BELIEVERS ARE HEIRS ACCORDING TO GOD’S PROMISE
July 16, 2006 - PENTECOST 6 - Galatians 3:22-29
* * * * * * * * * *
Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Friends in Christ:
Sometime during our lifetime we probably have received an inheritance. Maybe at this time in our lives we are looking at writing out our own will doling out those things that others might expect as their inheritance. Maybe we are still hopeful that we might have some inheritance that we don’t even know about. In any case an inheritance is something that many people often hope for. An inheritance can be very valuable according to the world, or it can be a very sentimental thing and not have much worldly value. In the end if anyone receives an inheritance, it means that they have gotten something that they probably did not deserve. In the least an inheritance means a person has gotten something that is more than what one had before.
Today, our text talks about the eternal inheritance that God has provided us. It is something that we have not deserved. It is an inheritance that we could not earn for ourselves. It is far greater than any inheritance we might receive on earth. Paul describes it in Titus when he says: "(God our Savior...saved us), so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:7). That is our inheritance. We have, as God’s inheritance yet to come and which is guaranteed already, the hope of eternal life. That is what gets us through these tough days here on earth. We look forward to the inheritance that is stored up for each one of us in heaven for eternity. We want to consider these words in Galatians with that thought as Paul says at the end:
BELIEVERS (WE) ARE HEIRS ACCORDING TO GOD’S PROMISE. This is an inheritance for us. We remind ourselves that:
I. The law makes sinners prisoners, and;
II. The Lord makes sinners children.
I. THE LAW MAKES SINNERS PRISONERS
Make no mistake that what Paul writes here is to emphasize the difference between the devastating effect of the law and the power of Christ through the Gospel. So he says in verse 23: "Before this faith came, we were held prisoners of the law, locked up until faith should be revealed." A very vivid picture, isn’t it? Paul says we were held as prisoners, put into jail and locked up and the key was thrown away because of God’s law. The law is not able to save anybody. Instead, the law locks up people as prisoners when it says to people, "You are a sinner, and you can’t save yourself. Do this and don’t do that." The law has the world locked up as prisoners.
That is how our text began, too, in verse 22: "But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin." There is no escape from it. Everyone is born into this world with sin as part of his or her inheritance. Adam and Eve sinned. Since that first sin, they passed on that sin to everyone. Scripture reminds us that we are not born into this world as neutral, and even though babies are born so cute and cuddly, but as enemies of God, sinful from the very beginning. They are prisoners of sin. Why is Paul emphasizing that? Well, remember the conflict that was going on. There was the preaching of the Gospel that Christ died for the sins of the world, and that is all that believers needed. They are saved by grace through faith. That was a radical change in the church. The leaders of the synagogue had always emphasized the law: "You have to keep and obey the law. You have to do something to save yourself." They were called Judaizers. They wanted to mix the law with the Gospel. Paul writes that the law keeps you as a prisoner. The law locks you up and throws away the key. The law cannot save. Salvation is only by faith. So he wanted them to understand that. Even though these false teachers came into the church after he had left, it didn’t change God’s message. The law made sinners prisoners.
In verse 24 it says: "The law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith." It almost sounds like the law can save. But the law doesn’t. The law drags down a person. Once a person is put into jail, they have lots of time to think. Once they are held as a prisoner, they sometimes see the error of their ways. That is the law. He says the law will beat a person down and remind them of their unworthiness, their wickedness, and their sinfulness until a person finally realizes there is no hope or help except Christ. That is the law, pure and simple; and it cannot save. That is what Paul wanted these believers to understand. When those who were coming and saying, "You have to believe, but you must also do something for salvation." That was wrong. Not much has changed from generation to generations, century to centuries. Today, we still stand with the same kind of teachings today. We still stand in a time when there are great big churches that would teach the same thing. Worst is, there are some who deny that sin is sin. We know that and we’ve heard it. In our day and age there are a lot of sins that have been swept under the rug, because everybody is doing it. There are a lot of sins that have been called diseases, and so now they have disappeared as sins. Sin is still sin. It still infects us and still can keep us as a prisoner locked up with the key thrown away, because there is no escaping. No one could lead a good enough life. No one can try hard enough to get into heaven. Some people think you can, but God says, "No. Be perfect because I am perfect." Of what does that remind us? The Psalm writer says, "Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one"(Psalm 53:3). All but Christ has sinned. All the world from the very beginning until the end of time has sinned. Maybe towards the end of time, sin might be a word that is erased from the dictionaries; but it still is a word that cannot be taken away from the Bible. It is something that can’t be taken out of us, because it is there.
We can be made prisoners of sin. If you get the opportunity visit anyone in prison. It takes them awhile, maybe years. But they finally realize they are there for a reason. They are there, because they rejected and rebelled against the laws of the land. In reality if they are in prison long enough, they realize, too, that God himself established the laws of the land. They have rejected and rebelled against God himself, and they are filled with sin. But it is Christ who can save them. This is a great struggle. We look at the Apostle Paul and have studied God’s writings through Paul in Galatians. We think that if there ever was a man deserving to get into heaven, Paul did. Paul also said the good that he would, that he does not; and the evil he would not, that he does. As a believer, he knew right from wrong; and he knew the path of righteousness and the power of God; but sometimes he gave in to his own sinful flesh. In Romans: "But I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members"(Romans 7:23). So even though Paul has been set free, he said sometimes the law made him a prisoner. Even though we have been set free, sometimes the law makes us a prisoner. The law reminds us of our guilt. We do not deserve to stand in front of God. The law reminds us of our sin and that we don’t deserve the blessed privilege of hearing God’s word. We could walk in utter darkness as the rest of this world does thinking we have everything we need in this life. By grace we are no longer in the dark. Some got up early on Sunday to mow their lawns before it gets too hot, then sit in cool of the house and think that is all there is. But by God’s grace he has given us faith to realize that even though we are filled with sin, we are also forgiven.
Isaiah describes it best by saying that we are not exempt. We are part of this world; and as long as we are on this side of heaven and haven’t been given our inheritance of eternal life or as long as we aren’t Jesus’ feet and see him face to face in heaven, we too suffer in the sinfulness of this world. Isaiah says: "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away"(Isaiah 64:6). We know how the wind can blow leaves and dirt from one place to another and back again. That describes our sins. Sometimes they take us to one place and then to another making us a prisoner, holding us in its grasp. But still the Lord makes us heirs of eternal life according to his promise.
God has promised and fulfills his promises, and you and I who are sinners from our very first moment of conception have been made his children. We are no longer utter prisoners of sin, but we are God’s children.
II. OUR GOD MAKES SINNERS CHILDREN
Here is what Paul wanted these believers to know and understand. Very clearly, he says: "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." By faith they were made God’s children. Time and again, we read the examples in Scripture of the importance of family and the sons in the family. Some would say today, "Shouldn’t it be sons and daughters?" This is not a sexist word. The word here used in the original is the very same that he used in John 3:16: "God so loved the world that he sent his Son." In verse 26 Scripture says, "You are all sons of God…" the very same word God used to described Jesus in John 3:16. Paul calls these believers as God’s very own sons through faith in Christ Jesus. He says: "For you who were baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ." When they were born, they were clothed with the nakedness of Adam and Eve in sin and wickedness and evil. But now by grace and faith, they were clothed with Christ Jesus through Baptism in righteousness, holiness, and even sinlessness because their sins were forgiven. God no longer saw their sins but saw the righteousness of Christ who covered them up, clothed with Christ. God made them his children. As our text says time and time again that it wasn’t their choice, their desire or their effort. but God’s choice.
All of this also means that the church is unified. The Lord only looks at the sinner as the sinner who is forgiven. Paul writes: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." The church had one thing in common--Christ was their Savior. Remember too, another conflict in the early church. You had the Jews on one side who say, "We have believed all our life. We have the Ten Commandments. We have been circumcised." Then the Gentiles were on the other side who said, "We believe that Jesus is our Savior." That is all they had. They didn’t know all the laws of God or weren’t circumcised as the Jews. There was also a conflict between those who were slaves and free. There was a conflict between men and women, just as there always have been and will be. They have different viewpoints and different understandings of things in this world and life. But now, Jesus said they were all one in Christ because of the cross of Christ. They were God’s children. What did that mean for them? This meant a number of things. If God loved them, it meant they had an inheritance. This divine adoption also meant they had been set free from the bondage of sin. Paul writes that in verse 25: "Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law." Their faith saves them. It wasn’t faith combined with the law. They had a saving faith that understood the law -- that the law was a guideline and they were given direction in life.
Now we come to the last verse in our text when it says: "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise." The New Testament times and the Old Testament times, the children expected an inheritance. The fact is they survived on the inheritance that their father would give them. If they didn’t have any inheritance, they had nothing. They didn’t have anything to save up, because all the children stayed at home and worked for the father and mother, for the benefit of the family. So when the father was gone, his possessions became theirs. There was a profound depth of meaning here for these believers when it says, "You are heirs according to the Lord’s promise and you are Abraham’s seed." Abraham was synonymous with faith and believers. Paul was putting those Gentiles, those who had been untouchable, unclean, rejected, now as part of Abraham’s family. The Jews were already there, but the Gentiles were brought back in. (They, of course, were distant relatives of the Jews to begin with from the tribe of Esau, the Edomites, and the Arabs.) They all were to inherit eternal life.
Today, you and I gather as Gentiles who for the longest time looking way back were outside of God’s kingdom. We could almost say even outside of God’s love. But God loves the whole world. Our ancestors in reality were the ones who led astray the Children of Israel in the Promised Land. When they came to the Promised Land and started worshipping false gods, it was our ancestors who did that. But by God’s grace he brings us into his kingdom and makes us his children. We are not prisoners to sin, to the law. We are now God’s children. 1 John says: "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him"(1 John 3:1). I don’t have to carry on this morning of how you know how much you love your children, of how you know how much your parents loved you. This family, earthly love hardly compares with the love God has for his children; you and me and believers throughout the entire world. We are God’s children all because of his great love and divine grace and mercy.
The example of Paul: He was not on his way to seek and find Christ. He was on his way to seek and find Christians to persecute and put into prison. God called and made him his child. We can’t come and say, "I have decided to believe;" but God says, "I made you my child." God does it with the most ordinary of means--the preaching of his Word. Faith comes by hearing. Then he continues with the most ordinary of means when he says to study his Word. He continues with the most extraordinary of means when he says, "And now you are made my child snatched from the grasp of Satan with the washing of the water with the Word--Baptism." Our faith, our inheritance, our growth in that family continues as the Lord’s Supper strengthens us. All because God has decided it for us before we were even born. From John 1: "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"(John 1:12,13). Salvation comes by the most supernatural means. God says we are born again of God by Spirit, by water, and by the Word. Our heavenly Father makes us his children.
If we were left to our choice and decision we would make ourselves followers of Satan. Being born with sin in our hearts and hatred towards God, we would never walk in the straight and narrow path into heaven. We would take the wide, broad road to destruction. But by God’s grace he saves us. That is amazing. Our reaction to all of this love of God is to constantly remind ourselves that we are God’s children and how much God loves us. It takes work and effort, doesn’t it? We suffer through these hot days of summer and sometimes wonder, but God still loves us. We suffer through a sickness or an ailment and sometimes wonder, but God still loves us. We are still God’s children. He has called us out of darkness into his light. It is not that much fun to not be here on a Sunday and think you are enjoying life but then realize there still is something missing. But there is great joy in knowing that Christ loves us. We are able to come here and hear that message of salvation that God has set us free. We are saved by grace through faith. We are his children never to be forgotten, forsaken or left behind but be taken into the inheritance that he has prepared for each one of us. We live our lives in God’s love: knowing that there is joy in the midst of adversity, knowing that there is rejoicing in the midst of sickness or trouble or knowing that God is in control of all things. Our reaction is to let people in this world know that we are God’s children. We let people know who might sit in darkness; there still is the light of the world that is Christ himself. In Philippians: "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe" (Philippians 2:14,15). In the next verse it says, "By holding out the Word of truth. Imagine that! Philippians was written hundreds of years before today. Paul looked around and described his day and age, "a crooked and depraved generation." He wanted these believers to stand up to their faith. Our generation is crooked and depraved today. He says you and I are to stand up for our faith as children of God, heirs according to the promise, Abraham’s seed.
The reality is in our Christian families we didn’t deserve them, did we? But God put us here with faithful parents so that we would learn about the inheritance of eternal life. The reality is we don’t belong in God’s family, but he makes us his children. We deserve to be like the rest of this world, locked up as a prisoner of sin and the law with the key thrown away, but Christ has come. Jesus Christ gave up his life so that he might destroy the power of Satan, that he would unlock the door to heaven so that we can enter freely anytime that he calls us home. Knowing all this we are thankful children. Colossians says that we are to live lives that are giving thanks: "Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves"(Colossians 1:12,13). Jesus, God’s own Son is our brother. God Jesus’ Father is our Father. Heaven, their home is our home, our inheritance. We are blessed as children of God. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:05am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM + www.kqnk.com
Pentecost 6 readings: LAMENTATIONS 3:22-33; 2 CORINTHIANS 8:1-9, 13,14; MARK 5:21-43
