Heirs of God

By: Carole L. Haines

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 8:15-17 NASB)

I have found some truly wonderful channels on YouTube for Christians. They are:

Grace for Purpose
Abide
Soakstream
And most recently I have found Prayer Pray. I picked out a video of hymns this morning from this App called “100 of the most beautiful hymns.” The video behind this soothing music was scenes of churches all over the world. Inside and out, ornate and simple, large and small.

Listening to this harp music and seeing all these amazing houses of worship made me reflective and grateful for my heritage as a believer in Jesus Christ. We have all been led to Jesus in unique ways. Mine was a bit bumpy, but perhaps yours was simply that you grew up in a believing family and a good church. It doesn’t matter how we get to Jesus, just that we finally get there, kneeling before Him, repenting of our sins and asking Him to be our Savior. Let’s look at our opening verse again:

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 8:15-17 NASB)

Some of the Gifts of our inheritance are found in this wonderful passage. We can call God, Abba, Father. He is our Daddy, our Papa. We are adopted into His family. If we never felt like we belonged anywhere, we certainly belong to God’s family now. The Holy Spirit testifies within us, assuring us we are the children of God. We are also heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.
Now pause at that one for a moment, CO-HEIRS, what does that even mean?

Strong’s Concordance defines co-heir as: “a participant in common, one who obtains something assigned to himself with others.” But the most mind-bending thing is that “other person we are a participant in common” with is Jesus Christ himself. Jesus, our savior, our Lord has made us co-heirs. We are to stand with Him when the Will of God is read, and we receive our rewards in Heaven. He is with us and yet He is Lord over us. He is our judge and yet He is our Advocate to. He is our King and yet He calls us to stand next to Him in His Kingdom. I cannot wrap my mind around such grace. What a humbling and yet, exalted thought. Thank you, Jesus, that you have made us co-heirs with You. All we are is Yours. DO Your mighty works in and through us from now into eternity. Amen!