Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Heirs of God





Who are the “heirs of God?”  Genuine Christians.


Christians have been brought into the family of God as His adopted children. Therefore, as with any child-to-parent relationship, Christians inherit what is God the Father’s.


Now, how is one adopted into God the Almighty’s family? Jesus--Through one’s belief in Him, one’s acknowledgement of Him as Savior. Anyone acknowledging Christ has His Father’s acceptance, receives His Spirit as a marker, and gains promised adoption.


“Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).

"And you were also included in Christ when you heard the Word of Truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession–to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14). 

“Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you–guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us” (2 Timothy 1:14).


Just as Jesus is “the radiance of God’s glory, the exact representation of His being” (Hebrews 1:3), so are Christians the exact representation of the Son, having received His being, or Holy Spirit within their hearts. In acknowledging Christ Jesus as God the Son and as one’s Savior, Christians are made righteous before God through His atonement on the cross. When God the Father looks at believers He passes over their sins, because of Jesus’ blood around the door of their hearts. God forecasted this with the “plague of the firstborn and the Passover” in Exodus chapters eleven and twelve.


“The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Exodus 12:13). 


“When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and He will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down” (Exodus 12:23).


When Christ shed His blood on the cross, He was set as the atonement for mankind’s sins. He was the “unblemished lamb” (Exodus 12:5), sacrificed so His blood could mark the doorways of believer’s hearts.


Therefore, Christians are saved from the punishment of rejecting God’s edict of sin’s judgment and condemnation. We are saved from eternal separation from God the Father and eternity in the “lake of fire” (Revelation 20 :15). We are brought from death to life (Romans 6). This salvation is of Christ Jesus only–there is no other way. 


God poured Himself out into human flesh and walked this earth as a human. He “humbled Himself and became obedient to death–even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:5-11). Why did He do this? Love. 


God is love” (1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16). 


“This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we may live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10). 


“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in Him” (1 John 4:16).


So then, what exactly is love? It is the placing of oneself aside for the betterment of those who surround. In Jesus’ own words: .. “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command” (John 15:12-14).


Jesus is God. He is God the Son. He willingly “made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:7), so He could place before mankind salvation of no charge. This is the meaning of God’s grace–favor without earned merit. There is no other way of salvation than acknowledgment of God in the flesh, as a self-sacrifice for appeasement of His own holiness and righteousness. Without the blood of Christ shielding our hearts, God sees unrighteousness and those slated for condemnation–just like the “Plague of the Firstborn” in Egypt.


Jesus is the Bread of Life (John 6:47-51); He is the gate for God’s sheep (John 10:7-10); He is the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-16). He is “the only way, the only truth, the only life. No one goes to the Father except through Him” (John 14:6).


In acknowledgement of this absolute, we are considered God’s children: “Now if we are God’s children, then we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory” (Romans 8:17).


“But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir” (Galatians 4:4-7). 


“If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in Him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us” (1 John 4:16).


Christians are God’s children, Christians are God’s heirs, Christians are co-heirs with Jesus Christ! Just sit back and think about that for a moment. How powerful is this truth? It is a great realization to the one who allows it to sink deep into their heart, mind, and soul. It is life altering. Now is the day for Christians to live and proudly walk with unconstrained honor. We are children of the Almighty God! And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father'” (Romans 8:15). 


Abba is Aramaic for papa or daddy. Living life, “keeping in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25), and calling out to God as the dad of our souls, the papa of our very being creates a meaningful bond that will mature us as Ambassadors of Christ.


“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).