The subject of this verse of the chapter is the Inheritance of the children of God.
I. The Inheritance belongs to the Children. II. The Inheritance is God.
III. It is a Joint-Inheritance with Christ.
IV. The condition of enjoying it is that we suffer with Christ.
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I.
The Inheritance belongs to the Children. " If children, then heirs."
1. It is children of God who are heirs of God. It is by union with Christ Jesus, the Son, to whom the inheritance belongs, that they who believe on His name receive power to become the sons of God, and with that power the possession of the inheritance.
2. "What, then, are the marks of sonship ?
(1) If we are sons of God, we shall know it partly by the indwelling of the Spirit, as Paul wrote to the Galatians, " Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father " ; and in the verse before our text we read, "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God."
(2) The children of God have another mark by which they can be recognized, namely, that there is a likeness in them to their Heavenly Father. If a man says to you, "I am the son of So-and-so," — some old friend of yours, — you look into his face to see whether you can trace any likeness to his father. So, when a man says, " I am a child of God," we have the right to expect that there shall be at least some trace of the character of God visible in his walk and conversation.
(3) But the chief evidence of our being children of God lies in our believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. " As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name : which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." There are many evidences of the life of God in the soul, but there is no other that is so abiding as the possession of faith in Jesus Christ.
^f It is not easy to imagine a more cautious, lawyer-like record than that of Lord Eldon : " I was born, I believe, on the 4th of June 1751." We may suppose that this hesitating statement refers to the date, and not to the fact, of his birth. Many, however, are just as uncertain about their spiritual birth. It
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is a grand thing to be able to say, "We have passed from death unto life," even though we may not be able to post a date to it.
3. The Inheritance belongs to all God's children. It does not always follow in human reckoning, " if children, then heirs," because in our families but one is the heir. There is but one that can claim the heir's rights, and the heir's title. It is not so in the family of God. Man, as a necessary piece of political policy, may give to the heir that which surely he can have no more real right to, in the sight of God, than the rest of the family — may give him all the inheritance, while his brethren, equally true-born, may go without ; but it is not so in the family of God. All God's children are heirs, however numerous the family, and he that shall be born of God last shall be as much His heir as he who was born first. Abel, the protomartyr, entering alone into heaven, shall not have a more secure title to the inheritance than he who, last of woman born, shall trust in Christ, and then ascend into His glory.
II.
The Inhekitance is God. " Heirs of God."
1. God Himself is His greatest gift. The loftiest blessing which we can receive is that we should be heirs, possessors of God. There is a sublime and wonderful mutual possession spoken of in Scripture : the Lord is the inheritance of Israel, and Israel is the inheritance of the Lord. "The Lord hath taken you to be to him a people of inheritance," says Moses : " Ye are a people for a possession," says Peter. And, on the other hand, "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance," says David: "Ye are the heirs of God," echoes Paul. On earth and in heaven the heritage of the children of the Lord is God Himself. He is in them to make them " partakers of the Divine nature," and for them in all His attributes and actions.
2. " Heirs of God " — can we enumerate some of the parts of our inheritance ?
(1) The children of God are heirs of God's Promises. If you
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turn to the 1st chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the 14th verse, you will find that we are there called "heirs of salvation." Looking on a little further in the same Epistle, in the 6th chapter, and the 17th verse, you will find that we are called "the heirs of promise." In his Epistle to Titus, the 3rd chapter, and the 7th verse, Paul calls us " heirs according to the hope of eternal life " ; while James says, in the 2nd chapter of his Epistle, at the 5th verse, that we are "heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him " ; and Peter says, in his First Epistle, the 3rd chapter, and 7th verse, that we are " heirs together of the grace of life."