unconditional.  It balances the passage in Rom. 8: 17,  "heirs with God".  But

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived only as pilgrims in the land of promise, and looked for

something beyond and above, even the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city. Unmentioned

in the O.T., this comes to light only in the N.T. Heb. 11: deals with overcoming faith;

faith that endures; faith that has a recompense of reward; faith that avoids Esau's

bartering of the birthright for the present mess of pottage. Its whole teaching falls into

line with the second part of Rom. 8: 17, "Fellow-heirs with Christ, if so be we suffer

with Him". The last reference, I Pet. 3: 7, brings us back again to the simpler

conception of equality:--

Fellow-heirs of the grace of life can have no comparison with fellow-heirs with Christ

if so be they suffer:--

The hope of the church as expressed in the Epistle to the Romans was millennial

(Rom. 15: 12, 13), consequently the joint-heirs with Christ who are in any sense

overcomers will find much that illuminates their position in  Rev. 2:, 3:  There,

addressing Himself to the seven churches of Asia, the Lord makes certain promises "to

him that overcometh": "The tree of life" (Rev. 2: 7), "The crown of life", and "The

second death" (Rev. 2: 10, 11): "The hidden manna", "white stone", and "new name"

(Rev. 2: 17): "Power over the nations . . . . . . . even as I received of my Father"

(Rev. 2: 26-28): "White raiment", "Book of life", and "Name confessed" (Rev. 3: 5):

"A Pillar", "A new name", the name of the "New Jerusalem" (Rev. 3: 12): and finally,

"A grant to sit with Christ in His throne, even as He overcame, and sat with His Father in

His throne" (Rev. 3: 21).  To sit down with Christ in His throne as an overcomer, to

reign with Him, because one has endured, to be a joint-heir of Christ, if so be we suffer

with Him, are all expositions of the same truth, though it operates in different spheres,

whether the dispensation of the mystery, or the Acts period.

Having stated the relation that God has made to exist between present suffering and

future glory, the apostle proceeds to encourage the believer by comparing the present

with the future, and by showing inexpressibly grand is the prospect of glory, both to the

individual and to all creation:--

Throughout the remainder of the chapter this estimate of the apostle is substantiated

by many and wonderful arguments. Let us see this for ourselves.