What Does It Mean To Be A New Covenant Christian (part II)?
Romans 8:14-27

Point # 1: To be a New Covenant Christian means God has made us his adopted sons through the work of his Spirit, and thus heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. Be assured of final salvation, Christian! But if we are to share Jesus’ glory, we must also share his suffering (14-17).

Point # 2 To be a New Covenant Christian means we (along with all creation) suffer at present from a sense of incompleteness and even frustration; we eagerly yearn for the culminating transformation: that day when the gospel ultimately triumphs in the New Heaven and New Earth (18-25)!

• God promises that there will be a liberation of this creation from its futility and its bondage to corruption.
• This liberation of the natural order from its bondage to corruption will be a participation in the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
• The arrival of the new, liberated creation is compared to a birth so that there is not only continuity with this world but also discontinuity.
• The hope of having redeemed bodies in the new creation is secured by our salvation, which we received through faith in the gospel - but this is not our best hope.

Point # 3 To be a New Covenant Christian means, as we await the redemption of our bodies, we will often not know what to pray for in the midst of suffering. But in those moments, the Holy Spirit comes to our aid, interceding on our behalf with “groans that words cannot express.” He overcomes our human weakness by his own intercession (26-27)!