Romans 8:16-17,19,24 ESV
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, [17] and if children, then heirs— heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. [19] For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. [24] For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?
All of creation is anxiously longing and eagerly waiting for Christians to manifest their true identity. The whole world is waiting for the co-heirs to manifest who they are and all they have in Christ. We aren’t just God’s heirs; we are co-heirs with Christ, which means that everything Jesus is and has we have. Christ is our life. That is our identity, and all that Jesus possesses we possess, and the whole fallen world waits for us to have freeing impact on its bondage to the evil one from the spiritual wealth and power of Christ that is ours. We are the body of Christ, and therefore we are the heart, hands, feet, and voice of Jesus the world needs to encounter. We aren’t called to go into the world and to try to impact the world for Christ. We are called to go into the world and impact the world from Christ. The enemy’s great deception that ends up robbing the world of its needed encounter with Jesus is to keep the Christian from discovering who they really are in light of who Jesus really is in them.
Does the truth of our union with Christ radically change our lives by plunging us into the life and life more abundant that Jesus lives in us? Yes, but it is also meant to quench the thirst of fallen and broken humanity by the rivers of living water flowing out of our innermost being.