From Servitude to Sonship: The Christian's Divine Inheritance

Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son (Galatians 4:7). Sonship stands in stark contrast to servitude. It represents a change from ignorance to knowledge, from bondage to self-control, from temporal relationship to eternal covenant. This sonship is the gift of Elohim alone. Yahweh intervenes at the fitting time with the offer of adoption. He sends the only Being capable of winning us to this status—His Son. He accompanies this gift with the infallible witness: the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

This gift makes us heirs of God. Consider why the Almighty fashioned the worlds—not for solitary joy in their brightness, but that they minister to our sense of beauty and illuminate our path. The material creation exists for the sake of the moral. All things lie beneath our feet because we are children of Him to whom all belongs. The Christian may engage machinery, conduct commerce, mine the earth, cross oceans, span gulfs, knowing he executes his Father's will in obtaining and stewarding paternal wealth.

Yet higher inheritances await God's children. We become partakers of the Divine nature itself. That nature is spirit—our spirits subjugate our grosser being. That nature is righteousness—we become pure in heart and just toward all. That nature is mercy—we extend Divine compassion to the fallen. That nature is changeless power—our weakness transforms into strength. That nature is infinite wisdom—we trust Him in what we cannot understand. That nature is world-embracing love.