CHAPTER 4

An Heir of God

  1.   Have you ever received a significant inheritance? Or have you ever daydreamed about receiving one? How would this gift change your life for the better?

  2.   Scripture says we are “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). A couple of verses before this one Paul wrote, “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’” (v. 15 NKJV). What does it mean to be adopted by God?

  3.   In ancient Rome adoption was serious business. If a father did not feel he had a worthy heir, he could handpick someone from the community to adopt and, therefore, to inherit his land and wealth. According to Roman law this adoption brought four significant changes in the adoptee’s identity:

          a.  He lost all relationship to his old family, and he gained all rights as a member of the new family.

          b.  He became an heir to his new father’s estate.

          c.  His former life was completely wiped out. All his legal debts were canceled as if they never existed.

          d.  In the eyes of the law, the adoptee was literally and absolutely the son of his new father.²

       •   The audience of Paul’s letter to the Romans would have understood this, but how does this change your view of being an adopted child of God?

       •   Have you accepted that you are an adopted child of God, and are you ready to live out your inheritance? Or do you still need to believe that you have been adopted by God?

  4.   Read 1 Chronicles 29:11–12. What sort of inheritance do we receive from our Father?

  5.   The story of Joshua leading the Israelites to the promised land of Canaan is a good illustration for how we, as heirs of God, approach our inheritance. God told Joshua, “Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you” (Josh. 1:2–3 NKJV).

God tells each of us the same thing: “Arise and receive the inheritance I have promised you.” But we don’t all believe in this inheritance. If you put yourself in the story of Joshua, where would you be?

       •   Are you standing at the edge of the Jordan, questioning whether God really does have a good inheritance for you in the promised land?

       •   Are you pursuing your inheritance but not in the promised land? Perhaps you’ve gotten off course and you’re looking for your inheritance elsewhere—at your job, in your relationships, or in your wealth.

       •   Or are you living in the abundance of the promised land, receiving the inheritance God has for you?

       •   If you are questioning God’s inheritance for you or if you’ve gotten off the path, looking for your inheritance elsewhere, what do you need to believe about God in order for you to live in the abundance of the promised land?

  6.   At the end of this chapter, Max tells the touching and tragic story of Hein and Diet, a couple who hid Jews during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. How did this couple live out of their God-given inheritance?

  7.   How could you live out of your God-given inheritance?

       •   What do you feel you are lacking today? Peace? Patience? Love? Grace?

       •   How can God meet that need and do more than you even asked for?

  8.   How does living from our inheritance help show those around us the love of Christ? How could not living out of our inheritance hurt our Christian witness to others?