May 16th | Colossians 1
Do You Qualify?
I heard a story about a grandmother who had a large inheritance. She had a couple of children and some grandchildren and wanted to leave them each part of her inheritance. However, she was displeased that her grandchildren weren’t learning cursive handwriting. Cursive is becoming a forgotten art form with the rise of computers and typing, so this grandmother wanted to ensure her children and grandchildren could write in cursive. She listed it out in her will, not typed but in cursive, to ensure they could read cursive handwriting. Also, she insisted that for her kids and grandkids to obtain their inheritance, they had to write a letter in cursive before the inheritance was theirs!
This is a funny story, but it shows us that in order to receive something in this life, we often have to qualify for the gift. We must show some type of quality or qualification showing that we deserve the gift in question. Sometimes, we can rejoice when we qualify, but other times, it stings when we fail to qualify. We haven’t met the mark.
We can all agree that we don’t qualify for eternal love and forgiveness in our spiritual lives. We don’t deserve God’s love because, more often than not, we have rejected His love, pursued our desires, and lived not for God but for ourselves. We don’t qualify. But in Colossians 1, we hear the beautiful words of Paul found in verse 12,
“giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”
We don’t qualify, but the Father has graciously qualified you! You haven’t met the mark to receive the inheritance, but in His abundant grace, He has given you the qualifications to be a saint and to share in the inheritance of eternity! How does He do this? Verse 13 says,
“13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection have secured our inheritance. Jesus qualified for the inheritance, and now he offers to forgive our sins, redeem our lives, and transfer us to His kingdom. Next, the next time you think you don’t qualify for God’s love, remember there has been a transfer! Jesus has transferred his qualifications to you so you might have an eternal inheritance. Praise God, we are qualified in Christ!
