I’m a self confessed car enthusiast. I love everything that has wheels on them and has been this way from time immemorial. My mother used to tell me that I was adept at car spotting from as young as a six month baby. During the early days of my childhood, I vividly remember myself wanting to take control of the car and go for a spin, at least around the block. I learnt to drive by mere observation. Such was my obsession to drive our car that I would spend hours sitting at the wheel of a parked car and drove by imagination! I knew I was the heir to this prized possession but my dad never let me drive. He would let a driver drive our car but not me. I never felt like the owner of our car until I was old enough to earn a driving license and start driving it; which I did, eventually.
Paul by the Spirit is making an important point here when he draws a comparison between the old covenant of the law and the new covenant of grace. A burning question among many believers today is this: If I’m an heir to all that Jesus died to give me, why am I not seeing it manifest? That’s what Paul explains here. Until the time of Christ, which was the advent of grace, believers were under law, like children under tutors and care-takers. As long as they’re children, they cannot possess the inheritance as promised to Abraham, albeit being heirs to the promise. From that perspective, a child has no access just as a servant in that same household would have no access to the inheritance.
When Jesus fulfilled the law, He removed the barrier that separated us from God. All the believers in Christ have been made heirs to the promise of Abraham. They’re no more subject to the forces of the world but are equipped to possess and live by the resources of heaven. Christ Himself has become our true inheritance. So, how do we possess it? How do we see it manifest? By receiving the fulness of His grace. The Israelites were treated like children (although they were heirs) because they were under the law. As children they couldn’t become heirs to the promise. Today, a believer who lives under mixed covenants is like a child who’s untrained in the word of righteousness. He is like a baby who requires milk (shadow) and not solid meat (reality of Christ).
The new covenant of grace reveals the fulness of Christ and His finished work. It’s under grace that we’re made heirs to the inheritance by faith. We’ve become the sons of God by grace through our new birth. We’re dead to the law and alive unto Christ. The more of Christ we feed, the more of meat we feed on. This is not baby food but solid food that reminds us of our true identity in Christ. We begin to possess our inheritance effortlessly because we feed on Christ and His finished work. Instead of feeding on milk (shadow) we feed on meat (reality). Children don’t remain children forever nor do they feed on milk forever. Children start eating solid food after a time and they grow up as mature adults. The grace of Christ makes us mature sons and daughters of Christ fully equipped to possess the inheritance He died to give us.
The more we feed on this solid food (Christ) the more of our inheritance we see. What we see, we possess. How does this translate to our daily life? Through Jesus, we possess more than we need for this life. It’s not a miracle to miracle life but a blessed life of prosperity in all the areas. This is the quality of life Jesus died to give us and we get to possess it when we fully trust His grace as the foundation for our life. It’s no more of what we can do to possess them but about what Christ has already done to give us the inheritance. When we rest from our efforts at achieving them and start receiving them freely, life flows. As a kid, I yearned to drive that car someday although I was the heir to it; Today, I own it as well as drive it. God doesn’t want us to be like children merely looking at our inheritance. He wants us to possess them and enjoy them as His mature sons and daughters.
Blogs I Follow
Revelation of Grace Ministries 