Romans 8 (Pt 3)

Romans 8:17 (ESV)

[17] and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

This is a troubling verse. It doesn’t fit neatly in the Accept-Jesus-and-life-will-be-a-breeze gospel that we often hear. Believers are fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with him, or even though we suffer with him. Come to Jesus and suffer just doesn’t have the same ring to it as Come to Jesus and life will be great, yet isn’t suffering what Jesus warned us about?

Matthew 8:19-20 records a conversation between a potential follower of Jesus and his response, “And a scribe came up and said to him, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’” In Matthew 24:9 Jesus said, “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.” In John 16:33 Jesus said to his disciples, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

The truth is, we are not the only ones suffering. Romans 8:19-20 remind us that all creation is suffering under the fall. Verse 18 reminds us that there is glory coming that will be so overwhelming as to make the present suffering insignificant. A friend observed recently that we really haven’t suffered all that much. Yet outsiders would say of him that he has suffered immensely. Much of what we call suffering could hardly be considered suffering by the rest of the world. And as Paul observes in Romans 8:18, “The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Perhaps the problem is not so much that we suffer, as that we have too narrow a view of life. The present is often so real to us that we find it hard to step back and see our sufferings through the larger lens of eternity. There is a glory coming. The dark shadows and deep valleys of this life are a dot, a spot, a speck in the larger picture of life. If we are believers in Jesus Christ then we can expect suffering, but our suffering has a purpose. As painful as it may seem, it is nothing in comparison to the glory we will see. By God’s grace, may we keep that eternal perspective on life.