Our Inheritance part 3
By: Ashley Thomas
“that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His mighty power” Ephesians 1:17-19
Our Inheritance part 3
The second key to aid us in understanding about our inheritance: to know what are the riches of the inheritance in the saints. We tend to think about inheritance in isolation and sometimes disregard what the scriptures are trying to teach us. Every saint has an inheritance, this tells us something; that no believer shall be left out of His Will. It also reveals to us that there is something we share in common with each other and that is His glory.
The church age believer has been given the greatest offer that could ever be bestowed. The apostle Paul spoke concerning this in Colossians 1:27 “… Christ in you the hope of glory”. To have Christ in us ought to overwhelm us. No old testament priest, prophet or king could say that. Did God purpose for them to be inferior to us, the answer is no, but God did purpose for us to know things they could never know. The church age believer can know and understand the entire plan of God and be able to execute it with precision. I am not trying to be arrogant, but I do want to make clear what the scripture does say. The plan of God involved a group of people, who were not of ancestral lineage, but outsiders, strangers and foreigners. Having no rights and having no claim to any blessing - destined for wrath. These are people who would not make it, even if they tried, uncircumcised by ordinances and condemned.
To the gentiles did Christ preach the gospel - a message of purchase through His blood. So that, Christ might call, choose and elect a people from among those who are without hope. To seal such, He sent His Spirit to live within them and to guarantee the work. Now, I’ve said all this to make this important point, the glory of God is now seen, witnessed and testified by the millions of electees. They are rich because they know what has been given to them, and they know it by His Spirit that they received. The glory of the Son consists of rewards offered to His Church, those who have been elected are to inherit what He has reserved for them.
However all do not receive the same rewards, the loser believer will only receive a small inheritance and will be ashamed at the judgment seat of Christ. Because they have not come to deny self, nor taken up their cross to follow Him. But, the mature believers will be rewarded with different rank and positions in the kingdom -the highest being the order of the morning star. Remember this: The door of grace is open not just to be saved but to attain the highest possible reward. This is a once only offer and will not be repeated again.
May I close with this statement : “The glory of His inheritance is in the saints, they are the mystery and the pleasure of His will. Called, chosen and elected to be adopted as sons and to receive His highest and best.” Amen!
Ashley Thomas http://www.ariseshine.org.au is the lead pastor of an emerging church in Brisbane Australia and is the writer of Praise The Lord It’s Friday a weekly article of life and encouragement.