What Does It Mean to Be an Heir of God?

In 1995, a man named Hank McNeil discovered something that left him absolutely dumbfounded. He was born into a wealthy family, the son of the founder of McNeil Laboratories, the company that created Tylenol. In 1959 his father had established a trust with $1 million that grew to become worth around $300 million. For decades (36 years to be exact), this trust was available to Hank, but there was one problem: he wasn’t aware it belonged to him! It wasn’t until Hank hired an attorney that he finally reviewed the trusts that he had previously been informed he wasn’t able to see that he realized he was a beneficiary following his mothers death. After taking legal action, the court ruled that the trustees had failed to inform him, and Hank finally received the inheritance that had rightfully belonged to him all along

As I think about that story, I can’t help but wonder: How many Christians are doing the very same thing spiritually?

Too many believers live without knowing the inheritance that already belongs to them as sons and daughters of God. Some believe God is withholding His promises because of their past mistakes. Others think they need to become more mature before they can receive what God has for them. Still others simply don’t realize that everything the Father has has already been given to them through Christ.

Just as Hank was not aware of his inheritance from his father and never read the will, many Christians never discover their Heavenly Father’s will. God’s will has been revealed through His Word. The Bible is more than a collection of stories or commands, it is the written declaration of our Father’s will for us, not just one day in Heaven, but now on Earth! As we read it, we discover who we are in Christ, what He has accomplished through the cross, and the incredible inheritance that already belongs to us.

This inheritence in made possible only by the salvific work of Christ on the cross. Throughout our series in Galatians, we’ve been exploring one central truth: salvation comes by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone not by our works.

Grace is God’s loving pursuit of us. Before we ever reached for Him, He reached for us.

Faith is simply our response to His invitation. It isn’t something we earn; it’s receiving what God freely offers.

Christ is the reason any of this is possible. Jesus fulfilled the law we could never keep, took the curse we deserved upon Himself. Now when God sees us, he no longer sees us in our sinful state, but clothed with Christs righteousness (Galatians 3:27).

Paul wrote Galatians because false teachers had convinced believers that faith in Jesus wasn’t enough. They taught that Christians also needed to keep parts of the Jewish law (particularly circumcision) to truly belong to God.
Paul was heartbroken because adding works to salvation doesn’t honour the cross, it diminishes it.

Imagine carrying a one-million-dollar mortgage that keeps you awake every night. Then one day, someone pays the entire debt for you. You respond by saying, “Thank you! I’d like to contribute five dollars so we can say we both paid it.”

Would that honour the person who paid your debt?

Of course not.
Your five dollars add nothing to the million already paid.

In the same way, Paul is saying that when we try to earn God’s acceptance through our own efforts, we’re unintentionally saying Christ’s sacrifice wasn’t enough.

Yet if we’re honest, many of us still live like this, in part because of how much “work to get” in infused through our culture.
Our culture teaches us that everything valuable must be earned.

Want a promotion? Work harder.
Want a healthy marriage? Work harder.
Want to be an all-star athelete? Work harder.
Want to become successful? Work harder.

Before long, we begin relating to God the same way. We start to assume His love must also be earned. Paul lovingly reminds us that Christianity isn’t a performance-based religion; it’s a relationship made possible by faith in Christ.

So if faith is how God wants us to operate, what was the purpose of the law in the first place?

Paul answers that in Galatians 3:15-29. He says the law was given to show people their sin (Galatians 3:19). Pastor Dave illustrated this beautifully by comparing the law to an X-ray. An X-ray can reveal a broken arm, but no amount of X-rays can heal it. Likewise, God’s law reveals our sin, but it cannot save us from it.

Paul also says the law acted as a guardian until Christ came (Galatians 3:24-25). In the Roman world, a guardian was someone entrusted with raising a child until adulthood. The guardian instructed, corrected, and protected the child until they were mature.

The law served a similar purpose. It revealed God’s holiness, exposed humanity’s need for a Savior, and pointed people toward Jesus.

But then something amazing happened: Christ finally arrived.

He fulfilled everything the law anticipated and introduced something the law could never produce – new life that begins by faith!

Before Christ, Paul would explain that Jews were “servants to the law” (v. 4:5), and Gentiles were “servants to gods that did not even exist” (v 4.8). Both groups were essentially enslaved.

But through Jesus, something astonishing happened.
God didn’t simply rescue us from slavery.
He adopted us into His family.

Paul writes: “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith… If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:26,29)

This changes everything.
When we say “yes” to Jesus, we don’t merely receive forgiveness and eternal life (Praise Jesus we do!).

We receive a new identity.
We become sons and daughters of God.
We become heirs.

But if we never understand what that means, we can spend our entire Christian lives spiritually poor while possessing unimaginable riches.
Many Christians still live like servants instead of sons and daughters.

A servant says:

• I have to earn God’s favour.
• I obey because I’m afraid.
• If I fail, God will reject me.
• God is too distant for me to approach.

But a son or daughter says:

• God’s love isn’t based on my performance.
• I obey because I trust my Father.
• My failures don’t erase His love.
• I can boldly come into His presence because I belong there.

Jesus paints this picture beautifully in the story of the prodigal son.

After wasting his inheritance on sinful living, the younger son planned to return home asking only to become one of his father’s servants.

But before he could finish his speech, his father ran toward him.

He embraced him.
He kissed him.
He clothed him with the finest robe.
He placed a ring on his finger.
He threw a celebration.

The son came home expecting servanthood, yet the father welcomed and embraced him as family.
That is exactly how God receives every believer.
Not as hired workers trying to earn His approval, but as beloved sons and daughters returning home.

And being sons and daughters means something incredible. It means we are heirs!
Just as earthly inheritances aren’t earned but received simply because we belong to a family, our heavenly inheritance comes because we belong to God’s family through Christ.

An earthly inheritance becomes official through a signed will.

Our heavenly inheritance has been signed and sealed by the Holy Spirit. Paul calls the Holy Spirit “the guarantee of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:13-14).

God didn’t merely promise us something for the future.
He placed His own Spirit inside us as the guarantee that everything He promised belongs to us.
The Spirit even teaches us to call God “Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:6) a deeply personal expression, much like saying “Dad.”

So what exactly is included in our inheritance?
If you’ve ever been part of reading a loved one’s will, you know how carefully every word is examined.
How much more should we study the will our Heavenly Father has given us?

More than four hundred years before the law, God promised Abraham that through his offspring all nations would be blessed.

Abraham believed God’s promise, and God counted his faith as righteousness.
Now, because we belong to Christ, that same promise belongs to us.
Paul says we are co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).

Think about that.

Everything Jesus purchased through His death and resurrection becomes our inheritance.

Forgiveness.
Grace.
Adoption.
Peace.
Joy.
Freedom.
Purpose.
Eternal life.
The presence of the Holy Spirit.

Every promise God has spoken to His children is available because we belong to Christ.
This is why reading Scripture matters so much. We aren’t reading simply to check off a spiritual discipline-We’re reading to discover what our Father has already given us.

Imagine receiving news tomorrow that a wealthy relative had left you an inheritance.
How quickly would you open the will?

Yet many believers have something infinitely greater waiting for them every single day.
Don’t spend your life striving for what Jesus has already accomplished.

Open your Bible with the new lens of better understanding your inheritance in Christ. When the enemy throws lies your way that seems to contradict what belongs to you a child of God, we can go back to the Word to stand firm and unshaken in what is already ours in Christ. Begin living not like a servant trying to earn God’s love, but like the son or daughter He has already declared you to be!