Why It Matters //

We continue to study Life by The Spirit this week. Paul writes in his letter to the church in Rome that the children of God are those who are led by the Spirit of God. As children of God, we are also heirs, together with Christ -- we get to share in his glory, which is something far greater than what we can even imagine. Paul goes as far as saying that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 

What It's Talking About // 

The book of Romans was written by Paul the Apostle around AD 57 a few years after Nero had become emperor of Rome. The christians were still living in relative peace, but not many years later, Nero began to persecute them after the Roman fire in AD 64. Paul begins the book of Romans by laying out the spiritual condition of all people - that all are sinners and are in need of salvation. The primary theme throughout this letter is the revelation of God’s righteousness in His plan for salvation. 

Rom 8:12-30 NIV

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 

13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 

15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 

16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 

17 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.

Present Suffering and Future Glory

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 

19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 

20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 

21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 

23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 

24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 

25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 

27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[d] have been called according to his purpose. 

29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 

30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.