Children and Heirs With Christ

"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." (Romans 8: 17)

Though we were dead in Adam, and thus inherited the curse which came with his sin and death, today we are in Christ, and thus in Him we receive all things.

Consider once again all the blessings which come with our new standing in His life:

"3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 3-6)

Before Paul explains how and why we are blessed, that we are blessed, and sadly, there are too many Christians out there who do not know that they are blessed. They know that Jesus died for them, but even the meaning behind His death has escaped their knowledge, as they are convinced that they must live on their own in their own power.

We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings, which speaks of their origin, not their final destination.

We are blessed in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, because God the Father has seated us in Christ (Ephesians 2:4-6).

This plan to redeem, restore, and promote us before God the Father was in place since before the foundation of the world.

He has planned since before the foundation of the world that we would be before Him without blame and in His love. There are a number of people out there who believe that God saves us, then He hammers us if we do not conform perfectly to everything that He tells us to do. Yet from before the beginning, He has intended that we stand before Him in a status of no condemnation, received in his perfect love (Romans 8: 1)

In fact, we are accepted, made gracious in every way, in the Beloved Jesus. Paul went out of his way to point out that we are not just in Christ, which to many still seems distance or unfeeling. We are in the Beloved.

These blessings come to us because of Jesus, because of the great love which God has for us:

"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." (1 John 3: 1)

We are now fellow citizens in the Kingdom of God, too:

"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;" (Ephesians 2: 19)

and also

"For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:" (Philippians 3: 20)

Now, when people read the passage "suffer together", we have to take that phrase in context with the prior chapters:

"4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. 5For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 6But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." (Romans 7: 4-6)

We have died with Christ, and thus we are dead to sin, the law, and the flesh:

"And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." (Galatians 5: 24)

Because we are now born again, children of the living God, we are heirs of God because we are joint-heirs in Christ Jesus:

"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)