Van-guard (văn’gärd), noun: “The foremost or leading position in a trend or movement.”
the journey forward... exploring the emerging church... navigating spiritual formation... seeking to transform the world... ...through Christ
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Van-guard (văn’gärd), noun: “The foremost or leading position in a trend or movement.” the journey forward... exploring the emerging church... navigating spiritual formation... seeking to transform the world... ...through Christ |
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Inheritance
and Suffering Romans
8:17-18 "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. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the
glory that will be revealed in us." Two
years ago on a beautiful Tuesday morning, I sat outside at the Starbucks at the
Strip and sipped on coffee, reading. I began to overhear people talking about
airplanes crashing into buildings—some were skeptical, the rumors were
conflicting. I called home, and asked Linda to turn on the TV to see what had
happened. Her voice trembled as she described what she was watching on Good
Morning America. Then I noticed that a lot of planes were landing at
Akron-Canton airport (a lot!), but none were taking off. I
picked Trey up at Preschool, and then headed home to watch the horror of what
had happened. The suffering was more than anyone could possibly comprehend. It
was simply shocking. The
shock of that day drove people to church—attendance records were set. But as
people found themselves back in church, or there for the first time, they
found that the message of Christ was in conflict with the message of our
nation’s Social Religion. The message they heard at church was not what they
wanted to hear. They
were expecting to sing songs glorifying They
were expecting to be told that they were strong as Americans and could overcome
anything in the strength of their humanity. Instead, they were told that God
seeks a humble people and that we can only overcome when we admit the weakness
of our humanity. They
were expecting to find meaning in the suffering by proclaiming that we will
survive in American individual and united strength and that the This
was not what Americans wanted to hear. We wanted to be encouraged that we will
survive in our own strength—that we will endure because we are strong as
humans, and especially since we are Americans. But
the message of Christianity is that this kind of pride flies in the face of the
God who wants humble people to bow before Him and seek His glory, and his glory
alone. Not As
quickly as churches filled after 9/11, they emptied again. And on the second
anniversary of that terrible day in our nation’s history, we again sadly
worship at the altar of our humanism, our American swagger, and in our own
strength to overcome. This
passage (Romans I
want you to stop and think of your lot in life—that which seems to be causing
you the most suffering. Now imagine it placed before you as you look into
God’s Word. As we look at this passage, look as well at your suffering—and
let’s see what God’s Word will do to transform the way we see that
suffering. 1.
God’s Children are Heirs (Romans 8:17a) Last
week, we discovered the wonder of being adopted as God’s children. Through our
faith in the One and Only “Son of God,” we who are “in Christ” are now
given the “Spirit of Sonship”—making us the children of God. Jesus Christ
is the fulfillment of all that the People of God were meant to be in the
Old Testament, but could not be in their own fleshliness. They were supposed to
be God’s “son”—obedient in relationship with the Father. But the
consistent testimony of the Hebrew Bible is that the Israelites continually
failed as God’s son. Now,
in verse 17, we are introduced to the further implications of being the children
of God. “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and
co-heirs with Christ…” Children
are heirs of the promised inheritance the Father will give them. And if you have
placed your faith in Jesus Christ, then you are an heir. An heir of what?
Here
is an outline (an overview of Biblical teaching) on Salvation History with an
emphasis on the inheritance aspect of it: It is rich and deeply meaningful—for
it permeates the entire Bible and is given to you as a child of God. a.
The “inheritance” in the Old Testament was introduced in Genesis 17. A
certain land was promised to Abraham and to his “seed” (his decedents). The
land is God’s property—he owns it. God will not die and then give this land
to his son as an inheritance, he will continue to live in the land—it will be
the place for the children and the Father to live together in perfect
relationship. The land is the place where God lives and where a special people
can live to worship him. The land is given to the people of Israel as long as
they, through faith, remain in relationship with God. But if they turn away, if
the nation proves not to be his “son” through disobedience, they will not
receive the inheritance. b.
God later delivers the Israelites out of their slavery in Egypt and calls them
his “firstborn son” (Ex. 4:22)—the firstborn son is the one who receives
the inheritance. They finally entered the Promised Land, won it by conquest, and
then set it up for the perfect relationship with God they are called to have. c.
But God still owned the land, and in order to live and remain in the land, the
Israelites are told that they must follow God’s commandments. They fail
miserably to live up to the standards that being God’s “son” entails. So
they are exiled from the land, the place where they are meant to be in
relationship with God. After pleading with God for forgiveness, they are
returned to the land, but the whole cycle happens all over again. d.
The Prophets of that time promised of a future when all will be made right, when
God will be the people’s Father in perfection through some supernatural change
that God will do to the hearts of sinful people. This God calls the “New
Covenant.” e.
The New Testament then reveals how this New Covenant came to fruition: Jesus
Christ, as the One and Only Son of God fulfills the righteous requirement of the
Law on behalf of sinful humanity. He is the “seed” of Abraham, the singular
descendent of Abraham in whom the promise of a dwelling place with God will be
fulfilled (see Galatians 3:16). f.
And if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ you are also called the
“seed of Abraham!”. “You
are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were
baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew
nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to
the promise.” (Galatians
3:26-29) As
Abraham’s “seed,” you are heirs according to that old promise given to
Abraham back in Genesis 17! The promise God made to Abraham was this: I will
provide, as an inheritance to my children, a place in which we will live in
perfect relationship. This “place” is not, ultimately, a skinny little swath
of land in the Middle East, but the very Kingdom of God. All
who have faith will inherit this at the end of this present age, when in an
instant, Christians will be changed into what they were meant to be—beings
cleansed of all sin, made capable of living in relationship with God as his
children! Paul
writes to the Corinthians: "I
declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of
God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a
mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead
will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” (1 Cor. 15:50-52) It
is at this future time when Jesus will say to those who have trusted in Him and
have lived their lives for him, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father;
take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the
world.” (Matt. 25:34) e.
Jesus speaks of the sure inheritance in the future for all who have been adopted
into God’s family. While we experience the Kingdom of God in part now when we
live by faith, we will fully experience our inheritance of the Kingdom of God
(in perfection) in the future when our faith will be turned to sight. In
Revelation 21, we get a peek into the future, and see “the New Jerusalem,”
the spiritual capital city of the Kingdom of God, descend out of heaven. We hear
a loud voice proclaim, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will
live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and
be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more
death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed
away.” (Revelation 21:3-4) And
at that moment in our sure future, God proclaims that His ultimate purpose has
been accomplished, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning
and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the
spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will
be his God and he will be my son.” (Revelation
21:6-7) It
is at this end-time point in history when you will receive your inheritance as a
Christian: Your place in the Kingdom of God where you can be with God as his
child for all eternity, where all there is to experience is joy and
satisfaction. Where all the thirst you have felt in this life will be quenched
without the cost of your own effort at the spring of the water of eternal life
in Christ! WOW! And
all of this is to the one “who overcomes.” Overcomes what? What must we
“overcome?” The Kingdom of God is given as an inheritance to the one who
overcomes suffering in this current life in which we currently live! For… 2.
God’s Children will Suffer (Romans 8:17b) Suffering
does not have to be caused by terrorists. We all suffer—we are all human. How
are you suffering today? Are you struggling through physical pain? Are you
suffering through relational turmoil? Suffering
has many manifestations. New Testament scholar Douglas Moo says that the
suffering here in our passage are “not only those trials that are endured
directly because of Christ—for instance, persecution—but encompass the whole
gamut of suffering, including things such as illness, bereavement, hunger,
financial reverses, and death itself…all the suffering of Christians is
“with Christ,” inasmuch as Christ was himself subject, by virtue of his
coming [was] “in the form of sinful flesh.” The word Paul uses here, pathema,
refers to suffering in any form. So,
this passage is for me and you and anyone who suffers, and for any of your loved
ones who suffer. And it is about the fact that suffering has deep meaning. We
think we can control our lives; we think we can handle anything that is thrown
at us. And if we start to reel from the onslaught of life, if we feel we are
about to buckle under from all the suffering, we are told to “buck up” and
“don’t show any weakness.” “When the going gets tough, the tough get
going.” But
anyone who has lived long enough will learn that, ultimately, no matter how much
you work for power over your world, you really do not have control. As I was
visiting Wally in the Cardiac Care Unit, I noticed that in the next room over
was a very distinguished looking man near 60. It struck me—this man probably
is some big-wig at some corporation. Some people probably really respect him,
his hard work, his long hours. Some may even fear him, for he has the power to
hire and fire, to make huge decisions that affect hundreds of lives. He has
worked all his life to garner power and prestige…and there he lies in a
hospital bed. His heart is barely holding together; he lays there on a
respirator so that he can breathe. Joni
Eareckson Tada, some 30 years ago, dived into shallow water and lost her ability
to use her arms or legs. As a quadriplegic, she wrote, “My need for help is
obvious every day when I wake up, flat on my back, waiting for someone to come
dress me. I can’t even comb my hair or blow my nose alone!” She has
suffered, and she understands the meaning of suffering. We are not meant to live
independently from God. That is the Christian message. Suffering
does not earn us the glory of heaven. Jesus already earned the glory of heaven
for us through his suffering. But our sufferings are a meaningful preparation
for glory. As Ray Ortlund Jr. writes, “Pain burns the superficiality out of
us. We stop caring about the wrong things. We are released from bondage to
earthly imperatives and intensified in our yearnings for eternal things. In
suffering, we discover how sweet God really is.” So,
contrary to the health and wealth preachers on television, the Bible says that
if you will follow Christ into glory, you must (no option here!—you must)
follow Christ in his sufferings. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after
me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark
8:34). God’s
will for you in this current life is not, ultimately, health and wealth and a
care-free life of blessing after blessing. God’s will for you in this life is
to prepare you for the next life. He wants to mature you into a grown-up child
of God. He does not want you to remain a little baby child of God. And the way
to maturity, very often, is to share in the sufferings of Christ. But the
suffering will end one day, when we enter into “glory.” 3.
Our Suffering will be Changed to Glory in our Inheritance (Romans 8:18) “I
consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that
will be revealed in us.” God
does not say, “Being God’s child means you are going to suffer. Accept
it.” No, he says so much more! God
says, “Being God’s child means you are going to suffer. Let me explain why
it’s worth accepting!” It will be worth it! You’re going to like what’s
coming! “For
momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far
beyond all comparison.” (2 Corinthians 4:17) Imagine
if you mysteriously received in the mail a videotape. You pop it into the
machine, and there you are in the future eternal Kingdom of God—full of joy
and satisfaction. And as you listen to the voice-over narrator, you realize
it’s your voice. You say, “In spite of my sin, my selfishness, my stupidity.
In spite of my constant groaning about my aches and pains, my frustrations with
people, my discontent with my life at just about every stage of it. In spite of
all that…here I am. It was all worth it!” As you watch yourself living to
the fullest of satisfaction of all your deepest heart-felt desires for perfect
joy and peace and satisfaction, you hear yourself sing, “The pain, the
suffering, the frustration, the tears, the battles. It was all worth it!” After
watching that video, would you not live your life in the here and now
differently? What can earth do to you when you know what lies ahead of you in
heaven? As Peter Kreeft writes, “To fear the worst earthly loss would be
like a millionaire fearing the loss of a penny—less, a scratch on a penny.” Joni
Eareckson writes, “I have hope for the future. The Bible speaks of our
bodies being ‘glorified’ in heaven. In high school that was always a hazy,
foreign concept. But now I realize that I will be healed. I haven’t been
cheated out of being a complete person—I’m just going through a forty-year
delay, and God is with me even through that. Being ‘glorified’—I know the
meaning of that now. It’s the time, after my death here, when I’ll be on my
feet dancing.” At
this time I want to, I need to pray! I need to lay my burdens upon God and tell
him, “I
am suffering, I do not even know why. But I know that you are determined to turn
all of my worst experiences into something good. You are going to bring me to
glory through my suffering. Sometimes, I cannot understand that in the midst of
the trial. But I can do something—I can hold onto faith. I can seek to trust,
when all seems helpless, I can trust in the One who is not helpless, but all
powerful. If nothing else, my suffering brings me to my knees and makes me admit
that I am not in control. And I am forced to mature in my faith—admitting that
you and only you, Lord, are in control.” Please take time right now and pray yourself. Reflect on Jesus Christ's suffering on the cross for you in order to enter his glory, and ask for him to help you understand suffering and glory in your own life.
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