7-8-2017

Good Morning All,

                  Galatians 4:6; “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

    Most of us in the United States do not understand what it means to live in a kingdom.  We do not understand what it is like to have a king.  It used to be that the king was the final authority.  He and he alone decided most cases of law; especially those that involved the nobility.  Loyalty to the king often times depended on his fairness in dealing with others.  If he was seen as unfair, there might be plots to attack him or to dethrone him.  So the king had to be fair.

    Yet the king might also be a father.  He might have a son or more that he loved as a father.  So if there would be some matter for the king to decide, the son would stand before his father the king and hear the verdict.  The people who were harmed by the prince would be there as well.  They demanded justice. But the prince would hope that the king would judge him the way a father would, with mercy and love.  He would hope that his father, the king, would not judge him harshly and with punishment and retribution in mind but rather as a loving father who has mercy on his son.

    In many ways we are the same way and this is why it is important we are called sons.  We stand before the king to be judged for our actions.  The king, as judge, will adjudicate based on the evidence but the king, our father, will look upon us with mercy and this is what we need.  We need our judge to be the father who looks at us with the love that only a father can have and look upon us with a merciful heart.  This is the only chance we have.  If we are judged according to the evidence, we will be judged guilty but if we are judged by a loving father, one who seeks to show his mercy to us; we will be declared righteous and innocent.

    Yet the king needs to maintain justice and the balance of justice must be respected.  A law has been broken, a debt to society has been incurred, and payment must be made.  This is what happens because of Jesus.  Jesus’ death paid the debt that we incurred.  Justice has been met.  The law has been fulfilled and we are the beneficiaries.  The punishment that we deserve instead becomes forgiveness and mercy shown to the son by the loving king, our father.

    So we can call out Abba, father, to our heavenly king.  We stand before him seeking his grace and his mercy and we receive it because of Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross.  We have no need to fear punishment or retribution. The debt is paid and we can stand before God looking to our loving father king and not at the judging king.  God shows his mercy to us, forgives us, renews us and gives us hope for eternal life.  This is what we have eternal life and the inheritance of the kingdom.  We are the sons of God receiving his mercy every day.

Abba, to you we cry.  We seek your mercy to relieve our fears and pain.  Keep us safe in your loving arms.  Strengthen our faith and encourage our heart.  Renew our spirit that we may always trust in your amazing grace.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret