Victory in Christ - Part 19

This is the next installment of a series I am writing concerning what Romans 6-8 teaches about our sin problem and God's plan for victory. To find previous installments do a search for the title: Victory In Christ. You can find the first installment here.

¹⁶ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

The Spirit of God within us bears witness with our own spirit that we are the children of God. This is something that the Holy Spirit communicates to us in some way. There is a bond there. Peter tells us we have become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). There is a oneness between us and God. Paul tells the Corinthians that no one knows a man really. Only the man's own spirit knows himself. But he goes on to say that we have been given the Spirit of God so that basically we can know God. Here is the way he puts it in 1 Corinthians 2:

¹¹ For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

The culmination of what he writes in verse 17 of Romans 8 is that since we suffered with Christ, we will also be glorified together with Him. And when Christ, who is our life shall appear, we shall appear with Him in glory (Colossians 3:4 Italics added)

Principle 27: As a son of God, you are a brother and joint-heir with Jesus and will appear with Him in glory when He returns. (See also 2 Thess 1:10)

¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; ²¹ because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

The sufferings that we experience now cannot be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us. Not only to us, but in us. Even creation is waiting in eager expectation for us to be revealed as the sons of God. When God brought a curse to bear on all of creation, He did so with the idea that when man's redemption is complete, creation will be released from the bondage it is in. When we are ultimately set free from all that binds us now, all creation will also be set free. This is God's plan and design for the ages.