We Are His Children and His Heirs!

This morning I opened my Bible to Galatians, and to a few verses that I was meditating on a couple of weeks back.  Here are the verses - Galatians 4:4-7 NIV:

[4] "But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. [6] Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba , Father.” [7] So you are no longer a slave, but God's child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir."

In light of the dream I had recently (my blog about it can be found here: http://amomentwithgod-srh.blogspot.com/2016/11/dont-settle-for-mediocracy-in-your.html), I want to start at verse 7, today.  Paul is writing about being under the Law, in regards to his mention of slavery here.  As the Law was fulfilled by Christ Jesus, and a new covenant was established through His most precious blood, this statement is true for us all.  None of us is slave to the Law!

Unfortunately, much of the church seems to want to bring parts of the Old Testament Law back in, and subject us to those requirements.  There are those that preach judgment and curses upon people for sin, which is part of the Law, but not the New Covenant. There are those that think that the judgments of Israel or the Jews, apply to us, but again those are part of the Old Covenant of the Law.  When the question of how much of the Law is required under the New Covenant was brought up in the early church, when those who were not Jews joined the church, the resulting discussion and agreement of the Apostles caused the following letter to be written, as found in  Acts 15:22-29 NIV:

[22] "Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, men who were leaders among the believers. [23] With them they sent the following letter:

The apostles and elders, your brothers, To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:

Greetings. [24] We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. [25] So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul--- [26] men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. [27] Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. [28] It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: [29] You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.

Farewell."

This is their summation of all the things that passed from the Old Covenant Law to the new believers, who were not Jewish, under the New Covenant.  That is it, nothing else was added.  Paul went on later in his letter to the church in Corinth to say that really food sacrificed to idols, and really eating of anything, was actually not an issue either (1 Cor 8:1-8), so we are left really with abstaining from sexual immorality.  You will note that there were no judgments, no curses or punishments added, just the requirement to abstain.

So back to His statement in verse 7, we are no longer slaves to any of the Law, we are all, each and everyone of us, God's child!  No one is more favorite, no one has position or authority over you in God's family, we are all equally His children, made so by the same sacrifice of Jesus.  There are no half-siblings, no step-children, all are children of God!  If you have ever thought yourself as less deserving, or not properly related to God, you thought wrong.  We can choose to believe other things, and apply rules and regulations to ourselves (like pieces and parts of the Old Covenant) that are not true for us, or we can choose to live as we truly are, His children, His sons and His daughters.  It is our choice!

I will say that many of us have been brought up in religion, and religion works to enslave us to rules and regulations.  We believe in Christ and His salvation, but we have been taught incorrectly about grace, mercy, compassion and judgment, and fed a bunch of rules and regulations that are not part of the Gospel.  It is no fault of ours that we have believed that which we have been taught, but the truth, seen here in Paul's writings and of course in Jesus' teachings throughout the Gospels, is clear!  When we are confronted with truth from God's Word that is not in line with our own beliefs, our choice is simple, we can repent and change the way we think and act, or we can hold onto our wrong thinking!  The call from God is towards freedom, towards life full of Him as His sons and daughters.

Finally, Paul finishes his statement with the statement, "God has made you also an heir."  Please note, this is God's will towards us, not something we have earned.  It is through His relationship with us, established in Christ Jesus, that He extends the inheritance to include us! We are His heirs!  We probably need to tell ourselves that over and over and over.

Going back to the dream I had recently, the idea is that the inheritance is our to experience now, and is just waiting for us to step into it.  Jesus taught His disciples to pray the following - Matthew 6:9-10 NIV: “This, then, is how you should pray: “ 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."  This prayer is not that we might make it to Heaven so that we can experience God's will there, but rather a prayer that we would experience here on earth that which is already experienced in Heaven.  Jesus tells us to pray that God's will (His will states that we are His heirs) be done or experienced on earth as it is in Heaven.  The Greek word that has been translated 'done' is the word Ginomai.  Here is a brief definition:

1) to become, i.e. to come into existence, begin to be, receive being
2) to become, i.e. to come to pass, happen
     a) of events
3) to arise, appear in history, come upon the stage
    a) of men appearing in public
4) to be made, finished
    a) of miracles, to be performed, wrought
5) to become, be made

When we pray as Jesus taught us, we are connecting ourselves to God's will, and asking that it would be revealed through us, to come into existence, to happen, to appear and become part of our history, to cause miracles to be performed that just need that finishing touch, to become real here on earth as it already is in Heaven!  This is God's will for us, and we are His heirs, which means if it is His, it is ours as well, for we are His children.  My children, when growing up in our house, never questioned if they could eat the food, or use the tools, or drink the juice - for they knew through their identity and relationship with us, their praents, that even though we paid for it, it was theirs to enjoy!

I really feel that this is God's invitation today, to step into our identity and become who we are, His sons and daughters!  He is calling us to step into those things that are already in our possession as His heirs!  Let us pray and believe and step into His freedom and the fullness of our relationship.

Amen and amen!