It never fails to amaze me how we can read the same Scriptures over and over again, and yet, suddenly see some truth light up as if we had never seen it before. Such was my experience recently as I was reading Paul’s book of Romans.

Romans speaks to us of many important doctrines—from the foundational "justification by faith," to the irrevocable call of the Jews as God's chosen people—Romans is arguably the Bible's key book for understanding Christian theology.

Then a few mornings ago, some verses leapt out at me from the page such that it almost seemed I hadn't ever even seen them before (of course I had, but this particular morning they lit up to me for the first time as a "rhema" word). They were the verses in Romans 8 on sonship and heirship.

I had always thought of the key verse on Christians being heirs to the promises God made to Abraham as Galatians 3:29 (NIV)—"If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise." And as I have written many times before, as "marketplace ministers," the key promise to which we are heirs is God’s promise in Genesis 12:2 and 3 (NIV)—"I will bless you … and you will BE a blessing … and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

As we work and use God’s biblical economic principles, we will be blessed—it is a promise—but only if we use our wealth and success to bless others. As long as we keep the blessing flowing through us and not use it for our own selfish purposes.

Inherited Blessings

The verses in Romans 8 that lit up to me were 9, 14-17 (NIV)—“You … are controlled … by the Spirit, if the Spirit lives in you … those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God … You received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ.”

For me, what an amazing revelation it was that morning—and as I started to meditate on the theme of heirship, and just the magnitude of what we have inherited as faith-partners with Abraham, new vistas of possibility opened up before me.

I have always been convicted strongly by the admonitions in John in relation to fruitfulness—how God prunes us (tests and refines us) to make us more fruitful, so that we can bear “much fruit.” Jesus said, “This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.” We show ourselves to be true disciples of Jesus by bearing “much fruit,” and He goes on to tell us that he chose us and ordained us to go and bear fruit—fruit with eternal consequences, “fruit that will last” (John 15:1-16, NIV).

Now it suddenly hit me that one of the key benefits of heirship was fruitfulness—God told Abraham in Genesis 17:4-6 that he would be a father of a multitude of nations, and that he would be “exceedingly fruitful.” As if to dramatize that the promise of fruitfulness was generational, fruitfulness and multiplication became fundamental principles for both Abraham’s son Isaac and his grandson Jacob ( Israel):

• “Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him. The man became rich and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy … The Lord appeared to him and said: “I am the God of your father Abraham … I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of My servant Abraham.” (Gen. 26:12-13, 24, NIV)
  
  
• “God said to him: ‘Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel’ … And God said to him: ‘I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number … a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body.” (Gen. 35: 10-11, NIV).

So we can see God’s promises of fruitfulness and multiplication (Indeed, the first command he gave mankind was in Genesis 1:28) came down through the generations, and we can see it in Joseph and his son Ephraim (“Double fruitfulness”) and by faith ultimately to us as co-heirs with Christ. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, in effect, that if we trust and obey Him as God Almighty, we also will be fruitful and multiply.

Heirs By Faith

If we are redeemed by Christ and walking in faith, then we are indeed the true children, “Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:28-29). As Christians working in the marketplace, we can confidently expect these promises of fruitfulness and multiplication to manifest in prosperity and success, balanced as always with holiness and integrity.

John Piper, Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, puts it well in an article entitled “I am God Almighty, Be Fruitful and Multiply—God’s Purpose for Jacob and Bethlehem” in February 1996. He wrote: “The promise that the patriarchs would be fruitful with a ‘multitude of nations’ is fulfilled in the gentiles inheriting the promises of Abraham through faith … Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6). Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

“The key here is that faith, not Jewishness, makes you a true offspring of Abraham (and Jacob). So how is it that Abraham and Jacob become fruitful and multiply with a ‘multitude of nations’? The answer is that they are fruitful and multiply when Christians witness to the Gospel, and win unbelievers to faith in Christ. Every gentile and every Jew who puts faith in Christ becomes a ‘child of Abraham’ and an heir of the promises.

“Therefore, when God says to Jacob, ‘I am God Almighty; be fruitful and multiply,’ He includes in His meaning, ‘Let multitudes of Jews and gentiles in all generations be saved through faith in Christ, and so become heirs of the promises of God.’

“Which means that these words belong to us … We are children of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, because we have believed on the Messiah, Jesus Christ. So now we are in the great covenant line of this promise: I AM GOD ALMIGHTY; BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY.”