Romans 8:17

Then heirs. Literally, “also heirs.” In God’s plan for the complete restoration of man, sonship and heirship go together (cf. Gal. 4:7). If we are born again as His children and are adopted as His sons, God will also treat us as His heirs. The inheritance is the kingdom of glory (Matt. 25:34; 1 Peter 1:4, 5) and eternal life (Rom. 2:7). The full possession of this inheritance is longingly awaited by the children of God (Rom. 8:18-25; cf. 1 John 3:1-3).

Joint-heirs. Jesus described Himself as “the heir” in the parable of the Wicked Husbandmen (Matt. 21:38). As the “first-born among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29), Christ admits His brethren to share alike in the inheritance that He has won, not for Himself but for them (see John 17:22-24; 2 Tim. 2:11, 12; Rev. 3:21).

Suffer with him. Or, “suffer together.” In the Greek Paul uses three compound words prefixed by the preposition sun, “with.” Christians are “joint-heirs with,” or heirs together (sugkleronomoi), we “suffer with,” or together (sumpascho), and we are “glorified together” (sundoxazo). If we suffer with Christ, God will treat us as heirs together with His own Son. Mere suffering does not meet the condition here implied. It must be suffering with Christ (cf. 2 Tim. 2:11, 12).

Christ’s life is an example for the believer. Jesus went through pain to peace and through suffering to glory; so also will all who love Him (see Matt. 10:38; 16:24; 20:22; 2 Cor. 1:5; Col. 1:24; 1 Thess. 3:3). To suffer with Him means to suffer for His sake and the gospel’s. When the early Christians were faced with cruel persecution for Christ’s sake, Peter encouraged them with the words, “Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (1 Peter 4:13).

To suffer with Christ may also mean to struggle with the powers of temptation as He did, so that as He was made “perfect through sufferings” (Heb. 2:9, 10, 18), we may be also.

The plan of salvation does not offer believers a life free from suffering and trial this side of the kingdom. On the contrary, it calls upon them to follow Christ in the same path of self-denial and reproach. As Jesus was constantly opposed by Satan and persecuted by the world, so will be all those who are being transformed into His likeness. Their increasing unlikeness to the world will provoke ever greater hostility. But it is through such trial and persecution that the character of Christ is reproduced and revealed in His people. “Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried” (Dan. 12:10). By sharing in the sufferings of Christ we are educated and disciplined and made ready to share in the glories of the hereafter.