Photo by Vince Fleming on Unsplash

My grandson is also my brother

“But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” —Galatians 3:25–29

Last Sunday morning, I was privileged to watch my grandson announce his faith and be baptized. Sometimes it’s easy to recognize a moment in life that will easily become a special memory. I am proud of my grandkids often during the year, but I especially value the spiritual moments that have eternal value.

My relationship with my “grands” changes when they step into the Christian faith. I think I will always see them as my grandchildren this side of heaven. Spiritually, I now know that Merrick is also my “brother” as well as my grandson. But I can’t imagine thinking of him as a brother today. In Jesus, we are born again, which gives us a unique relationship with God and with everyone else in this world. 

Everyone on earth is either a member of your eternal family or they are not. It’s not something I think about as often as I should. What will it be like when every relationship is with a family member in heaven?

Heaven’s family

Paul was trying to teach the Galatians the truth that our faith in Jesus changes everything. Jesus was born to earth and sacrificed himself on the cross for everyone’s sins, and through faith, they were “born again.” He taught about our heavenly relationships, saying, “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:25–29).

Heaven’s family will not be defined by hierarchies of:

  • Race
  • Status or profession
  • Gender

Heaven’s family will be defined by:

  • Faith in Jesus Christ
  • Having the same Father as everyone else
  • Knowing we are all equally and perfectly loved

Jesus told us we were to think of our fellow Christians as our brothers and sisters in Christ. I have to believe that is just for our time on earth. I think in heaven we will simply think of everyone there as a beloved member of our family. Everyone will simply be another of God’s children. Everyone in heaven will be someone who is greatly loved by their Father, and everyone else there.

Paul’s family on earth

It’s difficult to know what kind of family relationships Paul experienced while living on earth. We know that he had a nephew, his sister’s son, who exposed the plot against him, thereby saving his life (Acts 23:16–22). Otherwise, the Bible never mentions his brothers, sisters, parents, or cousins. Some believe that because Paul was a Pharisee, he likely had a wife. Most Pharisees were married. If Paul did have a wife, did he also have children? The fact that we don’t know is not unusual. When Paul became a Christian, he would have been declared “dead” in his Jewish faith and therefore dead to his fellow Jews. If he had a wife and family who didn’t want to leave their Jewish faith, they would have been free of any legal ties to Paul.

Or Paul could have been a single man with no other close family ties. Maybe that is why Paul felt free to leave Jerusalem and hunt for Christians in Damascus. Maybe Paul didn’t feel what most fathers would feel if they were torn from their wives and children to be thrown in prison. Maybe Paul didn’t understand the horrors of his actions until later. Did Paul’s family relationships on earth impact his volatile relationships later?

Paul was single during his Christian life and ministry (1 Corinthians 7:8). That fact could have enabled him to be a missionary, entirely devoted to his calling. But Paul led a jailer to faith and then guided his entire family to faith in Christ. Paul saw women come to faith in Christ even when it threatened their relationships on earth. Paul led Timothy to faith even though Timothy’s father wasn’t in the picture. Paul saw families come to faith together, and he saw family relationships that were broken by the Christian faith. 

We can only guess about Paul’s family relationships on earth, but we know he understood and taught that our most important family was eternal. Paul wrote to the Galatians saying, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ’Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:6–7).

Paul saw his fellow Christians as his family on earth, maybe his only family on earth. He wanted Christians to understand what he knew about our eternal family. Paul taught that because of the Holy Spirit, we are a family of faith and God is our Father, our Dad. We will all inherit the promises of heaven and see everyone in heaven as our family for all eternity. We might be slaves on earth but we are joint heirs with Jesus in heaven. 

Can we live and think today like we will live and think eternally?

As I thought about the fact that my grandson is also my brother in Christ, I realized how difficult it is to actually comprehend heavenly relationships. I have not met most of the people who read my words every week through this article, yet each Christian reader is already a member of my family. 

How should that change the way I see the people around me? Should I just expect not to comprehend eternal realities? Or, should I live, think, and pray for people as who they will one day be in heaven, or soberly, think of them knowing that the only other eternal destiny is hell?

If we consider relationships from an eternal perspective, how would they change?

My grandson is also my brother in Christ. We will have an eternal relationship as fellow children of God, our Dad. Jesus provided that relationship to us through faith. I think Jesus would like us to consider people today from that eternal perspective.

Here is what I think about our eternal relationships. Paul wrote to the Ephesians with praise to God, saying, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20–21). 

Our relationships in heaven will be abundantly better than we could even ask for or imagine on earth. Until then, let’s work hard to experience heaven on earth as often as possible. Amen?

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

This Independence Day, choose dependence on Christ

“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” —2 Corinthians 5:14–15

I had never heard of the term semiquincentennial before this year. America will celebrate 250 years of Independence this year, our Semiquincentennial. There are many big celebrations, and I pray that Americans will be protected from those who may seek to harm or discourage our people and our values.

I’m looking forward to the day and all that it will bring. That said, I’m looking back as well, and those thoughts give a powerful perspective.

July 4, 1976

1976 was a big year for me. I graduated from high school in June of that year with more than seven hundred fellow seniors. The graduation ceremony was outdoors with red, white, and blue balloons. We were told to wear red, white, and blue clothing. The music represented our class and our country. When Steve Zerta crossed the stage, a huge roar went up from the crowd. He was a popular guy, but he was cheered for being the last name of the 700-plus students!

After graduation, we boarded buses to Disneyland’s “Grad Night” celebration. We stayed up all night at Disney and celebrated with other graduates from other California high schools. Mickey, Minnie, and the other characters were all wearing red, white, and blue costumes, and Winnie the Pooh sported a mortarboard. We drove home at daybreak, exhausted, excited, and thinking ahead. Every graduate knew that Grad Night was probably the last thing we would do as a group before we headed to various universities, jobs, and branches of the service.

July 4 was an important day for me spiritually as well. I grew up an “interdenominational” Christian. I’ve been Methodist, Presbyterian, Disciples of Christ, and then Baptist. I’ve been “sprinkled” once and “immersed” twice, which makes me the most-often baptized Christian I know.

The baptism I count as my own took place on Sunday, July 4, 1976. That was the day I stepped into the baptistry to tell God and others that I was a Christian. I remember it because of the day, but also because that was the day my baptism was between my Lord and me. I was baptized because I wanted to obey Jesus when he said, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15–16).

In many ways, my personal commitment to Jesus as my Lord began on July 4, 1976. I had already accepted Jesus as Savior, but I chose to be baptized that day because I knew I wanted to live in obedience to Christ as my Lord. For me, those two choices were separate and unique in my life. In many ways, I felt called to give up my independence that day in order to depend on Jesus as my King.

Later, when I wanted to join the Baptist church, the pastor told me I needed to be re-baptized. I told my parents that I didn’t want to do that, so the pastor asked me to come see him. I agreed to the meeting, and he explained that I had been baptized under a different theology and therefore needed to be rebaptized to join the church. We politely “argued,” and I finally agreed to be baptized with the understanding that my real baptism was July 4, 1976. My bicentennial baptism was a spiritual commitment for me. I just got wet that day in my second immersion.

When did you give up your independence?

It has been fifty years since I was baptized as a commitment to Jesus as my Lord. When did you choose to make Jesus your King? It’s easier to choose Jesus as Savior than Jesus as Lord. If we ask Jesus to be our King, we don’t get to sit on the throne of our lives. His Word is no longer a book of suggested guidelines or good ideas. The Bible becomes a manual of required values and behaviors. None of us will ever follow it perfectly, but if Jesus is King, we will try to place his control over our lives above our own independence. 

Can you remember a time when you asked Jesus to be your King? 

Fifty years later

I have thought a lot about this July 4, but for different reasons than most. How might my life have been different if I hadn’t stood in the baptistry that day and truly meant the words, “Jesus is my Lord”?

My dad came home a year later and said, “I’m accepting a job in Houston, TX.” I was nineteen years old and DID NOT want to move to Houston. But I did, and my entire future changed.

There have been a lot of major decisions in the past fifty years, and when I included Jesus in those choices, he was able to redirect, control, guide, and bless those days. I was a child of the seventies when independence often meant an escape from traditional values, traditional music, traditional haircuts, and traditional religion. Fifty years later, I see some of the long-term consequences of my generation’s choices.

We elevated independence at the expense of our submission to Christ as Lord. I wonder what our country would look like today if the value changes in the seventies had not occurred. California was a hot spot in the seventies, and I still remember the communes at the beaches and campgrounds that harbored drug users and “free-love” thinkers. My generation introduced much of the thinking that shapes today’s culture.

A semiquincentennial commitment

Will America have a tricentennial? Jesus could return in the next fifty years. I, and probably most of my readers, will not be here to find out. We will celebrate that July 4 in heaven, where time is not measured, and the things of this earth have “passed away.”

This year, I will remember July 4, 1976, and the commitment I made in church that day. I want to recommit my life to have the same passion for Jesus as my Lord that I felt that day. This Independence Day, I want to once again make the choice to sacrifice my independence for the sake of my dependence on Christ as my King.

Revelation 19:15–16 describes our King today: “From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”

Can you remember the day you gave up your independence and chose to make Jesus your King? If not, join me in making this July 4 a day you will remember for every day to come. Simply pray, “Jesus, thank you for being my Savior. Today, I choose to make you Lord of each moment to come.”

Happy “dependence” day!