Meditations on
Staying In the Grace for Today
July 22, 2025
God Has Made You His Heir
Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child.
And since you are his child, God
has made you his heir.
Galatians 4:7
At the end of Galatians Six, Paul makes clear that the ultimate purpose of God working through Jesus is to create the ‘new people of God.’ (Galatians 6:15) We become the new people of God when we are transformed to become like Jesus. In the opening passage of Chapter Four, Paul reveals what I believe is the key to understanding how the transformation to the new people of God comes about. In the first six verses, Paul is speaking in general terms, using second person plural ‘we.’ In verse 7, Paul speaks in specific terms, using the second person singular ‘you’. Paul moves from talking about ‘we’ and ‘us’ to talking about YOU. You are God’s child. You are God’s heir. This is a foundation to our seeking the life in Christ as our way of life; our personal ownership of our new identity in Christ, that we are God’s heir.
Many Christians believe one of the most beautiful passages of scripture is, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). However, we understand this passage together with what John said a few verses earlier: “Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.” (John 3:6) The work of the Holy Spirit is to lead us to when we take personal ownership of the subject phrase ‘everyone who believes,’ and we affirm, I believe.
My Takeaway: Sometimes people tend to focus on the whole people of God, because they cannot imagine God caring for them as an individual. These people struggle with applying the promises of God to their personal life. However, God saves us one at a time, so that together, we can become God’s heirs, the new people of God.
Sē’lah
My book on
prayer,
First Think, Then
Pray
is now available
on Amazon Kindle.
(Selah is a word that appears in the
Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my
correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about
these things.)
These
meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his
way of life. The meditations are
published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/
and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may
subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.
Copyright © 2025 by Alex M. Knight
Unless
otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless
otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible,
New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House
Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream,
Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.