A Kingdom of Priests (3)

 

 

As we saw in the previous post in this series, the word “holy” has a double meaning, it is a coin with two sides that complement each other. The word means “dedicated unto” or “separated unto”; it also means “spotless and pure.” In Christ, we can’t have one without having the other. How might we think about the idea that we are a pure and spotless priesthood in Jesus Christ?

 

I’ll begin with some questions, “Who are we going to believe when pondering this issue of being holy? Are we going to believe what others tell us? Are we going to allow our experience to define our thinking? Are we going to believe what we feel and think? Are we going to believe what the enemy tells us? Or are we going to believe what God tells us in and through His Word?”

 

These, taken together, are baseline questions for life; they go to the essence of how we live, how we think and feel, of how we navigate life. They determine how we “see” life. How can the New Testament continually refer to Christians as saints, as holy ones? God can do so because of Jesus Christ and His perfect and complete work of salvation, a salvation that reaches back before time and extends into eternity, with the Cross in time and space forming the nexus of the unseen touching the seen, the heavens connecting with the earth, and eternity linking with time.

 

And so Paul writes that “we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). This statement not only refers to what preceded it, a Way of suffering that brings about life; it also provides a lens for what follows, “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our home is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens…for we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:1, 7).

 

This “seeing of the unseen” (note that Moses was “seeing Him who is invisible” in Hebrews 11:27, and note the linkage with “endurance” and “reproach” with this “seeing” in Hebrews 11:26 – 27) leads Paul and his readers to “having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died” (5:14) and then:

 

“Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.” (2 Cor. 5:16.

 

Here is a “therefore” that is a lynchpin, for it connects what precedes it with what follows it, and what follows it is: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things are passed away, behold, new things have come…He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor. 5:17, 21).

 

The Holy Priesthood of the children of God within Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest, is called to walk by faith and not by sight. It is called to see the unseen as a way of life and to live above the earth’s gravitational pull. This means, among other things, that we no longer recognize, or identify, others “according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh.” That is, we don’t judge or evaluate according to appearances, but rather according to God’s Word as we live within Christ and are led and filled by the Holy Spirit. This requires an increase in our vision of Jesus as a Way of Life, as we are transformed into His image, meditating on His Word and allowing it to be engrafted into our hearts and minds as we respond to His Word in sacrificial obedience.

 

To no longer recognize others “according to the flesh” means that we cease from using our natural earthly facilities and senses in Adam to see others, but rather we perceive according to the eyes of our understanding, our renewed hearts and minds, and we emphatically do so according to God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. After all, we are no longer “in Adam,” we are now “in Christ” (Romans 5:12 – 21; 1 Cor. 15:42 – 49). Hence, we are the “new creatures” of 2 Cor. 5:17; we are not only new creatures in Christ, we are living in a new creation in Christ.

 

This should not surprise us when we consider that the God of Abraham is the God who “calls things that are not, as though they are” (Romans 4:17).

 

Let’s recall the above questions: Who are we going to believe when pondering this issue of being holy? Are we going to believe what others tell us? Are we going to allow our experience to define our thinking? Are we going to believe what we feel and think? Are we going to believe what the enemy tells us? Or are we going to believe what God tells us in and through His Word?

 

To no longer recognize others according to the flesh means that we learn to no longer recognize ourselves according to the flesh. If Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, are you still a sinner or are you a saint, a holy one, in Him? If you believe God’s Word then you are a saint in Christ – no matter what you have been told, no matter how you may feel – for your identity depends on Christ Jesus, not on yourself. In fact, in 2 Corinthians 5:21 we see that we have been made the “righteousness of God in Him [Christ].”

 

Our holy priesthood in Jesus Christ is not a fiction, it is a reality in God, whether we perceive that reality or not, whether we are learning to live in that reality or not – for we are called to believe God and His Word and the work of Jesus Christ, not our own perceptions. And may I say that others need us to live as who we are and not as who we were, for our families and friends and neighbors, our world, need the intercessions and intercessory life of the Holy Priesthood of the People of God in Jesus Christ. That is, if you don’t want to believe the Word of God for yourself, please do it for the sake of others. This is not an option, this is our calling in Christ.

 

In the next post in this series, I want us to look at 1 Cor. 1:4 – 9 and John 17:6 – 8, asking ourselves, “How could Paul have written this to the Corinthians, as messed up as they were? How could Jesus have said these things about His disciples, since that very evening they would desert Him and Peter would deny Him?”

 

 

The Glory of Sonship in the Son (4)

 

 

“For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth until now, and not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption of sons, the redemption of our body.” {Romans 8:19 – 23).

 

Our adoption has a present, a past, and a future – these are melded together in our life in Christ. God our Father has adopted us, we have received “the Spirit of adoption” (Romans 8:15). Our adoption has a future perfection and consummation, “we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23). In between Romans 8:15 and 8:23 we have the working out of our adoption, that is, just as in ancient Roman adoption, we are taking our place in the inheritance and authority of the sons and daughters of God in Christ Jesus. In our Romans passage we see a particular emphasis on sharing in the sufferings of Christ, and in Romans 8:28 – 31 we see that all things are working to bring us into the image of the Firstborn Son, “so that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

 

Note the correspondence between our Romans 8 passage and 1 Peter 4:12 – 13: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share in the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.”

 

As Paul writes in Romans 8:18, there is a “glory to be revealed in us,” and in 8:19 he tells us that the “creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.” He styles this waiting “an anxious longing.”

 

In verse 21 we read of “the freedom of the glory of the children of God,” and that the creation is looking forward to participating in this freedom.

 

Then in verses 22 and 23 we read that the creation is groaning and suffering the pains of childbirth as it longs for our revealing, and that we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, are also groaning within ourselves.

 

But are we? Are we groaning for the consummation of our adoption? Are we groaning for that Day when creation will be delivered from “corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God”?

 

What sense of these things do we actually have? Are we living in them? Are we teaching and preaching them? Are they informing our relationships in the Body of Christ, with the world, with creation?

 

Are we living as the sons and daughters of the Living God or are we living in the natural, as carnal bottom-feeding professing Christians? Where is our sense of the high calling that the Holy Spirit sets forth for us in Romans Chapter 8? Where is the Life of the overcomer that we see in Romans 8:28 – 39? Are we living in our adoption as mature children who have been given their Father’s signet ring, or are we still wearing diapers that we expect to be changed every Sunday as we focus on who we used to be outside of Christ, rather than who we are in Christ?

 

We see a corresponding trajectory in Ephesians 4:11 – 16, “…until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature Man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” God has a victorious purpose for the Body of Christ, the Church, His Temple – and it is not to run away, it is to bring deliverance to all who will receive the Gospel and to set creation free from its corruption.

 

Christ Jesus has given us His glory (John 17:22) in order that we may be one in the Trinity, and with the Trinity. Who are we to reject His glory? Is it not so much better to teach one another how to live in His glory on mission with Him, for as the Father sent Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ has sent us (John 17:18)? Or, shall we continue as the older brother who would deny the fattened calf to others?

 

The creation is groaning in childbirth, looking for us! Where are we? Are we hidden in the mentality of a false identity? Nationalism? Being still sinners? Doctrinal distinctives? Denominations? Our “best lives now”? Politics? Schemes of prophecy that have to be updated with the headlines; that focus on the natural, escapism, sensationalism?

 

O dear friends, to live in the glory of sonship in the Son is to live in union with the Trinity, it is to live in the destiny that our Father has called us to in Jesus Christ, it is to live in the overcoming power of the Holy Spirit and the love of God, it is to live as those who are dead to sin and alive unto God, it is to live laying our lives down for one another (1 John 3:16), and to keep ever pressing forward into our high calling so that Christ, through us His Body, might bring hope and life and salvation to others and deliverance to the creation.

 

Romans Chapter 8 is to be a present dynamic reality in our lives, in our congregations, in the Church on this planet.

 

Is it?

 

The Glory of Sonship in the Son (3)

 

 

“For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth until now, and not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption of sons, the redemption of our body.” {Romans 8:19 – 23).

 

Our salvation in Jesus Christ is present, past, and future – all at the same time, all complementary, all grounded in the assurance, work, and Person of Jesus Christ. We see this, for example, in Romans 8:30, “and these whom He predestined [past], He also called [present in the sense that this calling is ongoing], He also justified [present in the sense that this is our state of being and standing before God]; and these whom He justified, He also glorified [future in its fulness, though that glory is within us now].”

 

Another example is Peter 1:1 – 9. Here we see that we are “chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father [past], by the sanctifying work of the Spirit [past, present, and future], to obey Jesus Christ [present and ongoing] and be sprinkled by His blood [past at the Cross, present and ongoing; see 1 John 1:7, “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”]

 

“…caused us to be born again [past] to a living hope [future] through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance [here is inheritance once again!] which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you [future] who are protected by the power of God [compare with Romans 8:31 – 39] through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time [future].”

 

Note: Can you see the Trinity in 1 Peter 1:1 – 9? As you ponder the balance of this passage what else do you see in terms of present, future, and past?

 

In Ephesians 1:3 Paul writes that we have been blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ,” and then in Ephesians 2:6 and 7 we read that we have been “raised up with Him [Jesus]” and have been seated “with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He [the Father] might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

 

Do we realize that our Father is looking forward (if we can use such a term as “forward”) to showering us with His grace and kindness “in the ages to come”? Can we get just a little taste of how much God loves us? “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God…” (1 John 3:1a).

 

We have all spiritual blessings in Christ, we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ; and even while on earth, we are seated with Him in the heavens.

 

Note that in Romans 8 that we see adoption as something that has already happened, as something that is happening, and as something that will happen; we have present, future, and past. In Romans 8:15 we see the Spirit of adoption within us which causes us to cry out, “Abba! Father!”

 

In Romans 8:23 we see that our adoption is perfected at our resurrection, “the redemption of our body.”  Between verses 15 and 23 we see that we are to participate with Jesus Christ in His mission, sharing in His sufferings just as we will share with Him in His glory and inheritance. And note in verse 18 that there is “glory” to be “revealed in us.” Compare this to Colossians 3:4, “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”

 

In 2 Thessalonians 1:10 – 12 we see that our Lord Jesus will “be glorified in His saints” and that His name “will be gloried in you, and you in Him.” This ought not to surprise us for Jesus says to the Father, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them…” (John 17:22a).

 

Now, in the next post I want to return to Romans 8:19 – 23 and ponder this passage that speaks to us of our trajectory and purpose (teleology) in Jesus Christ, of being “on mission” with Him, and of our responsibility to the people of the world and creation – for this has to do with the glory of sonship in the Son. But first I want us to ponder the passages I’ve referenced in this post, which speak to us, alongside Romans 8, of our present, future, and past; as well as of us being in Christ in the heavenlies and of us having “all spiritual blessings in the heavens in Christ.” For you see, in Christ, we not only live in the present, the future, and the past – we transcend time in Christ, in the Trinity, as we learn to live in the I AM THAT I AM – and so in a true sense, we learn to live in the eternals as we learn to live in Christ and as Christ lives in us. We also transcend space in that while we “sit” in the heavens we “walk” on this earth (Ephesians 2:6; 4:1).

 

This was the Way of Life for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Paul, Peter and others, this is why the author of Hebrews could write, “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the sprits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22 – 24).

 

If we have yet to learn this Way of Life, if it is not yet as natural as breathing, it is not God’s fault, it is ours, for Jesus calls us to come to Him and to abide in Him (John 15:1ff). It is never too late to live in intimacy with the Trinity and in the “communion of saints.” It is never too late to move deeper into Jesus Christ and to know what it is for Jesus Christ to move deeper into us.

 

Meditate on the above passages, learn them, let them soak your mind and heart and soul; then let them ooze out from the pores of your skin – let them be fragrance in your life, let their music both calm and stir your innermost person.

 

Never, ever forget, than in Jesus Christ you are a child of the Living God with a Divine purpose and destiny.

A Kingdom of Priests (2)

 

 

“And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4 – 5; see also Ephesians 2:19 – 22).

 

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood…” (1 Peter 2:9a).

 

Jesus is a living stone, we are living stones; Jesus is our High Priest (Heb. 2:17), we are a holy and royal priesthood.

Note the word “holy.” We are to be a holy people, a holy priesthood. The word “holy” is a coin with two sides, two complementary meanings; the first is what we normally think of – purity, spotlessness; the second is separated and dedicated unto God – they go together, we can’t have one without the other.

 

In 1 Peter Chapter One we see that we are to be “like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1:15 – 16). We are termed “children of obedience” in 1:14, and we are to live as those who know that we “were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold…but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1:18 – 19).

 

These things that we hopefully “see” in Chapter One, lead us into the holy and royal priesthood of Chapter Two. We see who Christ Jesus is and what He has done, we see that we have been given new birth in Him (1:3, 23), purchased by Him – which means that we are no longer our own, we no longer belong to ourselves. We have been made holy in Jesus Christ, both in terms of purity and in terms of being dedicated and set apart unto God our Father.

 

Now then, when we speak of the “priesthood of the believer” do we speak of being holy and separated and dedicated to God? If we don’t, then are we really speaking of the Biblical priesthood which believers have in Jesus Christ? No, we are not, we cannot be, for the Bible tells us that we are a holy and royal priesthood.

 

We are not a priesthood of the Old Covenant with its constant focus on our sinfulness, we are not ministers of the Law which is “the ministry of condemnation,” a “ministry of death” (2Cor. 3:1 – 11). Rather, we are ministers of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ, a Covenant which makes those within it holy and righteous and dedicated unto God, in and through Jesus Christ…which is why the Bible calls us “saints,” “holy ones.” This is not because of anything we have done or do or ever shall do – it is all because of Jesus Christ and what He has done and what He is doing and what He shall be doing (note the past, present, and future in 1 Peter Chapter One), it is most especially because of who He is, who the Father is, who the Holy Spirit is – who God is.

 

If we do not know who we are, how shall we live as who we are? If we do not know who Christ Jesus is and how perfect His salvation for us is, how shall we live in that salvation and in intimate relationship with Him?

 

When we affirm that we are a holy and royal priesthood, we affirm Jesus Christ, we look to Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:2).  When we affirm our priesthood in Christ, indeed every element of our salvation in Him, we testify that we are looking unto Jesus, seeing beyond what the natural eye of understanding sees, and that we are seeing into the eternals, seeing into that which actually and truly “is” in the Trinity and the great salvation which God has accomplished for His glory. This is living by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7).

 

Let’s look at the two elements of holiness, that of spotless purity and that of being separated and dedicated to God and His service. We’ll consider the latter first.

 

We have an immediate problem with both considerations, and that is that we don’t think in these terms and we don’t live as if they were true; this means, for most of us, that it will take time for our thinking and living to change, but let’s be encouraged that our God is the God of transformation into the image of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18; Romans 8:28 – 30).

 

While we tend to often speak of Jesus as Savior, the designation Savior for Jesus is used few times in the Bible, while the term Lord is used constantly. What might this tell us about the way we think and the way the writers of the Scriptures thought? More importantly since the Bible was written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, since its primary Author is God, what does this say about the message of God to us about Jesus Christ? About our relationship with Christ and about the salvific work of Jesus Christ?

 

Paul writes that we are not our own for we have been “bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:19 – 20), and Peter tells us that we were redeemed (bought back) with the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18 – 19). We no longer belong to ourselves, we are the property of Jesus Christ, He is indeed our Lord. But do we teach this? Do we preach this? Does our Sunday school and small group curriculum embody this? Do we live this as individuals, as families, as congregations…as our Way of Life?

 

In July 1967 I stood in a room at Fort Holabird in Baltimore, MD and swore an oath to support and defend the constitution of the United States of America. There were many other men in that same room taking that same oath. These men were from many different places and I did not know any of them. We then boarded a train for North Carolina, after which we boarded buses which took us to Fort Bragg. At Fort Bragg we were each assigned to a company, which in turn belonged to a larger unit, which in turn belonged to a larger unit. Each company had around 200 men; prior to arriving at Fort Bragg I didn’t know any of these men.

 

Prior to taking the “oath” we all had one thing in common, we belonged to ourselves. We could decide what to do on any given day; we could decide where to go, what to eat, who to see and associate with, where to sleep, what to wear – we had all the choices the average American had.  

 

After taking the “oath” we had a new thing in common, we no longer belonged to ourselves, we then belonged to the United States of America, most especially to the Army of the United States. We were not even governed by the same laws as the average citizen; we were then governed by the UCMJ, the Uniform Code of Military Justice – a special set of laws governing those men and women who are the property of the military forces of the United States of America.

 

Among the things all of this meant was that we had to take care of ourselves not simply because it was a smart thing to do, but also because if we didn’t, if we did something to damage ourselves, it was like damaging government property. For example, if I went to the beach or swimming pool and got a sunburn so bad that I couldn’t perform my duties, I could be subject to a judicial procedure under the UCMJ known as an Article 15, which could result in a fine or other disciplinary action.

 

Consider that within the U.S. military there is an assumption, when meeting others within the military, that everyone in the military belongs to the Armed Forces of the United States of American and is subject to the UCMJ and the oath which everyone took to support and defend the constitution of the United States. Everyone is also subject to the personal orders he or she has received, no one is stationed on a base or elsewhere without orders directing and authorizing that solider, sailor, airman, or marine to go there and remain there. People in the military do not move from one place to another without orders.

 

Now, may I ask, within the professing church do we assume that we are all under the Lordship of Jesus Christ? Do we acknowledge and teach and preach and live as those who no longer belong to themselves, but who are slaves of Jesus Christ? Do we respect the authority that Christ has placed within His Church? Do we respect one another? What do our leadership meetings look like – whether at the congregational, regional, or national level? Are we living as subject to our Lord Jesus, His Word, and one another?

 

What do we look like at work, school, in our neighborhoods, at recreation? What do our entertainment choices look like? What do our checkbooks look like – both within our families and within our churches? What does our consumer consumption look like? When others look at us, do they see a People living in subjection to another Person, another Kingdom, another constitution (Phil. 2:1 – 16; 3:20)?

 

As Bishop Sheen wrote, “The priest is not his own.”

 

If we are not teaching and preaching and living as those who belong to Jesus Christ, as those to whom Jesus Christ is Lord in the full meaning of the word “Lord,” a meaning which the Early Church certainly understood – if we are not living and speaking thusly, then how can we claim to believe and teach “the priesthood of the believer”? If we are not confronting the Biblical teaching of Jesus Christ as Lord, if we are not being conformed to this teaching, if we are not living as those who belong to Him, if this is not our Way of Life…then we are deceiving ourselves to claim that we believe and teach the priesthood of the believer – for the priest of Jesus Christ does not belong to himself or herself – we belong to Another.

 

Do I belong to Jesus Christ?

 

Do you?

 

The Glory of Sonship in the Son (2)

 

Adoption and Inheritance

 

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” (Romans 8:15 – 17)

 

“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:4 – 7).

 

“He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:5 – 6).

 

What does it mean to be adopted by the Father? What does it mean to be a joint heir, or fellow heir, with Jesus Christ? Note that in Romans 8 and Galatians 4 that adoption and inheritance are linked; we also see this in Ephesians 1:5 and 11.

 

When we think of adoption, we think of going through a legal process in which a person, normally a child, is made the legal child of non-biological parents or parent. However, in ancient Rome it was adults who were often adopted so that they would carry on the family name, assume a leading position within the family, and receive the family inheritance. (Adoption practices and legal requirements varied during ancient Rome, so I am focusing on the main reason for Roman adoption – being entrusted with the family name and inheritance). People of modest means did not, it seems, typically adopt in ancient Rome; adoption was for the wealthy who had a substantial inheritance to pass on and who wanted to preserve the family name.

 

Since those who have trusted in Jesus Christ have become daughters and sons of the Living God by new birth in the Holy Spirit (John 1:12 – 13; 3:1 – 8; 2 Cor. 5:14 – 21; Eph. 1:1 – 10; 1 Peter 1:22 – 25), that is, since we have the life of our Father living within us (Hebrews 2:10 – 13) and are biological children of God in Christ, why then does the Holy Spirit speak to us of adoption?

 

For one thing, when we read that we have received the spirit of adoption and that we cry out, “Abba! Father!” we see that, in Christ, Biblical adoption is more than a legal process, there is also an organic life-giving dimension to it which is wrapped in our new birth in the Holy Spirit. But still the question remains, why adoption when we already have the reality and image of the new birth? How does adoption enter into our relationship with the Father?

 

Of course, we naturally have the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, causing us to cry out, “Abba! Father!” Then we have the element of inheritance, we have been “adopted” to bear the family name and to receive the family inheritance. We’ll look at the family name in a forthcoming meditation, but for now let’s consider our inheritance; what does it mean to be heirs of God and coheirs, or joint heirs, or fellow heirs, with Christ?

 

Keeping in mind that in ancient Rome adoption was a means of passing along a family’s wealth to the adopted person, and that the bulk of the wealth would be concentrated in the person adopted; how does this image fit within the New Testament passages on adoption?  Since Jesus Christ is the firstborn Son of the Father, certainly He receives all of the wealth of the Father, all of the Father’s wealth and glory is in the Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore, what conceivable role can our adoption, as daughters and sons, play in the plan of God?

 

We might form an image akin to ancient Israel in the Promised Land, in which every tribe and every family and every person within a tribe receives a portion of the Promised Land, but this image would be amiss when we look at the Firstborn Son and His many brothers and sisters.

 

Jesus says to the Father, “…and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine…” John 17:10). What then does it mean for us to be joint heirs with Jesus Christ? It means that we share an indivisible inheritance in Christ and with Christ; it means that the sisters and brothers of the Firstborn Son share His inheritance indivisibly with Him. It means that the Head and His Body share all things jointly and equally and indivisibly – for they are not two people – a head and a body – but one Person in Christ (1 Cor. 12:12).

 

This is an essential element of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; the eternal purpose of the Father that Jesus Christ should be the Firstborn among many brethren, that the Father should bring many sons and daughters to glory in and through Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29; Hebrews 2:10 – 13).

 

Here is an illustration to help us see what an indivisible inheritance looks like. In Maryland and Virginia, at least up until recently, when a husband and wife took title to real estate they took it as “tenants by the entirety,” this was a concept in English common law related to marriage and married couples. Unless you were married you could not hold title as “tenants by the entirety.” Today, most states have what is known as “joint tenants,” which means, in part, that the people on the real estate title share in the complete and total property (or other asset), one person cannot have 80% of the property and another 20%, it is an indivisible enjoyment and possession of the property – if there are two people involved then each enjoys 100% of the property.

 

The difference between tenants by the entirety and joint tenants is that English common law recognizes not only a “unity of possession and enjoyment” in a tenancy by the entirety, but is also recognizes a unity of person, that is, English common law sees (or used to see!) a husband and wife as one person – which is why tenants by the entirety could only be used by married couples to hold title to property.

 

Therefore, when the New Testament tells us that we are joint heirs with Christ (fellow heirs, coheirs) along with being adopted by the Father, that we have a radical message before us:

 

We have been adopted, placed in the family, by the Father through the Son, with the Spirit’s witness, so that we might bear the Family Name, have the Life of the Family (the Trinity) within us, and receive the Family inheritance.

 

We do not receive the Family inheritance piecemeal, we do not receive a certain percentage of the inheritance, Jesus Christ does not have 80% of the inheritance and we have 20%; since we are joint heirs with Christ, in Him, we share in 100% of the inheritance indivisibly in Him and with Him to His glory and the glory of the Father.  Just as in English common law there is one person in marriage, a husband and wife, so in the Gospel there is One Person; the Head and His Body, Christ and His Bride (Eph. 5:22 – 33). (Note, in 1 Peter 3:7, Peter makes it clear that husbands and wives are “fellow heirs of the grace of life,” that is, here again husbands and wives are one person. There are really four people in a marriage; Christ, the husband, the wife, and then the husband and wife as one person.)

 

This was a radical message in the first century, and it is a radical message today. We might expect that the Firstborn Son would have most all of the inheritance, or we might think that He would receive 100% of the inheritance and then give each of us a portion; but the Bible says that we are joint heirs with the Firstborn Son, that we are heirs of God and coheirs with Christ…but it does seems that we have a difficult time accepting how wonderful our salvation is in Jesus Christ, it seems as if we really don’t want to touch the fattened calf and enjoy the feast our Father has prepared for us.

 

We seem to be afraid to enjoy the glory of justification, of sanctification, and of glorification in Jesus Christ. Our dear Father wants to draw us closer and closer to Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ wants us to know and enjoy Him in greater and greater joy and power and glory and intimacy…and yet we insist on dumpster diving, we insist on self-flagellation, we insist on saying, “Yeah but..” when all of the promises of God in Christ are “Amen!” (2 Cor. 1:19 – 20). In fact, the promises are given to us that we might partake of and participate in the Divine Nature! (2 Peter 1:4).

 

When Paul writes, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who d us” (Rom. 8:37) we say, “Yeah but, it ain’t for now.”

 

It ain’t for now? If it ain’t for now, when is it for? Jesus gives promises to the overcomers in Revelation – to those who are overcoming now, not when life is over on this earth. Now is the time for overcoming. Now is the time for God’s salvation to be believed and manifested (Hebrews chapters 3 and 4). Now is the time to be salt and light and life to the world in Christ. Now is the time to live as the sons and daughters of the living God. Now is the time to eat the fattened calf for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Now is the time to cast off the clothes and identity of Egypt – there is a reason believers in Jesus Christ are called SAINTS more than anything else in the New Testament.  Jesus says that as the Father sent Him, He sends us. When are we going to go? How many excuses are we going to have?

 

Jesus gives us the baptism in the Holy Spirit to empower us to witness. He gives us His Cross so that we can reckon ourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God. He delivers us from the Law and its condemnation so that we can live in and by His grace. He gives us Romans Chapter 8 and we say, “That ain’t for us.”

 

The Father gives us Himself, the Son, the Spirit, as our eternal inheritance…and we push them away, we push the Gospel away – so deeply ingrained in us are caricatures of the Gospel, of God…of the salvation of Jesus Christ.

 

O dear friends, Jesus came to declare the Name of the Father to us (Heb. 2:12)…can we not hear Him? Can we not receive the glorious inheritance that we have in Jesus Christ? Can we not learn to share this inheritance with those around us…as joint heirs with Jesus Christ? As daughters and sons who have been adopted by the Eternal Father into all the riches of the Holy Trinity? What a shame to have such wealth and not to share it with others!

 

Let’s live as who we are in Christ, not as who we once were outside of Him. Let us begin to see the glory of sonship in the Son, a glory that magnifies the Trinity, a glory that is our destiny.