Heirs of God: from An Illustrated Summary of J.C. Ryle's Practical Religion

This is a chapter from J.C. Ryle's classic book Practical Religion.

HEIRS OF GOD

"As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together." Romans 8:14-17

The people of whom Paul speaks in those verses are the richest people on earth. The inheritance of these people is the only inheritance really worth having. All others are unsatisfying and disappointing by comparison. They bring with them many cares. They cannot cure an aching heart, lighten a heavy conscience, or keep away family troubles. They cannot prevent sickness, separations, and death. But there is no disappointment among the heirs of God. Their inheritance is the only one that can be kept forever because it is eternal. It is also the only inheritance that is within everyone's reach. Most people cannot obtain riches and greatness, though they work hard for them all their lives. But glory, honor, and eternal life are offered to every person freely who is willing to accept them on God's terms.

If you wish to have a portion of this inheritance, you must become one of God's children on earth if you desire to have glory in heaven. None but true Christians are the children of God. None but the children of God are heirs of God.

1. The relation of all true Christians to God: They are "sons of God." To be servants, disciples, soldiers, and friends of God are all excellent titles, but to be sons and daughters of God is a step higher still. As Jesus said, "A slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever" (John 8:35).  To be the child of wealthy and powerful parents is commonly reckoned a great temporal advantage and privilege. But to be a child of the King of kings and Lord of lords—to be a son or daughter of the High and Holy One who inhabits eternity—that is something far greater. Yet this is the exalted position of every true Christian.

How can sinful men and women like ourselves become sons and daughters of God? When do we enter into this glorious relationship? We were not born so when we came into this fallen world. No one has a natural right to look to God as his or her Father. The Book of Ephesians tells us plainly, "You were by nature children of wrath," just as all others are born (Ephesians 2:3). First John 3:10 states, "The children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God." Sin is hereditary and runs in the family of Adam. Grace is anything but hereditary, and holy men do not automatically have holy sons. How then and when does this mighty change come about?

We become sons and daughters of God when the Holy Spirit of God leads us to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation, and not before. Galatians 3:26 says, "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." What does the Gospel of John say? To as many as receive Christ, God gives the power and privilege to become children of God, specifically meaning "those who believe in His name" (John 1:12). Faith unites repentant sinners to the Son of God and makes them part of His forever family. The Bible also teaches that the children of God are chosen from eternity and predestined to adoption, but it is not until individuals are called in due time and believe that you and I can recognize they are sons and daughters of God. It is at that point when there is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10). 

Beware of the delusive notion that all men and women are alike children of God, whether they have faith in Christ or not. The sonship we have by creation belongs to stones, trees, animals, and even to the devil (Job 1:6), but it gives no one a title to heaven. God is full of love and compassion for all His creation, but He is also perfectly just and holy. That is why there is only one Mediator between God and man: the Man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). 

The Gospel sets an open door before every man and woman. Its promises are wide and full. Its invitations are earnest and tender. Its requirements are simple and clear: "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:9-10). Proud and worldly people are fooling themselves if they think they can  refuse God's terms yet dare to consider God their Father in any familial sense. 

Ask yourself consciously in God's sight whether you have repented of your sins and believed in Christ. If you have not, see and feel your sins and flee to Christ for salvation. Confess them before Him and He will faithfully and justly forgive your your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). You will be pardoned by God the Father and "accepted in the Beloved," who is Christ (Ephesians 1:6). Be forever thankful, saying, "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God" (1 John 3:1). How wonderful that holy God should set His affections on sinful men and women and admit them into His family! The people who can rightfully call God their Father and Christ their elder Brother need never be ashamed.

2. The special evidences of sonship: True Christians are "led by the Spirit." They have "the Spirit of adoption." They have the "witness of the Spirit." They "suffer with Christ." Those are the marks, signs, and tokens by which the true sons and daughters of God may be known.

A. True Christians are "led by the Spirit." Romans 8:14 declares, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." They are all under the leading and teaching of the Almighty. No longer do they follow their own ways and desires. The divine Person of the Holy Spirit guides their hearts, lives, and affections towards increasing holiness.

They are led away from sin, away from self-righteousness and worldliness. Those whom God adopts He teaches and trains. He makes them weary of their own ways and long for inward peace.

They are led to Christ, who leads them to the Bible, prayer, and holiness. That is the beaten path along which the Spirit makes them travel. Those whom God adopts He always sanctifies. He makes sin very bitter to them and holiness very sweet. The sons of God are a people led by the Spirit of God. Their experience will tally wonderfully when they compare notes in heaven. This is one mark of sonship.

B. True Christians have "the Spirit of adoption." They have the feelings of adopted children towards their Father in heaven. We are told, "You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father!'" (Romans 8:15). The sons of God are delivered from the slavish fear of God that sin produces in the unredeemed heart. They are redeemed from the same feeling of guilt that made Adam "hide himself in the trees of the Garden" and Cain "go out from the presence of the Lord" (Genesis 3:8; 4:16). They are no longer afraid of God's holiness, justice, and majesty. They no longer feel  the great barrier between themselves and God. Some of them have this feeling more vividly than others, but very few could be found who would not say that since they knew Christ, they have had very different feelings towards God than before. They feel as if something like the old Roman form of adoption had taken place between themselves and their Father in heaven, who said, "Will you be My son?" and heard in reply, "I will."

C. True Christians have "the witness of the Spirit." Romans 8:16 states, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." This lets them know deep down inside that there is a relationship between them and God. They know that for them old things are passed away and all things become new: guilt is gone, peace is restored, heaven's door is open, and hell's door is shut. It is a felt, positive, and reasonable hope. They have what Paul calls the seal, earnest, or down payment of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13). This witness of the Spirit embedded in the conscience is another mark of sonship.

D. True Christians "suffer with Christ." A final comment from Romans 8 on sonship is this: If we are children of God, that means we are "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified together" (Romans 8:17). All children of God have a cross to carry. They have trials, troubles, and afflictions to go through for the Gospel's sake from the world, the flesh, and the devil. They have trials of feeling from relatives and friends: hard words, treatment, and judgment. They have trials in the matter of character: slander, misrepresentation, mockery, and insinuation of false motives. They often have to choose whether they will please others and lose glory or gain glory and offend others. They have trials from their own hearts, their own home-devil, who is their worst foe.

Suffering is part of belonging to the Lord's family. "Whom the Lord loves, He chastens.... If you are without chastening, then you are illegitimate and not sons" (Hebrews 12:6-8). "We must through many tribulations enter the Kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12). Suffering is a part of the process by which the children of God are sanctified. The Captain of their salvation was "made perfect through suffering," and so are they (Hebrews 2:10; 12:10). 

Beware of a sonship without evidences. When a person has no leading of the Spirit, no spirit of adoption to tell of, no internal witness of the Spirit, and no cross in his or her experience, is that person really a son or daughter of God? Dare not to say so. On the other hand, embrace what evidence there is. Who made you love Christ and hate sin? Who made you long and labor to be holy? Where did those feelings come from? Not from the natural man or woman's heart. Cheer up and take courage. Press forward. Ask, seek, knock. That is how you will see that you number among the sons and daughters of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. The privileges of sonship: True Christians are "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." The text from Romans 8 that heads this chapter summarizes, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together." Being heirs means that something is prepared for all true Christians that has yet to be revealed. They are "heirs of God." To be heirs of the rich on earth is something. How much more then is it to be children and heirs of the King of kings! They are "joint heirs with Christ." They shall share in His majesty and take part in His glory. They will be glorified together with Him. 

God takes care to provide for all His children. None  are disinherited. None will be cut off. Each shall stand in his place and have a portion in the day when the Lord brings many sons to glory. Who can tell the full nature of what Colossians 1:12 describes as "the inheritance of the saints in light"? Language falls short. It is a true saying of the apostle John: "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). Some of the truths we know from 1 Peter and the Book of Revelation are that there will be no corruption, no fading, no withering, no devil, no curse of sin, no sorrow, no tears, no sickness, and no death. What bliss! These are positive realities for the heirs of God to derive strength from now:

A. Is knowledge pleasant to you now? Is the little you know of God, Christ, and the Bible precious to your soul, and do you long for more? We shall have it perfectly in glory. As Paul writes, "Now I know in part, but then shall I know just as I also am known" (1 Corinthians 13:12). Blessed be God, there will be no more disagreements among believers! All will at length see eye to eye. The former ignorance will have passed away. We shall marvel to find how childish and blind we have been.

B. Is holiness pleasant to you now? Do you long for entire conformity to Christ, to "be imitators of God, as beloved children" (Ephesians 5:1)? Is sin the burden and bitterness of your life? Take heart: "Christ gave Himself for the church," not only that He might sanctify it on earth, but also "that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27). Oh, the blessedness of an eternal goodbye to sin! No more tainting of our motives, thoughts, words, and actions.

C. Is rest pleasant to you now? Do you often feel "exhausted yet pursuing" (Judges 8:4)? Do you long for a world in which we need not always be watching and warring? We shall have it perfectly in glory, being assured that there remains a rest for the people of God (Hebrews 4:9). The daily, hourly conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil will come to an end. There shall be great calm and peace.

D. Is service pleasant to you now? Do you find it sweet to work for Christ, yet groan being burdened by a feeble body? The spirit is often willing, but the flesh is weak. Take comfort: you will be able to serve perfectly in glory and without weariness. Revelation 7:15 speaks of blissful service to God day and night before His throne.

E. Is satisfaction pleasant to you now? Do you find the world empty? Do you long for the filling up of every void place and gap in your heart and mind? You shall have it in heaven. No longer will you say with Solomon, "All is vanity and vexation of spirit!" (Ecclesiastes 1). Instead of saying, "I have seen a limit to all perfection" (Psalm 119:96), you will say to God with David, "I will see Your face in righteousness;  I will be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness" (Psalm 17:15).

F. Is communion with the saints pleasant to you now? Are you never so happy as when you are with what Psalm 16:3 well describes as the excellent of the earth? Are you ever so much at home as in their company? We will enjoy this happy communion forever in glory. Jesus tells us, "The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness.... And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matthew 13:41; 24:31). Praise God, we shall see all the saints whom we have read about in the Bible and in whose steps we have tried to walk! We shall enjoy the company of apostles, prophets, patriarchs, martyrs, reformers, missionaries, ministers, and so many others of whom the world was not worthy. We shall see the faces of those we have known and loved in Christ on earth over whose departure we shed bitter tears. We shall see them more bright and glorious than they ever were before. Best of all, we shall see them without hurry and anxiety, not feeling that we only meet to part again. In the coming glory there is no death, parting, or farewell.

G. Is communion with Christ pleasant to you now? Do you find His name precious to you? Do you feel your heart burn within you at the thought of His sacrificial love for His people? You shall have perfect communion with Him in heaven. When He returns for us, "we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:17). We shall be with Him in paradise (Luke 23:43). These eyes of ours will see His beloved face, the hands and feet pierced with nails, and regal head that was crowned with thorns. Where He is, there the sons and daughters of God will be. When He comes, they will come with Him. When He sits down in His glory, they shall sit down by His side.

If you are one of those who are sons and heirs, you may well rejoice. You may well wait, like the boy Patience in The Pilgrim's Progress: your best things are yet to come. You may well bear crosses without complaining: your light affliction is but for a moment (2 Corinthians 4:17). The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is yet to be revealed (Romans 8:18). When Christ, who is our life, appears,  we also shall appear with Him in glory (Colossians 3:4). Honor Him now by implicit obedience to all His commands and hearty love for all His children. Labor to travel through this world like a child of God and heir to glory. Let others be able to trace a family likeness between you and the One who adopted you.