Enemies to Heirs

by: Carole L. Haines

¹⁴ For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons and daughters of God. ¹⁵ For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
 (Romans 8:14-17)

O how I take the Love of my Father God for granted. I am learning to draw closer to Him each day, but it grieves me how much I forget to thank Him. He has sent Jesus, His precious Son, to die in our place and rise from the dead to give us the opportunity of eternal life. Here we read how He has given us His Holy Spirit, a spirit of adoption, to keep us from being led back into fear again. Yet I must admit, dear brothers and sisters, that I yield to fear far more than I should.

We are sons and daughters of God, and The Holy Spirit testifies with our own awakened spirit, that we are now God’s children, followers of Christ. We belong to God and have been given the right to cry out to Him as Abba, Father. Jesus cried out to His Father using “Abba” in Mark 14:36, when He was asking His Father to remove the cup of suffering from Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. This exclamation of “Abba,” is also used in  Galatians 4:4-7:

 ^4 “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, ⁵ so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters. ⁶ Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!” ⁷ Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”

Because we are sons and daughters, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” But He didn’t just make us His children, He made us His heirs, “fellow-heirs with Christ.” Sit with that a minute. Jesus is the one who died for us, proving His love for us by doing this while we were still rebellious sinners. (Romans 5:8) We hung Him on that Cross just as surely as our hands held the hammer and nails. But He went even farther by making us heirs. Enemies to Heirs, how is that even possible? God’s love is so amazingly unsearchable. Let us sit with that truth awhile this day and exclaim with the Apostle Paul:

“Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” (Romans 11:33)

Have a Blessed Day Dear Believers!