“For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise” (Gal. 3:18).
The Greek words are “ik nomos” “of law,” not “ik tou nomos” “of the law,” signifying law in general rather than any particular law. Thus the inheritance, exactly as justification, is received altogether by faith, and not at all by the works or deeds of any law.
It cannot possibly be otherwise, because the inheritance is the first and grand object in the call of Abraham. For, first of all, God said to Abram: “Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee” (Gen. 12:1). And in this “he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance;” and when so called he “obeyed, and he went out not knowing whither he went” (Heb. 11:8).
And since this inheritance is altogether in the world to come, and includes the whole world to come, it is absolutely impossible for any one ever to obtain it by works. It was and is impossible for Abraham or any other man ever to work enough to earn it; and so, since the inheritance is so utterly beyond all possible reach of the works of any man, in the nature of things it must come only as the gift of God, and can be received by men only by faith, altogether as the gift of God.
And since the inheritance is the one great object in the call of Abraham, everything else that came from God to Abraham was only contributory to this great object; it was only to fit Abraham to enter upon and enjoy in all its fullness that wondrous inheritance which is the original and settled object of the call to him.
For instance, God said to Abraham: “I will bless thee.” This blessing is essential to entering upon the inheritance; for no one who is under the curse can possibly have any part in the inheritance. Therefore, to be relieved from the curse, and to be put under the blessing, of God, is an essential to any one’s ever having any part in the inheritance. And this blessing upon Abraham, relieving him from the curse, and preparing him for the inheritance, was to be extended, through him, to all the families of the earth, that these also might be relieved of the curse and receive the blessing, and thus have a part in the grand inheritance.