“So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father’” Romans 8:15 (NLT). Slaves are held by fear of punishment. We no longer look at God as His fearful slaves. He has been revealed in Jesus as a God of love. The ruthless God who is out to get us does not exist. That fake mask is gone from the God of tyranny. We are now Abba’s child. We are family heirs. “So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God” Galatians 4:7 (NRSV).
Father, in times past, because we could not see You, we put masks on You. So many of them discredited who You are and impugned Your character. Now at last You have given us an exact representation of Your nature in Your Son. In Him You have broken our slavery and made us family heirs with the Heir. (Hebrews 1:2-3)
