Guest or Owner?

There is a great deal of difference between the position of a guest and that of the host. The guest necessarily enjoys his status only while he is a guest. The owner is owner wherever he is.

The Christian is far more than a guest with God. The Lord said to His disciples, "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends" (John 15:15). That is a wonderful position, an inestimable step above the position of a servant, but it did not stop there. It carried with it new privileges, and a new knowledge, since the verse continues, "for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you."

From this position of friend we have been exalted to the position of a son by the divine rebirth. "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures" (James 1:18). And again, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John
3:1

But the promotion still does not stop there. A son in a household often has fewer privileges than some of the servants, especially in his younger years. In fact, God says, "the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father" (Gal. 4:1,2). Our Father has made the provision that we should be manifested as responsible heirs. We have been begotten as sons. The adoption in Roman law was not akin to our practice of the adoption of another's child by foster parents, but rather the manifestation of a begotten son to the place of public responsibility in the affairs of the adopting father. The adopted son has the rights, privileges, and position of the owner. "All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's" (1 Cor. 3:21-23).

The guest may have enjoyed a weekend on a beautiful estate, and in the following days, in the midst of the heat of the city, may wish for another invitation that he might enter once more into the pleasure of his position as guest. The owner may be in a distant city in the heat of a hotel room. His mind goes back to his pleasant acres, and in his imagination he breathes deeply of his memories of home, anticipating by right his return to their enjoyment. In Christ you are an owner, and may live in the enjoyment of your possession. All things are yours.

1. Since we have been given everything through Christ, does this mean we have a reason to boast over the unbeliever?
2. What does it mean that we are adopted into the family of God? Isn’t all of humanity the “children” of God?