Privileged beyond imagination!

This past Sunday I baptized four adults whose range of experience was dramatic. Sathya and Shagun come from a Hindu background, well-educated and prosperous, yet hungering to know the Living God. Shawn came from a past on the streets were he dealt drugs and watched numerous friends die violently. Jon is a middle-aged guy whose found the Lord through many trials along the way. They are all now ‘in Christ,’ members of His Body, the Church. They once lived in completely separate worlds but are now ‘brothers and sisters’ in God’s family who share a common Father and inheritance.

The Bible says "Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise. In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, since you are Christ’s family, then you are Abraham’s famous “descendant,” heirs according to the covenant promises." (Galatians 3:26-29, The Message) The wonder of the Gospel is that it erases the guilt of our past, restores our relationship with God now, and puts us in line to receive the promises first given to the ‘father of the faithful,’ Abraham!

Abraham was invited to journey to a land that God would give to him if he would receive the promise by faith. God told him “I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:2-3, NIV) It was not his intelligence, his stellar morality, or his attractiveness that earned these promises. They were the Lord’s gift of grace, accepted through obedient expectation. Once those blessings were available only to those who descended from Abraham. Now, they come to all of us who receive Christ. "Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith." (Galatians 3:14, NLT)

I am among the privileged and the blessed. I am God’s son, one who is able to claim the promises of abundant life and eternal life. Is this cause for pride? God forbid! Nothing I have done has brought me to this place. God loved, God pursued, God saved. Like Abraham, the only thing I have done is to accept the gift and obey the call. Those baptized on Sunday have done the same and now share the heritage of all the children of God.

Are you ‘in Christ,’ friend?

Are you receiving the promises, being blessed and being a blessing?

Ponder this word from the Word that reveal the true identity of those who live in faith.

"Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”
So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.” (Galatians 3:7-12, NIV)

___________

A New Name In Glory

I was once a sinner but I came

Pardon to receive from my Lord

This was freely given and I found

That He always kept His word

In the Book 'tis written

Saved by grace

O the joy that came to my soul

Now I am forgiven and I know

By the blood I am made whole

There's a new name

Written down in glory

And it's mine

O yes it's mine

And the white-robed

Angels sing the story

A sinner has come home

For there's a new name

Written down in glory

And it's mine

O yes it's mine

With my sins forgiven

I am bound for heaven

Nevermore to roam

© Public Domain

Charles Austin Miles