Romans 8:17

The apostle has proved the fact of our being sons or children, first by the filial fecling produced in us by the Spirit, and then by the direct witness of the Spirit Himself. He can now conclude his argument; for even in expressing the most exalted sentiments, his exposition always assumes a logical form. He had said, Romans 8:13-14: “Ye shall live, for ye are sons;” then he demonstrated the reality of this title son; and he now infers from it the condition of heirship. Thus the reasoning is concluded; for to be an heir of God is identical with being a possessor of life.

No doubt God does not die, like those who leave an inheritance; it is from the heart of His glory that He enriches his sons by communicating it to them, that is, by imparting Himself to them. For, rightly taken, His heritage is Himself. The best He can give His children is to dwell in them. St. Paul expresses it when he describes the perfect state in the words (1 Corinthians 15:28): God all in all.

But he here adds an expression particularly fitted to impress us with the sublimity of such a state: coheirs with Christ. The loftiness of the title heir of God might easily be lost in vagueness, unless the apostle, with the view of making this abstract idea palpable, added a concrete fact. To be an heir with Christ is not to inherit in the second instance, to inherit from Him; it is to be put in the same rank as Himself; it is to share the divine possession with Him. To get a glimpse of what is meant by the title heirs of God, let us contemplate the relation between Christ and God, and we shall have an idea of what we are led to hope from our title sons of God; comp. Romans 8:29 --;Only to reach the possession of the inheritance, there is yet one condition to be satisfied: if we suffer with Him. Paul knows well that, ambitious as we are of glory, we are equally ready to recoil from the necessary suffering. Now it is precisely in suffering that the bond between Christ and us, in virtue of which we shall be able to become His co-heirs, is closely drawn. We only enter into possession of the common heritage of glory, by accepting our part in the common inheritance of suffering; εἴπερ : “ if really, as we are called to it, we have the courage to”...These last words are evidently the transition to the passage immediately following, in which are expounded, first the miserable state of the world in its present condition, but afterward the certainty of the glorious state which awaits us.