Romans chapter 8

vs 11

Fairly convoluted in it's wording, but if God raised Christ, then surely he will raise those who belong to Christ and are marked with his Spirit. The resurrection hope I was talking about yesterday.

vs 12

Even after coming this far through Romans, the idea of sin being a master, of us being a slave to sin, and of sin requiring things of us in an obligatory way, seems so foreign to our culture. Sin has so much become an empowerment, a proof of freedom, or at the least something that we choose and control.

vs 13

So since the sinful nature promises us nothing but death, and death is a bad thing, we shouldn't feel obliged to give into it. Rather, we should feel an obligation to the Spirit to put our sinful deeds to death, because the Spirit promises us life, which is a good thing.

vs 14

Here we begin to see the idea of adoption - the adoption of Christians into God's family. Family is a strong relationship, and is very meaningful - probably more meaningful back then than now. The support structures, care, responsibilities, and inheritance that come with family are all represented here I think.

vs 15

Now, you may think that this is contrary to the earlier passage, which says in fact we are slaves to righteousness. I'm not sure how other commentators deal with this, but I will point this out - that adoption back then was very different to adoption now. I think it was much rarer that people adopted little babies in order to have a baby to love. If your wife wasn't producing a child, you could just divorce her and get another one after all. No, people would adopt young, able, strong boys who they knew they could pass on the inheritance of their family to. This often meant adopting slaves, because the slave had been with the family, knew the situation and the responsibilities, and had a closer bond than just any child.

So we might be slaves to righteousness, in order that we might be sons of God. The TNIV has a nice little note about how adoption to 'sonship' means taking the place as a male heir - the idea being that both brothers and sisters in Christ can become heirs of God.

vs 16

So the Spirit of God in us is a mark of our adoption.

vs 17

Verse 17 is a link verse between the two ideas of adoption and heirship, and suffering. The fact that we must be co-heirs stands to reason - God already has a Son in Jesus. What is interesting, then, is that even though his Spirit within us marks us as children of God, Paul goes on to state that a pre-condition of sharing in Christ's glory is that we share in his sufferings.

vs 18

And this stands to reason - temporal suffering surely must take a back seat to eternal glory.

vs 19

Why is the creation suddenly involved? I have no idea. I think that seems a little bit of an odd movement of this passage. Perhaps it is an idea that suffering is only a function of this creation - and that the new creation will not engender suffering.