February 27
“Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.” (Galatians 4:7)
Receiving the work of Jesus has already made us “God’s Own child.” This is our new state of being. This is our new reality. This is HOW we live our new life in Jesus.
The BIG struggle for most Christians is the struggle to feel like we really belong to God. Sin (ours and others’ sinful acts done to us) has made most of us a broken, twisted mess. So when we think about God, and of our relationship with Him, we struggle to get beyond how we see ourselves… because of all the brokenness in our lives.
Our solution to this problem is often to focus our attention on the belief that God fixes the broken… and mends our wounds until He can finally get us to the place where we feel whole – where we feel we can be really loved by Him… and useful to Him. In other words, for most of us, the Christian walk is often seen as a walk through God’s lengthy repair station until we can emerge on the other side as the people He wants us to be. In a very real sense, we don’t feel like we really belong to Him, until we are satisfied that our mess has been transformed into the miracle.
But this is not true Christianity. This may be surprising, but God is not committed to a long, gradual process of making us into what He wants us to be. In fact, He is not going to fix our old lives. He’s not going to mend our old chronic wounds. He’s not going to ease us out of the guilt and shame buried deep within our hearts.
His solution is ingenious! He adopts us as His Own and brings us immediately into His Household – to wear His Name and to live forever in His Presence. He gives us a new identity (as HIS). He gives us a new life (as NEW creations). And He gives us a new purpose… to represent our Father King as His Own beloved children.
In short, He makes us His Own… then, as His Own, He teaches us what that really means. What we were… is gone (left behind with our old identity [and with all the mess!]). What we ARE… is now (belonging to Him, wearing His Name, living in His Household, delivered out of everything we ever were!).
If you have followed this blog for any amount of time, you’ve heard me say this many times… we are NOT becoming… we ARE.
Jesus work was never to fix us. Jesus work was to give us a new life, a new identity, and a new Home. And when we truly see who we are, and to WHOM we belong… that truth alone is transformative. In a real sense, what we ARE makes us what we need to be.
Because of Jesus, we are accepted into God’s Household. In His Household, He is going to teach us His ways, His heart, His truth, His compassion, His purposes – and we get the privilege of taking the King’s ways, heart, truth, compassion, and purposes… back out into this world – so we can lead others into the Family.
Jesus came and showed us what being a Son of God really was… and He has passed that task on to all the new sons (and daughters) who have been brought into the Father’s Home, because of His work.
True Christianity begins with the understanding that we ARE God’s Own children.
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