Heir to what?

 

Galatians 4:1-7

When the word heir comes into your mind, where do your thoughts go to, a person you know or a person whom you have read about, like a Rockefeller or Bill Gate’s children?  My father and his father before him were men of meager means, and the word heir was not a word that was kicked around at our home.  Looking back, I must say that dad left his children great wealth, in the areas of values, and a work ethic but not in legal tender. 

Children of a person with great wealth by the standards of this world, may or may not know what portion of the estate is coming to them, but in most of the United States the law is clear that an adopted child must be included as an equal in the inheritance.  To be a child of great wealth and at a very young age to be stolen from your family and to grow into adulthood not knowing whom you are, or what wealth you are entitled to, would be a sad story.

That is the story of the normal church member, who by faith has placed their eternal hope in Jesus Christ, but lives with no understanding of the value of their inheritance.  It is a fact; all who are in Christ are heirs, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 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.”  (Romans 8:14-17) I wonder if that “provided we suffer with him” clause is what keeps many from claiming this inheritance that is theirs?

The apostle Paul is telling us we were taken captive by sin and we were under the law until grace came and in Colossians 2:6 we are instructed to walk in or live out our life in the same way as we received Christ Jesus, and that was by faith.  We are not to be enslaved by the world’s principles but to understand the truth in Galatians 4:4-7, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.  And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”  So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice my blog; http://fromourbackporch.blogspot.com/