September 12 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"...and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17).

Devotional

By a sovereign act of God's most free mercy, not only are redeemed sinners begotten by God as his children, not only have they become the heirs of an inheritance, but also they are made the heirs of God himself—"heirs of God." Not only are all things in the covenant theirs, but also the God of the covenant is theirs. This is their greatest mercy. "I am your portion and your inheritance" (Num. 18:20) are his words, addressed to all his spiritual Levites. Not only are they put in possession of all that God has—a boundless wealth—but also they are in present possession of all that God is—an infinite portion.

And what an immense truth this is, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people"! Take this truth out of the covenant of grace (if it were possible), and what remains? It is the chief wealth and the great glory of that covenant that God gives himself to be our God. This is what gives substance to its blessings. This is what gives security to its foundation. As long as faith can retain its hold upon the God of the covenant as our God, it can rest with perfect security in expectation of the full bestowment of all the rest. Here lies our vast, infinite, and incomputable wealth.

What constitutes the abject poverty of an ungodly man? His being without God in the world. O, my reader, whether you be rich or poor, high or low in this world—if you are without God, then you are undone to all eternity. It is but of trivial moment to the torments of the lost whether they passed through this world in rags and lowliness, or in luxury and pomp. Those torments will be your changeless inheritance if you live and die without God, and without Christ, and without hope.

But contrast this with the state of the poorest child of God. Not only is the universe his—"for all things are yours" (1 Cor. 3:21)—but also the God of the universe is his—"'The LORD is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in him'" (Lam. 3:24).

If you are a redeemed child of God, then you have a deathless interest in every perfection of the Divine nature. Is it wisdom? It counsels you. Is it power? It shields you. Is it love? It soothes you. Is it mercy? It upholds you. Is it truth? It sticks fast to you. "As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore" (Ps. 125:2).

What more can you ask than this? If God is yours, then you possess the substance and the security of every other blessing. He would bring you to an absolute trust in an absolute God. Winning you to an entire relinquishment of all expectation from any other source, he would allure you to his feet with the language of the church breathing from your lips—"Behold, we come to you, for you are the LORD our God. Truly the hills are a delusion, the commotion on the mountains. Truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel" (Jer. 3:22–23).

It is in the heart of our God to give you the chief and the best. If there had been a greater, a better, a sweeter, and a more satisfying portion than himself, then that portion would have been yours. But since there is not, nor can there be, a greater than he, then the love, the everlasting, changeless love that he bears to you constrains him to give himself to be your God, your portion, your all.

And have you not experienced him to be God all-sufficient? Have you ever found a want or a lack in him? May he not justly challenge you, and ask, "Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness?" (Jer. 2:31)? Oh no! God is all-sufficient, and no arid wilderness; you have not experienced him to be any dreary land. There is in him an all-sufficiency of love to comfort you; an all-sufficiency of strength to uphold you; an all-sufficiency of power to protect you; and all-sufficiency of good to satisfy you; an all-sufficiency of wisdom to guide you; an all-sufficiency of glory to reward you; and an all-sufficiency of bliss to make you happy here, and happy to all eternity.

Such is the inheritance to which, as children of God, we are the heirs.

In sweet communion, Lord, with thee
I constantly abide;
my hand thou holdest in thine own
to keep me near thy side.

Thy counsel through my earthly way
shall guide me and control,
and then to glory afterward
thou wilt receive my soul.

Whom have I, Lord, in heav'n but thee,
to whom my thoughts aspire?
and, having thee, on earth is nought
that I can yet desire.

Though flesh and heart should faint and fail,
the Lord will ever be
the strength and portion of my heart,
my God eternally.

To live apart from God is death,
'tis good his face to seek;
my refuge is the living God,
his praise I long to speak.

(Ps. 73:23–28, The Psalter, 1912)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2011.