Romans 8:17 - Sharing in Christ’s Suffering

 

•        Romans 8:17- 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.

 

•         We share in Christ’s heavenly inheritance, but we also share in the kind of suffering He endured while we complete God’s purpose for us on this earth.

–       Philippians 1:29 - For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for Him

–       Philippians 3:10 - I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

–       2 Corinthians 1:5 - For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

 

•         Indeed, there are times when we suffer because we belong to Christ.

–       Matthew 16:24 -  Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

–       Matthew 5:11 - "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me [Jesus].”

 

•        Romans 8:17- 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.

 

•         Charles Hodge has this to say on this verse:

–      “Those suffer with Christ who suffer as He did, and for His sake . . . We suffer as Christ suffered not only when we are subject to the contradiction of sinners, but in the ordinary sorrows of life in which He, the man of sorrows, so largely shared. We are said to suffer in order that we may be glorified. That is, the design of God in the affliction of His people, is not to satisfy the demands of justice, but to prepare them to participate in His glory. To creatures in a state of sin, suffering is a necessary condition of exaltation. It is the refining process through which they must pass”

 

–      1 Peter 1:6-7 - In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith-- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.