God's Adopted Heirs - Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost Sunday (Year C) - Romans 8

Romans 8:12-17 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹² So then, brothers and sisters, we are obligated, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— ¹³ for if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

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                It is Pentecost Sunday. It’s time for the Holy Spirit to descend upon the church once again and empower it to fulfill its calling to proclaim good news to the ends of the earth, beginning in Jerusalem (Acts 1:8; 2:1-4). Although one path for the second reading is to lift up Acts 2:1-21, which describes the events of the Day of Pentecost. It can also serve as the First Reading. I am choosing to reflect on a different passage available to us through the Revised Common Lectionary, and that would be a brief reading from Romans 8. In many ways, this brief reading from Romans 8 speaks to identity. It focuses on our identity as children of God and therefore heirs with Christ. That has something to say about how we live in the world. Are we defined by the flesh or the Spirit?

While the lectionary reading begins in verse 14, the paragraph begins in verse 12 (this is as it is suggested for the Trinity Sunday reading in Year B). So I will start with these two omitted verses. Actually, we might want to step back to verse 9 of chapter 8, where Paul tells the Romans that the Spirit of God lives in them. Therefore, “then the desires of your broken human ways cannot overpower you. Remember, the ones who belong to the Chosen One have his Spirit” (Rom. 8:9 First Nations Version). With that message in mind, we can hear what Paul has to say in verses 12-13 about living according to the Spirit and not the flesh, because the way of the flesh is the way of death, while the way of the Spirit is life. This isn’t necessarily a word about our bodies, but rather our focus. The choice is ours—the way of the flesh, which leads to brokenness, or the way of the Spirit, which leads to life.

Those who gathered in the Upper Room on that Pentecost Sunday, having heard Jesus’ commission to carry the good news to the ends of the earth after being filled with the Spirit, received their blessing (Acts 1-2). The reading from Romans 8 might not seem like a Pentecost text (after all in Year B it is the Second Reading for Trinity Sunday), but it does speak to what it means to be filled with the Spirit. According to Paul, to be led by the Spirit is to be a child of God. This has to do with our identity in Christ. Not only have we put to death the ways of the flesh, but we’ve been adopted into God’s family. Therefore, there is no need to live in fear. That’s because we’ve not been given a spirit of slavery, but a spirit of adoption. Michael Gorman writes of this contrast between the spirit of slavery and that of adoption, noting that this is true due to the nature of God’s Spirit:

God’s Spirit is not a Spirit (or perhaps spirit) that creates slaves and thus fear of a tyrannical, abusive master who is ready to condemn and punish. Rather, God’s Spirit lovingly crates a family of adopted children, and it is that Spirit—and therefore that special status—the faithful enjoy. The Spirit marks them out as people liberated from slavery and fear, and as members of God’s family by adoption (8:15) [Gorman, Romans, pp. 200-201].

Gorman also points out that in Roman custom those who are adopted generally become full heirs, receiving the same benefits or perhaps greater ones than the biological children. This status of being children of God also suggests experiencing intimacy with God, as demonstrated in the fact that those who receive this spirit of adoption can cry out to God “Abba! Father!” This comes as the Spirit of God witnesses to our spirits, reminding us of our status in Christ. This status of being adopted children of God is granted to all who are in Christ.

We are, Paul reminds us, heirs of God, and therefore joint-heirs with Jesus. Yes, to be in Christ is to be Christ’s sibling and thus we share in the inheritance granted to him by the Father. Since are we children of God by adoption through the Spirit, and thus joint-heirs with Jesus, we are in line to receive the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 12. That promise is this, through Abraham’s descendants the nations will be blessed. For those of us who are Gentile by descent, our adoption in Christ puts us in line to share in Go’s promise to Abraham. Indeed, as Gentile believers, through the Spirit, we are brought into God’s covenant people. To say that we who Gentiles are included in the covenant people of God does not mean we replace our older siblings. We simply share in the inheritance (see Romans 9-11 for Paul’s views on God’s ongoing relationship with Israel).

Paul concludes by suggesting that to be adopted into the family of Jesus and thus share in his glory, we’ll face the suffering that he endured or something like it. In other words, Paul believes that suffering is something that Christians, like himself, will endure. Thus, as joint-heirs with Jesus regarding the promises of God, if we are to experience his glory we will share in his sufferings.  That is, “if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” Turning again to Michael Gorman’s commentary, he writes that while sharing God’s glory is humanity’s original state and thus our final goal, “to be co-heirs with Christ in future glory requires co-suffering with Christ now.” He writes that Paul is not speaking of suffering as the way in which we merit God’s glory but is “a claim about the nature of full participation in the messianic story. Christ’s story is a narrative of suffering before full and final glory, death before resurrection, of being humbled before being exalted.” What is his story is now our story as joint-heirs of God’s promises [Gorman, Romans, p. 202].

It should also be noted here that we should be careful about not glorifying suffering. This need not be read as an encouragement to pursue forms of suffering. Crystal Hall, writing at The Working Preacher, offers a helpful word here:  “While it may be easy to go in the direction of glorifying suffering, it must be asked who is suffering and why. Is it people who are already marginalized, already being asked and expected to suffer, who are then to glory in that suffering? Are there other ways of approaching suffering? There is a reminder here, that when we suffer, Christ is present with us in the midst of it.” The point would be that when we suffer, Christ is with us. That is good news, and it is part of our inheritance. And with that, we find a path to sharing in the glory of God that comes as we participate in life in the Spirit.   

To live by the Spirit means putting to death the ways of the flesh. That is, to be a follower of Jesus, means experiencing the presence of God’s Spirit, the way we live out this relationship will demonstrate the degree to which we are faithful to our calling. 

Image Attribution: Kossowski, Adam. Veni Sancti Spiritus, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56946 [retrieved May 28, 2022]. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/8750321716 - Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P..