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We have seen that in their status after being saved the believers are children of God, sons of God, and partakers of the divine nature. In this message we shall consider the believers’ status as heirs of God.
Galatians 4:7 says, “You are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, an heir also through God.” Here an heir is one who is of full age according to the law (the Roman law is used by Paul for illustration) and who is qualified to inherit the father’s estate. The New Testament believers become heirs of God not through the law or through their fleshly father but through God, even the Triune God — the Father who sent forth the Son and the Spirit (Gal. 4:4, 6), the Son who accomplished redemption for sonship (v. 5), and the Spirit who carries out the sonship within us (v. 6).
The New Testament speaks of the believers as children of God, sons of God, and heirs of God. Being children of God is our initial, or primary, relationship with God. We may be children without the growth of a son, or we may be sons without the qualification of an heir. Therefore, we need to grow in order to become sons of God. Then we need further growth, growth to maturity, in order to be heirs of God. As heirs we shall inherit the divine inheritance.
Christ is the Heir of all things (Heb. 1:2), and the believers are destined to be joint heirs of Christ. Romans 8:17 says, “If children, heirs also; heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified with Him.” The thought in this verse progresses from children to heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ. However, we should not think that simply because we are children of God we are also joint heirs of Christ. Children cannot be legal heirs. In order to become legal heirs, children must grow into sons, and the sons must grow into heirs. When we reach the stage of growth of being joint heirs of Christ, we shall be glorified.
Apart from believing in Christ, there is no condition imposed for us to be the children of God. As long as the Spirit witnesses with our spirit (Rom. 8:16), we may have the assurance that we are children of God. However, for us to progress from children of God to joint heirs of Christ there is a condition, and this condition is that we suffer with Christ that we may be glorified with Him. Genuine growth in the divine life requires suffering. The more we suffer with Christ, the more we grow and the faster we are matured to be joint heirs of Christ.
Galatians 3:29 reveals that the believers are heirs according to the promise given by God to Abraham: “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.” Abraham’s seed is only one, Christ (Gal. 3:16). Hence, to be Abraham’s seed we must be Christ’s, a part of Christ. Because we are one with Christ, we are also Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise, inheriting God’s promised blessing, which is the all-inclusive Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God to be our portion. In God’s New Testament economy, the believers as God’s chosen people, being sons of God, are such heirs, not under law but in Christ. However, the Judaizers who remained under law and kept themselves apart from Christ were, like Ishmael (Gal. 4:23), Abraham’s descendants according to flesh, not, like Isaac (Gal. 4:28), his heirs according to promise. The believers in Christ are such heirs, inheriting the promised blessing.
Galatians 3 reveals that God intended to give the promise to Abraham according to His eternal purpose. Before this promise was accomplished, the law was given to serve as the custodian of God’s chosen people. Then, at the appointed time, Christ, the promised seed, came to fulfill God’s promise to Abraham. When Christ came, the fulfillment of God’s promised blessing also came. Now we are in Christ, the One who has fulfilled the promise, to inherit the fulfilled promise and to enjoy the blessing of the promise to Abraham. This blessing is the processed Triune God as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit.
Titus 3:7b says that the believers are “heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” In this verse we see that the believers are not only sons but also heirs who are qualified to inherit the Father’s estate (Rom. 4:14; 8:17; Gal. 3:29; 4:7). We were born of God (John 1:12-13) with His eternal life (John 3:16). This eternal life is for us not only to live and enjoy God in this age, but also to inherit all the riches of what He is to us in the coming age and in eternity. Moreover, eternal life implies hope. With temporal life there is no true hope, but with eternal life there is hope. Because eternal life is forever and cannot be terminated, it gives us hope. Hence, there is the hope of eternal life. God’s eternal life is our enjoyment today and our hope tomorrow.
We need to realize that our being heirs is according to the hope of eternal life. Eternal life is the divine life, the uncreated life of God. It is not only everlasting, lasting forever, with respect to time, but in its nature it is also eternal and divine. The eternal life of God is given to all believers in Christ (1 Tim. 1:16) and is the main element of the divine grace given to us (Rom. 5:17, 21). This life has conquered death (Acts 2:24) and will swallow up death (2 Cor. 5:4). Eternal life and its consequent incorruption have been brought to light and made visible to men through the preaching of the gospel (2 Tim. 1:10). Furthermore, eternal life is not only for us to partake of and enjoy today, but also for us to inherit (Matt. 19:29) in its full extent for eternity. Today’s experience of eternal life qualifies us to inherit it in the future. Its enjoyment today is a foretaste; the full taste will be the inheritance of it in the coming age and in eternity, which is the hope of eternal life. This is the blessed hope revealed in Titus 2:13, which is composed of the freedom of the glory of full sonship, the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:21-25), the salvation to be revealed in the last time (1 Pet. 1:5), and the living hope of the incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading inheritance reserved in heaven (1 Pet. 1:3-4). This is the full, spiritual, divine, and heavenly blessing and enjoyment of eternal life, both in the millennium and in the new heaven and new earth (2 Pet. 1:11; 3:13; Rev. 21:6-7), referred to in 1 Tim. 4:8. According to this hope, we become heirs of God to inherit all His riches for eternity. This is the climax as the eternal goal of God’s eternal salvation with His eternal life given to us by grace in Christ.
The believers are heirs of God through justification by the grace of Christ (Titus 3:7a). To be justified (Rom. 3:24; Gal. 2:16) is to be approved by God according to His standard of righteousness. God can approve us in this way because our justification is based on the redemption of Christ. Redemption is the basis of justification. When the redemption of Christ is applied to us, we are justified.
Titus 3:7a tells us that we are justified by the grace of Christ. The grace of Christ is not merely His unmerited favor. The grace of Christ is actually Christ Himself as life and everything dispensed into us for our enjoyment. This grace is the transmission of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ into us. This grace plays the most important role in the economy of God’s salvation. When we received the grace of Christ, we were justified to become heirs of God.
The believers have become heirs of God through regeneration in the resurrection of Christ. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). Regeneration, like redemption and justification, is an aspect of God’s full salvation. Redemption and justification solve our problem with God and reconcile us to God. Regeneration enlivens us with God’s life and brings us into a relationship of life, an organic union, with God. Hence, regeneration issues and results in a living hope. Such regeneration takes place through the resurrection of Christ from among the dead. When Christ was resurrected, we, His believers, were all included in Him. Thus, we were resurrected with Him (Eph. 2:6). In His resurrection He imparted the divine life into us and made us the same as He is in life and nature. This is the basic factor of our regeneration to become heirs of God.
To be regenerated is to receive another life, the divine life, in addition to the human life. We all received the human life from our parents. But because of God’s choosing, the Spirit’s sanctifying, and Christ’s redeeming (1 Pet. 1:2), God begets us, regenerates us. As a result, we have a second birth. Through regeneration God the Father imparts the divine life into us. Therefore, the first birth was the birth of our human life, and the second birth, the birth of the divine life. We all have been born of the divine life. This is what it means to be regenerated.
Once a person has been born on earth, he has the right to enjoy an earthly inheritance. In the same principle, once a person has been born again by God with His Spirit, that one is born unto a living hope, and this living hope is the inheritance (1 Pet. 1:4) of all the spiritual and heavenly blessings related to eternal life. Daily we need to take possession of this inheritance and enjoy it.
Through regeneration in the resurrection of Christ we have become heirs to inherit the Triune God as our inheritance with the Holy Spirit as the pledge. The “Holy Spirit of the promise” is the “pledge of our inheritance, unto the redemption of the acquired possession” (Eph. 1:13b-14). God is our inheritance. We shall inherit all that God is and has. For such an inheritance the Holy Spirit is the pledge, the guarantee. The Greek word for “pledge” in verse 14 also means foretaste, guarantee, a partial payment in advance. God gives His Holy Spirit to us not only as a guarantee of our inheritance, securing our heritage, but also as a foretaste of what we shall inherit of God.
In ancient times the Greek word for pledge was used in the purchase of land. The seller gave the buyer a sample of the soil from the land being purchased. Hence, according to ancient Greek usage, a pledge was also a sample. As a pledge, the Holy Spirit is the sample of what we shall inherit of the Triune God.
We need to be impressed with the fact that our inheritance is the Triune God Himself, not a heavenly mansion in a city of golden streets and pearly gates. The pledge of our inheritance is the Holy Spirit. But God would not give the Spirit to us as a pledge for a heavenly mansion, for in such a case the pledge would not match the inheritance. A material mansion would not need the divine person of the Spirit as a pledge, sample, foretaste, and guarantee. Since the pledge of our inheritance is a divine person, the inheritance must also be a divine person — the Triune God Himself. The Triune God is the inheritance God intends to give to us, and the Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the Triune God reaching us is the pledge of this inheritance. As the pledge of our inheritance, the Spirit guarantees that the Triune God will be our portion for our enjoyment. This is the Triune God as our inheritance.
Furthermore, Ephesians 1:14 says that the Spirit is the pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of the acquired possession. We, God’s redeemed ones, the church, are God’s possession acquired by His purchase with the precious blood of Christ (Acts 20:28). In God’s economy God becomes our inheritance, and we become God’s possession. As God’s possession, we still need the redemption of our body, for our body is still in the old creation. One day we, God’s possession, will be redeemed in our body. The Triune God has put His Spirit into us as a pledge of Himself as our inheritance unto, or with a view to, the day when, as God’s acquired possession, we shall be redeemed into His glory for Him to enjoy us. On the one hand, the Triune God is our inheritance; on the other hand, we are His possession. The crucial matter in Ephesians 1:14 is that the Spirit is pledged into us as a guarantee that God will be our inheritance in full. Eventually, we shall be redeemed to be God’s possession in glory. Then, in the glory, we shall enjoy God as our inheritance, and He will enjoy us as His possession.
Our inheritance is not anything material. The divine Trinity is our inheritance, and His consummated Spirit has been imparted into our being as a pledge. Now this pledge is working within us to redeem God’s possession until the day we enjoy Him as our portion and He enjoys us as His possession.
In their status as heirs of God, the believers share with all the saints in the light the Triune God embodied in Christ as their portion. Acts 26:18 speaks of the forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Christ. We have not only the forgiveness of sins on the negative side but also an inheritance on the positive side. This divine inheritance is the Triune God with all He has, all He has done, and all He will do for His redeemed people. This Triune God is embodied in the all-inclusive Christ (Col. 2:9), who is the portion allotted to the saints as their inheritance (Col. 1:12). The Holy Spirit is the pledge, the guarantee, of this divine inheritance, which we are sharing and enjoying today as a foretaste and will share and enjoy in full in the coming age and for eternity (1 Pet. 1:4).
Believers are generally taught that the inheritance in Acts 26:18 is a heavenly mansion. But this inheritance is actually Christ as the embodiment of the processed Triune God. This Christ is the portion of the saints. In Colossians 1:12 Paul says that the Father has qualified us “for a share of the portion of the saints in the light.” This portion is the “lot,” the inheritance, of the saints. The inheritance is a lot, and this lot is a portion.
In the Old Testament the tribes of Israel each received an allotment, a portion, of the good land for an inheritance. The good land is a type of the all-inclusive Christ given to us as our inheritance. The Greek word rendered “portion” in Colossians 1:12 can also be rendered “lot,” referring to an allotment. When Paul was writing this verse, he no doubt had in mind the picture of the allotting of the good land to the children of Israel (Josh. 14:1) and used the word portion with the Old Testament record of the land as the background. God gave the children of Israel the good land for their inheritance. In Colossians Christ is revealed as our portion, our lot. Just as the land of Canaan was everything to the children of Israel, so Christ, the reality of the type of the good land, is everything to us. Therefore, Christ, the embodiment of the processed Triune God, is our inheritance, which we share with all the saints in the light.
As heirs of God, the believers will also be glorified with Christ (Rom. 8:17b). Christ is now in glory. Eventually we shall be brought into glory and be glorified with Christ. When we are glorified, the body of our humiliation will be transfigured into a glorious body (Phil. 3:21). At that time we shall be completely and absolutely brought into God Himself as our glory. Then we shall appear with Christ in glory (Col. 3:4).
Some of us may hold strictly an objective concept of glorification. According to this concept, those who have been saved and regenerated will suddenly be glorified. Supposedly, the glorification of the believers will take place instantaneously at the coming of the Lord Jesus. But although our glorification may appear to be a sudden occurrence, it will actually be the consummation of a process of gradual growth and development in life. Through regeneration the life of glory has come into us, and now we have a seed of glory within us. The life that we have within us as a seed is the life of glory. This is Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). Eventually, this seed will blossom, and thereby we shall be brought into glory. It will be like the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus (Matt. 17:1-2). When the Lord was transfigured on the mountaintop, it was not that the shekinah glory suddenly came upon Him from the heavens; it was that the divine glory shone from within Him. Likewise, the glory into which we shall be brought is the out-shining of the very glory that is within us right now. This means that Christ is not leading us into some objective glory but into the very glory that has been sown into us as a seed. Therefore, to be glorified means to have the glory that has been sown into us as a seed saturate our whole being. When we have been permeated and saturated with the element of glory, that glory will come out of us. This is what it means for us, the heirs of God, to be glorified with Christ.
First Peter 1:3 tells us that through the resurrection of Christ we have been regenerated unto a living hope. Then verse 4 goes on to say, “Unto an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in the heavens for you.” At the end of verse 3 there is a comma, and verse 4 begins with “unto.” This indicates that “unto an inheritance” in verse 4 is in apposition to “unto a living hope” in verse 3. This means that the living hope is the inheritance and that the inheritance is the living hope. A living hope, resulting from regeneration, is our expectation of the coming blessing; an inheritance is the fulfillment of our hope in the coming age and in eternity.
A living hope is a hope of life. In particular, it is a hope of eternal life. Eternal life is our enjoyment and also our inheritance. All the riches of God’s being are involved in His life. These riches have become our inheritance in the heavenly bank. Our daily experience of eternal life is also an experience and enjoyment of the inheritance kept for us in the heavens. This indicates that the living hope and the inheritance are one.
The inheritance in 1 Peter 1:4 comprises the coming salvation of our souls (vv. 5, 9), the grace to be revealed at the unveiling of the Lord (v. 13), the glory to be revealed (1 Pet. 5:1), the unfading crown of glory (1 Pet. 5:4), and the eternal glory (1 Pet. 5:10). All these items of our eternal inheritance are related to the divine life which we received through regeneration and which we are experiencing and enjoying throughout our entire Christian life. “This inheritance is the full possession of that which was promised to Abraham and all believers (Gen. 12:3 see Gal. 3:6ff.), an inheritance, as much higher than that which fell to the children of Israel in the possession of Canaan, as the sonship of the regenerate, who have already received the promise of the Spirit through faith as a pledge of their inheritance, is higher than the sonship of Israel: compare Gal. 3:18, 29; 1 Cor. 6:9; Eph. 5:5; Heb. 9:15” — Wiesinger, quoted by Alford.
Through our second birth, regeneration, we have been born into a new inheritance. According to 1 Peter 1:4, this inheritance is not on earth; rather, it is kept in the heavens. Although this inheritance is kept for us in the heavens, we can enjoy it now on earth. Our heavenly, divine, spiritual inheritance is kept in the heavens; yet it is continually being transmitted into our spirit for our enjoyment.
In verse 4 Peter uses three words to describe our inheritance: incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading. I believe that this threefold description points to the Trinity. The word “incorruptible” refers to the nature of this inheritance. This is God’s nature, signified by gold. Here incorruptible refers to the substance, which is indestructible, not decaying. In contrast to any earthly inheritance, our heavenly inheritance is incorruptible, for it is not material. Anything material or physical is corruptible. But our inheritance kept in the heavens is divine and spiritual, altogether incorruptible.
“Undefiled” describes the condition of the inheritance and refers to its purity, to its being unstained. This means that our inheritance cannot be defiled; nothing can make it unclean. This condition is related to the sanctifying Spirit.
Finally, “unfading” refers to the beauty and glory of our inheritance; it speaks of its not withering. Because our inheritance is unfading, its beauty and glory cannot wither. Thus, “unfading” refers to the expression of the inheritance. This inheritance has unfading glory. First Peter 5:4 speaks of an unfading crown of glory. The everlasting expression indicated by the word “unfading” is the Son as the expression of the Father’s glory.
The three excellent qualities of our eternal inheritance in life — incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading — describe the Father’s incorruptible nature, the Spirit’s sanctifying power to maintain the inheritance in an undefiled position, to keep it holy, clean, and pure, and also the Son as the expression of the unfading glory. Therefore, the threefold description of our inheritance is also a description of the Triune God.
The Triune God Himself will be our basic inheritance. Related to Him as our inheritance we have five other matters: the coming salvation of our souls, the grace to be revealed at the Lord’s coming, the glory to be revealed to us, the unfading crown of glory, and the eternal glory. These five items, added together, are a subsidiary inheritance related to God Himself. Although these items are not the Triune God directly, they are related to the divine life, which is God Himself.
As heirs of God, the believers are joint heirs of Christ according to the promise and the hope of eternal life, through justification by the grace of Christ and regeneration in the resurrection of Christ, to inherit the Triune God as their inheritance with the Holy Spirit as the pledge, to share with all the saints in the light the Triune God embodied in Christ as their portion, to be glorified with Christ, and to inherit an inheritance kept in the heavens as a living hope. This consummates in the believers being made God’s inheritance. Ephesians 1:11 says, “In whom also we were made an inheritance.” The Greek word rendered “were made an inheritance” means to choose or assign by lot. Hence, this clause literally means we were designated as a heritage. We were made an inheritance to inherit God’s inheritance. On the one hand, we were made God’s inheritance (Eph. 1:18) for God’s enjoyment; on the other hand, we were made to inherit God as our inheritance (Eph. 1:14) for our enjoyment. According to our natural being we are not worth anything, but in Christ we have been made God’s inheritance. It is by having the Triune God wrought into us that we are constituted into an inheritance. As God’s element is wrought into our being, we become His inheritance in reality. Therefore, we are still in the process of being made God’s inheritance in full.
Ephesians 1:18 indicates that God’s inheritance is in the saints. First God made us His inheritance as His acquired possession and gave us to participate in all He is, all He has, and all He has accomplished as our inheritance. Consummately, all these become His inheritance in the saints for eternity.
In Ephesians 1:18 the Greek word translated “in” may also be rendered “among.” God’s inheritance is in and among the saints. We, the saints, are God’s inheritance. However, what we are by nature cannot be God’s inheritance. God does not desire to inherit our nature, our flesh, our natural being. He desires to inherit all that He has wrought into us of Himself. Therefore, whatever God has wrought into us of Himself becomes His inheritance.
As those who are God’s inheritance, we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13). To be sealed with the Holy Spirit means to be marked with the Holy Spirit as a living seal. Because we have been made God’s inheritance, at the time we were saved God put His Holy Spirit into us as a seal to mark us out, indicating that we belong to God.
Actually the Spirit Himself is the seal. To be sealed with the Holy Spirit means that God has been dispensed into our being. Hence, this seal is living and moving within us, for the Spirit is constantly sealing us with God’s essence. To be sealed in this way is to be saturated with all that God is. Therefore, the sealing of the Holy Spirit also indicates that God is being wrought into us. Through the sealing of the Spirit God is working His essence into our being that He may enjoy us, His acquired possession, as His inheritance.
Ephesians 1:18 speaks of “the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” The riches of God’s glory are the many different items of His attributes, such as light, life, power, love, righteousness, and holiness, expressed in different degrees. Since glory is God’s expression, the riches of His glory are the riches of God’s expression.
It is God Himself within us who constitutes His inheritance among the saints. In this inheritance are the riches of God’s glory. If God is not wrought into us, we could not become His inheritance, His peculiar possession. The believers become precious to Him by being saturated with the divine essence. Only in this way can poor sinners become God’s special treasure. In this universe God is the only One who is precious. Now this precious God of matchless worth is working Himself into us to make us His glorious inheritance. When the New Jerusalem comes, we shall see that it will be altogether a valuable inheritance, shining with God’s glory. Therefore, the fact that the believers are becoming God’s glorious inheritance, a precious treasure to Him, indicates that He is working Himself into us.
After being saved, we are children of God, sons of God, partakers of the divine nature, and heirs of God. As heirs of God we enjoy Him as our inheritance, and we become His inheritance for His enjoyment. Therefore, our enjoyment of the divine inheritance consummates in our being made God’s inheritance. We enjoy God. Then our enjoyment of Him makes us His enjoyment.
Daily we enjoy God in the way of the Spirit’s pledging. God pledges Himself as the Spirit within us for our enjoyment, guaranteeing that we shall eventually have the full taste of the Triune God. This enjoyment of God as our inheritance is the dispensing of God into us. The result of this dispensing is that we become God’s inheritance for His enjoyment.
We need to understand not only doctrinally but also experientially that we have the Holy Spirit within us as the firstfruit of God for our enjoyment. This firstfruit is the foretaste, the guarantee, the pledge, that we shall enjoy God in full. Our continuous enjoyment of the Triune God will make us His inheritance. This means that first we inherit Him. Then as He is dispensed into us and constituted into us, we become His enjoyment. Eventually God will enjoy Himself in our constitution.
We thank the Lord for bringing us deep into the truth concerning the believers as heirs of God. Through redemption, justification, and regeneration God has put Himself into us to be our inheritance. Now we enjoy Him in the way of a pledge. Daily we participate in Him, and He dispenses Himself into our being. Eventually we shall be saturated with Him and constituted of Him as our inheritance. This enjoyment and constitution will make us His inheritance. Therefore, we are God’s inheritance not in ourselves or by ourselves but by His being our inheritance. Then our enjoyment of Him will consummate in our being God’s inheritance for God to enjoy eternally. Ultimately, the New Jerusalem will be a mutual dwelling place and also a mutual enjoyment. In the New Jerusalem we shall enjoy the Triune God as our eternal inheritance, and He will enjoy us as His eternal possession. This consummation will be the issue of God’s dispensing Himself into us and constituting us of Himself. His dispensing makes us His inheritance, and through the enjoyment of Him as our inheritance we become His inheritance.
