Every parent knows both the power and danger of making a promise to one’s child. When we give our child a pledge that a certain event will happen, he rests assured that it will. A parent’s promise means a great deal. On the other hand, making any promise to one’s child is always risky: for if we end up breaking the promise, so too the child’s trust in us will break.
Unbreakable Promises
God’s promises, however, never fail. By virtue of his nature as Truth itself, God cannot fail on His word. Thus, when we read in today’s passage from St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians that we are “heirs to the promise,” we know that we rest on bedrock. Whatever that promise is, we can claim it with confidence.
Tracing back to the roots of salvation history, we recall that God bestowed his blessing upon Abraham and his offspring through faith. This gift was to flow outward to all the nations as a heritage drawn not from the law or lineage, but precisely through faith.
From the Law to Faith
What is striking is that St. Paul speaks of a divine discipline by which the law kept the Jewish people “in custody…confined until the coming revelation of faith.” Before the coming of Christ, the people remained in bondage to sin, which the law could only work upon by restraint, in the way a cage might keep an animal at bay. It was the beginning of divine tutelage, but not the realization.
In this light, we discern a passage or exodus out of the discipline of law to the new life promised through faith. Faith in Christ would be the gateway. Thus, St. Paul exhorts the Galatians to “clothe yourself with Christ Jesus.” The promise of blessing, of covenant relationship with the Lord God, was no longer simply for those under the law, but now unleashed to all who follow Christ.
A Heritage for All
Such opening up of the promise of God to all believers is a gift well worth pondering. For me, as one who comes to the faith from a non-Christian upbringing, I am keenly aware that I have been brought into a heritage which was not originally mine. Salvation history now belongs to me as my own story, through my faith in Christ. The heritage which was initially given to the Jews now spills forth generously to all believers.
It is no small thing to pass from a life devoid of legacy or promise, to a new life blessed by sonship with God, now graced with the story of salvation. We are all now “heirs of the promise.” Let us remember this heritage today in prayer: for God offers his promise to all nations through all ages, and his promises never fail.
