In Acts 17:29, we are told, "We are God's children." In John 1:12, we get some nuance to this passage: "Some accepted Christ and put their faith in Him. So, he gave them the right to be the children of God." Likewise, in Galatians 4:4-5, the Apostle Paul informs us: "God sent forth his Son…to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." In other words, while God created us and considers us His children, we come here to this earth and are spiritually estranged from the Father because of our sins. Jesus has made it possible for us to be "adopted" back into God's family, and to be the inheritors of the promises God made to Abraham and all who descend from him.

Early, in the fifth century, Saint Jerome explained: "Whenever our Lord Jesus Christ is called 'Abraham's offspring,' this must be understood in the bodily sense of [He being] from the stock of Abraham. But when it is applies to us who, receiving the Savior's word, believe in Him and assume the dignity of Abraham's race, to whom the promise was made, then we should understand the offspring spiritually, as that of faith and [belief]."

Our verse for today reminds us that God made great promises to the Patriarch Abraham. One of those remarkable guarantees was that he and his posterity would inherit the "promised land"-not Canaan (or Israel), but heaven, which is the ultimate "promised land." Because Christ was a literal descendant of Abraham, and because Jesus perfectly kept God's law, He is an inheritor of all the promises of God to Abrahm, Isaac, and Jacob. If you and I accept Christ, seek to live holy lives, and learn to love Him over and above this world, then we will "belong to Christ"-we will be "adopted" back into the family of God-and we will inherit all "God has promised Abraham" and his descendants, including eternal life in the presence of God. What greater gift could there be?