Heirs To The Promise

"For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26).

The promise of God for salvation from our depraved and sinful life, from this world so filled with sin given to Adam and Eve, carried down through the ages that all men must come to faith to receive the promise of everlasting life in a world cleansed from sin.  We know little about the pre-flood age except they were not without the knowledge of God's requirements.  God judged them not on ignorance but on what they knew and did not do.  Noah gives proof of that fact, the fact that the pre-flood peoples knew how to worship God, what God demanded; "Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar" (Genesis 8:20). Noah did not devise this method on his own, he continued doing what he was doing from before the flood; giving thanks through sacrifices.  All the scriptures foretold of the "Seed" that would bring salvation, justification; therefore, the people of Israel were without excuse.  They looked for the coming Messiah, they had hope in life everlasting through the Messiah, as this was common knowledge among the Israelites; "Thou like a fury takest us out of this present life, but the King of the world shall raise us up, who have died for his laws, unto everlasting life" (2 Maccabees 7:9).  "And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, 'In you all the nations shall be blessed" (Galatians 3:8). 

If those before the incarnation of the Savior were guilty by not believing, having faith in the coming Messiah, how much more are we guilty who have the knowledge of Him who has come and satisfied all the requirements of the Father to bring to the world salvation for all who would believe?  "But the Scripture (The Old Testament) has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe" (Galatians 3:22). The two men on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:27) were taught from the Old Testament by Jesus that those Scriptures foretold of Him.  Christ has come, we can place our faith in Him, the testimony of His Word reveals to us the truth, the testimony of changed lives demonstrates the truth.  We are sons and daughters, heirs to all promise by God: "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29).

Being heirs, sons and daughters according to the promise, then, the question for all of us is: why are we not living as though we are?  So often the Word of God that gives us the promise in writing is watered down to fit our desires, our wants, our inclinations.  Yes, there are some things hard to understand and only by living faithfully to that which is clear can we grow in our knowledge, led by the Holy Spirit who will teach us all things.  If we cannot believe Sola Scriptura; then why live in partial truth?  Either the Bible is true in all it says, or it is not!  When we live not for Him but with Him that God becomes real in our life, we come to the place of understanding that we are truly Heirs To The Promise. 

Daily Prayer:

Father You have done it all, You sent Your Son to be the required payment for our debt of sin.  Jesus took our sins and bore them all the way to the cross. He is our perpetual Savior for all who come to Him in faith.  Thank you for the promise that I can be an heir, adopted into Your family and that relationship is life everlasting with You in a perfect world. Help me take this message to my love ones, my family, and friends, use me to bring to them Your Son, the Savior of the world.                                           Amen