Passage: Galatians 4:7
The Big Idea
You’re no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. So what’s the inheritance? What do I get for following the Lord? Not a guarantee that everything in my life gets fixed. Something far better: I get God Himself. He is my shield, my portion and my exceedingly great reward.
A Stolen Inheritance
Some years ago, news outlets reported on a decades-long legal battle in India. A maharaja, crowned as a toddler and wealthy beyond imagination, fell into deep depression in old age after his only son was killed in a car accident. After the maharaja died, a will surfaced leaving his entire fortune to a trust run by his former servants and palace officials. His daughters, the princesses, received a pittance: a few dollars a month. His wife, his mother and his eldest daughter were cut off completely.
The estate was legendary: a centuries-old fort, palaces, forests, a mansion in the heart of New Delhi, properties across several states, a stable of classic cars including a Rolls-Royce and a Bentley, a private aerodrome, and gold and jewels worth well over a hundred million dollars.
The daughters fought for decades. Finally, when they were elderly, an Indian court ruled the will had been forged, and they received their birthright: an estate worth billions.
Heirs of God (Galatians 4:7)
So you’re no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
- We were the slave. We were in bondage, under the Law, in jail.
- But now we’re sons. Heirs. And heirs receive an inheritance.
So what is our inheritance? What do I get for following the Lord?
What You Don’t Get
Do I get everything fixed in my life when I follow Jesus? Will I still follow Jesus if everything in my life doesn’t get better?
Sometimes the gospel gets presented as, “Jesus will make all your dreams come true,” or “Jesus will make all your problems disappear.” That message leads people to focus more on their problems than on Jesus Himself. They step into faith, but they stay at center stage.
And when circumstances go south, they’re unprepared. When something bad happens, it feels like all is lost. Many of us have had tear-filled conversations with friends asking why God would let bad things happen to people, to good people, even to His own people. When those questions go unanswered, some walk away from faith because they’re tired of waiting, or don’t trust God to show up. They go looking for a quicker solution, because what they really wanted was comfort and happiness. They were still the center of their own lives, not God.
What You Do Get: God Himself
After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, telling him not to be afraid, because God Himself was his shield and his exceedingly great reward (Genesis 15:1).
- God is our inheritance.
- God is our security, our shield against attacks we see and attacks we don’t. He’s got our back!
David said the Lord is his portion and his cup, and that He holds his lot secure (Psalm 16:5).
- Again, God Himself is the substance of the inheritance.
- There’s no thirst for another cup when He fills yours. It reminds me of Jesus on the last great day of the feast, inviting anyone who is thirsty to come to Him, and promising rivers of living water, the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39).
- Heaven won’t be boring. Life with God now isn’t boring.
- “He maintains my lot.” He keeps seeking me out when I stray. He maintains our relationship. My tendency is not to maintain things, just to let them slide. But God is always pressing me toward health and relationship.
- He cares about my future, my lot.
Asaph said his flesh and heart may fail, but God is the strength of his heart and his portion forever (Psalm 73:26).
- My relationship with God as a son doesn’t depend on how strong my heart or flesh are. You say, “I’ve lost heart.” That’s okay. “I’ve lost strength.” That’s okay too.
- My failures and weakness never make me less of a son. We’re sons by faith, not works.
Jeremiah contrasts lifeless idols made by metalworkers with the God of Jacob: the Portion of Jacob is not like them, for He is the Maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; the Lord of Hosts is His name (Jeremiah 10:16).
- Our Portion is the Maker of all things. So it doesn’t matter whether we get all things, because we get the One who made all things. Our inheritance is better than owning the whole world.
- “The Lord of Hosts” expresses God’s great power: every created force is under His command (Genesis 2:1; Isaiah 45:12).
- His great power secures our inheritance, not our weak power.
A Heart and a God Who Won’t Let Go
God promised a New Covenant in which He would put His law in our minds and write it on our hearts; He would be our God and we would be His people (Jeremiah 31:33).
- Part of our inheritance is receiving God’s mind and heart. Given to us.
He also promised to give His people one heart and one way, to make an everlasting covenant with them, never to turn away from doing them good, and to put reverence for Him in their hearts so they wouldn’t turn from Him. He said He would rejoice over them to do them good, with all His heart and all His soul (Jeremiah 32:38-41).
- We don’t get a wishy-washy God who isn’t sure He wants us. We get a God who relentlessly pursues us to bless us and do us good!
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him” (Lamentations 3:24).
- When we understand that the Lord is our inheritance, it produces hope.
- Not, “All I can do is hope God does something.”
- But, “I can’t stop hoping in God!”
All Things Are Yours
Paul tells the Corinthians not to boast in people, because all things are theirs: Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present and the future. All are theirs, and they are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s (1 Corinthians 3:21-23).
- We never look to people to give us our due, because we’re already far richer than they could ever touch.
- No one can give us anything that compares with our relationship with God.
God says we are the temple of the living God. He will live in us and walk among us; He will be our God and we will be His people. So come out and be separate, and He will welcome you. He will be a Father to you, and you will be His sons and daughters (2 Corinthians 6:16-18).
- Be less connected to the world, and less controlled by it.
- We are the temple, the house of God, the treasury where He stores His riches.
- He Himself lives in us. That’s the inheritance.
The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and God will be his God, and he will be His son (Revelation 21:7).
- Overcomers are those who trust Jesus. Heirs inherit all things, without end or measure. It’s going to blow our minds what we’ve inherited.
- And it should blow our minds what we’ve already been given today.
In the Doghouse?
Maybe you aren’t experiencing all this blessing right now. Maybe you feel less like a son and more like you’re in the doghouse.
Jesus told of a man with two sons (Luke 15:11-32). The younger demanded his share of the inheritance, left for a far country, and wasted it all in reckless living. When famine hit, he ended up feeding pigs and longing to eat their food. Finally he came to his senses and decided to go home and ask to be a hired servant. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him, was filled with compassion, ran to him, threw his arms around him and kissed him. Before the son could finish his speech, the father called for the best robe, a ring and sandals, and threw a feast: “This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!”
- God is in love with you.
- He wants you to be His son.
- He has provided everything for you to be His son.
- Just run into His arms and let Him kiss you!
An old saying puts it well: if we put off repentance another day, we have one more day to repent of, and one less day to repent in.
The older brother
The older brother was angry. He’d served faithfully for years and never got a party. In effect he said, “My performance has been better than his! Doesn’t that make me the better son?”
And the father’s answer, in effect: “You’re my son, but not because of your performance. Everything I have is yours.”
Oswald Chambers wrote that it isn’t repentance that saves us; repentance is the sign that we realize what God has done in Christ Jesus. The danger is putting the emphasis on the effect instead of the cause. Is it my obedience that puts me right with God? Never! I’m put right with God because, before anything else, Christ died. When I turn to God and accept by faith what He reveals, the atonement of Jesus instantly brings me into a right relationship with Him. By the miracle of grace I stand justified, not because of anything I’ve done, but because of what Jesus has done.
Open My Eyes
Do you understand the inheritance? The portion?
- Paul prays that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened to know the riches of His glorious inheritance (Ephesians 1:18).
- God invites us to call to Him, and He will show us great and hidden things we haven’t known (Jeremiah 33:3).
- The psalmist prays, “Open my eyes, that I may see wonderful things in Your law” (Psalm 119:18).
What do you get for following the Lord? Love. God Himself.
What don’t you get? Everything in your life fixed the way you want it.
Grace Takeaway
You’re not a slave but a son, and an heir of God. Your inheritance isn’t a problem-free life; it’s God Himself: your shield, your portion and your exceedingly great reward. No forged will can take it from you, and no failure can make you less of a son. Run into the Father’s arms, and let Him be your everything.