When it comes to an inheritance we usually focus on the benefits of being a son or daughter who is favored, heir apparent to the fortunes of our ancestry. But with such favor comes great responsibility. The same holds true with respect to your spiritual ancestry. You were made in the image of God, but original sin passed down through the generations dooms you to living in a flesh body of corruption and in a world contaminated by iniquity. This makes us the black sheep of the family, so to speak, until our big brother, Jesus, stepped up and took the fatal consequence we deserved for our tendency to disobey the Father through our blatant disregard for God’s law.
It doesn’t matter how small the mistake, Romans 3:23 tells us we’ve all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We have, however, been restored to that place of honor as a prince or princess to the King of creation through the shed blood of Jesus and His resurrection from the dead stench of the grave. We were marked for death because of sin but delivered from what seemed to be a sure destiny of devastation that would deliver us directly to a place the Bible calls Hades where eternity transpires in the blink of an eye and is never ending. The Apostle Paul drives this point home in Romans 8:16 when he says that the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
This is the responsibility, suffering through bearing your own cross. Are you willing to suffer for the sake of God’s kingdom or do you just want to show up for your inheritance but aren’t willing to sign your name on the dotted line? Paul also says that sufferings you may endure can’t really be compared with His glory revealed. I encourage you to hold your head high as a child conformed into the likeness of Christ that tells the world there’s hope in a Father who loves us all, so much so He sent His Son to die for the sin of humanity so you can be heir apparent to a heavenly kingdom.
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