Heirs of God’s Grace

MEMORY SELECTION: “Ye are all the children of God by faith In Christ Jesus.” —Galatians 3:26

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Galatians 3:23 through 4:7

THE Apostle Paul, in Romans 8:16,17 states, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

This text expresses the unfathomable magnitude of God’s grace or unmerited favor extended toward his chosen people. This favor was directed exclusively to the natural seed of Abraham for the three and a half years of our Lord’s ministry and then for an additional three and a half years after his death to fulfill the prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 (see also Matt. 15:24; 10:5,6).

Because of unfaithfulness, the natural seed of Abraham was cast off as a nation (Matt. 23:38,39) with respect to the promise, and the Gentiles were grafted in.—Rom. 11; Acts 13:46

The Apostle Paul in Galatians the third chapter associates the gift of heirship with the promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis 22:15-18. The essence of this promise is reiterated by the apostle and defined as the Gospel: “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” (Gal. 3:8) The original promise to Abraham recorded in Genesis 22 states that “in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,” and the apostle in verse 16 of Galatians 3 identifies the seed, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy Seed, which is Christ.” Christ is the English translation of the Greek word “Christos,” which means Anointed, or Messiah. The Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 12:12 explains, “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ [Messiah].”

And so in our text, Galatians 3:26-29, the apostle further identifies the seed of promise, or heirs, as the footstep followers of Jesus during the Gospel Age: “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. … And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

There are conditions, however, that must be met before anyone can become an heir of God. Our text just quoted states, “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” The baptism spoken of here is the real baptism elucidated by the Apostle Paul in Romans the sixth chapter, that is, of being baptized into Christ’s death. When James and John asked of Jesus to have a special place in the kingdom, he asked them, “Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? And be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”—Mark 10:38

Jesus was here emphasizing the fact that if James and John were to have a place in the kingdom and be heirs, it would be necessary for them to consecrate their lives even unto death—walking in the same pathway of self-denial, sacrifice, suffering, and death. Those who are walking in this pathway have “put on Christ”; that is, they are counted as part of the Anointed, and are prospective heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ if so be they are faithful in their covenant of sacrifice.

Jesus expanded his lesson to the disciples and to James and John—who were all now having a controversy over a special place in the kingdom; Jesus said, “Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”—Mark 10:42-45

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