Secured in Jesus.
INHERITANCE! Does that make your eyes light up? You have an inheritance and God has an inheritance and they are vitally connected. Christians have an inheritance in Christ (1 Peter 1:4, Colossians 1:5) which is reserved for us, prepared and waiting for us in heaven. We will receive an inheritance (Colossians 3:24) which is our reward from the Lord. Thanks be to God that He has qualified us (Colossians 1:12) to share in the inheritance of the saints. God has an inheritance in Christians (Ephesians 1:18) a rich and glorious inheritance in His saints. If it were not for the Holy Spirit, I would have sympathy for God in having me as part of His inheritance. But the Holy Spirit can qualify us, fit us, make us valuable to God. We know that an inheritance is extremely valuable and we realize that even more as we recognize the many blessings we receive from our inheritance while we are still on earth. Forgiveness of all sin, salvation, eternal life, all we need for life and godliness, God’s Presence, the Holy Spirit to teach and enable us, assurance of heavenly citizenship and so much more.
What makes us a valuable inheritance to God, what gives us value? To sum up our life of obedience, love and trust, our value is constantly increasing as we live in all things (Ephesians 1:12-14) for the praise of His glory by the power of the Holy Spirit, Who Himself is the guarantee of our inheritance.
The life of the Son of God is not manifested (1 Peter 1:4) by my efforts to be holy but when the Holy Spirit controls He will exhibit the Divine characteristics of God’s life in and through us.
As we contemplate our future inheritance, we should not take a narrow view of its scope in eternity. Jesus did not die just to keep believers out of hell. Jesus died to redeem, buy back and restore the whole world to the sanity, order, glorious perfection and breath-taking beauty of God’s original intention and purpose. That also included us being fully restored to the Divine Image. We are the pinnacle of God’s creation but can we even begin to imagine what our role will be as we are lavished with unending riches and significant fruitfulness of our inheritance? Our senses will be heightened to perceive, comprehend, clearly see more deeply and fully than we ever knew was possible.
If we can begin to grasp what God has prepared (Isaiah 64:4, 1 Corinthians 2:9) for us who love Him, we will have no desire ever to deliberately sin or to grieve the Lord in any way. Everything (John 14:2) is prepared for us and this assurance motivates us (1 John 3:3) to be holy, humble and thankful.
Our passionate adoration of Jesus and our absolute devotion to God along with a growing hunger to feast on God’s Word will increase regularly and we will experience precious deepening intimacy with Jesus. After my full and final surrender of my will and all my rights to God, my life (Oswald Chambers) “will be an aspiration for unbroken communion with Him” at all times and in every circumstance. I have learned to ask WHAT rather than WHY. Instead of asking WHY is God allowing this to happen to me, to ask WHAT is God’s purpose in allowing this to happen to me? It would be a very serious loss to miss any of God’s purpose. Because I know WHO, I have no need to know WHY. The reality of my impregnable safety in the security of God’s Sovereignty is a part of my loving friendship with the Lord.
There is a day coming when God will make the final entry in the bankbook of my lifespan bank account. He will withdraw that last remaining day.
Then because my earthly lifespan bank account is depleted, my earth visa will expire. Oh Death (1 Corinthians 15:55) you have no sting for me. Because Jesus lives (John 14:19) I shall live also. I will immediately enter into my (Ephesians 2:19, Philippians 3:20) heavenly citizenship. The longing of my heart will be fully satisfied because I will see Jesus; I will actually see King Jesus face-to-face in all His glory. The greatest, hugest, richest inheritance in all the world and in all history can never even slightly compare in the tiniest degree with the
INHERITANCE we have in Christ Jesus.