Lest we surmise that a revival of talk of justification and
its requisite accompaniment of the family of God is not applicable to this
portion of Paul’s letter, we need only skip down to verse twelve, where we hear
“So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation” (8:12a). To whom
or to what? “Not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh” (8:12a),
for that is the old age of division and a fractured humanity. Emphasizing
the seriousness of the new obligation of the new covenant, Paul expands upon
and punctuates that statement with “(for if you live according to the flesh,
you will die)” (8:13a). Further elaboration has Paul offering the
contrasting position: “but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the
body you will live” (8:13b). This business of God’s kingdom come to earth
is a matter of life and death.
Without getting sidetracked into an examination of what Paul
may mean with verse thirteen, we find him quickly returning to the familial
theme with verse fourteen and “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the
sons of God” (8:14). What is the evidence of being led by the
Spirit? It is belief in Jesus as Lord (the mark of
justification/participation in the Creator God’s covenant people), and the
resultant participation in His kingdom purposes (with its promises,
cross-shaped responsibilities, and blessings). Further extending the
family metaphor, and perhaps offering a suggestion as to the nature of the
composition of the congregation of believers to which he writes, Paul goes on
to adapt the language of, and rely upon familiarity with, the practices
surrounding the act of adoption in that day, writing “For you did not receive
the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, but you received the Spirit of
adoption, by whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” (8:15)
Though there are numerous ways to hear these words, and
while it certainly is suggestive of the type of relationship that can be
individually enjoyed with the Creator God, it is important to keep this in line
with what we have learned to this point in the letter, and to assert that this
ability to cry out to God is about Paul’s continued insistence that all peoples
can now rightly cry out to the God of Israel as their Father. Before now,
in their role as the covenant people, which we realize had degenerated into a
defensive, protective, and excluding stance, it was only Israel that could
rightly and justly cry out to their Father God and expect to be heard.
This is no longer the case. Paul declares that “The Spirit Himself bears
witness to our spirit that we are God’s children. And if children, then
heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ)---if indeed we
suffer with Him so we may also be glorified with Him” (8:16-17).
Talk of heirs reaches back to what was suggested in the
fourth chapter, being firmly ensconced within the world of the Abrahamic
covenant and the inheritance to be had by all those that are his children, by a
faith like that which he exercised. Here, Paul reaches out to the four
corners of the world, suggesting a united, renewed humanity under the new
covenant and in the new age that has dawned in the Resurrection, with that
humanity joined together with the Christ, and called to a kingdom-oriented life
that takes its cues from the suffering and shame of the cross. This
suffering, which we can certainly equate with conceptions of honor and shame as
the implications of a willful journey to the cross are explored and embraced,
is efficacious as the means by which Jesus’ Lordship is proclaimed and by which
the kingdom of God is advanced.
Because every act that would, in that day and age, bring
shame upon the believer (at least as understood by the world and the court of
public opinion), was an embracing of the cross and of the tenets of a Lord and
a kingdom that is manifest in such ways, and because every shame-embracing act
is performed because of the hope of resurrection and the renewal of creation,
Paul cannot help but say “For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even
be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us” (8:18). For those
that believe in Jesus, behind every kingdom-directed thought and every
kingdom-inspired action lies the idea that just as Jesus was raised from the
dead into a glorious existence of a glorified body here in a creation that has
begun to experience its renewal through the resurrecting power of the Spirit,
so too shall all those that believe in Him (with that belief the evidence of
the Spirit’s present work and evidence that the power of the new creation is at
work) experience the same.
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