Imagine this. You are a destitute and condemned person, locked away in the prison of a king. But one day, the king decides he will not only forgive you for your crimes but also adopt you as his son or daughter. So, he sends a messenger to the prison, and you are summoned to the king. The first thing you need to do is accept this gift and leave the prison for the palace. When you get there the king clothes you in royal robes and seats you on the throne beside him. But having lived the life of a poor criminal, you are unable to talk, act or even think like royalty. You still behave like a destitute person, and this causes you to doubt whether you really are a prince or princess. But the king is at pains to reassure you that your royal status does not depend upon your performance but upon his choice. You must learn now to think and act like a prince or princess because you are one. You didn’t earn your status; it was given to you. The work of learning to live up to your position is a response to the sovereign grace of the king. The bestowal of the royal position leads to the work of change, not vice versa. Likewise, you cannot attain the status of being a child of God any more than you could become a prince or princess by submitting a good resume. Status is something that God gracefully bestows upon us. It is for us then to respond by learning to live up to the position that we have been granted by grace.
Thank God for adopting you as his son or daughter.
Read Romans 3:21-31
