The Inheritance

When my Grandmother Azlee passed away her children were left an inheritance. The bulk of which was the house and land which was to be sold and divided according to the will. Please forgive me if some of these details are a bit off as I was only young at the time.

Wanting to keep the property in the family it was agreed that my Uncle would buy the rest of the family out. I tell you this for a couple reason.

The most important is money may help in this world but it is no substitute for the people we miss. I remember roughly when we received this inheritance. My father had just left and my mother and I were trying to start over and to be honest, financially things were very tight.

So an inheritance of any amount was especially timely, and not at the same time. Because in order to receive it Our family who was already in pain had to endure yet another loss. Like many people I miss my grandparents. All four of them, six if you count Bud and Merretta from Blacks harbour who basically adopted every child in the community and treated them all like grandchildren.

Let me tell you no amount of money is a suitable replacement for the love shared between family. So please understand the first reason I share this story with you is because one thing I have learned about inheritances is that...

They come with a great cost

The second reason I tell you this story is because although the pain was great like I said God’s timing was great as well. It may not have seemed like it at the time, but this temporary loss, I say temporary because to my knowledge before she died My Grandmother accepted Jesus, so one day we will be reunited. So God used this temporary loss to provide for a mother and her child at a critical time in life. One of these weeks we will get to , and this was one of those moments where

Romans 8:28 NLT

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Bad used for good.

This is the nature of an inheritance. A two sided coin, on one side pain, and on the other provision.

That would make coin flipping a little different wouldn’t it, heads I hit you in the head and tails you get the quarter. With and inheritance you get both sides whether you want them or not.

So when I read in the bible about how we are coheirs with Christ and that by becoming children of God we have an inheritance one might understand why many with an earthly understanding of an inheritance may find that terminology confusing.

Because on earth in order to inherit something someone has to die and it is a very sad day. But there is something very different about our inheritance as God’s children.

The big difference is the person who died that we might have this inheritance came back to life and with Him we share His inheritance.

In other words God removed on side of the coin when Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave.

This evening we are going to read In this passage we are going to learn about the difference between living in our sinful nature compared to having The Holy Spirit live in us, but as we come down near the end of this section the passage starts talking about how as adopted Children we become heirs with Christ.

This evening I want to read this passage to you and talk just a little about what it is we have/are inheriting.

Romans 8:1–17 NLT

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

The question I want to ask today is...

What is our inheritance?

I believe the answer comes in two parts, that which we have already received and that which is to come. So to answer this we are going to have to look at both of these.

Because if you remember last week said

Romans 8:23 NLT

And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.

So tonight we will first look at what we have already received. Next week we will look at what is to come. Symbolic is it not.

A New Nature

Me: I threw the badminton racket into the bi and as I marched across the Gym with anger on my face I stared him right in the eye and for the whole class to here I said, after class you are a dead man.

Maybe I should back up here. Back when I was still rebelling agains God and before I had come back to Him, I was not as friendly as I am today. One day during Gym class we were playing badminton. They were just fun games, no trophies on the line but as me and my partner rotated into a new match The two standing across from us must not of thought so. You would have thought based on how they played we were competing for olympic Gold. They were much better than me and my partner and they knew it so almost every other shot was a smash right at us. I say us but I mean me.

It was like one of them had something against me. Maybe it was because we got in a tousle in grade eight and he ended up upside down in the english room closet I don’t know, but this was 2 years later I mean let it go already. I said nothing the whole game I just waited to rotate to the next match.

The time came so now we were playing on the court next to theirs and surprise, surprise I keep getting hit with their shuttle. This is when I marched to the supply room through my racket, threatened him and maybe dented a locker in the changing room.

This is how I used to deal with conflict. Anger, violence, threats. I cared about only two people me and my mom. I treated everyone else as if they owed me everything and I owed them nothing.

I was a jerk, ignorant, and looking back not a person I would have befriended. That is who I used to be.

We: If we are honest with ourselves we probably all have stories like this how we used to be and how different it is from who we are now since we became a Christian. It is like something changed in us and we are not the same people we used to be. At least I hope that is true for all of us.

God: Because when explaining what it meant to be saved Jesus told Nicodemus you have to be born again. Meaning when you are born you were born into the flesh but when you surrender to God He gives you a new life in the Spirit.

Nicodemus didn’t seem to understand that, but that was and is the perfect explanation of what happens. Here in Romans Paul flushes it out a little more by explaining that before we were adopted as Children of God through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross we were consumed by one thing. Our sinful human nature. All we thought about were sinful things and therefore we acted sinfully. But when we came to God through Jesus and we surrendered to Him to be adopted as His children we were also filled with His Spirit which replaced the sinful nature meaning...

We had the ability to choose to do what is right. By allowing God to change how we thought about this it also changed how we live. At least it should have. Paul is not suggesting here that those who are saved never sin rather He is saying we now view sin differently so when we do we want to deal with it.

Let me explain it this wayOur oldest shared ancestor’s name is Adam and his wife Eve. Did you know that Adam and Eve left an inheritance for everyone of their descendants that has been passed down to every human being from generation to generation.

What everyone of us inherited from Adam and Eve is a Sinful nature. Some have called it a bend toward sin.

But what we inherited through Jesus who is referred to as the New Adam is His Spirit who corrects that bend and Even gives us a new bend toward what is righteous.

This is what Paul is talking about here and sums up well in Romans 8:12-13

Romans 8:12–13 NLT

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.

You: When you hear or read of an inheritance that we have because you have been adopted into the Family of God, you need to know some of the inheritance is for you right now. It is the Power of the Holy Spirit that help you to live a life that honours God rather than trying to live a life that never fully satisfies the sinful longings of the flesh inherited from Adam.

We: From the day we were born we were slaves to our sinful nature, but God doesn’t want us to be slaves to sin, nor does He desire to treat us like slaves to Him rather He wants us to be adopted into His family as His children to receive the full inheritance He has set up for His children.

Next Step:

Always remember

Romans 8:

Romans 8:15 NLT

So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”

Romans 8:15 ESV

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Romans 8:15 NIV

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

Romans 8:15 NKJV

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

No matter what translation you read remember

Romans 8:15 RSV

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, “Abba! Father!”