You Can Have a Whole New Heritage in Christ

2 Cor 5:17 July 28, 1993

For a generation or so there has been a big move among ethnic groups and minorities to get back to their “roots”. The black community, for instance, looking back to its African culture and ancestry, are adamant about being called African Americans. In an ever increasing, fast-paced world where people feel they are getting lost in a blitz of conformity, people cling to ethnic pride for identity and security. We look into our family trees hoping to pluck out some famous personality or an example of a sterling individual that we can associate ourselves with, and say, “This is in my blood, this is what I’m like, this is who I am.” But for the born-again Christian, truly converted and made a new creature in Christ, this should all change.

We are given a whole new family heritage. Our roots can be found in the Bible. Our forefathers are men like Abraham, David, Daniel, Peter and Paul. The Bible tells us “Therefore if any man be in Christ; he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Cor. 5:17 The most precious of these new things is a new heart, or spirit. We become, and in all actuality, are a totally new creation, a new creature. That is why the term ‘born-again’ is most appropriate. With our new birth we also get new roots, a new lineage for we become a true member of the family of God. It is a grave misconception fostered by humanism in the Church that says we are all the family of God. The Bible says that when we are born-again it amounts to an adoption of that person by God the Father. Our family tree instantly changes. Old things pass away, the Scripture says; all things are become new. Our genealogy in the spirit changes from Afro-American, Scottish, Irish, Italian, Indian or Japanese, to the genealogy of our brother and Savior, Jesus Christ. We are of the family and household of God now. Therefore our “roots” are in God, in Christ the Savior. Our family history, our family tree is laid out before us in the Bible.

This is not supposition, theological gymnastics, speculation, or presumption. A man I know once had a dream where God showed him the genealogy in Matthew which ends with Jesus, the Son of God. The voice of the Lord said to him, “Now you can put your name right next to His in that genealogy. You are of the family of God”.

We should get excited about the Bible once we see it as the history of our family – this is our family tree now. In it there is an abundance of ‘aunts’, ‘uncles’, parents and grandparents of faith so we may be able to see true faith. They stand as shining examples for those who wish to live exemplary spiritual lives by faith. They are representative of that encouragement of excellence which we all long to find as a bright light in our past through our ancestry. The excellency of our ancestry, or lack thereof, never can produce the proper inspiration to live godly lives, unless we find that they had lived the exemplary life. But God’s record of our faithful ‘relatives of the spirit’ can inspire us, because they testify to the reality and possibility of living by extraordinary faith. The Bible calls them a “cloud of witnesses”.

Even in the flesh we are all descendants of Adam and Noah. We were all “in the same boat” in a manner of speaking. We are all related by Noah. But, when born-again, the Ethiopian, the Hindi, the Native American, become one in the family of the circumcised in heart. Now we are the children of Abraham in truth and he is the ‘father of faith’. If we are Jesus’ brother, then we are also of His lineage. The New Testament (the new deal or new covenant) begins with this verse, “These are the generations of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Matt 1:1 A Jew is not, as it says in Romans 2:28-29, one who is outwardly a Jew, but one on the inside. We are all of Abraham’s seed. “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”

Look to the Bible as your source. This is where we find the roots and heritage of our new life which is in Christ. Your family tree can be found within the pages of the Bible. You can place your name in its tree. For if you are truly born of the spirit and are now a child of God, then the Bible contains your true and spiritual roots.