Vol. 3, No. 33
And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. Romans 8:17
People of the earth are no better than their convictions. Human kind is no happier than their assurances; are no more secure than their anchorage.
The authentication of our Christian pilgrimage lies in our convictions, assurances, and anchorages.
True “heirship” is based on a relationship; being in the family. Not being in the family in God’s economy is to be without being born anew. Not being born anew is to be without Jesus Christ. There is no true faith without Jesus Christ.
Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 4:1-5, 13
If we have faith, then we have new life; if we have new life, then we are a child of God; if we are a child of God, we have an inheritance! Part of that legacy is to say:
Abba, Father (Romans 8:15)
The cry of a new-born is Abba. The cry of the infant toddler in the Arab world is “Abba;” in Germany the child cries “papa.” In America, we teach the child to call its father, “daddy.” But the child of God addresses the Father as “Abba.”
The first act of our being born of God is that we turn back toward Him with a “high-tech” receiver implanted within us supernaturally; responding to the One who has loved us beyond description.
Through His grace we are now:
• Sons/daughters. This is the affinity of a new relationship. Sons/daughters, a generic term for all believers. Now we are in the family of God, and for the first time, He is Father to us. This is biblical Fatherhood of God; the brotherhood of people of the earth is within the bounds and bonds of that relationship with the Father.
• Heirs. As a member of God’s family we share in His vast estate, both now and in the eternal future. We are common sharers of everything that the Son of God has inherited. What He has, we have. What He receives, we are destined to receive.
• Joint-Heirs. In law, there is a difference between an heir and a joint-heir. If a dad dies leaving his farm to four children; the estate is divided evenly and each child receives 25% of the whole. They are heirs. But if dad leaves the farm to all four as joint-heirs, then each one owns the whole farm.
Each can say: The house is mine; the barn is mine, those corn fields are mine.”
In the human economy that does not work out very well; but in God’s economy the procedure is perfect.
We shall be like the Lord Jesus, and each of us will be fellow-participants in all that He has, as well as in all that He does. Such a deal!
The question remains: Are you in on it?
