The Insiders, Joint Heirs in Jesus

In Chapter Six Paul began a long and clear exposition of the victory that the believer has through the grace of justification. His exposition comes to its heart-level climax in the passage before us in Romans 8:12-17. The revelation is this: Walking free from the power and pollution of sin is all about being a child of the Father in the Sonship of Jesus Christ. What starts as a simple, clear, objective statement in Romans 6:14, “Sin shall no longer have mastery over you for you are not under law but under grace”, is not first and foremost a doctrine or theology to be applied by free-standing believers. It is the cry of the heart in wonderment and delight in the Father by all those who receive the same inheritance which gripped the human heart of Jesus Christ. As Sonship was and is for Jesus, so it is for those who are likewise the workmanship ('poem') of the Father (Ephesians 2:10). Jesus of Nazareth, the Father’s great ‘poem’, in whom all the wonder of humanity in union with the Father is expressed in the passion and rhythm of His image, says “The glory I received from the Father I have given to you." Do we hear the Spirit singing the Father’s poem? Do we hear our own spirit affirming the glory received? Do we agree with these two and cry, “Abba! Father!”? Or do we stand apart, looking down on the cross from the lonely distance of our inglorious tower of unbelief, trying to work it all out and apply it so that we can have God inherit us?