Romans Chapter 8 cont'd
Genuine children of God are characterized by their commitment to following the leadership of the Holy Spirit. And this makes the Christian life a great adventure; not enslaving or intimidating, but an intimate association with God as a loving Papa. And it's our intimacy with the Holy Spirit that makes God's fatherhood real to us. Now if we are his children, then we have an inheritance from God; in fact, we share in the very same one that Christ has received. But don't forget of course, that we must endure our share of suffering for Christ if we expect to be exalted with Christ.
Comments:
An effective appetizer is meant to stimulate our hunger, not satisfy it. This is a good analogy for the tension we experience, by God's design, between the overlap of the old creation with the new. God allows us to experience enough reality of his presence and the "powers of the age to come" here and now, that we become extremely dissatisfied with the best that this age has to offer our souls. A genuine and undeniable kinship with the Trinity and the many blessings associated with a life of passionate worship and meaningful service deeply reorients our hearts so that we can persevere through the complications and setbacks of life in this fallen age in which not everything is going well and nothing is going perfectly. It also enables us to wait joyfully and patiently...with strong anticipation and longing...for the "full meal deal" that is yet to come. (How's that for a mouthful of paradoxical thoughts and feelings?)
We have a sure promise of a full future inheritance that instills spiritual hope into our hearts and minds and we also can experience a substantial down payment of that inheritance in our earthly journey. The New Testament teaches what has been called a "realized" eschatology (the doctrine of matters regarding "the end" of this age), without teaching...as many do today...an "over-realized" eschatology that leads to an unhealthy "triumphalism" and an idealization of the Church and the Christian life. This error by emphasis also leads many into a deep disappointment over the course of a "long obedience in the same direction"...as Eugene Peterson long ago described the life of a disciple of Jesus.
An "under-realized" eschatology will certainly not do either. This opposite error by emphasis has led to a denuded spirituality in church circles that is significantly stripped of joy, power, divine presence, purpose, hope, faith, love, zeal and the like...and that has left a dutiful religious drudgery and boredom in its wake...no expected divine responses to our responses to his divine initiatives. "He'p us Jesus!"
The properly blended eschatology of Romans 8 (the premier chapter in Scripture on the subject) is a framework for a spiritual life that can provide us with a divinely designed "vehicle" outfitted for riding the bumpy and curvy roads of this life's cross-country race...a powerful and reliable engine, an aerodynamic body (mostly!), tires that hug the road in all weather conditions, great shock absorbers and...filling stations strategically placed by our wise and loving Papa along the course.
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