The Everlasting Covenant

What we Inherit from God

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” ³ Think how much is comprehended in the fact that we are heirs of God. We are heirs of God, because we are His children. Now that which a child first of all inherits from its father is the father himself—his features, his characteristics. The inheritance of the property, if there by any, is a secondary matter. Even so we, being in Christ children of God, are heirs of Himself, partakers of the Divine nature. Just as by our natural birth we inherit sin and weakness, so by the new birth we inherit righteousness and strength. The reception of the Spirit of God, the regenerating power, makes us the direct, immediate offspring of God. EVCO 65.4

How often we are inclined to bemoan our lot, as heirs of sin, or else to excuse our shortcomings on the ground that having been born with these evil tendencies, we cannot do otherwise, and are not responsible. But God has taken away all ground for any such excuse, and has at the same time removed all cause for mourning over our low birth, or of charging anything upon him. The new birth completely supersedes the old. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new; and all things are of God.” ¹ He who takes God for the portion of his inheritance, has a power working in him for righteousness, as much stronger than the power of inherited tendencies to evil, as our heavenly Father is greater than our earthly parents. EVCO 66.1