Heirs of God and Joint-Heirs with Christ
“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” Romans 8:15-17
The moment a person trusts the gospel of the grace of God, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ alone to forgive their sin and not any works of their own, they receive the Spirit of God and are instantly made a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus (1Co 15:1-4, Eph 1:12-14, Gal 3:26). That one settled relationship is the seed of everything this passage describes. A child is an heir, an heir is a joint-heir with Christ by nature of having their inheritance through Christ’s grace, and through those relationships we now have we’re appointed to be glorified together with Him. Each link in that chain rests on what God has already freely given through Christ, never on anything we could do to earn it.
Yet this is where the passage is so often misread. The closing words of verse 17, “if so be that we suffer with him,” have led some to treat glory as a reward earned only by those who “suffer well enough” for Christ. A careful look at the context tells a far better story. The suffering in view is the suffering every believer already shares in this present world, and the glory bound to it is the inheritance promised to all who are in Christ. The work before us is simply to let the words say what they say, in their own context, and to guard the complete standing that grace has placed beyond our power to earn or to lose.
If Children, Then Heirs
The inheritance we receive flows out of the relationship, not out of our performance. The reasoning moves from cause to effect: “And if children, then heirs.” Because we have been made children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, an inheritance belongs to us as a settled fact. That inheritance is eternal life, glory, and all spiritual blessings in Christ (Acts 20:32, 26:18, Eph 1:3, 11-14, 18, Col 1:12). The heirship is never presented as a wage to be earned or a prize to be won from our efforts. It is the natural result of being a child. A child does not labor to become an heir. He is an heir because of the family he was born into. It’s the same with us. The moment we trusted the gospel of the grace of God, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit, which is the earnest (advance/down payment) of the inheritance in glory we have in Christ.
Joint-Heirs with Christ Himself
This is a glorious mystery truth: we are made fellow-heirs together with Christ Himself. We are not merely called heirs of God, we are named “joint-heirs with Christ” (Gal 4:7, Eph 3:6, Rom 8:32).
“That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:” – Ephesians 3:6
The Lord Jesus is the Son of God, sharing an eternal Father and Son relationship within the Godhead, and Scripture calls Him the “heir of all things” (Heb 1:1-4). Because we have been placed in Him, made one with Him by the baptism of the Spirit into His death and resurrection, what belongs to Him by right is shared with us by His grace (Rom 6:3-11). We inherit through Christ. This is not a reward for our service, but rather it is a position bestowed by faith in Christ alone.
We do need to be careful here. To be a joint-heir with Christ does not mean we become equal with Christ, that we somehow become God, or that we possess all things in the same manner He does. It means that, because of His exalted position over all, we are graciously granted blessing in Him. Our standing is one of immense privilege, and yet it never erases the distinction between the Savior and the person He has redeemed.
Glorified Together with Him
The closing words of verse 17 have troubled many readers and commentators, but rightly dividing them and careful study of the context bring immense clarity. The clause reads, “if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” Part of what we inherit in the mystery of Christ is glory in Christ:
“[26] Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: [27] To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:” – Colossians 1:26-27
But we must be careful here once again. Romans 8:17 DOES NOT say, “if we will perform something for Christ by suffering, then we will earn a special glorification as a reward and be a joint-heir with Christ.” Our glorification is freely given and inherited by grace. We see very clearly in the progression of these verses that being a joint-heir with Christ depends on being an heir of God, which depends on being a child of God, which depends on trusting the gospel and receiving the Spirit (Rom 8:9-11, 16-17). None of it is tied to our service in any way. As shown earlier in Ephesians 3:6, being a fellowheir/joint-heir, a member of Christ’s body, and a partaker of His promise is by faith in the gospel, not a reward for service.
What, then, is the suffering in view here? The context answers plainly. It is the suffering of this present time that every believer shares simply by living in a sin-cursed world and in a corruptible body of flesh: the subjection to vanity, the bondage of corruption, and the groaning and travailing in pain as we wait for our redeemed body (Rom 8:20-23). This is not the suffering of just a faithful few, as some like to make it in their interpretation, it is what all in Christ experience.
The very next words weigh that suffering against the glory it gives way to:
“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” – Romans 8:18
The sufferings of this present time and the glory which shall be revealed belong together in the context, and that glory shall be revealed in “us”, the same “us” who are children, heirs, and joint-heirs in the previous verses. While we often feel our weights are the heaviest (they’re not), our present affliction is light and momentary when set beside the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory:
“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” – 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Our Lord Himself walked this road before us. Christ suffered not only on the cross but in the very act of taking on humanity, humbling Himself and subjecting Himself to the sorrows of this world and infirmities in the flesh (Php 2:6-11, Jhn 17:1-5, Heb 4:15). He suffered, and He was glorified. We suffer now because of our flesh and this present evil world, and we will be glorified together with Him. The little phrase “if so be that” in verse 17 is not meant to leave any believer in doubt of glory. It states a reality. Since we suffer, as Christ did, we will surely be glorified with Him. We are dead with Him, and we live with Him also (Rom 6:5,8).
A Position No One Can Take from You
This passage is not dividing believers into ordinary heirs and a higher class of joint-heirs. It does not teach that everyone becomes an heir while only those who suffer well for Christ rise to become joint-heirs. The “us” who shall be glorified in verse 18 is the very same “us” who are children, heirs, and joint-heirs (Rom 8:16-18). The present suffering and the future glory that will be revealed are not exclusive to any believer, but are inclusive of all. The context here is not reward for service and the judgment seat of Christ. It is the complete, freely given position in glory that belongs to every member of the Body of Christ.
Where many stumble is in forgetting that not all suffering in Scripture is the same kind of suffering. There is indeed a suffering for Christ’s sake, a suffering that comes through faithful service, and that suffering does carry a reward at the judgment seat of Christ (1Co 3:11-15; 2Co 1:5-6, Col 1:24, 2Ti 2:10-12). But that is not the suffering described here. To read reward-for-service into these words would make our glorification and our joint-heir standing rest upon our works, and that is contrary to our whole hope of glory, which is in Christ freely by His grace. When we fail to rightly divide, or fail to read the context of the passage carefully, we unknowingly add conditions the text never placed there.
Guard your position, and do not allow anyone to rob you of the complete standing that is yours in Christ (Col 2:8-10). The wording can be tricky at first, but a careful look at the context of surrounding passages, cross-references on the same subject, and the grammar settles the matter beautifully. You are a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Therefore, you are an heir of God. Therefore, you are a joint-heir with Christ. You have suffering in the flesh now as you await glory, and the glory that awaits you was never something you had to earn. It was an inheritance promised by Christ the moment you believed the gospel.
