When my parents set up the trust agreements for their seven children, we were all very young and could not have possibly fulfilled any conditions to merit the gift of inheritance that they provided for us. It is true that we grew up in a home marked by high standards and strict discipline. But if someone supposed that our inheritance depended on living up to the high standards set in the home, we could easily demonstrate that such a supposition was ridiculous. In the first place, none of us has been able to keep all the high standards set for us. In the second place, the irrevocable trust agreements were established for us before the standards were communicated to us. So we are beneficiaries by sheer grace.

Paul is concerned to demonstrate the unconditional nature of the promises made to Abraham. He points out the incompatibility between receiving the inheritance as a gift on the basis of a promise and receiving it as a payment for keeping the law: For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. The categories of payment and gift are mutually exclusive. Since the gift character of the promised inheritance is clearly established, the inheritance cannot be received as a payment for keeping the law. This logical argument is developed by Paul to drive home his rebuke for the foolish error of viewing something as a payment which had already been received as a gift.