was subjected to the same futility not of its own will. But because God wanted creation to be set free by his children!

That glorious freedom is won, is pressed out through work - through suffering. How perfectly ordinary. After the fall, God told the woman "you shall suffer pain through child bearing, and you shall live at enmity with the snake, and your husband will rule over you". To the man he said, "You shall suffer pain as you work the land and it will resist you. By the sweat of your brow you shall work it". We suffer, and creation suffers with us. "Creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And we ourselves groan within ourselves" (vs 22,23a).

On into His will

The good news is that in the end "God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" (vs 28). No matter where we find ourselves, not matter what situation God can work it out for his children - those lead by the Spirit.

Daniel stands for us as a powerful testimony. Taken from Jerusalem into Babylon; taught the ways of Chaldean witchcraft, reared among sorcerers and so called wise men; moving through the courts of a satanic kingdom; surrounded by evil on every side. What do we find the Lord rewarding him with? Lordship over such a kingdom, under a high king who eventually comes to believe in the God in Israel, and who saves the aforementioned evil sorcerers and wise men through his intervention (Dan. 2:18).

Joseph likewise entered slavery, in order to bring salvation and rescue not only to his Hebrew family, but also the entire nation of Egypt: debauched, demon worshiping, idol loving Egypt. The world, in all its "glory" was saved with the wisdom of God expressed through Joseph. This is the wisdom God calls us to be part of - the world on Monday morning, the business community, the fast paced information hungry technologically possessed world we live in. That is our possession and His inheritance!

Bibliography Thwaites, James. "The Church beyond the congregation". Paternoster Press, 2001.