From Lost to Loved: A 30-Day Study of Romans 8Sample

Everybody wants the resurrection life, but resurrection requires that something first dies. That truth is alien in a world optimized for comfort and convenience. Constant ease has left us weak. Even the Pentagon sees it. Their data shows that 71% of America’s fighting-age youth could not qualify for military service even if they tried.[1] The report calls it a critical national security vulnerability. That’s the fruit of a culture that prioritizes comfort.

The church is eating from the same tree.

We have reframed the Christian life as a path of ease, expecting blessing without burden. Yet Paul writes in Romans 8:17 that we are “fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.” Paul uses the word sympaschō, which means “to suffer [together] with.”[2] This word illustrates believers bound into Christ’s pain, not spectators of it. Our inheritance with Christ is inseparably tied to sharing in His sufferings, not sidestepping them. The cross will always come before the crown. In Matthew 7:13 Jesus warned, “the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction”. If ease and comfort are how you measure God’s will, you may end up walking straight into ruin.

Part of your inheritance in the Kingdom is losing the identities and treasures of this temporary world. Hebrews 5:8 says Jesus “learned obedience through what He suffered.” The sinless Son took on our humanity and walked obediently to the end, treating suffering as part of the path, not an interruption.

Suffering is not God abandoning you; it’s God training you. The Spirit doesn’t lead you around hardship but through it, because only hardship produces trust that outlives comfort. We want blessing without cost, but heirs of God are marked by the Spirit who sustained the Son. You are not cursed when a God-shaped life leads to difficulty. You are confirmed.

Hebrews 11:36–40 tells of those who “did not receive what was promised” on this side of eternity, yet the world was “not worthy” of them. They are not to be pitied. Their faith was proven not in ease but in fire. True heirs endure suffering. Pretenders crumble the moment comfort is stripped away.

REFLECT:
What cost are you avoiding right now that the Spirit may be using to confirm your faith?

[1]Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unfit to Serve: Obesity Is Impacting National Security. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, June 2022.

[2]Robert L. Thomas, New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries : Updated Edition (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc., 1998).