When my daughters were little, they loved watching Cinderella. We had other options for them to watch, but the story was captivating to them. Truth be told, it’s captivating to adults too. Unique to America is a love for rags to riches stories. But Cinderella isn’t the first of these stories. Nor the greatest.
The starting point for this great transition story is slavery. It’s harder to imagine a worse start than this, for the slavery of sin is not just on the outside – like with chains. But on the inside. It’s as if the slave is deluded into enjoying their slavery, desiring further abuse, deeper imprisonment.
But thanks be to God for the miracle of salvation through Jesus Christ. Jesus went from glory to death so that you might go from slavery to glory. He who was perfect sacrificed Himself out of love for you who were decidedly imperfect! You who were slaves to sin have been set free!
But now what? For someone who has been a slave his entire life, freedom is exciting, and yet daunting. This freedom in Christ takes you in two equally amazing directions.
The first direction is that from being a slave you become a child of God. Paul writes of this in Galatians 4:7, “Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”
God does not have any step-children. When God adopts you into His family, there is no step-hyphen. There is no halfway status. You are a full fledge member of God’s family. You are a child of God! Now, the God of the universe, the God who is merciful and gracious and loving has committed Himself entirely to you. And He will never, ever disown you. Your heavenly Father is faithful and will never fail you. He cares for you. He protects you. He forgives you. He teaches you how to live in freedom, as a child of God!