Common Ground – Part 2

Rich and poor have this in common:  The LORD is the Maker of them all. Proverbs 22: 2, NIV.

Holy Father, as we continue to study about the “common ground” that exists between the rich and the poor, we realize just how blessed we are to have a God who is “no respecter of persons.” Please bless our study today, in the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

Yesterday we ended on the premise that God is the Creator of rich and poor alike. He is “the Maker of [us] all.” We spent some time looking at the speech Paul made on Mar’s hill, that also points to several features that all human beings have in common. Today, we will re-visit that speech and continue to look at other common features that exist among people regardless of their social standing or financial status. We will continue where we left off yesterday:

” ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.” Paul is here declaring that all people everywhere have an inheritance in God. He refers to us as “His offspring!” God is our Father, by creation. But because He respects our decision to claim Him as our Father, or not, in order to enter the kingdom of God, we need to undergo a spiritual re-birth. “[We] must be born again!” Every person that comes into the world does it by means of a physical birth, that is, of the flesh – we have a human father and mother. Every person who enters the kingdom of God, does it by means of a spiritual birth – we accept God as our Father. We read in John 1: 12, 13, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” Emphasis provided.

Once Paul has established the fact that we all have a common blood-line (we studied about that yesterday), and a common beginning in God, he immediately starts teaching them spiritual truths, “Knowing this,” he says, “you can no longer represent God with ordinary things like metals, precious though they be; or stone, or anything of human origin” (My paraphrase). My friends, take note, that when we acknowledge our common ground as members of the family of God, it brings us to one of the greatest theological truths:  God is One (Deuteronomy 6: 4)! He defies our imagination! It is impossible for us to replicate God with earthly things – or anything, for that matter! That is why it was necessary for Jesus to come and represent the Father, because nothing earthly came even close, to giving us a picture of the Father! Note also, that in Christ, the differences that we as human beings have established, disappear! “You are all [children] of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3: 26-29)! The common blood-line began with the first Adam and ends with Christ – the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15: 45)!

“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all [people] everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” Paul continues to drive home spiritual truths as he speaks to these Greek intellectuals. Having told them what they were doing wrong, he now talks to them of repentance. Notice once again the all-inclusive language that he uses:  “all  [people] everywhere.” God expects people everywhere to repent and live in accordance with the light that they have received! The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, is the guarantee that one day, God will judge the world (everyone). In the judgment, there will be no distinction between rich and poor. In our dealings with each other, there should be no distinction either!

My friends, at the foot of the cross the ground is level. There is no difference between the poor and the rich in God’s original plan. It is we, who have established the differences in status. But thanks be to God, these differences made by humans have not affected God’s original plan. Therefore, all people, everywhere, are standing on common ground in the sight of God, who is “the Maker of [us] all.”