We Are God's People

"Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me." 

John 14:21-24 (ESV)

This past winter I enjoyed watching Downton Abbey which aired on the local PBS station’s presentation of Masterpiece™ Classic. This historical drama follows the lives of the Earl of Grantham, Robert Crawley, and his family in the early 20th century Edwardian England. The family spans three generations, and it includes the aged Dowager Countess and three headstrong daughters. The Crawleys are the epitome of English aristocracy, whose legacy includes inherited title, lands, and wealth.

The three daughters are all determined to go their own way. The eldest is involved in an illicit love affair. The middle daughter is a conniving gossip who betrays her one of her sisters. The youngest turns her back on her family to marry a “common” man. And the father is at a loss as to how to handle all this upheaval in his family. 

One of the most telling moments in the story occurs when the eldest daughter is viewing an estate that she and her husband-to-be, a powerful and vindictive publisher of a London tabloid, are considering as a their new home. As they view the magnificent oil portraits which hang on the corridor wall, they wonder aloud what is to become of the paintings. The publisher says that he will, of course, buy them. After all, that is how “his kind” obtains such priceless works. His fiancée immediately responds, “Our kind inherits them.”

Unfortunately, the lives of the Crawleys more often than not typify the lives of families in our communities. Parents struggle to rear their children in the legacy that has been delivered to them, and children want to go their own way, even to the point of turning their back on their families and despising their inheritance. Thankfully, God does not waver when it comes to the rearing of his children. 

When the Christian speaks of inheritance, it is not the inheritance of worldly wealth, those riches that men seek and store, where moth and rust eats away at it, of which he speaks. Nor is it just “going to heaven.” The inheritance is far richer, more profound, and more valuable than one thing or a place. The inheritance is a Person. For the Christian, the inheritance is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And besides Christ, there is no inheritance.

God the Father, from eternity past and before he created the universe and reality in which we live, determined to send his Son, Jesus, into the world in the likeness of human flesh to save a people and make them his own. Man was eternally and damnably separated from God through the sin of Adam in the Garden. And all men participated in that fall from grace through Adam’s sin. Death came into the world through Adam. Death has become the curse of man because God is angry with sin and with sinners.

But life has come into the world through the death and resurrection of Jesus. His death, in and on behalf of his people, was the pouring out of God’s wrath on his beloved Son because of the sin of his people. Jesus’ death was the ultimate curse—the innocent dying for the guilty. And that curse has turned into the blessing for all men because Jesus bore in his own body the wrath of God against sin, and Jesus exhausted that wrath. God’s anger against his people has been turned away from his people, and we experience that turning away when we trust Jesus for his selfless act of supreme love. But there is more to the story. 

When we trust Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins, we are adopted in the truest sense of the word as the children of God. We are given his name, Christian, and we are given everything that belongs to him. Above all, we are given his Spirit, who takes up residence within us, not only to confirm to our hearts that we are born of God, but to continually transform us into the image of Christ—to become more like Christ in what we say, do, and think. While we may act as headstrong as the Crawley daughters, the Triune God will discipline and disciple us to return to the legacy of our inheritance.

Trusting in Jesus, submitting to him, obeying his revealed will, relying upon his Spirit, fellowship with him in worship, prayer, and daily reading of our Bibles are the things which strengthen us to live moment-by-moment, day-by-day as the people of God. Since the Christian is adopted as the child of God and a partaker in the inheritance which is given to Christ, we have no need to fear anything. Our Father knows all our needs. He has promised us good gifts. The chief gift he has given to us is Christ Himself.

Therefore, we now can and should do all things to his glory. Whether it is our vocations, our schoolwork, or our relationships, we have the promise that God will provide sufficient grace to us so we can do these things to please him as children who return love to such overwhelming love. And if we please him, then others will be pleased.

The people of God possess such a rich inheritance in Christ that it cannot in any way be compared to earthly inheritances. The most important question to be answered right now is this. Are you a partaker of that inheritance? If not, why not?