Romans 8:14-17

So Paul teaches here something very positive. That God's gift of the Holy Spirit adopts us, if you will, into the God Family. And when we receive it, we become not only children of God, but also heirs with Christ of the Kingdom and all things. We are joint heirs with Christ. Whatever Christ inherits, we inherit with Him. Fantastic! What a wonderful hope!

But at the end, Paul mentions that we become like Him through suffering. We do not get the prize at the end without going through the same process that He went through to be the heir of all things. If we suffer like Him, that is, for living godly in this world of sin—it does not say necessarily that we have to go through the same things that He went through or to the extent that He went through, but it does say that we have to suffer for being a righteous person or a person trying to be righteous and live righteously in this world. And so if we do, if we suffer with Him, then we will be glorified with Him. That is the program that we have joined and need to graduate from. That is the goal. The glorification is the goal because we have gone through all of this sanctification to be like Christ. And Paul puts the road or all the process into one simple word: suffering. Fantastic, right?

Romans 8:14-15

It is the Spirit of sonship whereby we become His children, and may call Him "Father."

The church of God is the household of God—composed of God's children. We do not become His children until we are spiritually born—until we receive His Spirit, which is, His nature and life. When we receive His Spirit we are automatically put into His family—His church. Joining one of the social clubs called churches does not put us into God's church!