A true believer is raised above the common condition of the children of men, to the great blessing and privilege of spiritual sonship. The Almighty God is his Father. All men have God for their Father in respect of creation, but good men only have God for their Father in respect of adoption (John 1:12). This is a special privilege, a great and excellent prerogative. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God” (1 John 3:1). David judged it high preferment to be son-in-law to the king (1 Sam. 18:23). Observe, David did not say that it was high preferment to be king himself, but a son; not the king’s own or only begotten son, but to be his son-in-law; and that not to a pious king, but to wicked Saul; and that not in some vast kingdom, but the small kingdom of Judah. What honour and preferment then is it to be an adopted son to the King of saints, yea, to be a king as all God’s adopted sons are (Rev. 1:5). This is a principle of joy and comfort, and may encourage the godly in all their doubts and difficulties. If God be thy Father, why art thou so drooping and disconsolate, desponding and discomposed? May I not say to thee, as Jonadab to Amnon: “Why art thou, being the king’s son, so lean from day to day?” (2 Sam. 13:4). Lift up thy head, look God in the face, and in the language of faith call Him, Abba Father.
A true believer is installed in an everlasting inheritance. He is heir of a kingdom. He hath riches of graces here, and shall have riches of glory hereafter. Oh rich privilege! What are rich sinners, but well fed swine? For so the Scripture calls them (Amos 4:1; Ps. 22:12). They are rich in purse, but bare in grace. They have fat and full fed bodies, but their souls have lean, pale, and withered faces. Oh but the saints have true riches, inward riches. Outward riches are but cyphers, till the figure of grace be added. Wicked men must forsake their estates. Their estates will but go with them to the hole’s mouth, but the saints’ treasure passes through the gates of death. They carry their treasure, and their treasure carries them. The wicked man hath but one child heir, but all God’s children are heirs, “heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ” (Rom. 8:17). They are heirs to that good land, those glorious manners and mansions that are above. Here to give away a cottage, with an acre or two, is great liberality. Oh, but they have a kingdom that cannot be shaken, with all its appendants: a throne, a crown, etc. This they have by a right of inheritance. Hence they are called “heirs of salvation” (Heb. 1:14), “heirs of a kingdom” (James 2:5), and their estate is called, “the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col. 1:12). This is promised and granted to them because they are sons. This inheritance is a glorious inheritance; the glory of Solomon’s kingdom, when the queen of Sheba observed and admired it, was nothing compared to it. This is a large inheritance. Luther, in comparison, called all the Turkish empire but a crust that God casts to a dog. This whole world would make up but a small inheritance, but the saints are heirs of all things. They are heirs of heaven and earth too, heirs of God, and what more is there? This is an eternal inheritance, “to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away” (1 Pet. 1:4). All things here are perishing and fading in themselves, and are liable to spoil and devastation from others, but this inheritance endureth forever.
A true believer is installed in an everlasting inheritance. He is heir of a kingdom. He hath riches of graces here, and shall have riches of glory hereafter. Oh rich privilege! What are rich sinners, but well fed swine? For so the Scripture calls them (Amos 4:1; Ps. 22:12). They are rich in purse, but bare in grace. They have fat and full fed bodies, but their souls have lean, pale, and withered faces. Oh but the saints have true riches, inward riches. Outward riches are but cyphers, till the figure of grace be added. Wicked men must forsake their estates. Their estates will but go with them to the hole’s mouth, but the saints’ treasure passes through the gates of death. They carry their treasure, and their treasure carries them. The wicked man hath but one child heir, but all God’s children are heirs, “heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ” (Rom. 8:17). They are heirs to that good land, those glorious manners and mansions that are above. Here to give away a cottage, with an acre or two, is great liberality. Oh, but they have a kingdom that cannot be shaken, with all its appendants: a throne, a crown, etc. This they have by a right of inheritance. Hence they are called “heirs of salvation” (Heb. 1:14), “heirs of a kingdom” (James 2:5), and their estate is called, “the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col. 1:12). This is promised and granted to them because they are sons. This inheritance is a glorious inheritance; the glory of Solomon’s kingdom, when the queen of Sheba observed and admired it, was nothing compared to it. This is a large inheritance. Luther, in comparison, called all the Turkish empire but a crust that God casts to a dog. This whole world would make up but a small inheritance, but the saints are heirs of all things. They are heirs of heaven and earth too, heirs of God, and what more is there? This is an eternal inheritance, “to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away” (1 Pet. 1:4). All things here are perishing and fading in themselves, and are liable to spoil and devastation from others, but this inheritance endureth forever.
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