"...you have received the Spirit of adoption...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. 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 8:15-18
The eigth chapter of Romans is oft-regarded as foundational to the religion of Christianity. It is dense with theology, reasoning, apologetics and explanation.
These specific verses, however, are not just theoretical: they hit us in the "feels."
The mysterious Holy Spirit, frequently relegated to the weird third office of the Trinity, is referred to here as a person: HIMSELF bearing witness in our spirit. An individual, never detached from the Triune God, but still an individual that speaks to the very core of who and what we are.
We can have FULL CONFIDENCE that we are accepted into his family..."provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him."
Though we'd rather run away from feelings of suffering and pain to stick with the vague theology of "kinda goin to heaven someday," this passage simultaneously gives us logical substance and deep comfort in our guaranteed, incomporable glory. That while we work, play, and rest in partnering with God as He restores and redeems His creation, our eager hope and longing is to simply be revealed as God's sons.
Ultimately, this loops us back to key word at the beginning of the passage: adoption. A strange concept that the Creator of the Universe chooses to apply to us, beloved children that he designed and foreknew before time began.
Adoption, though, turns out the be the perfect encapsulation and explanation and attitude for our relationship to the Omnipotent, Omnisicient, Omnipresent One!
"Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name," created us as an outpouring of His love, to be Holy like Him and to bring Him glory (which can also be thought of like addint to His light).
When sin entered into the equation, we were no longer automatic kids of His. All humans since have been "born in sin and shapen in iniquity." We see this in the helplessness and utter selfishness of infants (which sadly many adults never grow out of).
A Christian telling you that "Jesus died for your sins" has become a trite and meaningless phrase. The truth underlying that is thoroughly amazing and immensely breathtaking though: though we were once rebelliously Not-His-People, The Father adopted us back into His Family by seeing us through the blood of His own Son!
Jesus, the Son who has always been equally God with His Father for eternity, sub-mitted Himself to live among us and pay our penalty. He surrendered His om-nipotent power, choosing to wait for the Holy Spirit to descend on Him before doing any miracles. He even followed the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days! This co-equal person of the Trinity, This Holy Spirit, raised Christ from the dead. THIS VERY SPIRIT wants to dwell in each of us and causes us to live in resurrect-ion power; to bear the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience and kindness in every aspect of our lives. To teach us and remind us that we have been adopted into family of God: the family of His Trinity.
Our 2017, American understanding and interpretation of adoption involves paper-work, legal proceeding, and supernatural patience and sacrifice.
This is not far off from the author's first century context (and eternally spiritual context) of adoption. Just because a document authorizes an adopted child to join a family, they don't immediately FEEL accepted and loved and joined with the family's rhythms and joys.
Likewise, simply "getting saved" or "becoming a Christian" doesn't make our lives instantaneously easy or even happy. The deeply theological process and termin-ologies of "sanctification" can be summed up as simply as: we are adopted kids who are still learning how to be loved and to love others the way we have been loved by God.
This sanctification that occurs until the day we leave this earth involves the kind-ness of our Father that leads us to repentance and the Comfort of the Holy Spirit that convicts us, convinces us, and reminds us that we have a King and Friend in Jesus Christ.
As we "consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful man so that we will not grow weary and lose heart," we become more and more like Him-formed in His image like a potter forms clay, until the day we get to see Him face to face.
~~Tim S.
When sin entered into the equation, we were no longer automatic kids of His. All humans since have been "born in sin and shapen in iniquity." We see this in the helplessness and utter selfishness of infants (which sadly many adults never grow out of).
A Christian telling you that "Jesus died for your sins" has become a trite and meaningless phrase. The truth underlying that is thoroughly amazing and immensely breathtaking though: though we were once rebelliously Not-His-People, The Father adopted us back into His Family by seeing us through the blood of His own Son!
Jesus, the Son who has always been equally God with His Father for eternity, sub-mitted Himself to live among us and pay our penalty. He surrendered His om-nipotent power, choosing to wait for the Holy Spirit to descend on Him before doing any miracles. He even followed the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days! This co-equal person of the Trinity, This Holy Spirit, raised Christ from the dead. THIS VERY SPIRIT wants to dwell in each of us and causes us to live in resurrect-ion power; to bear the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience and kindness in every aspect of our lives. To teach us and remind us that we have been adopted into family of God: the family of His Trinity.
Our 2017, American understanding and interpretation of adoption involves paper-work, legal proceeding, and supernatural patience and sacrifice.
This is not far off from the author's first century context (and eternally spiritual context) of adoption. Just because a document authorizes an adopted child to join a family, they don't immediately FEEL accepted and loved and joined with the family's rhythms and joys.
Likewise, simply "getting saved" or "becoming a Christian" doesn't make our lives instantaneously easy or even happy. The deeply theological process and termin-ologies of "sanctification" can be summed up as simply as: we are adopted kids who are still learning how to be loved and to love others the way we have been loved by God.
This sanctification that occurs until the day we leave this earth involves the kind-ness of our Father that leads us to repentance and the Comfort of the Holy Spirit that convicts us, convinces us, and reminds us that we have a King and Friend in Jesus Christ.
As we "consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful man so that we will not grow weary and lose heart," we become more and more like Him-formed in His image like a potter forms clay, until the day we get to see Him face to face.
~~Tim S.
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