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In our verse by verse study of Romans last time we completed our Expanded Translation Rom 8:16; "The Spirit himself testifies together with our human spirit, that we are children of God."
In the testimony of two witnesses: the Holy Spirit takes the Word of God and inserts it into the heart of the human soul through the human spirit.
The two witnesses are the Holy Spirit and the human spirit. The testimony of the two witnesses is God's Word of Truth. By that joint testimony God's actual reality is inserted into our viewpoint of our circumstances of life.
Rom 8:17; is a transitional verse that deals with two subjects. The first sentence deals with relationship; the second sentence is the transitional sentence that starts out with undeserved suffering as a source of blessing to the mature believer that ends up with glory.
"But if children, also heirs" the postpositive conjunctive particle "de" (but) connects ideas together.
Paul is going to take all of these incredible truths that he has described in the first part of the chapter and put them together with something that seems to be contradictory, antithetical, incongruous and incompatible with that reality.
He is going to put all of blessing and prosperity together with undeserved suffering for blessing.
In order to get into this properly we must have one more sentence that emphasizes fact that we are related to God in a very special way, and that we are dealing with God's perfect justice that can never ever be unfair.
Next is the conditional particle "ei" (if) that introduces the protasis of a first class condition that is an assumption from the viewpoint of truth.
The supposition is based on a statement from the previous two sentences: that all believers are children of God the Father that sets up a first class condition of "if" that is assumed to be true.
There is no verb in this sentence so it is elliptical. An ellipsis applies to any concept that is not fully expressed grammatically so it leaves it up to the reader to supply the necessary missing words.
Generally the omission is the verb "to be" that must be supplied as is the case here, the present active indicative of "eimi" (are) is missing so if we add it we have "but if we are."
Plus the predicate nominative plural from "teknon" (children), the word refers to a child that is under the authority of his tutors, his parents; so it refers to children in a time of learning and comprehending so it is describing "children" in the sense of being under authority because they are young and still have much to learn.
The first class condition indicates that is the situation and next we have the adjunctive use of the conjunction "kai" that is translated (also instead of and).
The natural result of being a child under the authority of parents and at the same time being adopted is described with the predicate nominative plural of "kleronomos" (inheritors) in the plural so it refers to every believer in Jesus Christ as an heir or an inheritor of God.
Plus the genitive singular of relationship "Theos" (God) with "men" (indeed) that emphasize that this heirship or inheritance is "indeed of God."
God the Father is in view. Then a second "de" that is translated (but, or on the other hand). Then a predicate nominative plural from a compound noun, "synkleronomos" (syn = a form of the preposition "with"; kleronomos = inheritor or heir), "fellow inheritors," plus an ablative singular of "Christos" (Christ)."
So we have "But if, on the one hand, we are the inheritors or heirs of God the Father, and on the other hand we are fellow inheritors or heirs with Christ."
The instrumental case is normally used to express means but the ablative case can be used when the source in implied as it is here.
In this case since Christ is the source, the ablative case is used so we have "with Christ." Christ is the source and the means of our inheritance or heirship with God the Father, and this emphasizes the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the concepts involved with the baptism of the Spirit but especially current positional truth.
We see here that not only does the doctrine of heirship come into view, but also the doctrines of positional sanctification, God's royal family, the baptism of the Spirit, and current positional truth.
Heirship demands the blessings of inheritance. To be the heir of the God of the universe requires comparable blessing from inheritance.
These blessings are available as a part of God's plan. The only thing missing is that God's justice cannot impute these blessings of inheritance until there is capacity for them.
Heirship is related to the concept of blessing from God's justice in time and in eternity. The imputation of God's perfect righteousness at salvation is the predicate for God's justice providing direct blessing to believers in Jesus Christ from God's integrity.
All direct blessing from God's justice is made as real direct imputations from God's justice to God's imputed righteousness in the believer in Jesus Christ. To be a fellow heir and inheritor with Christ demands blessing, but that blessing demands capacity.
Capacity for this blessing only comes to those who have Bible doctrine resident in their soul and their spirit. Capacity for blessing in eternity from God's justice is a series of a fortiori principles that begin with and is predicated on the judicial imputation of God's perfect righteousness at salvation.
The transitional sentence introduces the next paragraph that is the new life from suffering to glorification that is described in verses 18-30. It begins with suffering of the present time and terminates in verse 30 with glorification.
The first phrase of this second sentence reads, "if so be that we suffer with him." The compound conditional conjunction "eiper" is one of the connecting links used by Paul that is made up of two particles: "ei" that is used with the indicative for a first class condition, and "per" with the intensive force so it is translated "if as is supposed" or "if indeed."
With it is the present active indicative from the compound verb "sumpascho" (sum is from the preposition "sun" = with; "pascho" = suffer), so it means to suffer with or to suffer along with.
Plato used this verb to mean to suffer at the same time, or to suffer with, or to suffer the same as, but primarily to suffer at the same time but not necessarily to the same degree or severity.
One idea that should be eliminated immediately because it is a stumbling block that people make of this transitional sentence is that there is parallelism between the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross and the suffering of Christians in time.
The sufferings of Christ on the cross were absolutely unique, as unique as the person who was hanging there. Therefore there is no possibility that this verb denotes a common participation of Christ and the believer in a common suffering; there is no such thing.
Ascetics and other emotional people attempt to read themselves into the picture by using this idea. The sufferings of the mature believer cannot be compared with the suffering of the unique God-Man, our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
In Phil 1:29; the believer is described as suffering for the sake of or on behalf of Christ, but not with Christ in the sense of the cross. Suffering on behalf of someone of is not the same as suffering the same as someone.
Rom 8:17; What this transitional sentence is telling us is that capacity for blessing from spiritual maturity also means capacity for undeserved suffering.
"Sumpascho" (suffering together) is describing the underserved suffering of the believer in the status quo of spiritual maturity together with the underserved suffering of Jesus Christ in the status quo of impeccability.
Believers are not impeccable but believers do have undeserved suffering. Being in the status of capacity for life the mature believer has the ability to meet any suffering, any disaster, any situation in life, and handle it perfectly in accord with God's word of truth.
That means that while we will commit personal sin as long as we live in a biological body as mature believers we have capacity from God's Word under the filling ministry of God the Spirit not to sin even when we are suffering from pressures and disasters in the devil's world.
The compound conjunction "eiper" assumes maturity adjustment to God's justice that not only provides capacity for blessing but also capacity for undeserved suffering. So our translation is "if indeed we suffer with maturity status."
The principle is that capacity for blessing from maturity adjustment to God's justice means capacity for undeserved suffering in spiritual maturity. Therefore the compound verb "sumpascho" refers to suffering in the status quo of spiritual maturity.
The verb is in the retroactive progressive present tense that refers to the being in the status spiritual maturity in the past that results in the continuation being spiritually mature in the present.
The active voice explains that mature believers produce the action of the verb of advancing through suffering for blessing by their application of God's Word of Truth under pressure from adversity.
The indicative mood is declarative so it describes maturity adjustment to God's justice from the viewpoint of reality.
This is telling us that from now on until we get to the end of verse 30 spiritually mature believers are being described.
It is telling us what we can expect from life in the devil's world after we reach spiritual maturity, and how to properly handle those situations as a mature believer.
That a mature believer will have undeserved suffering is a supposition that is made from the viewpoint of reality because it is a protasis of a first class condition. It is telling us that it will happen.
The protasis makes two assumptions: Maturity adjustment to God's justice through maximum doctrinal truth resident and circulating in the heart of the soul and the human spirit results in the real direct imputation of God's blessing to God's imputed judicial righteousness.
The mature believer undeserved suffering is for the purpose o creating greater capacity for greater blessing from God than can be developed from the normal sufferings of life in the devil's world.
This is how God overcomes satan's evil with divine good and turns the curse into a blessing.