Paulus puts it this way: But when we are children, we are also heirs, heirs of God and of Christ co-heirs, as true as we readthere with him to also be glorified with him (Rom 8:17).
With Christ, the door opens there for a number of amazing benefits. We are God's children with him. This means that we are dearly loved.e of God and inalienable to him. We are also heirs of God with Jesus and will share in the beauty of the world to come. All this is ours because we are connected to Jesus by faith.
When we are connected to Jesus, we get the whole package. We share with him in relationship with God, and that is a privilege. But we share also with him in relation to the unbelieving world. Paul says that we suffer with Jesus.
This means that the dislike of Jesus that exists among people in this world, and which isis expressed in many ways, rettes against the children of God. Yes, it is almost as if the aggression against Jesus Christ is primarily expressed as aggression against his church on earth. When Paul was stopped by Jesus on his way to Damascus to imprison the believers there, Jesus said to him: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" He persecuted Jesus by persecuting Jesus' disciples.God's church shares a home with Jesus in this world.
We share the privileges, but we also share the suffering. Some people don't feel it so badly, but in other places it hits hard. In principle, however, it is the same: We belong with Jesus, as truly as we suffer with him. But suffering is never without privilege.
Henrik Nymann Eriksen is principal at Luthersk Missions Højskole
