under this word world, the restoration which was expected through Christ. The chief thing was
indeed the restoration of life; it was yet necessary that the fallen state of the whole world should
be repaired. The Apostle, in Hebrews 1:2, calls Christ the heir of all the good things of God; for
the adoption which we obtain through his favor restores to us the possession of the inheritance
which we lost in Adam; and as under the type of the land of Canaan, not only the hope of a heavenly
life was exhibited to Abraham, but also the full and complete blessing of God, the Apostle rightly
teaches us, that the dominion of the world was promised to him. Some taste of this the godly have
in the present life; for how much soever they may at times be oppressed with want, yet as they
partake with a peaceable conscience of those things which God has created for their use, and as
they enjoy through his mercy and good-will his earthly benefits no otherwise than as pledges and
earnests of eternal life, their poverty does in no degree prevent them from acknowledging heaven,
and the earth, and the sea, as their own possessions.
Though the ungodly swallow up the riches of the world, they can yet call nothing as their own;
but they rather snatch them as it were by stealth; for they possess them under the curse of God. It
is indeed a great comfort to the godly in their poverty, that though they fare slenderly, they yet steal
nothing of what belongs to another, but receive their lawful allowance from the hand of their celestial
Father, until they enter on the full possession of their inheritance, when all creatures shall be made
subservient to their glory; for both heaven and earth shall be renewed for this end, — that according
to their measure they may contribute to render glorious the kingdom of God.
Romans 4:14-15
- Si enim ii qui sunt ex Lege hæredes sunt,
exinanita est fides et abolita est promissio: - For if they which are of the law be heirs,
faith is made void, and the promise made of none
effect: - Nam Lex iram efficit; siquidem ubi non
est Lex, neque etiam transgressio. - Because the law worketh wrath: for where
no law is, there is no transgression.
14.For if they who are of the law,etc. He takes his argument from what is impossible or absurd,
that the favor which Abraham obtained from God, was not promised to him through any legal
agreement, or through any regard to works; for if this condition had been interposed — that God
would favor those only with adoption who deserved, or who performed the law, no one could have
dared to feel confident that it belonged to him: for who is there so conscious of so much perfection
that he can feel assured that the inheritance is due to him through the righteousness of the law?
Void then would faith be made; for an impossible condition would not only hold the minds of men
in suspense and anxiety, but fill them also with fear and trembling: and thus the fulfillment of the
nations would become his legitimate heirs by becoming believers; and in the same sense must be regarded the expression here,
“the heir of the world;” he was the representative of all the believing world, and made an heir of an inheritance which was to
come to the world in general, to the believing Jews and to the believing Gentiles. He was the heir, the first possessor, of what
was to descend to the world without any difference. He was the heir of the world in the same sense as he was “the father of all
who believe,” as he is said to have been in verse eleventh.
The inheritance was doubtless eternal life or the heavenly kingdom, the country above, of which the land of Canaan was a
type and a pledge. See Hebrews 11:12, 13, 16. — Ed.