Daily Manna · Day 300 · October 27
Joint-Heirs with Christ
“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.”
The objection is honest and most people have it: the Spirit bearing witness sounds exactly like the feeling I do not have.
So notice that Paul does not send you back to look for it. He describes two witnesses, not one: the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit. Two parties testifying to the same thing, which is a courtroom picture, and it is deliberate. In Roman law an adoption was a legal act performed in front of witnesses, and it did what birth alone did not always do: it settled the inheritance beyond challenge and it cancelled what the son owed before. A Roman who wanted his estate to go somewhere specific adopted. It was not a sentiment about a child. It was a transaction with witnesses standing there.
We do not live in that legal world, and it would be dishonest to pretend the word lands on us the same way. Adoption for us is warm and it is chosen and it is largely about belonging. For them it was about standing, and about property, and it was very hard to undo. Paul is using their version. If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. Joint, meaning the same estate, not a lesser portion set aside for the adopted one.
And he does not stop there, which is why this is not a comfortable verse. The clause he adds is if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. The inheritance comes down the road Christ walked, and he says so in the same breath as the promise.
That is enough to be going on with. Do not make it into a resolution. Sit still for two minutes and say nothing.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 300 is All Things New (Revelation 21:5).