Mine part 3
We belong to our heavenly Father. I am His and He is mine. And that doesn't mean He owns me in the sense of I have to do what He says or else. It means He is responsible for me. It means I am His special possession. The object of His affection. It means we have a special bond. The unconditional love relationship that is pictured best in the form of Father and Son. I think we miss this sometimes. I think we focus so much on what Jesus freed us FROM (the bondage of sin and death) that we sometimes miss out on what He saved us TO. And don't get me wrong, both parts are important. But don't get me wrong, BOTH parts are important. Jesus saved us FROM sin and death. Yes. But He saved us TO live. He brought us OUT of Egypt, and INTO the Promised Land. He gave us a new Spirit--HIS Spirit. 2 Timothy 1:7 says it like this, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Love casts out fear, right? Before the cross we were afraid that God didn't love us. We were afraid of Him because we thought He was mad at us. It was dark (and we were void and without form) and we didn't know who God was. Because we couldn't see Him clearly. And we didn't know who we were because we couldn't see ourselves clearly. Then Jesus came. To shine the light of the world and show us that we ARE the light of the world. To show us ourselves by showing us the Father. To bring us out and bring us in. To show us where we belong. To show us TO WHOM we belong. To give us a sound mind. The mind of Christ. Which is the heart of God beating in our chests. He cut away the flesh of human effort through the circumcison made without hands. He rolled away the stone. He got rid of all the surface stuff--the external Law that could only demand perfection without producing it--and He revealed things to be in Divine Order. He gave us the Kingdom by showing us that we ARE the Kingdom. Because the Kingdom is where the King rules and reigns. He rules and reigns in us. Again--not in the sense of overruling us. But in the sense of ruling over us. Covering us. Having our backs. Taking care of us. If something is yours, that makes you responsible for it. You have to take care of it. It's not about control. (Even though Christ's love DOES control us.) It's about relationship. It's about knowing and believing that God is not mad AT us, but that He's mad ABOUT us. He's head over heels in love with us. Willing to literally die than be without us. Willing to give us His only begotten Son so that we migh know that we ARE His Son! First making us in His image, then--on the cross--CONFORMING us to the image of His Son. He said He wouldn't give His glory to another. But we aren't another. We're His. He gave us His glory for HIS name's sake. He gave us His name! The white stone with a new name written on it that nobody knows until they receive it. The new name... of Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. That's who we really are. That's our true identity. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart. And if we're His Son... then He's our heavenly Father. We belong to Him. I am His. And He is mine.