A Joint-Heir Who is Worthy of Title

Romans 2:1-10 (NKJV)
¹ Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. ² But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. ³ And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? ⁵ But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, ⁶ who "will render to each one according to his deeds": ⁷ eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; ⁸ but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness--indignation and wrath, ⁹ tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; ¹⁰ but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Ed Koch, the former mayor of New York City, recently died. He would see folks on the streets or cafes, folks he was addressing in public gatherings or even folks who visited him in his office. His greeting was the same in every circumstance: “How’m I doin?” Most would give him a cluster of compliments. His popularity rarely fell before 70% until he finally lost a campaign for Governor by three percentage points which made him vulnerable in the democratic primary.

This is a question that ought to be on the lips and in the forefront of every Christian’s mind when we come before God. What do you think God would say to such a question? How do you think you are doing in your Christian Life? When God sees us with regards to our status as His adopted child, He counts us as a “fellow heir with Christ Jesus.” We are fully members of the His family. This is a status that transcends our behavior and our wicked thought-life. Our standing in the family of God rests solely on the finished work of Jesus Christ, who is the surety payment for the New and Everlasting Covenant sealed in His blood. This is the economy of Grace. 

There is yet another economy. It is the process of glorification. All our thoughts and behaviors that are not like those in Jesus must be treated with Divine hostility. If we presume on the economy of Divine mercy to excuse our wicked behavior before our righteous Father, we miss the opportunity to enjoy the fullness of our Sonship (Daughtership). Every time we sin, we live beneath our royal status and become mere commoners. It is as though, we live in a state of forgetfulness. We cannot remember that we were born again into a life that presses ever forward from one state of glory to every higher states of glory. It is only then that we will enjoy the peace of God “who works (in us) what is good.”

 

Everything that is born of God is no shadowy work. God will not bring forth a dead fruit, a lifeless and powerless work, but a living, new man must be born from the living God. Johann Arndt (1555–1621) 

In the natural world it is impossible to be made all over again, but in the spiritual world it is exactly what Jesus Christ makes possible. Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) 

There are two spirits abroad in the earth: the spirit that works in the children of disobedience and the Spirit of God. These two can never be reconciled in time or in eternity. The spirit that dwells in the once-born is forever opposed to the Spirit that inhabits the heart of the twice-born. A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) 

Your whole nature must be re-born, your passions, and your affections, and your aims, and your conscience, and your will must all be bathed in a new element and reconsecrated to your Maker and, the last not the least, your intellect. Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801–1890)