I'm An Heir:our sonship through The Spirit - Part 1

My labelmate, cousin, and brother in The Faith, Transparent, a little less than a year ago chose to create a clique, similar to that of 116, and called this clique "heirs". In his search for a scripture reference to go along with the title of the clique I suggested he look over Romans 8:17. At the time it was one of my favorite scriptures because it highlighted our need to not only share in the glory of Christ but the suffering of Christ as well.

Anyway, we ran with the scripture reference as well as the title. We plugged "heirs" into most of our songs, focusing on it specifically with certain tracks like CJ's "Heirs is Bold" and "I'm A Heir", and most recently Transparent's single "Heir Muzik Part 1" featuring REIGN.

Because of the heavy pushing of the word "heir" as well as the scripture Romans 8:16,17 I wanted to take a moment and explain what it is scripture says about being an heir. Specifically focusing on Romans 8:12-17. So enough of the intro lets dip into the word:


First, let us examine where Paul is at this point in the text. The first verses of chapter 8 reveal to us that the power of the Spirit has indeed set us free from the condemnation of sin as well set us free from the bondage of sin in the form of our flesh. It essentially explains that with The Holy Spirit now working in us we have been freed from our sin that seperated us from a holy sinless God and are also set free from that want and desire to sin because we can overcome that want with the want to please God.

So now that Paul has established our freedom he begins, in verse 12, to explain how we should live with this freedom. Verse 12 states:

"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors-not to the flesh, to live to the flesh."

In the song "Who He Is" from Trip Lee's sophmore album "20/20" (i suggest it for any Christian struggling to desire the word of God) Cam at one point in the song says, "I use my freedom in Christ to become enslaved 'til the day I see His face."

This is the idea Paul wanted to get across to his reader in verse 12: With our new freedom in Christ we should no longer live as slaves to the flesh, live as slaves to the will of The Spirit that set us free. Most commentaries would say that in Paul saying we should not be debtors to our flesh implied that we should be debtors to The Spirit who saved us. Instead of living by the flesh we who are set free should now live by The Spirit.

So what does it mean to live by The Spirit?

Paul answers this question in the next verse first by explaining the opposite:

"For if you live according to the flesh you will die;..."

So if we do as we are instructed not to and live by the flesh we will die. This death is not literal but is a much greater death: the seperation from our God. However the second part of this verse explains what happens if you live by The Spirit:

"...but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live."

If we live by The Spirit we will not die, but in fact put the deeds of the body, the wants of our flesh, to death and be able to truly live. So to live by The Spirit means to no longer live by the flesh, but put our wants and desires to sin to death, and truly live.

And I would like to finish this first part by seeing what Paul calls these people who live by the Spirit. The answer is made clear in verse 14:

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God."

Yes, we the people that live by the Spirit; those that are led by The Spirit are indeed sons and daugters of God.