Glorification heir of glory and
inseparable from God’s love (Romans 8:15-39)
By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce
Christian Arts Ministries: Biblical precepts
& Gospel music
Scripture reading Romans 8:15-39
8:15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 8:16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.8:17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Present Suffering and Future Glory.
8:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.8:19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.8:20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 8:21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.8:22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.8:23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.8:24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.8:27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
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Verse 15 Sonship or adoption. The act of God that places the believer in His
family as an adult son (v.23;9:4;Gal.4:5; Eph.1:5). At the same time he is born
into the family of God as a child who needs to grow and develop . His position
is one of full privilege; his practice involves growth in grace. An Our
regenerated human spirit, mingled with the Spirit of the Son of God. Sonship in this spirit includes the life, the
position, the living, the enjoyment, the birthright, the inheritance, and the
manifestation of a son. Such an all inclusive sonship is now in our spirit.
Abba. Aramaic for father. After being regenerated, we are no longer merely
God’s creatures; we are His children. Because we have now been born of God and
are related to Him in life, it is very normal and sweet for us to call Him
“Father”.
Verse 16 with our spirit It is not only that the Spirit witnesses and our
spirit witnesses also. Rather, it is that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit.
This indicates that our spirit must take the initiative to witness first; then
the Spirit will witness with our spirit. This reveals that the Spirit of God
today, the all-inclusive Spirit of the Triune God, dwells in our regenerated
human spirit and works in our spirit. These two spirits are one; they live
together, work together, and exist together as one mingled spirit
(1Cor.6:17). We are children of God. This is the witnessing of the Spirit when
we cry “Abba, Father” (v.15) Such a witnessing testifies to us and assures us
that we are the children of God, who possess His life; it also limits us and
restricts us to a living and walk that are according to this life, in keeping
with our being children of God. The Spirit witnesses to our most basic and
elementary relationship with God, namely, that we are His children; He does not
witness that we are His sons or His heirs. Therefore, this witnessing of the
Spirit begins from the time of our spiritual birth, our regeneration.
Verse 17 This show that there is a
condition for us to be heirs. It is not that we are heirs simply because we are
children of God. Rather, after being born as children, we must grow in life to
become sons, and then we must pass through suffering that we may be glorified
to become legal heirs.
Verse 19 An unveiling or appearing
of something previously covered or hidden. Although we are the sons of God, we
are veiled, not yet revealed. At the Lord’s second coming, when we will be
glorified and our bodies will be fully redeemed, the veil will be lifted. The
creation is eagerly awaiting this this revelation will be the consummation of
the process of designation that we are now passing through.
Verse 21 At present the creation is
enslaved under the law of decay and corruption. It only hope is to be freed
from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of
God when the sons of God are revealed.
Verse 23 The first fruits of the
Spirit are simply the Spirit Himself as the first fruits. The Triune God is our
enjoyment; He is everything to us. There will be a harvest of this blessing at
the redemption of our body; that will be the full enjoyment. Today the Spirit
is the first fruits of the coming harvest, the foretaste of our full enjoyment
of God.
Although we have the divine Spirit
as the first fruits in our spirit, our body has not yet been saturated with the
divine life. Our body is still the flesh, linked to the old creation, and it is
still a body of sin and death that is impotent in the things of God. Hence, we
groan together with the creation (vv.19,22) and eagerly await the glorious day
when we will obtain the full sonship, the redemption and transfiguration of our
body, and will be freed from the slavery of corruption. Sonship
This sonship began with the regeneration of our spirit, is continuing with
the transformation of our soul, and will be consummated with the redemption of
our body.
Verse 26 in like manner indicates
that prior to the help of the Spirit mentioned in this verse, there was already
another help of the Spirit, which must be the help rendered to us by the Spirit
as the first fruits mentioned in v.23. This is confirmed by the fact that both
v.23 and this verse speak of our groaning. Weakness
the weakness here is our ignorance of how we should pray. We do not know
the kind of prayer God desires, and we are not clear how to pray, according to
the burden we feel, for our being conformed to the image of God’s Son; hence,
we groan (v.23). In our groaning the Spirit groans also, interceding for us. His
interceding is mainly that we may experience the transformation in life for
growth into the maturity of sonship that we may be fully conformed to the image
of God’s Son.
Verse 27 mind of the Spirit. This
is not the mind of the Spirit that is
independent of us. It is the mind of the Spirit that has been mingled with our
mind (v.6) and has become a part of our heart. The Spirit not only has mingled
Himself with our spirit; He has also mingled His mind with our mind. The
interceding Spirit prays for us not according to something of God but according
to God Himself, that we may be conformed to the image of God’s Son.
Verse 28 Including all persons, all
matters and all things. God the Father answers when the Spirit intercedes for
us, and He arranges our circumstances, causing all things to work together for
good to us. According to the context, the good here is not related to physical
person, matters, or things. It refers to our gaining more of Christ, to our
having Him wrought into our being, that we may be transformed metabolically and
may eventually be conformed to His image, the image of the Son of God (v.29),
that is, that we may be brought into the full sonship. Loving God causes us to
care for His desire and to be willing to coordinate with Him. God’s working
needs our coordination, and our coordinating with God confirms that we are
called by God according to His purpose. Referring to the purposeful
determination in God’s plan. This is God’s purpose to produce many brothers of
His firstborn Son.
In vv.29-30 all the steps
of God’s work are described using the past tense, indicating that in His eyes
all the work has been completed. Because God is the God of eternity, there is
no element of time with Him. God has predestinated us not simply that we may be
sanctified, spiritual, and victorious but that we may be fully conformed to the
image of His Son. This is our destiny, determined by God in eternity past.
Conformation is the end result of transformation. It includes the changing of
our inward essence and nature, and it also includes the changing of our outward
form, that we may match the glorified image of Christ the Godman. He is the
prototype and we are the mass production. Both the inward and the outward
changes in us, the product, are the result of the operation of the law of the
Spirit of life (v.2) in our being. Firstborn
Christ was the only begotten Son of God from eternity (John1:18) When
He was sent by God into the world, He was till the only begotten Son of God
(1John 4:9; John1:14;3:16). By His passing through death and entering into
resurrection, His humanity was uplifted into His divinity. Thus, in His
divinity with His humanity that passed through death and resurrection, He was
born in resurrection as God’s firstborn Son (Acts 13:33). At the same time, all
His believers were raised together with Him in His resurrection (1Pet.1:3) and
were begotten together with Him as the many sons of God. Thus, they became His
many brothers to constitute His Body and be God’s corporate expression in Him.
As the only begotten Son of God,
Christ had divinity but not humanity; He was self-existing and ever existing,
as God is. His being the firstborn Son of God, having both divinity and
humanity, began with His resurrection. With His firstborn Son as the base,
pattern, element, and means, God is producing many sons, and the many sons who are produced are the many believers
who believe into God’s firstborn Son and are joined to Him as one. They are
exactly like Him in life and nature, and like Him, they have both humanity and
divinity. They are His increase and expression in order that they may express
the eternal Triune God for eternity. The church today is a miniature of this
expression (Eph.1:23), and the New Jerusalem in eternity will be the ultimate manifestation
of this expression (Rev.21:11). This book reveals that God’s making sinners His
sons is for this expression (12:5) and points to the ultimate manifestation of
this expression (Eph.3:19). Many brothers
The purpose of God’s foreknowledge, predestination, and calling is to prepare
and produce many brothers for His firstborn Son that on the one hand, they,
together with God’s firstborn Son, may be the many sons of God with the divine
life and nature for the expression of God, and that , on the other hand, they
may be the many members who constitute that Body of God’s firstborn Son as the
corporate expression of God in His firstborn Son, which is the fullness of
God’s firstborn Son, that is, the fullness of God in His firstborn Son
(Eph.1:23;3:19).
Verse 30 Justification is a bridge
that brings sinners, who are redeemed by Christ, from the law’s condemnation
(3:19) into God’s acceptance (5:1-2). In this acceptance God works to conform
them to the image of His Son until He brings them into His glory (Heb.2:10).
Glorification is the step in God’s complete salvation in which God will
completely saturate our body of sin, which is of death and is mortal
(7:24;8:11;6:6), with the glory of His life and nature according to the
principle of His regenerating our spirit through the Spirit. In this way He
will transfigure our body, conforming it to the resurrected, glorious body of
His Son (Phil.3:21). This is the ultimate step in God’s complete salvation,
wherein God obtains a full expression, which will ultimately be manifested in
the New Jerusalem in the coming age.
Verse 34 This verse states that
Christ today is at the right hand of God, in the heavens; v.10, however, states
that He is now is us, in our spirit (2 Time.4:22). As the Spirit (2Cor.3:17).
He is omnipresent, being both at the right hand of God and in our spirit both in
heaven and on earth. In this verse it is Christ who intercedes for us, yet in
v.26 it is the Spirit who intercedes for us. These are not tow intercessors but
one, the Lord Spirits (2Cor.3:18). He is interceding for us at two ends. At one
end it is the Spirit in us, probably initiating the intercession for us; at the
other end it is the Lord Christ at the right hand of God, probably completing
the intercession for us, which must be mainly that we will be conformed to His
image and brought into His glory.
Verse 37 Because of God’s unchanging
love for us that the fact that Christ has accomplished everything on our
behalf, neither tribulation nor persecution can suppress or defeat us; rather,
in all these things we more than overcome and conquer through Him who loved us.
Verse 39 The love of God is the
source of His eternal salvation. This love is in Christ and has been poured out
in our hearts through the Holy Spirit (5:5). Nothing can separate us from this
love of God(vv.38-39). In God’s salvation this love to us has become the love
of Christ (v.35), which does many marvelous things for us through the grace of
Christ until God’s complete salvation is accomplished in us. These marvelous
things provoke God’s enemy to attack us with all kinds of sufferings and
calamities (vv.35-36). However, because of our response to the love of God in
Christ, these attacks have become benefits to us (v.28). Hence, we more than
conquer in all our afflictions and calamites (v.37).
By the end of Chapter 8 this book
has covered the first half of God’s salvation in Christ. This salvation has
saved us to the extent that, on the one hand, we are in God’s acceptance
enjoying the source of this salvation, which is God’s love in Christ, from
which we cannot be separated by any person, matter, or thing; and, on the other
hand, we are in God’s life being conformed by the Lord Spirit to reach the
ultimate goal of this salvation, that is, to enter into the incomparable divine
glory and be glorified together with God(vv.18,30).
Bibliography,
Friberg,
Timothy, Barbara Friberg, and Neva F. Miller et al., eds. Analytical
Lexicon of the Greek New Testament.1st ed. Victoria BC:
Trafford Publishing, 2005.
King James, The Holy Bible, Cleveland, OH: The
world publishing company
Lee, Witness. The
New Testament (R.V.) Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1985.
Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie study Bible (NIV). Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986.
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