September 03, 2025 | Be God's Family
The Inheritance and the Promise
Scripture: Galatians 3:15-20(NIV)
15 Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.
Devotional
In one of his sermons, C.H. Spurgeon told a story about two men in a boat caught in strong rapids. As they were being carried swiftly downstream toward dangerous rocks and falls, men on shore tried to save them by throwing out a rope. One man caught the rope and was saved; the other man, in the panic of the moment, grabbed a log that was floating alongside. It was a fatal mistake! The man who caught the rope was drawn to shore, but the man who clung to the log was carried downstream by the rapids … never to be found” (Anders, Max. Holman New Testament Commentary).
From his illustration, Spurgeon indicated the rope from shore represented salvation through faith in Jesus and the log was salvation by the Law. In today’s passage, we read that the Judaizers, Jewish believers, tried to combine their trust in the Law with salvation through faith in Jesus. They believed salvation was only for God’s chosen, the Jews, and those who claimed salvation through faith in Jesus also had to convert to Judaism. In contrast, Paul taught that the law’s purpose was never to save. It was just a tool that would expose our sin, our need for grace, and then lead us to Christ.
Earlier in this chapter, Paul told the Galatians that anyone who would rather have the law instead of freedom in Christ was foolish. These Jewish Christians talked about making Gentiles “sons of Abraham through the rite of circumcision” (Zondervan). However, he taught they were already Abraham’s sons and daughters—heirs—because they shared his faith (3:7). Since God had already accepted Abraham centuries before the law was given through Moses, how then could the law win people free pardon? The law was not perfect and could save no one. In the book of Romans, Paul teaches “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:23-24).
The promise to Abraham was made by God and mediated by God alone. It was not fulfilled in the Jewish race, but in Jesus Christ; and through Jesus people from every nation are blessed. “All those promises to Abraham are given to those who believe and have faith in Jesus Christ” (sharperiron.org/users/tylerr). “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). Salvation comes down to faith in Jesus alone.
Are you clinging to a “log” of tradition and legalism or the “rope” of salvation through faith in Christ alone?
Poem
Inheritance
Psalm 16
Lord, You alone are my inheritance, my Cup of blessing. You guard all that is mine.
Psalm 16: 5
A sad thing indeed is the fighting that’s caused
As once loving relationships end
Over scraps from this life, when a loved one does die
And great greed upon siblings descends
What is owed to the child? Not a penny, at all
For ‘tis up to the parent to give
As the parent decides, for the blessing bestowed
Is but left to each will to provide
I am blessed, for inheritance given to me
Is relationship, faithful and true
Not in things which succumb to fleas, molding or rust
But in mem’ries a lifetime imbued
You alone, Lord, my cup and inheritance
You alone, Lord, my portion will be
You alone, Lord, the bounty of eternal life
You alone, Lord, are all that I need
