Romans 8:9-17 (NIV) 9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. 12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
You and I have an inheritance coming to us. The inheritance is ours not because of anything we have done, but because of who we are, adopted in Christ. As sons and daughters of the true and living God we are rightful heirs to all the benefits of his grace, both the inheritance of life after death and the gifts of God’s grace that can be received here and now.
Jesus promises He will make us free, but we would rather remain enslaved to old fears, old habits, and old tensions than claim the freedom that is rightly ours. Jesus promises that we will be one with Him just as He and the Father are one, but we would rather settle for superficial, phony, distant relationships than claim and enjoy the oneness of fellowship that is rightfully ours. It is almost as if God has said to us, “Look, I love you so much I want to give you a shiny new Mercedes-Benz with eight beautiful power cylinders so you can tear through this world.” and we respond by saying, “Well, thank you, Father, but we would prefer to bump along on just two of those cylinders if you don’t mind.”
Our inheritance has been offered to us through the death and resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Perhaps we are afraid to receive the inheritance because instinctively we know that we, too, can claim our inheritance only through the process of death and resurrection.
Claim your inheritance. For some of us that may mean claiming our adoption in Christ and becoming His son or daughter. For others, it may mean claiming some portion of our inheritance that we need and desire right now - life, joy, power, peace, love. Nothing delights God more than to give to His children the inheritance that is rightfully theirs.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 12, 1974
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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