‘I am His’. Every believer in Jesus can say it, and with full assurance, ‘I am the Lord’s’. Humbly and astonishingly, we may also say that He is ours. To the Christian, God is not just the Lord, but my Lord. It is of this bond, by which we have become His, that I want to speak.
His by creative right
This is something that is true of all people. When David writes in Psalms 24 of the earth being the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it, his reference is to an ownership that is the Lord’s by creation. It was He who made the dust from which He afterwards made the first man. It was God who from this man then made the woman who became his wife. And it is He who has given life to all their innumerable offspring. David praises God because he is fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:14). People may balk at it and deny it, but we are all under the possession of another. God owns us and all we have, and it is because of the sin of our hearts that we refuse to acknowledge that, and keep living as if we belonged to no one but ourselves.
His by costly purchase
‘You are not your own’, says Paul to the believers in Corinth: ‘you were bought with a price’ (1 Cor. 6:19-20). And what a price! Christ gave His very life, in order that we, who were already His by creation, might become His in a new and special way. We are talking about redemption here. By virtue of our fall in Adam, we put ourselves into the hands of very wicked powers. We became slaves both to sin and Satan. But Christ shed His blood in order to free us from that slavery. We are now God’s possession by costly purchase, His ransomed people. And Paul lays it on the line, as far as what that is to mean to us: ‘Therefore, honor God with your body’ (1 Cor. 6:20)– a call to sexual purity.
His by covenant bond
In entering into covenant with people, God ever pledges Himself to be their God. The bond by which they may call Him their own is forged by covenant. So it was under the Old Covenant and so it still is under the New. ‘I will be their God’, He says in Jer. 31:33. But that is only one part of the promise. The other is that ‘they will be my people’ (Jer. 31:33) The bond is gloriously mutual. He is ours and we are His. What priceless blessings are ours by virtue of that bond! All of us know Him, from the least to the greatest. We now love and keep His law because He has written it on our hearts. Through Christ, He has wholly forgiven our sins. And He has placed in us His fear, so that we will not turn away from Him.
His by accepted commitment
Think what it means to come to Christ and believe in Him. There is so much more to it than the empty hand stretched out for salvation. To truly come to Christ is to commit ourselves unreservedly to Him, not only for eternal life, but also to be His loyal servants and subjects. He who is Lord is going to be our Lord from this day forward and forever. But will He accept us? Always! It is His own promise. No one who comes to Him will ever be driven away (John 6:37). We become His when we put our trust in Him. We are His by an accepted commitment.
So we are the Lord’s possession by a four-fold cord. He is not ashamed of His possession. Anything but! He prizes every one of us. He wouldn’t part with us for anything. He regards us as His inheritance and counts Himself rich in having us. He looks forward to us being with Him and will delight in us forever. Isn’t grace amazing?
— David Campbell