Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Let me ask: Who do you think you are? (I've asked myself that question!) Jesus had to wrestle with that same question all His life on earth as our Savior. The first inkling that He knew who He was came at the age of 12 when He asked Mary and Joseph in the Temple in Jerusalem, "Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" (Luke 2:49).
The problem surfaces in the temptations in the wilderness after His baptism at the age of 30: "IF You are the Son of God ... !" (Matt. 4:6ff.). Matthew seems to be the one most aware of this problem that Jesus constantly wrestled with. Satan wouldn't let Jesus alone even as He hung on His cross in His last hours: "IF You are the Son of God, come down from the cross"! (Matt. 27:40).
So, if the divine Son of God in our human flesh or nature had to wrestle with this problem in temptation, don't be dismayed if you find yourself wondering who you are! Are you a maid or a ditch-digger in the Father's house, or are you a prince of the realm? Do you have a right to hold your head high, or is Satan correct when he demeans you and seeks to destroy your self-respect?
There is a fascinating parable (or illustration) in Galatians 4:1-7. It tells of a child (the heir) probably running around a huge estate where even the slaves boss him around. But when he grows up he becomes the heir to the estate, their boss!
So, says Paul, as long as we don't know who we are, don't know our true identity, all the devils in hell can torment us and boss us around; but when you are ready to believe that "in Christ" you are adopted as a son or daughter and you are indeed the lord of the estate, your spiritual or psychological servitude is at an end. "Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But ..." we have been redeemed, we have received the adoption as sons and daughters, and God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.
Please read Galatians 4:1-7. Believe it and tell the devil and all his evil angels, "Begone!"
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 14, 1997.
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