Gospel of John [Joh 16:8]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 13. Rom 8:12-17; Psa 2:6-9; Mat 25:31-32; Joh 17.Title: Gospel of John [Joh 16:8]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 13. Rom 8:12-17; Psa 2:6-9; Mat 25:31-32; Joh 17.
Chafer [chapter 2] A worthy treatment of the doctrine of Christ demands recognition of His human birth, His human body, soul, and spirit, certain human limitations, His death, His resurrection, His present session in a glorified body in heaven, and His return in visible form to the earth again. None of these features are ever related directly to the Father or to the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is confidently asserted that the whole sphere of the Spirit’s activities, like that of His own Person, is wholly within the sphere of that which pertains to Deity. In like manner, if actions and revealed characteristics can intimate personality, the Holy Spirit’s personality is more sustained by evidence than that of the Father, since the Spirit is the Executive, the Creator of the universe, the divine Author of the Scriptures, the Generator of Christ’s humanity, the Regenerator of those who believe, and the direct source of every vital factor in a spiritual Christian’s life; yet, oddly enough, in all generations men have yielded to a strange uncertainty respecting the actuality of the Holy Spirit’s Person. It would seem as though the Scriptures were not read at all, or, if being read, the human mind is incapable of itself to receive the simplest and most obvious truths respecting this Member of the God- head. Since all men are affected to some degree with such an incapacity to receive the revealed truth on this subject, it becomes a worthy subject of prayer that He whose work it is to actualize to the believer the things of the Father and of the Son will actualize Himself also. [end quote]
The Spirit of Adoption (Rom 8:15) has reference to His revelation of our adoption as mature sons.
Rom 8:17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.
The "if" is related to "children" and not heirs. If we are children we are definite heirs. Salvation is by grace as in heirship. No son of God can be disinherited.
Heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ is the most wonderful blesssings that any person could ever receive. All believers are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.
The Spirit is bearing witness that we are heirs and as to what that inheritance consists of.
Yet first we must tackle the ifs in this sentence. There are two of them and they are not the same.
"if children" - Ei tekna. "if indeed we suffer with Him" - eiper sumpaschomen.
The first is the most common conditional conjunction and does certainly call into question the status of a person. Not everyone on the earth is a child of God, only believers are. If you are a child then you are and heir of God and a fellow heir with Christ.
The second usage is a bit different. Eiper is used in the Bible seven times. It is an intensified form of ei and in every case it is an if used in the sense of something certain.
Rom 3:30 since indeed [eiper] God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.
Rom 8:9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed [eiper] the Spirit of God dwells in you.
1Co 8:5 For even if [eiper] there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth,
1Co 15:15 Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we witnessed against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact [eiper] the dead are not raised.
2Th 1:6 For after all [eiper] it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,
Mat 20:14-16 'Take what is yours and go your way, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 'Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?' "Thus the last shall be first, and the first last."
Eiper - the word is best translated "if indeed" or "since." Here its use follows a pattern seen also in the Attic [Greek] in which the supposition agrees with the fact. [Complete Biblical Library]
Psa 2:6 "But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain."
Psa 2:7 "I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, 'Thou art My Son, Today I have begotten Thee.
Psa 2:8 'Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Thy possession.
Psa 2:9 'Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, Thou shalt shatter them like earthenware.'"
So when Paul writes Rom 8:17 he is saying that we are fellow heirs with Christ "since" we suffer with Him.
Rom 8:17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.
The believer shares in all that He has.
2Co 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
All believers will suffer at the hands of the world to some extent. It is abundantly clear in the NT that not all believers will advance to a life of spiritual maturity and those who do will suffer more persecution, but Paul here does not entertain the fact that some believers don't get with the plan of God. He is heading right to the fact of the inheritance and what the inheritance is comprised of, and one of those things is undeserved suffering.
I think we get too wrapped up in the possibility of losing rewards rather than leaving that behind us, as we do with sin, and pursuing His plan knowing that the grace of God the Father's plan, the grace of God the Son's life, and the grace of God the Holy Spirit's teaching, leading, and empowering will get us there. God doesn't talk about consolation prizes. He just states that we will suffer loss (how much or what exactly is lost is not listed) as if to say, don't entertain this idea as you should not entertain self-condemnation and so set your mind on the things of the Spirit and rule in life through My providence.
This leads me personally to a sobering question. If God in His mercy were to give every believer the reward of his entire inheritance no matter how they lived on earth, would you still follow Him? I'm not stating this as a truth but as a hypothetical, since 1Co 3:15 says that the believer with wood, hay, and stubble, i.e. human good, will "suffer loss," and 2Co 5:10 says that each believer will be recompensed for his deeds, whether good or bad. But let's just say, simply for a point of illustration, that the loss to those who ignored the plan of God is so insignificant so as to be practically unnoticeable. Would you still vigorously pursue God's plan? What am I doing this all for?
Mat 20:14-16 'Take what is yours and go your way, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 'Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?' "Thus the last shall be first, and the first last."
Am I doing this for the stuff or am I doing this because it is right and it is by far the greatest possible life to be had?
Fellow heir with Christ - We share in His judgment, government, all that He has, and all that He is.
The Second Coming or our Lord is to be for both judgment and blessing.
Psa 2:6 "But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain."
Psa 2:7 "I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, 'Thou art My Son, Today I have begotten Thee.
Psa 2:8 'Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Thy possession.
Psa 2:9 'Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, Thou shalt shatter them like earthenware.'"
This is shared with the believer as part of his inheritance.
Rev 2:26-28 'And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.
Christ will rule the government of God.
Mat 25:31 "But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
Mat 25:32 "And all the nations will be gathered before Him
Rev 3:21 'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
The believer shares in all that He has.
2Co 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
Eph 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world
Christ has the fellowship of the Father. Christ has the word of the Father. Christ has the love of the Father. Christ has the Father's glory.
Fellowship: Joh 17:9 "I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine;
Joh 17:10 and all things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.
Joh 17:11 "And I am no more in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.
Word: Joh 17:14 "I have given them Thy word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Glory and love: Joh 17:22 "And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one;
Joh 17:23 I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me.
Joh 17:24 "Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world.
Joh 17:25 "O righteous Father, although the world has not known Thee, yet I have known Thee; and these have known that Thou didst send Me;
Joh 17:26 and I have made Thy name known to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou didst love Me may be in them, and I in them."
1Pe 1:20-21 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory
In light of this verse, look again at v. 22.
Joh 17:22 "And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one;
Is this not what eye could never have seen, ear could never have heard, and beyond what we could have ever dreamed? Partakers of His glory, fellow heirs with His resurrection triumphs.
We have truly become:
Eph 1:22-23 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
To the natural minded man or the soulish man these things are foolishness or crazy pipe dreams of the insane or at least the delusional. Due to the false doctrine of works, people honestly think it's more humble not to believe these things.
Yet through God the Holy Spirit these incalculably wonderful things become an absolute reality in the believer's soul.
The believer shares all that He is: Wisdom
1Co 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God
Power:
Php 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Holy:
Eph 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
The same would be true of righteousness, love, eternal life, and justice, as the New Testament openly bears witness of, but the reality of that witness to our souls can only come by means of God the Holy Spirit. |