Our reconciliation with God is the central benefit, but it is accompanied with many other functional components that ensure that God’s plan works out for our lives.
One of these functional components is the measure of faith the believer received when they were reconciled with God. I discussed this in my second in the series.
It is this measure of faith that we live by, and so we are expected to build it up through hearing the word of God to get revelation knowledge of it and practicing what we are taught by the Holy Spirit.
There are numerous other benefits but the second and the last one I want to discuss in this series is found in Rom 8:32, where it is written that:
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Most times, we seem to read this verse wrongly. While we seem to understand the first part which says God did not spare His own son but delivered him up for us all, we tend to miss out on what the latter part says.
Our reconciliation with God happened because Jesus was delivered up to die for our sins. He is not going to be delivered up, He is not in the process of being delivered up, He has already been delivered up for our sins.
In fact, not only was He delivered up for our sins, He was raised up from the dead thereafter and exalted to seat at the right hand of Majesty on high till all His enemies are made His footstool.
These two operations and the fact that we have believed on Him accomplishing them for us, is what our reconciliation with God was predicated on. So there is no denial that God delivering Him up is a past event.
But God didn’t stop at just delivering Him up, the latter part of the verse explains that God also, with delivering Him up, freely gave us all things to enjoy!
We shouldn’t see the latter part of that verse as something God is going to do, rather we should see and understand it as what He has done when He delivered His Own Son up for us. With Him, He also gave us all things freely to enjoy.
So, what are ‘all things’? They are all things consistent with godly and righteous living here on earth. From the help of the Holy Spirit to everything we need here on earth to ensure it is well with us and that we fulfill all God’s will.
Another text that comes to mind in this regard is Heb 1:2 where it says;
Jesus has been appointed the heir of all things
What these texts tell us therefore is that, since we are in Him, we have access to all things in this inheritance - which in reality includes all things consistent with godly and righteous living.
We may see the ‘all things’ in this text as authority and dominion over the powers and works of darkness, or see it as everything God created to serve His purpose. It wouldn’t make a difference to the truth the texts are telling us.
Being heir of all things means He was appointed the Inheritor (Owner/Lord) of everything in heaven and earth and under the earth (for our sakes or benefit).
For each individual believer therefore, this truth translates to the following (among others things) in our day to day living to please God:
Overcoming that challenge you have always faced has already been given to you in Christ
Meeting that godly goal has already been given to you in Christ
All your life’s needs being met has already been given to you in Christ
Fulfilling your ministry has already been given to you in Christ
Knowing/Understanding the mysteries of the kingdom has already been given to you in Christ
Living a victorious and decent
Living a victorious and decent spiritual life has already been given to you in Christ. And so on and so forth.
The only way all these good things are not yours in Christ already is if Christ was not given up for you by God… and the good news is, He was given up to die!
Your becoming a heir of God and joint heir with Christ is for the purpose of you enjoying all the goodness of God – Rom 8:16-17
Believers who are yet unlearned may say being a joint heir with Christ only means we have eternal life (eternity with God) in Him. That may be because that is the extent to which they believe God, based on their knowledge of Him.
But here is a food for thought: No one in all good conscience will say God can give eternal life but He can’t meet the need you have to make you live a life that glorifies Him.
Eternal life is of much greater value than your needs here on earth. However, the eternal life which is in Christ, carries with it the benefits of eternity with God as well as power to which all things natural and tangible have been made subject.
So when God said He gave us all things with Christ, He didn’t mince words. That is exactly what He did.
We should understand however that If we obtained reconciliation with God by grace through faith, all other things given us with Him will have to be obtained and enjoyed by the same means too. Everything therefore begins with knowing what God has given us with Christ and acting on His promises to have them in our reality. As believers, we should be accustomed with God’s kingdom principle of believing, though we have not yet seen and also acting accordingly.
Knowing that Jesus was born to fulfill the purpose of our reconciliation with God and having been given all things to enjoy with Him, celebrating Jesus' coming into the world should be an ongoing activity for us, not only at Christmas.
For believers therefore, everyday should be Christmas. We should not be robbed of this celebration and the blessings of it by not knowing as much as we should.
I encourage us to dedicate this year to learning God’s word on all Christ's birth brought to us through persistent hearing of the word. This is the only means God has given us by which we may develop our faith and enjoy them all in Him.
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