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Romans 8:17

“Heirs with Christ”Romans 8:12–17

King James Version
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
And G1161 if G1487 children G5043, then G2532 heirs G2818; heirs G2818 of God G3303 G2316, and G1161 joint-heirs G4789 with Christ G5547; if so be G1512 that we suffer with G4841 him, that G2443 we may be G4888 also G2532 glorified together G4888.

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Messiah; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
If we be children, we are also heires, euen the heires of God, and heires annexed with Christ: if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
and if children, also heirs, heirs, indeed, of God, and heirs together of Christ--if, indeed, we suffer together, that we may also be glorified together.

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
16 Greek words
  1. εἰeiIfG1487CONDConjunction
  2. δὲdenowG1161CONJConjunction
  3. τέκναteknachildrenG5043N-NPNNoun Nominative Plural Neuter
  4. καὶkaialsoG2532CONJConjunction
  5. κληρονόμοι·klēronomoiheirsG2818N-NPMNoun Nominative Plural Masculine
  6. κληρονόμοιklēronomoiheirsG2818N-NPMNoun Nominative Plural Masculine
  7. μὲνmenindeedG3303PRTParticle or Disjunctive
  8. θεοῦtheouof GodG2316N-GSM-TNoun Genitive Singular Masculine Title
  9. συγκληρονόμοιsugklēronomoijoint-heirsG4789A-NPMAdjective Nominative Plural Masculine
  10. δὲdehoweverG1161CONJConjunction
  11. Χριστοῦ·Christouof ChristG5547N-GSM-TNoun Genitive Singular Masculine Title
  12. εἴπερeiperif indeedG4007COND + G4007=CONJ
  13. συμπάσχομενsumpaschomenwe suffer with [Him]G4841V-PAI-1PVerb Present Active Indicative 1st Plural
  14. ἵναinaso thatG2443CONJConjunction
  15. καὶkaialsoG2532CONJConjunction
  16. συνδοξασθῶμενsundoxasthōmenwe shall be glorified togetherG4888V-APS-1PVerb Aorist Passive Subjunctive 1st Plural
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Greek, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Greek word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Greek word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “charity” where the gloss reads “love”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

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This verse

God’s children are his heirs and share Christ’s inheritance, suffering with him now so that they will be glorified with him.

“And if children, then heirs;”

Paul argues from one step to the next: heirship follows from being children.

“heirs of God,”

God is both the giver of the inheritance and its treasure.

“and joint-heirs with Christ;”

We share by grace and union with him in the glory, honour and dominion that belong to Christ as the Heir.

“if so be that we suffer with him,”

Eí per, “if indeed”. Sharing his sufferings goes with belonging to him.

“that we may be also glorified together.”

Suffering with Christ leads to the glory believers will share with him at his return, a glory far greater than any present suffering.

Passage studyRomans 8:12–17

Heirs with Christ

12Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Summary

Paul draws out what follows from the Spirit’s life in us. We owe the flesh no obedience, because a life lived by it ends in death, while those who put to death the deeds of the body through the Spirit will live. Everyone led by the Spirit of God is a son of God. The Spirit we have received is the Spirit of adoption, who moves us to call God “Abba, Father” and who bears witness with our own spirit that we are his children. And children are heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, who share his sufferings now so that they will share his glory with him.

What we owe, and to whom

“Therefore” gathers up everything Paul has said since the chapter opened with “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). The law of the Spirit of life has made us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). God did what the Law was too weak to do, sending his own Son and condemning sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3). Paul has set the mind of the flesh, which is death, beside the mind of the Spirit, which is life and peace (Romans 8:5–11), and he has promised that the Spirit who dwells in everyone who belongs to Christ will also give life to their mortal bodies (Romans 8:9–11). Because all this is true, he turns to how we live. He calls his readers “brethren”, members of one family in Christ, and he counts himself among them: “we are debtors.”

A debtor, opheilétēs, is anyone under an obligation, whether the debt is money or a duty of conscience. The word would have meant a great deal in Rome, where people knew debts of many kinds, financial, social and moral, often bound up with a patron and the loyalty owed to him. Paul names the one creditor that has lost its claim on us. We owe the flesh nothing, and we have no duty “to live after the flesh.”

In Paul’s letters the flesh, sárx, usually means more than the physical body. It is our sinful, unredeemed human nature, the fallen disposition that sets itself against God, the principle of sin at work in us, which acts through the body. “To be carnally minded is death” (Romans 8:6), and “they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7–8). “To live after” joins záō, to live, with katá, according to, and it describes a life whose thoughts, choices and desires are steered by that nature. The flesh still tempts believers, and its rule over them has been broken. Paul has already said so: “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Romans 6:18). He tells us to reckon ourselves “dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:11). This is the freedom from sin’s rule that he set out in Romans 6, and here it becomes the shape of daily life.

So what do we owe?

We owe God a life lived by his Spirit. The next verse shows where our obligation now lies: “if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:13). God set us free by the Spirit of life, and the debt we now carry comes from his grace and is a joy to carry. Paul describes it elsewhere as walking in the Spirit: “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). It is putting off the old man and putting on the new (Ephesians 4:22–24). Freedom from the flesh is freedom for righteousness, because God changes the very source of our desires and actions.

The church in Rome held both Jewish and Gentile believers. Jewish believers had long known the struggle with the Law and with sin, and Gentile believers had come out of the pagan practices and loose morals of their former lives. Paul’s word sets both free, from the self-effort of trying to be righteous under the Law and from the pressure to live as the people around them lived.

Putting to death the deeds of the body

Living after the flesh and putting its deeds to death through the Spirit lead to opposite ends. “If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die.” This death is first of all spiritual: separation from God, a life that ends in futility, and at last eternal condemnation. Sin brings physical death too, and here Paul is speaking of our standing before God and where we are going. Scripture has set life and death before people as the outcomes of obedience and disobedience from the beginning, when God warned Adam, “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). The promise on the other side, “ye shall live,” means true life with God now and eternal life in Christ to come.

To mortify is thanatóō, to put to death or to kill. Paul uses it as a picture of what we do with sinful deeds, which is to make them powerless and inoperative. What is put to death is the sinful impulse, and the body itself is left unharmed. Paul gives the same command in Colossians 3:5: “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.”

“The deeds of the body” are the sinful practices that come from our fallen nature. They include the obvious sins and also any thought, word or act that grows out of pride, self-reliance or rebellion against God. Putting them to death is a daily work, done with watchfulness and prayer, because the Christian life is a continuing battle against what remains of sin. Paul says the same elsewhere: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body” (Romans 6:12–14), and “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh” (Galatians 5:16–17). He describes the struggle with sin in Romans 7, sets the works of the flesh against the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, and gives the believer armour for the fight in Ephesians 6.

Do we put sin to death in our own strength?

We do it “through the Spirit,” as the verse says. The word is pneûma, which means breath or wind and, by extension, a spirit, and here it is the Holy Spirit, who lives in every believer. He gives the strength, the conviction and the guidance to resist temptation, choose what is right and build godly habits. The Roman world knew self-discipline and even asceticism, usually pursued for other ends, and this verse places the power in God’s own Spirit, who is greater than all human weakness.

Our union with Christ is the ground of it. “Our old man is crucified with him” (Romans 6:6–7), and the Spirit whom Jesus promised his disciples (John 14:16–17) applies Christ’s victory to our daily lives. So putting sin to death is the fruit and evidence of salvation, and never a way of earning it. The life it leads to is Christ’s own life in us, which shapes us more and more to the image of the Son (Romans 8:29).

The sons of God are led by his Spirit

The mark of God’s family is the leading of his Spirit: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” To be led, ágō, is to be guided or conducted with a purpose, the way a shepherd leads his flock. It describes a continuing life in which the believer yields to the Spirit’s direction in thought, desire, decision and action. The Spirit leads through God’s Word, through prayer and wise counsel, and through the inner conviction he gives, so that we walk in step with him. Every believer has this Spirit, for “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9).

Does being led by the Spirit make us sons?

Being led by the Spirit is the evidence of a sonship we already have through faith in Christ and adoption. Paul puts it this way to the Galatians: “because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:6). The Spirit is the “Spirit of adoption” of the next verse, who confirms our sonship and enables us to live like God’s sons. This gives a steady assurance, resting on the Spirit’s presence and work in us, which holds firmer than our feelings or our performance. When we find ourselves more sensitive to God’s voice, wanting to obey him and given strength to resist sin, those are signs of his leading.

Sonship is God’s gift, given through the Spirit, and human effort or family line cannot gain it (Galatians 4:4–7). John says the same: “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12), and “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God” (1 John 3:1). Being led by the Spirit is also how holiness grows. The life Paul described in Romans 6:1–14, dead to sin and alive to God, is lived out as the Spirit leads.

The word for sons, huiós, carries the weight of full standing in a family and the right to inherit. Among the Romans, adoption (Latin adoptio) was a weighty legal practice, especially among the elite, who used it to secure an heir, carry on a family name or seal a political alliance. An adopted son (filius adoptivus) had every legal right of a son born into the family, including the inheritance. Paul’s readers in Rome knew that practice well.

The Spirit of adoption

“Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.” Bondage, douleía, is slavery, from the verb meaning to serve as a slave. Here it is spiritual slavery to sin and to the Law, a life marked by dread of judgment and by the hopeless effort to earn God’s favour by keeping the Law perfectly. The struggle Paul describes in Romans 7 is this condition, the inner conflict of one who is “carnal, sold under sin” (Romans 7:14). The “spirit of bondage” is a governing disposition, the frame of mind of a slave who lives in fear. The word “again,” pálin, shows that it belongs to the past: believers lived that way once, and that fear is behind them.

“But ye have received the Spirit of adoption.” This is the Holy Spirit himself, who brings about and guarantees our new standing as God’s children. Adoption, huiothesía, means literally “the placing as a son.” It is the legal act of taking someone into a family and giving them all the rights, privileges and inheritance of a child born into it. A Roman adoption was a complete change of family and status. The adopted child’s ties to the old family were cut, the child took the new family’s name, and everything a natural son had became the child’s own. Among the Jews sonship came mainly by birth and adoption was less common, so Paul’s legal term would have spoken especially to his Gentile readers. It told them that their place in God’s family is secure and binding.

God planned this adoption: “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself” (Ephesians 1:5). And he paid for it. God “sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,” to redeem those under the law, “that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:4–5). Christ’s sacrifice removed the sin and the curse of the Law that bred the spirit of bondage.

What “Abba, Father” means

The Spirit of adoption is the one “whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” Abbâ is the Aramaic word for father, a warm and familiar way of speaking to a father in Jewish homes. Jesus himself prayed with it: “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee” (Mark 14:36). Paul sets it beside the Greek word for father, Patēr, so that the one cry belongs to Jewish and Gentile believers alike. To cry, krázō, is to call out earnestly and from the heart, and it is the Spirit who stirs that cry in us. For Gentiles who had worshipped distant and fearsome gods, this nearness to God was something new.

The cry shares in the relationship Jesus has with his Father, into which he draws us: “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20:17). So we come to God with the confidence and affection of children, and prayer becomes a child speaking with the Father.

The Spirit bears witness with our spirit

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” The verb, symmartyréō, joins sýn, with, to martyréō, to bear witness. It means to testify together, to confirm by agreeing evidence, the way a second witness in court backs up the first. The Holy Spirit testifies within us, and our own spirit, made alive by God, recognises his testimony and agrees with it. Both times the word is pneûma, which can name a human spirit as well as the divine Spirit. The first is the Holy Spirit, and the second is our innermost self. The Spirit himself gives this testimony, and its content is plain: we are the children of God.

This builds on the cry of verse 15. When we call God Father, the Spirit confirms that we really are his children, and he makes the truth of our adoption a living reality in our hearts. Paul says elsewhere that believers were “sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,” who is “the earnest of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:13–14). Here is the ground of our assurance of salvation, a certainty given by God himself, which goes deeper than our own feelings and reasoning.

How does the Spirit bear witness?

The Spirit’s witness is an inner conviction, a settled knowledge that agrees with the truth of God’s Word. It can bring peace, joy and assurance, and it runs deeper than a passing emotion. It shows itself in a sense of belonging to God and a heart that knows him as Father, in peace about one’s salvation, in the Spirit opening Scripture so that we grasp its promises as our own, and in the fruit of the Spirit growing in us (Galatians 5:22–23). It is seldom an audible voice.

The experience of it varies from one believer to another. The truth it testifies to is the same for everyone in Christ, while how strongly a person senses it can depend on maturity, temperament, circumstances and even spiritual attack. Some know a deep, overwhelming peace, and others a quieter, steady conviction. The Spirit bears his witness all the same, because it rests on God’s faithfulness, even while our awareness of it rises and falls.

Children and sons

Verse 16 calls us children, téknon, where verse 14 called us sons, huiós. Téknon comes from the root of tíktō, to give birth, and means a child as one born. It speaks of real offspring and a shared nature, and it points to the new birth: believers are born of God’s Spirit and made “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Huiós more often carries the sense of standing and the right to inherit. English uses “child” and “son” almost interchangeably, and in Paul the two words belong together. All believers are children by spiritual birth and sons in their standing and inheritance, and verse 17 draws the inheritance straight from the word “children.” John rejoices in the same family standing (1 John 3:1–2).

Jewish believers already knew “children of God” as a name for Israel or for the righteous. Paul gives it to all who believe in Christ, whatever their nation.

Heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ

“And if children, then heirs.” The inheritance follows from being God’s children, so it rests on grace alone. An heir, klēronómos, is one who receives an inheritance by right of kinship or by law. As God’s children we are heirs of his blessings and promises and of his eternal kingdom. Paul says we are “heirs of God,” and the inheritance comes from God and is, in a real sense, God himself: his eternal life, the riches of his kingdom, and unending fellowship with him. Paul writes the same hope to the Colossians: “of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:24).

Then Paul goes further. We are “joint-heirs with Christ.” Synklēronómos joins syn-, with, to klēronómos, heir. Christ is the heir, the Son “whom he hath appointed heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2), and we share the same inheritance with him fully, as co-sharers in all that is his. What belongs to Christ by right, eternal life, the Father’s favour and future glory, becomes ours by grace. Our destiny is bound to his. If he is glorified, we will be glorified with him, and we will reign and live with him for ever.

Paul ties the verse together with three words built on syn-: synklēronómos, joint-heirs, sympáschō, suffer with, and syndoxázō, glorified together. Inheritance, suffering and glory all come to us with Christ. The word “heirs” also comes three times in a row, heirs, heirs of God, joint-heirs, rising each time.

Does suffering earn the inheritance?

Suffering is the road God’s children walk with Christ, and the inheritance is theirs already, by grace, because they are his children (Romans 8:15–16). “If so be,” eí per, states what goes along with being a child of God in a fallen world. Sharing Christ’s sufferings, whether persecution, hardship or self-denial for the gospel, marks us as his and shows that we are united with him. The glory is sure for all his children, and suffering is the path many of them walk on the way to it.

The church in Rome already faced opposition, and Paul helps them see their hardships as something shared with their Saviour that leads to sure glory. He goes straight on to say so: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). The verses that follow speak of the whole creation waiting for that glory (Romans 8:18–25).

Suffering with him, glorified together

This is the path Christ himself took. “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8), and God, “in bringing many sons unto glory,” made “the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:10). Jesus asked, “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26). He humbled himself to the death of the cross, and God highly exalted him (Philippians 2:8–9).

Our suffering with him is a share in his own life and destiny. Since we “have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Romans 6:5). Paul’s own longing was to know “the fellowship of his sufferings” (Philippians 3:10), and Peter tells believers to “rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (1 Peter 4:13). The glory of “glorified together” is the glory we will share with Christ at his return: “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4).

The Son in whom we become sons

Every part of these verses rests on Jesus Christ, the Son of God in a unique sense (John 3:16). He was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35), the Spirit came down on him at his baptism (Matthew 3:16), and he cast out devils “by the Spirit of God” (Matthew 12:28). Fully God and fully man, he lived free of the flesh’s rule, obeyed the Father perfectly through the Spirit, and on the cross condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3). Through his resurrection he began a new humanity that walks “in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

The Spirit who leads us, cries “Abba” in us and bears witness with our spirit is the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9), whom Jesus promised to send: “if I depart, I will send him unto you” (John 16:7). Our adoption is “by Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:5), our “Abba” shares in his own prayer, and our inheritance is a share in his. To be a son of God is to be joined by faith to the true Son.

Living as the Father’s children

These verses tell you who you are if you belong to Christ. You owe the flesh nothing, so you are free to turn from temptation and to follow where God leads, and you do it through the Spirit who lives in you, out of thankful love for the One who set you free. Your place in God’s family rests on his adoption and his Spirit’s witness, so you can come to him as a child comes to a loving father and call him Abba in your prayers. And when following Christ costs you something, you are walking where he walked, on the way to a glory you will share with him. That hope lets you hold earthly comforts loosely and set your heart on the riches that last for ever.

Last revised

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Romans 8:17–25. He set out his notes in a four-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.

1662–1714 · 9 verses
Passage under commentRomans 8:17–25
I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points(1.) (2.) Details[1.] [2.] Fine details

In these words the apostle describes a fourth illustrious branch of the happiness of believers, namely, a title to the future glory. This is fitly annexed to our sonship; for as the adoption of sons entitles us to that glory, so the disposition of sons fits and prepares us for it. If children, then heirs, Romans 8:17. In earthly inheritances this rule does not hold, only the first-born are heirs; but the church is a church of first-born, for they are all heirs. Heaven is an inheritance that all the saints are heirs to. They do not come to it as purchasers by any merit or procurement of their own; but as heirs, purely by the act of God; for God makes heirs. The saints are heirs though in this world they are heirs under age; see Galatians 4:1, Galatians 4:2. Their present state is a state of education and preparation for the inheritance. How comfortable should this be to all the children of God, how little soever they have in possession, that, being heirs, they have enough in reversion! But the honour and happiness of an heir lie in the value and worth of that which he is heir to: we read of those that inherit the wind; and therefore we have here an abstract of the premises. 1. Heirs of God. The Lord himself is the portion of the saints' inheritance (Psalm 16:5), a goodly heritage, Psalm 16:6. The saints are spiritual priests, that have the Lord for their inheritance, Numbers 18:20. The vision of God and the fruition of God make up the inheritance the saints are heirs to. God himself will be with them, and will be their God, Revelation 21:3. 2. Joint-heirs with Christ. Christ, as Mediator, is said to be the heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2), and true believers, by virtue of their union with him, shall inherit all things, Revelation 21:7. Those that now partake of the Spirit of Christ, as his brethren, shall, as his brethren, partake of his glory (John 17:24), shall sit down with him upon his throne, Revelation 3:21. Lord, what is man, that thou shouldst thus magnify him! Now this future glory is further spoken of as the reward of present sufferings and as the accomplishment of present hopes.

I.As the reward of the saints' present sufferings; and it is a rich reward:

If so be that we suffer with him (Romans 8:17), or forasmuch as we suffer with him. The state of the church in this world always is, but was then especially, an afflicted state; to be a Christian was certainly to be a sufferer. Now, to comfort them in reference to those sufferings, he tells them that they suffered with Christ - for his sake, for his honour, and for the testimony of a good conscience, and should be glorified with him. Those that suffered with David in his persecuted state were advanced by him and with him when he came to the crown; see 2 Timothy 2:12. See the gains of suffering for Christ; though we may be losers for him, we shall not, we cannot, be losers by him in the end. This the gospel is filled with the assurances of. Now, that suffering saints may have strong supports and consolations from their hopes of heaven, he holds the balance (Romans 8:18), in a comparison between the two, which is observable.

1.In one scale he puts the sufferings of this present time. The sufferings of the saints are but sufferings of this present time, strike no deeper than the things of time, last no longer than the present time (2 Corinthians 4:17), light affliction, and but for a moment. So that on the sufferings he writes tekel, weighed in the balance and found light.

2.In the other scale he puts the glory, and finds that a weight, an exceeding and eternal weight: Glory that shall be revealed. In our present state we come short, not only in the enjoyment, but in the knowledge of that glory (1 Corinthians 2:9; 1 John 3:2): it shall be revealed. It surpasses all that we have yet seen and known: present vouchsafements are sweet and precious, very precious, very sweet; but there is something to come, something behind the curtain, that will outshine all. Shall be revealed in us; not only revealed to us, to be seen, but revealed in us, to be enjoyed. The kingdom of God is within you, and will be so to eternity.

3.He concludes the sufferings not worthy to be compared with the glory - ouk axia pros tēn doxan. They cannot merit that glory; and, if suffering for Christ will not merit, much less will doing. They should not at all deter and frighten us from the diligent and earnest pursuit of that glory. The sufferings are small and short, and concern the body only; but the glory is rich and great, and concerns the soul, and is eternal. This he reckons. I reckon - logizomai. It is not a rash and sudden determination, but the product of a very serious and deliberate consideration. he had reasoned the case within himself, weighed the arguments on both sides, and thus at last resolves the point. O how vastly different is the sentence of the word from the sentiment of the world concerning the sufferings of this present time! I reckon, as an arithmetician that is balancing an account. He first sums up what is disbursed for Christ in the sufferings of this present time, and finds they come to very little; he then sums up what is secured to us by Christ in the glory that shall be revealed, and this he finds to be an infinite sum, transcending all conception, the disbursement abundantly made up and the losses infinitely countervailed. And who would be afraid then to suffer for Christ, who as he is before-hand with us in suffering, so he will not be behind-hand with us in recompence? Now Paul was as competent a judge of this point as ever any mere man was. He could reckon not by art only, but by experience; for he knew both. He knew what the sufferings of this present time were; see 2 Corinthians 11:23-28. He knew what the glory of heaven is; see 2 Corinthians 12:3, 2 Corinthians 12:4. And, upon the view of both, he gives this judgment here. There is nothing like a believing view of the glory which shall be revealed to support and bear up the spirit under all the sufferings of this present time. The reproach of Christ appears riches to those who have respect to the recompence of reward, Hebrews 11:26.

II.As the accomplishment of the saints' present hopes and expectations, Romans 8:19, etc.

As the saints are suffering for it, so they are waiting for it. Heaven is therefore sure; for God by his Spirit would not raise and encourage those hopes only to defeat and disappoint them. He will establish that word unto his servants on which he has caused them to hope (Psalm 119:49), and heaven is therefore sweet; for, if hope deferred makes the heart sick, surely when the desire comes it will be a tree of life, Proverbs 13:12. Now he observes an expectation of this glory,

1.In the creatures Romans 8:19-22. That must needs be a great, a transcendent glory, which all the creatures are so earnestly expecting and longing for. This observation in these verses has some difficulty in it, which puzzles interpreters a little; and the more because it is a remark not made in any other scripture, with which it might be compared. By the creature here we understand, not as some do the Gentile world, and their expectation of Christ and the gospel, which is an exposition very foreign and forced, but the whole frame of nature, especially that of this lower world - the whole creation, the compages of inanimate and sensible creatures, which, because of their harmony and mutual dependence, and because they all constitute and make up one world, are spoken of in the singular number as the creature. The sense of the apostle in these four verses we may take in the following observations: - (1.) That there is a present vanity to which the creature, by reason of the sin of man, is made subject, Romans 8:20. When man sinned, the ground was cursed for man's sake, and with it all the creatures (especially of this lower world, where our acquaintance lies) became subject to that curse, became mutable and mortal. Under the bondage of corruption, Romans 8:21. There is an impurity, deformity, and infirmity, which the creature has contracted by the fall of man: the creation is sullied and stained, much of the beauty of the world gone. There is an enmity of one creature to another; they are all subject to continual alteration and decay of the individuals, liable to the strokes of God's judgments upon man. When the world was drowned, and almost all the creatures in it, surely then it was subject to vanity indeed. The whole species of creatures is designed for, and is hastening to, a total dissolution by fire. And it is not the least part of their vanity and bondage that they are used, or abused rather, by men as instruments of sin. The creatures are often abused to the dishonour of their Creator, the hurt of his children, or the service of his enemies. When the creatures are made the food and fuel of our lusts, they are subject to vanity, they are captivated by the law of sin. And this not willingly, not of their own choice. All the creatures desire their own perfection and consummation; when they are made instruments of sin it is not willingly. Or, They are thus captivated, not for any sin of their own, which they had committed, but for man's sin: By reason of him who hath subjected the same. Adam did it meritoriously; the creatures being delivered to him, when he by sin delivered himself he delivered them likewise into the bondage of corruption. God did it judicially; he passed a sentence upon the creatures for the sin of man, by which they became subject. And this yoke (poor creatures) they bear in hope that it will not be so always. Ep' elpidi hoti kai, etc. - in hope that the creature itself; so many Greek copies join the words. We have reason to pity the poor creatures that for our sin have become subject to vanity. (2.) That the creatures groan and travail in pain together under this vanity and corruption, Romans 8:22. It is a figurative expression. Sin is a burden to the whole creation; the sin of the Jews, in crucifying Christ, set the earth a quaking under them. The idols were a burden to the weary beast, Isaiah 46:1. There is a general outcry of the whole creation against the sin of man: the stone crieth out of the wall (Habakkuk 2:11), the land cries, Job 31:38. (3.) That the creature, that is now thus burdened, shall, at the time of the restitution of all things, be delivered from this bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:21) - they shall no more be subject to vanity and corruption, and the other fruits of the curse; but, on the contrary, this lower world shall be renewed: when there will be new heavens there will be a new earth (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1); and there shall be a glory conferred upon all the creatures, which shall be (in the proportion of their natures) as suitable and as great an advancement as the glory of the children of God shall be to them. The fire at the last day shall be a refining, not a destroying annihilating fire. What becomes of the souls of brutes, that go downwards, none can tell. But it should seem by the scripture that there will be some kind of restoration of them. And if it be objected, What use will they be of to glorified saints? we may suppose them of as much use as they were to Adam in innocency; and if it be only to illustrate the wisdom, power, and goodness of their Creator, that is enough. Compare with this Psalm 96:10-13; Psalm 98:7-9. Let the heavens rejoice before the Lord, for he cometh. (4.) That the creature doth therefore earnestly expect and wait for the manifestation of the children of God, Romans 8:19. Observe, At the second coming of Christ there will be a manifestation of the children of God. Now the saints are God's hidden ones, the wheat seems lost in a heap of chaff; but then they shall be manifested. It does not yet appear what we shall be (1 John 3:2), but then the glory shall be revealed. The children of God shall appear in their own colours. And this redemption of the creature is reserved till then; for, as it was with man and for man that they fell under the curse, so with man and for man they shall be delivered. All the curse and filth that now adhere to the creature shall be done away then when those that have suffered with Christ upon earth shall reign with him upon the earth. This the whole creation looks and longs for; and it may serve as a reason why now a good man should be merciful to his beast.

2.In the saints, who are new creatures, Romans 8:23-25. Observe,

(1.)The grounds of this expectation in the saints. It is our having received the first-fruits of the Spirit, which both quickens our desires and encourages our hopes, and both ways raises our expectations. The first-fruits did both sanctify and ensure the lump. Grace is the first-fruits of glory, it is glory begun. We, having received such clusters in this wilderness, cannot but long for the full vintage in the heavenly Canaan. Not only they - not only the creatures which are not capable of such a happiness as the first-fruits of the Spirit, but even we, who have such present rich receivings, cannot but long for something more and greater. In having the first-fruits of the Spirit we have that which is very precious, but we have not all we would have. We groan within ourselves, which denotes the strength and secrecy of these desires; not making a loud noise, as the hypocrites howling upon the bed for corn and wine, but with silent groans, which pierce heaven soonest of all. Or, We groan among ourselves. It is the unanimous vote, the joint desire, of the whole church, all agree in this: Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. The groaning denotes a very earnest and importunate desire, the soul pained with the delay. Present receivings and comforts are consistent with a great many groans; not as the pangs of one dying, but as the throes of a woman in travail - groans that are symptoms of life, not of death.

(2.)The object of this expectation. What is it we are thus desiring and waiting for? What would we have? The adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Though the soul be the principal part of the man, yet the Lord has declared himself for the body also, and has provided a great deal of honour and happiness for the body. The resurrection is here called the redemption of the body. It shall then be rescued from the power of death and the grave, and the bondage of corruption; and, though a vile body, yet it shall be refined and beautified, and made like that glorious body of Christ, Philippians 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:42. This is called the adoption.

[1.]It is the adoption manifested before all the world, angels and men. Now are we the sons of God, but it does not yet appear, the honour is now clouded; but then God will publicly own all his children. The deed of adoption, which is now written, signed, and sealed, will then be recognized, proclaimed, and published. As Christ was, so the saints will be, declared to be the sons of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead, Romans 1:4. It will then be put past dispute.

[2.]It is the adoption perfected and completed. The children of God have bodies as well as souls; and, till those bodies are brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God, the adoption is not perfect. But then it will be complete, when the Captain of our salvation shall bring the many sons to glory, Hebrews 2:10. This is that which we expect, in hope of which our flesh rests, Psalm 16:9, Psalm 16:10. All the days of our appointed time we are waiting, till this change shall come, when he shall call, and we shall answer, and he will have a desire to the work of his hands, Job 14:14, Job 14:15.

(3.)The agreeableness of this to our present state, Romans 8:24, Romans 8:25. Our happiness is not in present possession: We are saved by hope. In this, as in other things, God hath made our present state a state of trial and probation - that our reward is out of sight. Those that will deal with God must deal upon trust. It is acknowledged that one of the principal graces of a Christian is hope (1 Corinthians 13:13), which necessarily implies a good thing to come, which is the object of that hope. Faith respects the promise, hope the thing promised. Faith is the evidence, hope the expectation, of things not seen. Faith is the mother of hope. We do with patience wait. In hoping for this glory we have need of patience, to bear the sufferings we meet with in the way to it and the delays of it. Our way is rough and long; but he that shall come will come, and will not tarry; and therefore, though he seem to tarry, it becomes us to wait for him.

Historical interpretation

Four Centuries of Reception

12 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

12 quotes · AD 108–458
Ante-NicenePost-Nicene
100200300400

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

d. AD 108Ignatius of AntiochAnte-NiceneSourceEpistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans
I give you these instructions, beloved, assured that ye also hold the same opinions [as I do]. But I guard you beforehand from those beasts in the shape of men, whom you must not only not receive, but, if it be possible, not even meet with; only you must pray to God for them, if by any means they may be brought to repentance, which, however, will be very difficult. Yet Jesus Christ, who is our true life, has the power of [effecting] this. But if these things were done by our Lord only in appearance, then am I also only in appearance bound. And why have I also surrendered myself to death, to fire, to the sword, to the wild beasts? But, [in fact, ] he who is near to the sword is near to God; he that is among the wild beasts is in company with God; provided only he be so m the name of Jesus Christ. I undergo all these things that I may suffer together with Him, He who became a perfect man inwardly strengthening me.
d. AD 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceOn the Resurrection of the Flesh
So also he says elsewhere: "If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together; for I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." Here again he shows us that our sufferings are less than their rewards.
d. AD 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceScorpiace
For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." And therefore he afterward says: "Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (As it is written: For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we have been counted as sheep for the slaughter, ) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him who loved us.
d. AD 235Hippolytus of RomeAnte-NiceneSourceHippolytus Dogmatical and Historical Fragments
But give me now your best attention, I pray you, for I wish to go back to the fountain of life, and to view the fountain that gushes with healing. The Father of immortality sent the immortal Son and Word into the world, who came to man in order to wash him with water and the Spirit; and He, begetting us again to incorruption of soul and body, breathed into us the breath (spirit) of life, and endued us with an incorruptible panoply. If, therefore, man has become immortal, he will also be God. And if he is made God by water and the Holy Spirit after the regeneration of the layer he is found to be also joint-heir with Christ after the resurrection from the dead. Wherefore I preach to this effect: Come, all ye kindreds of the nations, to the immortality of the baptism. I bring good tidings of life to you who tarry in the darkness of ignorance. Come into liberty from slavery, into a kingdom from tyranny, into incorruption from corruption. And how, saith one, shall we come? How? By water and the Holy Ghost. This is the water in conjunction with the Spirit, by which paradise is watered, by which the earth is enriched, by which plants grow, by which animals multiply, and (to sum up the whole in a single word) by which man is begotten again and endued with life, in which also Christ was baptized, and in which the Spirit descended in the form of a dove.
d. AD 253Origen of AlexandriaAnte-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
The Son of God says to his fellow heirs: “You will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Thus Christ leads his fellow heirs not only into a part of the inheritance but into a sharing of his power.
d. AD 384AmbrosiasterPost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
Since there is no way that God the Father can be said to have died and Christ the Son is said to have died because of his having become flesh. How is it that he who died is always said to be the heir of the life, when heirs are normally heirs of the dead? But of course Christ died in his humanity, not in his divinity. For with God, which is where our inheritance lies, the Father’s gift is poured into his obedient children, so that one who is alive may be the heir of the Living One by his own merit and not by reason of death.… What it means to be a fellow heir with Christ we are taught by the apostle John, for among other things he says: “We know that when he appears we shall be like him.” …To suffer together with Christ is to endure persecutions in the hope of future rewards and to crucify the flesh with its evils and lusts, i.e., to reject the pleasures and pomp of this world. For when all these things are dead in a man, then he has crucified this world, believing in the life of the world to come in which he believes that he will be a fellow heir with Christ.
d. AD 390Diodorus of TarsusPost-NiceneSourcePAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH
Here “suffer with him” does not mean that we should sympathize and come to the aid of the sufferer, as it usually does in everyday parlance. Christ did not suffer in order to get attention, nor did he undergo weakness in order to gain the sympathy of those who felt sorry for him. To suffer with Christ means to endure the same sufferings that he was forced to suffer by the Jews because he preached the gospel.… If we suffer with him we shall be worthy to be glorified with him as well. This glory is the reward of our sufferings and is not to be regarded as a free gift. The free gift is that we have received remission of our former sins.
d. AD 407John ChrysostomPost-NiceneSourceHomily on Romans 14
"And if children, then heirs." Observe how he enhances the Gift by little and little. For since it is a possible case to be children, and yet not become heirs (for it is not by any means all children that are heirs), he adds this besides-that we are heirs. But the Jews, besides their not having the same adoption as we, were also cast out from the inheritance. For "He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out the vineyard to other husbandmen": and before this, He said that "many shall come from the East and from the West, and shall sit down with Abraham, but the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out."

But even here he does not pause, but sets down something even greater than this. What may this be then? That we are heirs of God; and so he adds, "heirs of God." And what is more still, that we are not simply heirs, but also "joint heirs with Christ." Observe how ambitious he is of bringing us near to the Master. For since it is not all children that are heirs, he shows that we are both children and heirs; next, as it is not all heirs that are heirs to any great amount, he shows that we have this point with us too, as we are heirs of God. Again, since it were possible to be God's heir, but in no sense "joint heir with" the Only-Begotten, he shows that we have this also.

And consider his wisdom. For after throwing the distasteful part into a short compass, when he was saying what was to become of such as "live after the flesh," for instance, that they "shall die," when he comes to the more soothing part, he leadeth forth his discourse into a large room, and so expands it on the recompense of rewards, and in pointing out that the gifts too are manifold and great. For if even the being a child were a grace unspeakable, just think how great a thing it is to be heir! But if this be great, much more is it to be "joint heir."

Then to show that the Gift is not of grace only, and to give at the same time a credibility to what he says, he proceeds, "If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." If, he would say, we be sharers with Him in what is painful, much more shall it be so in what is good. For He who bestowed such blessings upon those who had wrought no good, how, when He seeth them laboring and suffering so much, shall he do else than give them greater requital? Having then shown that the thing was a matter of return, to make men give credit to what was said, and prevent any from doubting, he shows further that it has the virtue of a gift. The one he showed, that what was said might gain credit even with those that doubted, and that the receivers of it might not feel ashamed as being evermore receiving salvation for nought; and the other, that you might see that God outdoeth the toils by His recompenses. And the one he has shown in the words, "If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together."
d. AD 418PelagiusPost-NiceneSourcePELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
He who is worthy to be a son is worthy to be made an heir of the Father and a coheir with the true Son. This happens if we are ready when it becomes necessary to suffer for him as he suffered for us.
d. AD 444Cyril of AlexandriaPost-NiceneSourceEXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
Good works can hardly be done without suffering, yet the suffering of the saints is nourished by a great hope. For nothing earthly is promised but rather eternal glory.
d. AD 458Theodoret of CyrusPost-NiceneSourceINTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
As not every son is an heir of the one who procreated him, St. Paul rightly adds heredity to the adoption of sons. And given that a friend may often receive some inheritance from the Lord, Paul does not omit the word son but even adds that we are “fellow heirs with Christ,” thereby revealing his ineffable love for mankind. For not all those who have been blessed with saving baptism enjoy these good things, but only those who accept the fellowship of the Lord’s sufferings as well.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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