Romans
By Norman P. Grubb
"From Romans 8:16 Paul starts talking about a new thing. He says the Spirit bears witness with your spirit, that you are children of God. So, he said, that is the proof. You see, I am saying—witness is knowing within you. Now this is this further along witness. You have the witness, you are redeemed; now the real work of the Holy Spirit within us begins, you now have the witness you are unified. But this does not usually happen at once nor over night if you will, it takes some time to bring this light to bearing of the reality of this change also known as Salvation. The Spirit bears witness with your spirit that the real you is the Spirit of Christ in you. You are settled into this; this witness comes. You are settled. Witness means something fixed to you. Now he says, “When you are fixed in that witness you are led by the Spirit of GOD.” What does that mean? Life becomes very easy. Led isn’t pushed; led isn’t shouted at; led is just you go this way. And, so you take your way to be His way. You have become a free person. Because, you are not you but HE, do what you like. Dare to believe that it is HE in you. So, believe that your ordinary, normal life is HE leading, “Yes, come along, we are coming this way, I am leading you.”
By Norman P. Grubb
"From Romans 8:16 Paul starts talking about a new thing. He says the Spirit bears witness with your spirit, that you are children of God. So, he said, that is the proof. You see, I am saying—witness is knowing within you. Now this is this further along witness. You have the witness, you are redeemed; now the real work of the Holy Spirit within us begins, you now have the witness you are unified. But this does not usually happen at once nor over night if you will, it takes some time to bring this light to bearing of the reality of this change also known as Salvation. The Spirit bears witness with your spirit that the real you is the Spirit of Christ in you. You are settled into this; this witness comes. You are settled. Witness means something fixed to you. Now he says, “When you are fixed in that witness you are led by the Spirit of GOD.” What does that mean? Life becomes very easy. Led isn’t pushed; led isn’t shouted at; led is just you go this way. And, so you take your way to be His way. You have become a free person. Because, you are not you but HE, do what you like. Dare to believe that it is HE in you. So, believe that your ordinary, normal life is HE leading, “Yes, come along, we are coming this way, I am leading you.”
However, when HE isn’t leading you, HE will check you. When HE doesn’t check, go along. Don’t wait to be led, take it for granted that you are led unless the red light is up. Be free, you are a led person now. You are to believe in this new life as a led person and that you are a son of God.
This has given you a new concept toward God, HE is our Father, HE is Daddy. So, Paul says, “He has taken out the spirit of bondage and given you the Spirit of Adoption.” And, I am in the family now. I go to the icebox if I want to. God delights in me doing my stuff, and HE is really doing it! So, I have got a sense of God’s delight behind me, God’s pleasure and Spirit leading. This is this new freedom. And, then Paul says a sudden thing, “But, you will have suffering.” He says it right in the heart of this—suffering. That is startling, isn’t it.
He had just said before, “In this relationship you are now son and heir. If you are children, you are heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ.” So, you are now beginning to move from the trivial to the magnificent. You are part of God’s universal purpose now. So far, that is our personal need—to get out of this and to get into the other. That is finished. You are led. God is your Daddy. Get on with it. That fear stuff is gone. He is with you all the time. You are free and you know who you are. You have got the positive witness.
Now you are moving to something far bigger. You are one by whom God is managing the Universe. You are going to have a new concept of life which is that your job begins to be that you are a communicator to others. Naturally, as we have all through life, we learn a profession and we communicate our profession. We get our wages by doing our plumbing, or doing our engineering or doing our teaching. That is the whole point. You are communicating. You have got the know-how. Now this is moving into the communicating area. It starts off, when he says, “You see, you manage the Universe.” Out through you, you see you are co-heirs, co-heirs with Christ. You are going to move out from yourselves now. Now you are involved with the suffering world and you suffer with it. It says, in Verse 17, “If you are children, you are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him.” Now suffering is the pressures that we never get beyond. This life is a mix-up. It is a mix-up of joy and sorrow, of glory and suffering. The glory and the joy overflow, but the other is there always. So we are mingled in others lives where we are involved with things which do hurt and do cause us concern. You can’t escape that. That is part of the life you are in.
It says, “If you don’t suffer with Him, you aren’t glorified together.” We do suffer. How can we put that? Only that I think there is a drive in life beyond the self. A drive in life. Something inner which causes us to seek to be something. Something in our own area, a contributor to others, involvement with others. And, this is to a suffering world. He even says that we are involved even in the creation this way. He says that creation is suffering; it is under a tension. And, they live by fear—the birds go through this, if the cat’s on the corner. Everything in life has a certain tension about it. This beautiful world has tensions about it. We are involved in this kind of world. So, we must expect to share in the tensions and the problems and our share in the solution of them. Again, he says it is part of this whole negative, positive process. It says He deliberately subjected the created world to a tension condition—what we call the condition of corruption—that it may be delivered into the glorious liberty. It says, “The creature itself was made subject to vanity”—the wrong way of doing things—“not willingly, but by reason of Him Who hath subjected the same in hope.”
So, you see we are part of the process here. We had to pass through negative to a positive. And, we move into the positive in Christ through whole areas of negative. And, even now we have to walk an old life because of the dangers of the negative, all the time, the self influences upon us.
Paul says the whole world is like that. In a sense the whole world having been subjected to the negative, is suffering. Animals, one eating with teeth and claw, etc. Humanity is fitted with its own teeth and claws and is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. So you see, it says, “Creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” It is in bondage of corruption to be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God. So, this is what we are after in this present time. As far as we are able to transmit this liberty, the glorious liberty, we do it—like I transmitted to that lady I told you about."
This has given you a new concept toward God, HE is our Father, HE is Daddy. So, Paul says, “He has taken out the spirit of bondage and given you the Spirit of Adoption.” And, I am in the family now. I go to the icebox if I want to. God delights in me doing my stuff, and HE is really doing it! So, I have got a sense of God’s delight behind me, God’s pleasure and Spirit leading. This is this new freedom. And, then Paul says a sudden thing, “But, you will have suffering.” He says it right in the heart of this—suffering. That is startling, isn’t it.
He had just said before, “In this relationship you are now son and heir. If you are children, you are heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ.” So, you are now beginning to move from the trivial to the magnificent. You are part of God’s universal purpose now. So far, that is our personal need—to get out of this and to get into the other. That is finished. You are led. God is your Daddy. Get on with it. That fear stuff is gone. He is with you all the time. You are free and you know who you are. You have got the positive witness.
Now you are moving to something far bigger. You are one by whom God is managing the Universe. You are going to have a new concept of life which is that your job begins to be that you are a communicator to others. Naturally, as we have all through life, we learn a profession and we communicate our profession. We get our wages by doing our plumbing, or doing our engineering or doing our teaching. That is the whole point. You are communicating. You have got the know-how. Now this is moving into the communicating area. It starts off, when he says, “You see, you manage the Universe.” Out through you, you see you are co-heirs, co-heirs with Christ. You are going to move out from yourselves now. Now you are involved with the suffering world and you suffer with it. It says, in Verse 17, “If you are children, you are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him.” Now suffering is the pressures that we never get beyond. This life is a mix-up. It is a mix-up of joy and sorrow, of glory and suffering. The glory and the joy overflow, but the other is there always. So we are mingled in others lives where we are involved with things which do hurt and do cause us concern. You can’t escape that. That is part of the life you are in.
It says, “If you don’t suffer with Him, you aren’t glorified together.” We do suffer. How can we put that? Only that I think there is a drive in life beyond the self. A drive in life. Something inner which causes us to seek to be something. Something in our own area, a contributor to others, involvement with others. And, this is to a suffering world. He even says that we are involved even in the creation this way. He says that creation is suffering; it is under a tension. And, they live by fear—the birds go through this, if the cat’s on the corner. Everything in life has a certain tension about it. This beautiful world has tensions about it. We are involved in this kind of world. So, we must expect to share in the tensions and the problems and our share in the solution of them. Again, he says it is part of this whole negative, positive process. It says He deliberately subjected the created world to a tension condition—what we call the condition of corruption—that it may be delivered into the glorious liberty. It says, “The creature itself was made subject to vanity”—the wrong way of doing things—“not willingly, but by reason of Him Who hath subjected the same in hope.”
So, you see we are part of the process here. We had to pass through negative to a positive. And, we move into the positive in Christ through whole areas of negative. And, even now we have to walk an old life because of the dangers of the negative, all the time, the self influences upon us.
Paul says the whole world is like that. In a sense the whole world having been subjected to the negative, is suffering. Animals, one eating with teeth and claw, etc. Humanity is fitted with its own teeth and claws and is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. So you see, it says, “Creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” It is in bondage of corruption to be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God. So, this is what we are after in this present time. As far as we are able to transmit this liberty, the glorious liberty, we do it—like I transmitted to that lady I told you about."
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