YOU ARE NO LONGER A SLAVE, BUT AN HEIRESS!…

Depending on what time of day you read this, we are half way through our challenge! Yes, this is day 15! I don’t know about you, but I’m seeing a lot of repetition in the themes simply from Scripture, when it comes to the Gospel. How about you?

In today’s passage, we see some of the same repetitive themes. No longer slaves to fear, adopted as children of GOD, heirs of Christ… These themes keep being repeated throughout the epistles. They are stated often and in different mixes, but they are there. I wonder if it is because these truths don’t come naturally to us and GOD had them repeated over and over in different ways in His Word to remind us repeatedly of who we are now in Christ!

GOD knows we need frequent reminders, easy illustrations, and picturesque ways to encourage each other. Did you realize how many places in Scripture they are found? That is why I keep including the actual words of the Bible in my posts, and where they are located. It is easy to just put in one Bible verse, but often the context helps you (and me) see what comes with it. That’s how we see how frequent these themes actually are!

I am no longer a slave to fear. In Christ, I am an heiress to all He has available to me as my Father!

Let me just refresh us on today’s theme. I am no longer a slave to fear as I was before Christ. Now that I am in Christ, it is possible for me now to live in freedom from fear. Why? Because I was once an orphan who had to fend for myself. I was alone. I had no parents to care for me. I had no one older than I with the wisdom to show me what lies ahead and prepare me for it. I was vulnerable. I had no one to protect me. Of course, I was fearful!

Now I have been adopted as a child of GOD. As a result, I am not only adopted, with parents to care for me, but I’m an heiress! In Christ, I am an heir to all the resources He has given me! I no longer have to live hand-to-mouth. All my needs are fully taken care of, with more beside.

Imagine when I am unjustly attacked or treated unfairly? I don’t simply have my own personal resources to draw from. I have the unlimited resources of Christ that I have inherited from Him! I am able to forgive someone who hurts me deeply out of those resources.

Not only am I no longer a slave, I am an heiress! In Christ, I am an heir to all the resources He has given! When I am treated unfairly, I have the unlimited resources of Christ from which to offer forgiveness, not my paltry storage tank . Share on X

When I am struggling to resist the temptation to eat the wrong food and find my satisfaction in food instead Him, I’m not limited simply to my personal resources where I will fail for certain! I am an heir of GOD’s unlimited resources. I don’t have to “meet my comfort needs” in food when He has abundantly met all my needs in Christ…at the deepest levels of my heart and soul.

When it comes to applying the fact that I am an heiress to all GOD’s resources, it has nothing to do with sitting pretty and comfortable for the rest of my Christian life!

It has much more to do with getting outside my comfort zone and sometimes suffering with Christ. I especially need His resources for that. And learning to take advantage of all His resources when it comes to forgiving those who have sinned against me. How about you?

Those are just two areas. You may have different places where you need to apply this gospel truth and live like the heiress you are in Christ.  As you read through the Bible and come across aspects of GOD’s character that are communicable and thus inheritable, take note. These are available for you too!

Incidentally, GOD has two kinds of attributes, communicable and incommunicable. The former can be shared with humans. The latter can not. Illustrations of the latter are His being eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, etc. Those can’t be passed on to humans for obvious reasons. But His love, patience, long-suffering, etc. can. We won’t have it in the same balance He does, or as dependably, because of our brokenness, but He is developing it in us when we become His daughters.

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 8:15-17 ESV

Call to Action: As you think about the truth that you are no longer a slave to fear but an heiress to all that GOD is, ask GOD to show you one or two ways He wants to play this out in your life. Where are you living as if you are a slave, someone without resources to live out the Gospel? Are there any Scriptures that you need to memorize for the purpose of encouraging yourself or others around you? What other ways will this show itself in your life as GOD works it out in you?

 

first written 10/15/2018