Who am I?

https://odb.org/MY/2023/05/16/who-am-i-4

It’s the first time I have read of someone self declaring himself as the Emperor of the United States, as mentioned in today’s ODB posting. He was Joshua Abraham Norton. He printed his own currency, wore royal clothes made by local tailors, and even wrote to Queen Victoria of England to marry him so that their kingdoms may be united. People laughed at him, and because he didn’t have an army, he was not considered a threat to the government of the day. In Malaysia, we have also seen self-proclaimed Sultans attempting to trace their lineage to the Malacca Sultanate of old, but as we have more than nine royal houses in the nine Malay states, the government clamps down on such claims.

Unless we are born of royal blood like Prince Harry or William, we will never get to be royalty. We could, however, if we marry into a royal household like Meghan Markle did. But still, we are not considered as a full blooded royal, and although we may carry royal titles, we will not be part of the succession line. The ancestry is essential as it establishes our credentials as a royal, and even if we are not wealthy and do not exercise any royal functions, we are proud of our bloodline and heritage.

It is interesting that God uses the same approach for us as His spiritual children. Matthew began his book by tracing the geneology of Christ to David, the greatest King of Israel, and declared that He is of Son of David as well as the Son of Abraham. This means that as much as Jesus is the Son of God and was the Logos at the beginning, His birth on earth, although humble, is of royal human origins and ancestry. He is thus a king in His human bloodline and is also an Israelite, a Jew, being part of the many descendants promised by God in His Covenant with Abraham.

In John 1:10-13, John declared that He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognise Him. He came to that, which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who receive Him and 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.

In 1 Peter 2:9, Peter exalted that we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people. Likewise, Paul wrote in Romans 8:17 that if we are children, we are heirs – heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ.

No matter who we are born as, no matter how humble our beginnings, if we are in Christ, we have a spiritual heritage to King David and Father Abraham through Christ Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Even if we are a slave owned by another human like a chattel, we are nevertheless of the royal house of David through Christ.

So who am I? I think it is less important that we define ourselves than to allow God to define us. We are all children of God as we believe in Jesus Christ. Let our Heavenly Father shape and define us in accordance with His will that we may be the person whom He has always wanted us to be. Let us live in the glory of His presence, in the centre of His will, that our heritage in Him may always be protected and preserved for eternity.