Adoption and Heirship - Part 2
Romans 8:13-17
Open your Bibles tonight to Romans 8
where we're going to look into some interesting things in this
passage. But before we get into the section that we're focusing on, Romans
8: 13-17, which focuses both on the doctrines of adoption and heirship
that are crucial to understand, I just thought I would lighten the mood a
little bit and point out some historically humorous mistranslations of
Scripture.
1 Peter 3:7 is a verse that should
be translated, “Likewise, you husbands, dwell with them with understanding,
giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together
of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.” Now in
Matthews Bible which was an early translation made of the Greek New Testament
in 1537, this verse was mistranslated in the notes that were included in the
Matthew Bible in 1537 so it became known as the wife beaters Bible. That
footnote read, “And if she be not obedient and helpful unto him, endeavor to beat
the fear of God into her head that thereby she may be compelled to learn her
duty and do it.” That's one reason this is not a very well known
translation today.
Another example is from Matthew
5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of
God.” Once again this fits our topic tonight, dealing with the sons of
God, a term for mature believers, not just a term for those who are children of
God by faith alone in Christ alone. This is a verse for all of the
homemakers listening. It was translated in the Geneva Bible in 1562
as “Blessed are the place makers for they shall be called the sons of
God.” So for those who set the table, this is their verse in the Bible.
Psalm 119:161, because of the
mistranslation there was called the Printers Bible. It should be
translated, “Princes persecute me without a cause, but my heart stands in awe
of Your word.” The Geneva Bible translated that
“Printers persecute me without a cause, but my heart stands in awe of your
word.” So that was another mistranslation. One of the most famous
Bibles with a printer's error was called the Adulterers Bible. Exodus
20:14 says, “You shall not commit adultery.” The
printer dropped out the word “not” and in the King James version published in
1631, it read, “Thou shalt commit adultery.” The printers were fined 300
pounds for their error. Most of the copies were gathered up and destroyed;
only eleven are known to exist today.
Another verse we should probably get
to this evening is 1 Corinthians 6:9, “Do you not know that the unrighteous
will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor
sodomites...” But in the Unrighteous Bible, a King James translation
printed in 1653, they dropped the word “not” again. That's one of those
troublesome little words and it reads, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall
inherit the kingdom of God ...” So these are kind
of fun little tidbits of history.
In John 7:50, this mistranslation of
this passage led to one King James Version, translated in 1716 being called the
sinners Bible when Jesus is interviewing the woman caught in adultery. “He
said to the woman, “Does anyone condemn you? No one, Lord, she
answered. So he said to her, Go your way and sin no more.” But the
sinners Bible translated is as, “Go and sin on more.” See you have to make
sure you get those letters in the right order or it can just cause all kinds of
problems.
Then there's the fool's Bible which
was a King James Version printed in 1763 which reads, “The fool has said in his
heart, there is no God.” Once again, they dropped out that troublesome
little word “no” and it said, “The fool has said in his heart, there is a
God.” The printers were fined 3000 pounds, and all the copies
destroyed. So that shows the importance of getting it right. One of
the things I'm going to point out tonight is that error can creep in, not just
by switching the letters in a word, like “no” to “on” or dropping out a word
like “not” but it can lead to a problem just by inserting a comma in the wrong
place.
So let's turn to Romans
8:15. This whole section here is talking about the contrast between those
who are living according to the flesh, which is talking about
believers. As I pointed out in the past, believers who are living
according to the flesh, walking according to the sin nature, are the same
category as Paul warns the Galatians about in Galatians 5:16 and
following. He states there's a war between the flesh and the Spirit, and
if you're not walking according to the Spirit, you're walking according to the
flesh. So believers do live and walk according to the flesh, as I pointed
out in the last class, and the warning here is that there will be
death. Not eternal condemnation death but a death that is the result of a
death-like existence because we're not living on the basis of God's Word and
the grace of God's Word.
By the time we get to verse 14, it
reads, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of
God.” I pointed out last time that the term here is important. It's
not children of God, teknon. It
is the sons of God, huios, which is a term for an adult son, not
just a child. So those who are led actually follow the Spirit, and walk
according to the Spirit grow to spiritual maturity. Then in explanation,
verse 15 comes along and Paul says, “For you did not receive the spirit of
bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry
out, Abba, Father.”
Bondage or slavery was the whole
focus of Romans 6 because at the instant of salvation we are identified with
Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. Therefore we become a new
creature in Christ and we're no longer slaves to the sin nature but we are
slaves to righteousness positionally, in terms of our new family, our new
identity. So he says “You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to
fear [which is what characterized you as an unbeliever] but you received the
Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father.” This indicates close
intimacy, becoming a family member of the family of God.
So the contrast is between those who
are sons of God, huios, growing to
maturity versus those who are mere children of God who have been redeemed and
adopted into the family of God. So that brought us to the doctrine of adoption,
which I covered partially last time looking at the cultural and historical
background. I pointed out that in Greek adoption the focus was on family
relationship and emphasized the one who was adopted coming into the family and
accepting all the legal obligations and religious duties of a genuine son in
the family. So Paul used these aspects of Greek adoption when he's
emphasizing the fellowship and family responsibilities of the believer.
In contrast the Roman concept of
adoption was much more rigorous and demanding on the one who was
adopted. This was partially based on their strong emphasis on the
authority of the father. The Roman law was called the patria potestas or the power of the
father. In the Roman system a son is no better than a slave until he
reaches maturity or adulthood at about the age of 14. Until then he's
treated like a slave, has no rights, no privileges. The father can even
turn him out to slavery, turn anyone in the family out to slavery, if he so
desires. He had complete control.
I pointed out several other facets
of that last time. What I want to do tonight is go on looking at the
spiritual significance of adoption in the Scripture. Based on the Roman
concept of adoption the child is placed under the complete authority of the
tutor or the Greek pedagogue who had all the authority. The child had
none. This is the analogy Paul uses in Galatians and he develops this
emphasizing that he's drawing a focus on believers under the Law as being
similar to a child that is under a pedagogue. He just has no freedom
whatsoever; he's completely under the authority of that pedagogue. So this
is developed by Paul in Galatians 3:26 and following.
There, he talks about “you are all
sons of God through faith” and ties that to the baptism by the Holy Spirit which occurs to all and then later on, he develops
the whole analogy in relation to the pedagogue. Essentially what he is
doing is showing that in the history of the human race, Israel under the
pedagogue is limited and they don't have freedom and the pedagogue dictates
every aspect of their existence. The pedagogue is the Mosaic Law. At
adulthood, which comes at the time of Christ, when Christ pays the penalty for
sin, the role of the pedagogue is over and the child now becomes an adult son
with all the rights and privileges which God gives
them.
The church age believer is compared
to that mature son who has reached maturity and now has freedom and now has the
position and responsibilities given to an adult son. This is related to
the fact that the believer is identified and placed in Christ who is the adult
Son, the huios of
God. Because of our position and identification with Christ we have these
privileges positionally. There is now freedom for the believer. That
gives us that background of understanding adoption so we are adopted into God's
family.
As part of adoption and being a
member of the family, this leads to another important aspect of our spiritual life,
which is inheritance. If you are a child, then you are usually considered
to be in a position where you can inherit property from your parents. In
our understanding of inheritance someone has to die, and then whatever he or
she owned is passed on to the next generation. That is not the main idea
in the Jewish Old Testament concept of inheritance. I've gone through
lengthy studies of that and basically the core meaning of the word inheritance
is possession. Someone can have an allotment of land in the Promised Land and
it is his inheritance. He owned it but no one died and left it to him. That
is his possession.
The main idea we have in the word
inheritance is really this idea of ownership and possession. That same
idea does come across into the New Testament. I want to review this
doctrine of inheritance or heirship. This is really important because a
lot of confusion comes up when people read certain passages in the New
Testament because they have a preconceived idea of what inheritance consists of
they misread and misinterpret the passage.
Three questions we need to address
are listed here on the screen. First, is the concept of inheritance a
synonym for receiving eternal life? For example, in Galatians 5: 19 and
20 we have a list of the works of the flesh. They are adultery,
fornication, lewdness, idolatry, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelries, and the
like and when Paul finishes he says that those who practice such things will
not inherit the kingdom of God.
Now many people read
“inheriting the kingdom of God” as receiving eternal life. Under that
interpretation, if one commits these sins or commits them on a frequent basis
then they can't have eternal life. That is a problem because that makes
salvation appear to be based on works or overcoming sin in our life. When
people read these lists they usually focus on adultery, fornication, murder but
they overlook the outbursts of anger, hatred, jealousy, the mental attitude
sins of envy and these sins are manifest by every believer. It's easy to
see someone's overt sins sometimes but it's not so easy to see the arrogance
and the hatred and the resentment and the bitterness that may be going on
inside of their soul. This seems to indicate that if inheriting the
kingdom means getting eternal life then we have to earn it by getting rid of
sin in our life. That is a conflict with many passages that talk about
salvation being a free gift.
Second question we have to address
in relation to that is: Is an inheritance earned? Is it given? Or are
aspects of both true? In other words, are some aspects freely given and
other aspects of the inheritance earned?
Third, we need to determine the
exact meaning of this concept of inheritance. Now where that comes to play
in our immediate passage in Romans 8 has to do with Romans 8:16 and
17. Romans 8:16 says: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God.” That's teknon. “And
if children then heirs..[so
we are heirs]“ Then if you have a passage like most, such as my New King
James which has a dash which sets off the next part of this as sort of a
parenthetical explanation of heirs and it's
punctuated as “—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ...” Notice
the comma is placed after Christ. According to that punctuation, heirs of
God and fellow heirs of Christ are viewed as being identical or synonymous
terms. In other words if you are a believer you are an heir of God and you
are also a joint heir with Christ. They would be identical based on that
punctuation.
Remember there were no commas,
periods, semi-colons or colons or anything like that in the original
Greek. All the letters just ran together with no spacing between
them. The problem we have with this punctuation is that if we are all
equally heirs or God and fellow heirs or joint heirs with Christ, then that
would make those categories of inheritance dependent upon the last conditional
clause there, the “if” clause. We would be heirs of God and heirs of
Christ, not if we believe in Christ but “...if indeed we suffer with Him
that we may also be glorified together.”
See that last “if” clause explains
that if you want to be an heir of God and fellow heir with Christ then you have
to suffer with him. What does that mean? That caused a lot of problems
down through the centuries in Christianity because of the misunderstanding and mispunctuation of that verse. Most of your Bibles
punctuate it the way the New American Standard does so this bases heirship on
suffering. If you don't suffer, you won't be an heir. The problem
here is that one reading of Galatians 5, if you don't get rid of these sins in
your life, you can't inherit eternal life and if you don't suffer with Christ,
then you won't be a joint-heir with Christ. The problem with that is that
Ephesians 2: 8 and 9 says that we're saved by grace and not by works. It
seems like those two passages are talking about a works-based
salvation. Punctuation is very important.
I love this example I've used for
years. ((CHART)) Here we have a sentence, “A woman without her man
is nothing.” I want you to think about that for a minute. Where would
you put the comma? If you are a woman, you will probably put the commas
like this. A woman, without her, man is nothing. However if
you're a man, you will probably punctuate it like this. A woman, without
her man, is nothing. This states that the woman, alone, just can't quite
make it. So where you put those commas radically changes the meaning of
the sentence.
We can look at Romans 8:17, and put
a comma after also and after Christ. That punctuation combines the terms,
“heirs of God” and “fellow-heirs with Christ” as the same thing.
However. If we move a comma so that we place it after God
...” If children, heirs also of God ...” Then “joint-heirs with
Christ if we indeed suffer with Him.” So that being an heir of God is
related to being a child of God and that is part of the grace package received
at the instant of salvation. But to be considered a join-heir with Christ
in which there is additional reward on the basis of suffering. That would
be a second category.
This really becomes the
issue. Remember this: salvation is a free gift but rewards are
earned. There's a big difference between something being given and
something being earned. When something is given there are no strings
attached and there's no condition or basis that's the foundation for receiving
the gift but a reward is based on what we attained, what we worked for, what we
achieve. So that is the foundation for this. What I'm saying very
simply is this. Salvation is a free gift but rewards are
earned. Every believer get salvation as a free gift by simply trusting in Christ,
and we all have certain things in common. We're justified, we're redeemed,
we have new life in Christ, and we're baptized by the Holy
Spirit. Every believer has those things in common.
But there are some believers who pursue
spiritual growth and spiritual maturity who realize in
their experience both in time and in eternity, a certain number of
blessings. God promises in Scripture a certain number of rewards because
of that believer's responsibility and the way he has pursued and lived his
spiritual life. Whereas, the one who hasn't, is not going to receive his
blessings and rewards because he has not grown to maturity or developed the
capacity to handle them. Let's look at what the Bible teaches about
inheritance. Just in terms of New Testament concept, the basic word is kleronomia, which is related to the law
of heirship or the law of inheritance and its basic meaning of the noun as
listed in the lexicons as inheritance, possession, or property.
When we read that word inheritance
in the New Testament, don't simply think about someone dying and leaving
something to you in a will. It is a property, something an individual
owns, or something that is their possession. The verb has the basic idea
to possess, to receive something as one's possession, or to obtain it. So
the very verbal concept there, to obtain something has a works
connotation. All I want to do here is lay out that the basic meaning is
going to emphasize possession, and receiving something as possession.
The second thing I want to point out
is a verse in Hebrews 1:2 which states that Jesus Christ is the heir of all
things. That doesn't mean the Father died and He inherited it. I think
this helps illustrate that principle, that the concept of heirship is
ownership. Jesus Christ is the heir or possessor or owner of all
things. Now what qualified Jesus to become the owner of all things?
Did He do something to earn it and qualify for it or was it something that was
freely given to Him? It wasn't freely given to Him like in salvation where
we simply believe in the gospel and we're given salvation. Jesus Christ
qualified by going to the cross, dying on the Cross,
and by being obedient to the Father. He is elevated to this position over
all creation, where He is the heir of all creation. So Christ is the heir
of all things because of what He did, because He fulfilled the plan of God for
his life.
Now a third thing we note is that
heirship is based on adoption, that is our sonship, our relationship to
God. Therefore, in one sense, we have passages that make it very clear
that inheritance is related to positional truth. It's related to our
position in Christ. Very simply, at the moment we trust in Christ as
Savior the Holy Spirit identifies with Christ in His death, burial and
resurrection and we are placed “in Christ.” That's our new
position. We were “in Adam”; now we're “in Christ.” So we call that
positional truth, our new position. So we are “in Christ”, that is related
to our phase one salvation, our justification, where we enter into that new
life with Christ.
We need to understand that some
passages emphasize inheritance in relation to what is given to us when we first
trust in Christ as Savior. Passages like Galatians 3:29 and 4:1, “And if
you are Christ's, [and you are, 1st class condition], then you are
Abraham's seed...” What Paul meant in context there is that Abraham
believed God and it was accredited to him as righteousness. [Gal. 15:6].
Now in Galatians, chapter 3, Paul develops this whole analogy related to
Abraham. Those who are truly Abraham's seed are those who follow him by
faith in God's promise. “… And if you are Christ's then you are also
Abraham's seed” because as he pointed out earlier in the passage, this word
'seed' is related to Christ [Galatians 3:16 which states, “Now to Abraham and
his seed were the promises made and He, God, does not say And to seeds as of
many but as of one and to your seed who is Christ.”
So Christ is the seed, then we are
also Abraham's seed and. “heirs according to the promise.” So Paul goes on
in Gal. 4:1, "Now I say that the heir as long as he is a child does not
differ at all from a slave though he is master of all.” See this is where
he develops the idea of the pedagogue. He goes on in the next verse, “But
is under guardians and steward...” Then in 4:3, “Even so we, when we were
children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.” So he's
talking about the fact that—using the time line of history, before the cross—Jews
were under the Law and they did not have the privileges and rights of an adult
son at that point. Even though they were children their rights didn't
differ from that of a slave. Then he develops that. The only point I'm
making here is that heirship is based on adoption. The Roman concept, you
get adopted, you're in the family, but if you're under the age of majority, 14,
then you're just treated like a slave.
Fourth observation, still in
Galatians 3:29 that heirship in one category is based on the grace promise of
the Abrahamic covenant. It's a promise not based on earning it. It
says if we have faith in the promise of God in the Old Testament then, just
like Abraham, righteousness is credited to the individual. Now to be an
heir of the Father, Who is eternal, the heir must also have eternal life.
That's the fifth point. Heirship demands eternal life because the son must
have the same life as the father. We will continue to live in the family
of God in Heaven. So in Titus 3:5, “Not by works of righteousness which we
have done but according to His mercy He saved us through the washing of
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” So we're saved not on the
basis of deeds we have done.
It's not on the basis of giving up
certain sins or not committing them as much. It's not on the basis of
suffering with Christ. Salvation is a free gift. It's not on the
basis of things we've done in righteousness but according to His mercy by the
washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. The next verse
goes on the say, “Whom [the Holy Spirit] He poured out on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ Our Savior.” This happens at the instant of
salvation. Verse 7 says, “That having been justified by His grace we
should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Now notice: justification
is the foundation for making us heirs in relation to the hope of eternal
life. This is a phase one aspect of the inheritance, eternal life, life
without end in heaven.
Sixth point is that heirship also
means to share the destiny of Christ. Christ's destiny has been set from
eternity past to rule and reign and we are to rule and reign with
Him. Christ has an eternal destiny and we will share it with Him as we
share His election. Also we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined
according to His purpose who works all things after
the counsel of His will. Now sharing the destiny of Christ, according to
Romans 8, is based upon suffering with Christ, not just being positionally “in
Christ”. 1 Peter 1:3 connects Titus 3:5, “Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us
again to a living hope...” Okay, so birth at salvation, when we first
trust in Christ, we're born again to this living hope.
The seventh point here is that inheritance
is both a present reality and a future possession. Ephesians 1:11, “In
whom also we have obtained an inheritance...” But this is reserved in
heaven for us. 1 Peter 1: 4 and 5, “to an inheritance incorruptible and
undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for you who are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time.” So the point in all of this, what
I'm simply saying is, that there are two aspects to that inheritance. One
is related to what we are given at the instant we believe in Jesus Christ as
Savior. At that instant, part of that package is that we are adopted into
the royal family of God and we become heirs of God—heirs of God in
relation to eternal life; heirs of God in relation to hope.
But there's a second aspect to
inheritance that requires spiritual growth. As we grow these blessings which we
already have received become distributed to us. It's as if you as a
father, give a gift of something valuable, a car, land, a home, to an infant
child, he doesn't have actual ownership rights or possession to it yet because
he hasn't developed the maturity to handle it. Once he grows to maturity,
then that is given to him from a trustee or someone of that nature and he can
enjoy it. It's his potentially but it's not his actually until he grows to
maturity and develops the capacity to handle it.
This whole concept of inheritance is
directly related to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. So our whole
spiritual life in this church age is dependent upon these ministries of the
Holy Spirit: the baptism by the Holy Spirit, walking by the Spirit, the
filling of the Spirit, the indwelling of the Spirit, and now we see the sealing
of the Spirit. Ephesians 1:13 says, “In Whom you also trusted, after you
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after you
believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” The Holy Spirit
is given to us as a down payment for a future realization of that inheritance. That's
verse 14, “Which is the earnest [pledge] of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.” So
the Holy Spirit is given as a down payment indicating something greater that
will come in the future. So heirship also includes something related to
eternal security: this inheritance that is undefiled and imperishable and
will not fade away and is reserved for us in Heaven.
What protects us is the power of
God, not our obedience. God protects us, not our obedience and this is
done through faith unto salvation to be revealed in the last time. When
we're children of God, He has sent forth His Spirit into our hearts crying
Abba, Father, indicating a sign of that adoption, that intimacy with the Father. Ephesians
1:4 is a pledge of our inheritance. Those are the
first nine points.
We've gone through that
before. For some of you that's new. For some of you that's
review. It's very simple. Let me boil it down. Inheritance has
two aspects. Number one, an aspect that's true for every believer as a
child of God and a member of the family of God, adopted into the family of God
at the instant of salvation. But for the children who press on to become huios, the sons of God, there are
additional blessings and rewards that are qualified for through obedience,
through faithful living, walking by God the Holy Spirit.
The problem we have today is that
people don't make this distinction in terms of theology. They mush it all
together and end up with a works kind of salvation or a kind of salvation that
is only known on the basis of one's works. So if you don't have the right
kinds of works, well you weren't really saved. Under point ten, this
confuses the two images of salvation being a free gift but a free gift is
free. It's something that is free. It's given with no strings
attached, not on the basis of any condition, whereas a reward is
earned. This inheritance is clearly spoken of as something that is earned
through behavior.
I'll give you some passages to show
those distinctions. For example, in Ephesians 5:5 as well as Galatians
5:19-21, we have these lists of people who commit certain sins: covetous,
idolatry, immoral, adultery, whatever they are. In Ephesians 5:5, the one
who commits these things “does not have any inheritance in the kingdom of
Christ and of God.”
Wait a minute. If salvation is a
free gift then why don't I have an inheritance in the kingdom of God? Well if
we equate inheritance in the kingdom of God with getting eternal life then we
have a problem, but if inheritance has to do with additional rewards and
blessings and roles and responsibilities in the kingdom, then that's predicated
on doing well now. Another illustration I've used is someone who goes into
the military and goes through boot camp. This life is like boot camp and
there are those who are going to do very well in boot camp and those who may
not do so well in boot camp. When they come out of boot camp, they're all
still in the army, but those who have performed well may have and will have
opportunities to go to additional training schools and have greater advancement
and promotion opportunities because they performed well and developed their
skills during the period of basic training.
This life is analogous in that
example to basic training. We're all going through basic
training. Some of us are excelling. Others of us aren't doing so
well. Those who excel develop capacity for leadership. They learn wisdom
and skill at living, which is what we're studying in Proverbs, so that when we
go to the judgment seat of Christ, they're going to have a capacity, a
maturity, a level of spiritual responsibility and leadership for which they are
rewarded and they will be given positions of responsibilities in the kingdom,
in the future Millennial kingdom, that relates to their level of
maturity. But those who have frittered away their time on the earth or in
Biblical language, “have not redeemed the time” have just wasted the time and
they haven't matured spiritually.
They've lived the life of the fool. They've
been conformed to the world. They haven't been too concerned about what
God is doing in their life today in preparation for eternity, then, at the
judgment seat of Christ, most of what they have produced in this life is going
to be burned up like wood, hay, and straw. There's not going to be much
left that qualifies them for any kind of responsibility or leadership in the
coming kingdom. This is because they didn't develop the capacity for
leadership and responsibility for dealing with this life and all the problems
of the cosmic system, dealing with Satan, and dealing with personal sin.
So those who practice these sins
because they fail to walk by the Holy Spirit [Galatians 5:19-21] will not
inherit the kingdom of God. Will they be there? Yes, they will. Will
they have positions of responsibility and leadership? No, they
won't. They will be present but they won't have various privileges.
Colossians 3:24 states, “Knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward
of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ.”
A reward is something that is given
for a job well done. Another way of looking at this is like a sports
contract where a player is guaranteed a certain amount of income but then he
has various incentive clauses for performing well. He may be guaranteed an
income of three hundred or four hundred or five hundred thousand dollars no
matter what happens but if he plays well, and that would be spelled out as to
what that meant, if he makes it to certain post-season games and the team does
well, then he will get additional bonuses that could number in the millions and
millions of dollars.
That's analogous to the
believer. Every believer gets the same contract. We're all going to
get eternal life. We're all going to be paid a base salary, which means
we're going to spend eternity in heaven. But there's an incentive clause
in the Scripture. That means if you do well, if you pursue maturity, if
you live out on the basis of the Word of God and you grow and study, then
because there are qualities that are produced in your life through walking by
the Holy Spirit, which is analogous to gold, silver and precious stones that
survive the judgment seat of Christ, then there will be additional blessings
and privileges and responsibilities.
The Bible doesn't talk about the
future kingdom in a Marxist-Leninist framework. We're not all going to
have the same thing. We're not all going to be given the same thing.
There are going to be distinctions based on ability and performance. That's
why some will be in certain positions of influence and leadership and others
will not. So we see, in terms of a conclusion, there are two categories
of inheritance. The first is inheriting the kingdom. This is
mentioned in Ephesians 5:5 and in 1 Corinthians 6: 9-10. The second is
inheriting salvation. We all inherit salvation. We're all heirs of
God. But not all will inherit the kingdom. Not all will be a
joint-heir with Christ.
Romans 8:17 says, “and if children,
then heirs—heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer
with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” So if we want to be a
joint heir with Christ we have to suffer with Him. Now what does that
mean? Does that mean we are going to go out and be martyrs? No,
that's not what that means. What it means is that if you and I, while
living in the devil's world, are pursuing spiritual maturity, we are going to
suffer. You don't have to go look for it. It will find you. It
will find you frequently because you will be running and living in contradiction
to the zeitgeist, the heartbeat, the desires of the people around you.
As a result of living in the devil's
world, you're going to encounter a lot of suffering. You're going to
encounter a lot of adversity. I'm going to come back and cover that when
we get into the next section of Romans because this is really where Paul segues
into that next section because he recognizes this. In verse 17 he
introduces the concept of suffering, “if indeed we suffer with him.” Then
in verse 18 he says, “For I consider the sufferings of this present time are
not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
And so we're going to get into that doctrine of suffering and adversity when we
get into the next verse.
Now, point 12, Christ inherits the
kingdom as described in Psalm 2:8-9 which talks about Him being elevated, being
given the kingdoms of the world at the time when there's that great revolt at
the end times. Christ inherits the kingdom due to His loyalty to God the
Father. So He becomes the heir of all things because He advanced to
spiritual maturity and fulfilled God's plan for His life. The same is true
for us as joint-heirs with Christ. We pursue the plan of God in our life,
grow to spiritual maturity, and there will be rewards for us. Hebrews
1:8-9 says, “But to the Son he says, Your throne, O
God, is forever and ever, a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your
kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.” That
what qualified Him to be the heir of all things. “Therefore
God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your
companions.” He's elevated because of His perfect obedience.
Another thing I should note is
that there's a difference between living with Christ and reigning with Christ,
just as there's a difference between being an heir of God and a joint-heir of
Christ. 2 Timothy 2:11 lays this out: “It is a trustworthy saying:
For if we died with Him...” When did we die with Christ? At the
instant of faith alone in Christ alone we received the baptism by the Holy Spirit,
which is identification with Christ in His death, burial, and
resurrection. “For if we died with Him, we shall live with Him.” That
is true for every single believer. If you died with Christ, it's because
you trusted in Him as your Savior and you're identified with His death, burial
and resurrection. The result will be that we will live with Him.
“If we endure....” Ah, now that's
works. Enduring, persevering, that's works. “If we endure, we
also...” Notice that. Not just living with Him but also, there's
something more. “If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.” So
enduring is related to suffering and means additional rewards. “But if we
deny Him....” That means if you live your life and you're more concerned about
your personal pleasures and personal issues in life than you are studying the
Word and growing to maturity.
“If we deny Him, He will deny
us.” Not denial of eternal salvation. That's covered in the next
verse, but denial of rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. If you deny
Him, if you live your life apart from Christ as a believer, then you will be
denied privilege, position, responsibility, leadership
in the coming kingdom. 2 Timothy 2:13 then says, “If we are
faithless...” The “we” means believers. Faithless doesn't mean we
were unbelievers. It means as believers we just didn't trust Christ; we
just didn't trust God; we just didn't grow to maturity. Even though we're
faithless, He remains faithful. That means we will still be saved because
we are preserved by His faithfulness.
“If we are faithless, He remains
faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” We are in Christ; we are His; He
can't deny us. Even though we're faithless, He's not going to kick us out; we
can't lose salvation. But the kingdom of God has been promised to those
who love God, and not all believers love God. Love for God is expressed
through obedience to God and those who are obedient to Him and grow to
spiritual maturity will receive an inheritance in the kingdom.
Just to wrap up there's a great
illustration of Esau in the Old Testament. Esau was still Isaac's
son. Remember, Abraham couldn't have any children and God promised him
that he would have a son and through his son there would be many
nations. Then Sarah, his wife, gave birth to Isaac. Isaac married
Rebecca and Rebecca had twins, Esau and Jacob and Esau sold his inheritance,
traded it out. He came home from a hunting trip, tired, worn out, hungry
and Jacob had fixed a nice meal of lentil soup. Esau said, “If I die, my
inheritance isn't going to do me any good.” He treated his inheritance
cavalierly and with disrespect and he traded it off to Jacob for a mess of
pottage, just for a bowl of soup. That's the issue.
That passage isn't talking about
Esau and his eternal destiny. It's talking about the fact that he
willingly gave up the potential of his inheritance for just a bowl of
soup. He traded out eternal rewards for immediate personal
gratification. That's what we do all the time. We constantly choose
to sin in some area, rather than walking by the Spirit. What we're doing
is trading out eternal rewards, gold, silver, and precious stones, for
immediate gratification. So Esau is the example of that. The writer
of Hebrews says, “See that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau who
sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even
afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing...” He had a change of
heart. He repented. He changed his mind. He said, “You know,
that was really valuable. I made a mistake.” But there are some
things we can't go back and recapture. “When he desired to inherit the
blessing he was rejected [not for salvation] for he found no place for
repentance even though he sought it with tears.”
He truly changed his mind but you
can't go back and remake decisions you failed with in the past. You may
get other opportunities to make other decisions but you can't go back and do it
over again. When I was a public school teacher, I used to say to my
students, “No do-overs; one shot. That's
it. Okay?”
Esau did get a
blessing. Genesis 28: 27-39, “Esau said to his father, “Do you have only
one blessing, my father. Bless me, even me also, my father. Then
Isaac his father said, “Away from the fertility of the earth shall be your
dwelling and away from the dew of heaven from above and by your sword you shall
live and your brother you shall serve but it shall come about that when you
become restless that you shall break his yoke from your neck.” So Esau
still received a little bit of a blessing but he doesn't get the main inheritance,
which went to the Abrahamic seed and the line of the Abrahamic
covenant. Esau lost his inheritance blessing but not his position as
Isaac's son. So we may lose inheritance blessing but we don't lose our
position in the family of God. That wraps that up. I want to come
back next time and deal with some of those tough passages before we move on to
looking at a little more details of some of the inheritance issues.