My Position As A Believer

MY POSITION AS A BELIEVER

SCRIPTURE: John 15:7

INTRODUCTION

Being a child of God is more than a guarantee to go to heaven. There are present benefits to Christian living. God is as concerned with our daily life as He is with our future life. The entire Godhead is involved with our present secure position in the Lord. This must be realized in order to enjoy the blessings of being a Christian.

God’s attitude is expressed in Luke 12:32: "Fear not, little flock; for it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom." I emphasize the word good to note His pleasure. Just to say it was His pleasure would have been sufficient, but He added the word good to accent His will to us.

GOD’S PART

"If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31).

As a child of God, I am assured God is for me! God stated in Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man . . . and let [him] have dominion. It amazed the psalmist that man should have dominion over all the works of His hands (Psalm 8:4-6).

This statement was not to reduce man to puppet status in God’s hands, nor was man to be a toy for the devil. Man was made to be victorious. Some men have tried to give man more credit than is due. He is not master of his own fate, but a possession of his divine Creator. We must never seek to rise above that level.

At the same time we must remember we rank as children of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our first relationship to God is through creation, and our second is through recreation in Jesus Christ and His offering at Calvary.

God has no stepchildren, in-laws, or half-breeds for children. If we are children of God, we are equal. There are no degrees of sonship. God is no respecter of persons. We are made in His image to glorify Him and not ourselves.

If one uses Scripture to bolster any idea of personal or material gain and looks at another as being inferior, he loses sight of the real meaning of Scripture and is likely to become carnal. This must not be!

It would also be carnal to censure a person who has achieved much of this world’s goods through rightful attitude and adherence to the Scripture. A rich person is not to censured just because he is rich. I have no more right to condemn him for his wealth than he does to condemn me if I am not wealthy. It is carnal to judge spirituality by the size of a bank account.

Jesus did not die to make us possessors of this world’s goods without a life dedicated to the things of God.

The dilemma raised by Jesus which caused His disciples to ask, "How hardly can a rich man enter the kingdom?" and is a question we have a right to ask. But wealth was not the sin; attitude was the sin.

Jesus gave us the example of Lazarus laid at the rich man’s gate. The rich man lifted up his eyes in hell, while Lazarus was taken by the angels to Father Abraham’s bosom. Scripture does not say you have to be a Lazarus to go to heaven, but it says being a Lazarus will not prevent you.

In this world of sin, while confronted with the devil, I have assurance I am a child of God. His Spirit bears witness with my spirit that I am the son of God. Paul reminds me, "And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17). As a joint heir of Jesus Christ, I have the highest rank possible.

Sometimes in my travels I see people who are defeated. Provided our goals are what they should be, there is no room for defeat in God. Our victory is not in our own achievements but by accepting the provisions God has made for us as His children. We are not our own. We are possessed by him.

To be what God intends us to be, it is an absolute must that we know our proper relationship to the Creator.

These are not the words of a preacher expecting to elevate the level of his flock’s hopes by hitching to a star of positive thinking. We are not gods. We are not ever going to evolve into gods. We will not be reincarnated into another spirit being, but we will always remain a subject of God’s divine grace through His Son Jesus Christ.

I am an overcomer, not of a falling stock market, but of this world and the devil.

I am an overcomer, however, only through Christ by whose grace Paul said, "If God be for us, who can be against us!" (Romans 8:31).