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Our apostle having asserted and insured the believer's adoption in the foregoing verse, doth in this verse infer the certainty of his inheritance: If children, then heirs.
Learn hence, That all God's children, by special grace and adoption, are undoubted heirs of a blessed and glorious inheritance.
He next declares whom they are heirs of, and whom they are heirs with; they are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.
1. They are heirs of God, they do inherit God himself, their Father is their portion; man leaves his heirs what he has, God gives his heirs what he is; he which gives them the inheritance, is the inheritance itself which he gives them, by being not only heirs to him, but heirs of him; they have an interest in all his attributes; his wisdom is theirs to guide and direct them, his power is theirs to sustain and preserve them, his mercy and pity is theirs to relieve and succour them.
Oh happy and blessed privilege of God's adopted ones! they are not only heirs of heaven, but heirs of God himself; they have him for their portion, and exceeding great reward.
2. They are heirs with Christ: as Christ is God's heir, so are they heirs with Christ; Christ is God's heir by nature, as he is the Son of God by nature; whatever is God's is his, and they are heirs with Christ; they are members of him, and shall be heirs with him, 1Co_3:21-23. All his yours, and ye are Christ's, Eph_1:11. In him we have obtained the inheritance; we are heirs in his right.
Oh blessed Jesus! how endearing are our obligations to thee! All that we have is from thee, by thee, and in thee: We are chosen in thee, justified by thee, sanctified through thee, and shall be glorified with thee; For if children, then heirs: heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. It follows,
Here we see what accompanieth our adoption, namely, present affliction; we are now to suffer, but not alone, we suffer with Christ; If so be that we suffer with him. This if is not a word of ambiguity and doubting, but a word of certainty and assurance and signifies as much as seeing that we suffer with him.
Learn hence, 1. That a state of suffering and affliction on earth is one condition of obtaining our glorious inheritance in heaven; we must suffer that God may be glorified, our graces improved, our love to the world mortified, our longings for heaven increased.
Learn, 2. That the sufferings of believers are the sufferings of Christ; they suffer with him, and he with them; they suffer with him in a way of conformity, he with them in a way of tender sympathy; they are sensible of any indignity offered to him, and he is sensible of any injury offered to them: the suffering saint pledges Christ in his own cup.
Farther, they suffer with him when they suffer for him, when they suffer in his cause, and for his sake; that is, for doing their duty.
Finally, they suffer with him when they suffer by an assistance derived from him, when by his enablement, and by a power communicated from him, they suffer hard things for his name and truth.
Learn, 3. That as sufferings go before, so glory shall certainly follow sufferings; If we suffer with him, we shall be also glorified together. Suffering is the beaten path to glroy, and that which makes it so much the more glorious; suffering fits us for glory, and disposes us for the reception and fruition of it; by the cross we are fitted for the crown.
Learn, 4. That suffering members shall not only be glorified, but be comformable to their glorified Head in glory; as they have here suffered with him, they shall hereafter be glorified together, not with equal glory, but with the same kind of glory.
Three things are implied in our being glorified together with Christ:
1. Conformity; we shall be like him in glory.
2. Concomitancy: we shall accompany him, and be present with him in glory.
3. Conveyance or derivation; we shall be glorified with him; that is, our glory shall be derived from him; his glory shall be reflected upon us, and we shall shine in his beams.
Oh happy condition of God's adopted and afflicted children! The supports which you have under suffering, the benefits which you have by suffering, and the glory which will follow after suffering, render it not only tolerable but desirable; well may they glory in tribulation, which expect such a glory after it.