We have now been introduced to  a major role player in this new life in the Spirit…our minds…our thoughts and ultimately…what we believe. 

We always respond to and act out of what we believe. The thoughts that we think that are based on  either truth or delusion, form our beliefs. So, the key to lining up our conduct with the truth about our new lives is to connect our thoughts with what is true. The Holy Spirit takes what we believe to be true and makes it real in us. 

“So, you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children…”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭15‬ NLT‬‬

Do you get it?

When we come to the realisation and conviction that the Holy Spirit is in us and that He is confirming in us the truth that we are God’s children…we start thinking about ourselves the way God thinks about us…not slaves to sin any longer but God’s beloved sons and daughters. We begin to view ourselves and our lives differently. We belong to Jesus. We stand right beside Him in God’s estimation. We are heirs with Him because we are also sons and daughters in His family…and the Holy Spirit confirms this truth in us, witnessing in us that we are God’s children. 

“And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory…”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭16 NLT‬‬

What will we inherit with Jesus? 

John helps us to understand what we will inherit in our new life in God’s eternal presence…

“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! …Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭2‬b ‭NLT

We will inherit the nature of Jesus, the weight and substance of who He is in His nature, although not in His divine attributes. We are not God. We are His offspring, created in His image, bearing His likeness character. 

Before He went to the cross, Jesus asked the Father to restore to Him the glory He had with Him before He came to earth. 

“Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.”

‭‭John‬ ‭17‬:‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

How would the Father do that?

Jesus had laid aside His glory…the full weight of His deity with the Father…and become fully human, participating in the limitations of His and our humanity. 

“Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being…”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2‬:‭6‬-‭7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jesus needed to go through the cross as a human to be glorified with the Father. This does not mean that the Father had to add something to Jesus to restore His full nature as God. What does He mean, then?  I can only guess. 

I think that, through the cross experience, Jesus confirmed in His human life those attributes in His human nature that were in the Father…His love, mercy, and compassion. Everything that the Father is, is also in Jesus in His human nature…which He demonstrated by the way He lived on earth and related to humanity. 

Now, Paul adds a condition to our position as heirs of God’s glory. If we are to inherit the very “weight” or substance of God’s nature, His “glory”, we need to fulfil one condition…we are to learn to suffer as Jesus suffered during His life on earth. His suffering in a specific way qualified Him to be the perfect sacrifice and Saviour of sinners.  

“He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone.”

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2‬:‭22‬ ‭NLT‬

In between this statement and the following is the most profound key to the nature of our suffering which qualifies us to share in His glory…

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2‬:‭24‬-‭25‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.” Romans 8:17 NLT

What does this mean? 

Watch this space for our next post…

To be continued