Our Inheritance in Christ

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

I invite you to turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1 and verses 11 and 12. This afternoon on this triumphant resurrection day, we're giving consideration to our future inheritance.

The future inheritance that we have in Jesus Christ. Praise be to God. And providentially, we didn't plan it this way. It always seems to work out just well when we leave it to the Lord. But providentially, this text, we did not choose it for this day, but the day chose the text.

And so the theme of our day today is what is to come after the resurrection. What is to come because of Christ's resurrection. In Ephesians 1 and verses 11 and 12, we'll see how exactly this deals with all of that.

So looking to Ephesians 1 and verse 11, let's read the two verses together. This is God's word. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who are the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

This is the word of God, the word of the living God to us today. I want to begin our time by framing it with a bit of a historical account. On October 8, 1871, a devastating fire broke out in the city of Chicago and became one of the most catastrophic blazes in the history of the United States.

What first started as a small barn fire around 830 at night, just a small glow near a shed on a farmstead, quickly escalated to a firestorm that drove through the night, devouring everything in its path.

I was doing a little bit of reading on the great Chicago fire this week and just searched up what were the people saying as the fire waged war on the city. And historians tell us that the fire, as it spread from building to building, the inferno was led by people who cried out to other unsuspecting residents, fire, fire, Chicago is doomed.

And as the scale of the fire began to take shape, some even cried out, God has punished us all, Chicago is doomed. And by the time the city was greeted with morning light, everything in the fire's path, a swath of nine square kilometers, was reduced to nothing but rubble and ash.

In just one day, 17 ,000 buildings were burned to the ground. Over 300 people were lost in the flames and there were more than 100 ,000 people who were left homeless. And amongst those who lost everything was the great 19th century evangelist Dwight L. Moody.

Left standing in that vast crowd that was larger than most small cities in Alberta, Moody was one who escaped the flames only with his life. And in the weeks that followed the great Chicago fire and before the start of what became known as the Great Rebuilding, someone asked D. L. Moody how he was faring after he had lost all of his possessions.

And kids, I'm mindful of you, what you might think if you had lost everything in a fire, everything except for the clothing on your backs. On that cool autumn evening in October, just before the winter was about to set in, Moody and his wife and their two children, they were about to have a third, lost their house, their beds, their blankets, their toys, their books, all of Moody's writings, every last spare piece of clothing.

They had lost everything. And when Moody was asked how he was doing, he offered a reply that probably to much, much to the surprise of the questioner, was full of hope and anticipation. And that was because in his reply, Moody declared this.

He said, I've got much more than I lost. I am a good deal richer than you could conceive. Here is my title deed. And he held up his Bible to Ephesians 21 and verse 7, and citing from verse 7 read, He that overcometh shall inherit all things.

In the midst of such trials and deep affliction, Moody took consolation in this, that he had an inheritance that was untouched by the great Chicago fire. He had an inheritance that was, to use biblical language, imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for him.

With nothing left in this world, except for a thin layer of fabric on his back, D .L. Moody had something that gave him hope in the midst of any and every trial. And it was this. It was the rich inheritance that he had in Jesus Christ.

What a hope. What a divinely wrought blessing that can enable a man or a woman to overcome almost any trial. This knowledge of God's inheritance for the saints. What a blessing. And to turn the tables just a little bit, what a reality that most modern Christians know almost nothing about today.

Our inheritance in Christ. D .L. Moody knew with an unshakable certainty that he had an inheritance in Christ that was safe from all of the world's catastrophes. But I fear that today, most modern Christians know very little about such an inheritance.

Dear Christian, do you know, in your own soul, in your own spirit, do you know that you have an eternal inheritance waiting for you? That is being kept by God's power, ready to be revealed on the last day.

An inheritance that will astonish you, that will fill your mouth with songs of praise unto God for all of eternity. Or is this the first time you've ever heard that we as Christians have an inheritance in Christ?

Have you heard about heaven? And have you heard about hell? But you have never heard about an inheritance that is to come. I was thinking about it this week. Why is it that we hear so little about an inheritance that is to come?

For one, we don't think very much about inheritances in our day. But I think that more and more Christians and even churches in our comfortable Western culture place an emphasis on temporal things. Whether that is on short-lived health, wealth, prosperity and success.

Whether it is on church growth and popularity in the culture. Or maybe a bit closer to home, being right in every theological debate and discussion. Or whatever carnal obsession it is under the sun. The more and more that our Christian subculture focuses on these things, on these carnal, temporal, worldly things, the less and less we understand and emphasize the heritage that we have in Jesus Christ.

And this is a travesty. And when you look through the annals of time, through 1900 years of church history, it is something completely foreign to 1900 years of people enduring great difficulty longing for an inheritance that was to come.

It is a spiritually blind spot that robs us of immeasurable joy and peace that we do not think about an inheritance waiting for us in Christ. I would venture to guess that most people in this room have thought more about their worldly inheritance.

What they will or have received at the death of their family, the death of their parents, than of their heavenly inheritance in Christ. But providentially on this resurrection day of all days, Paul offers us a corrective, a biblical corrective for this near-sightedness by bringing into focus this doctrine of our eternal inheritance in Jesus Christ.

You see, the bodily resurrection of Christ means far more than simply a bodily resurrection for us. But it means an inheritance that we will be resurrected to. It is something to look forward to all of our lives, that will empower us through death, that will be our never-ending fountain of blessing enjoyed forever in the presence of God.

We have an inheritance, brothers and sisters. And my hope and my aim today in these two verses is to expound that inheritance. And what we will look at is the substance of that inheritance, the stuff of the inheritance.

We will look at the certainty of this blessed inheritance. And we will look at the eternal hope, the object, the telos, the end goal of our inheritance. And so if we turn our attention back to verse 11, I want to read together verse 11a.

That is the first clause in verse 11. And we'll look first at, we'll lay the foundation by looking at the substance of our inheritance. 11a. In Him. We've seen this so many times, haven't we? In Christ.

We have obtained an inheritance. The substance of that inheritance. What is it? If I were to take you as an individual and bring you to the front of the room and place you behind this pulpit and then before our church ask you the question, what is the substance of our inheritance?

What is the stuff of our inheritance? What does it consist of? How would you answer that question? Could you answer that question? When we die and we go to be with the Lord, what is it that we will inherit?

Many people might come and answer by saying simply that our inheritance consists of heaven. That when we die, we will go to be with the Lord. And that is all. It is to go to heaven and to be with God.

And while that is true, it is only partially true. It is not a full truth. But what if I told you that there is much more for us? As we think about Christ's resurrection today. As we live in the reality of that resurrection.

Of our coming resurrection. What if I told you that we have much more to look forward to than simply heaven as our sole Christian inheritance. You see, as Paul drills deeper into the spiritual blessings that we have received in Christ.

Having dealt now with election and then adoption. Last week at redemption. We get to this idea of our inheritance. And this concept of our inheritance has a rich biblical significance. If we were to search our Bibles from beginning to end.

And look at all the occasions where we find the word inherit or inheritance. We would find some 264 references. And this concept we would see arises in Genesis and follows all the way through to the book of Revelation.

It is by no means an unimportant theme. And remarkably of the 264 references to inheritance in our Bibles. 230 of these references occur in the Old Testament. This is something we need to go back into time to better understand.

Because more than us today. The Jews in Bible times had a robust understanding of what it meant to inherit something. They knew something about our inheritance that we need to grasp. And when we look at the Jews understanding.

What we see is that their whole identity. As Paul speaks about we who are the first to believe in Christ. There are some who believe that as a reference to the Jews and the apostles. And then eventually to you also who have received this inheritance.

The Jews knew something. That their whole identity was bound up in their inheritance. It was such a compelling theme. It is such a compelling theme in the lives of Jews. Even to today. That we still see great modern controversies.

Great wars waged over this idea of the inheritance. Because one of the chief aspects of the Jewish identity. Was their claim upon the land of Israel. Their understanding of this land claim was rooted in the reality.

That that land was received as an inheritance from God. And maybe you have been following the news since I believe it was October 7th. When Hamas invaded Israel and took hostages. And really the war intensified between Israel and Palestine.

Maybe you have looked at that conflict and you have asked yourself. Why is there so much fighting? Over such a small parcel of land on the eastern Mediterranean? And you will watch the media. And some media pundits will ask.

Why do the Jews insist on living there? Why not move to Europe? Or to North America? And to go somewhere where they can live in peace. And from the Jewish perspective. It all has to do with this idea of inheritance.

Since the days of Abraham. And in the days of Moses. And then beyond that. The land was given to the nation of Israel. As an inheritance from God. And this is rooted right back in our Bibles. If I have you turn with me to Deuteronomy 26.

And verse 1. In Deuteronomy 26. As Moses stood before the people. And as they prepared to enter the promised land. That promised land was called a promised land. Because it was their inheritance. Moses said in Deuteronomy 26.

When you come into the land. That the Lord your God is giving you. For an inheritance. And have taken possession of it. And live in it. And he goes on into the instructions. The details of their lives.

And their worship in that place. That the Lord would reveal. We see that the people were to live in the land of Israel. In that particular geographical place. With the understanding that they had not earned it.

That they had not gained it by conquest. But that it was an inheritance from God. And this theme. If we look at Abraham. And then Isaac. And then Jacob. And then working all the way through the Old Testament.

And then into the New Testament. We see that this idea of inheritance permeates our Bibles. Until we get even to Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 8. That even the New Testament highlights this idea of the land inheritance.

In Hebrews 11 and 8 it says. By faith Abraham obeyed. When he was called out to go to a place. That he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. And all of this.

Tied together. Was tied together with the inheritance of the first born. And so the great debate about land really has to do again with inheritance. Was Ishmael Abraham's legitimate first born. Or was Isaac the legitimate first born.

And then the battles between Israel and Edom. Was it Jacob who was the true first born. Or was it Esau who sold his birthright. His double portion of the inheritance for a bowl of soup. I'm not sure if you've seen this with me.

But inheritance is an important detail in our Bibles. And so with this whole Israel-Palestine conflict. And I'm not going to wade into the weeds of Israel's current status today. But from their perspective.

Why don't the Jews just pack up and move? From their perspective. It is because that inheritance is precious to them. It is a sacred thing. They will cling to that inheritance. Even if it means enduring rocket strikes.

And terrorist attacks. And threats from Iran and the surrounding nations. They will die for that inheritance.

Why?

Because the biblical conception. The Judeo-Christian biblical conception of inheritance. Is vitally important. And as Paul enters into Ephesians 1 and verse 11. He comes with this biblical conception of inheritance in mind.

Christian. Whether you honor this day as resurrection day. Or if this is just another day in the week. Either of those perspectives are totally fine. But one thing that is not fine. Is to say that. Well inheritance is important to you.

But it is not important to me. Inheritance must be important to the Christian. Because Christ died for our inheritance. And we will get to that in just a moment. But then what does this mean? If we have received an inheritance.

Does it mean that we should take land to be our own. Like the nation of Israel did? What does it mean that we have a spiritual inheritance coming to us? I think if we look at the context of Ephesians chapter 1.

And verses 11 through 14. What we begin to see is that this inheritance is not a present claim. Like the nation of Israel and their land claims. But it is a future hope. We see in verse 14. We are going to bunny hop into next week for a little bit here.

That the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance. Until we acquire possession of it. To the praise of his glory. That our inheritance is a future hope. And that we have received the Holy Spirit as a seal.

As a guarantee of this future inheritance. So then what is our inheritance? What are we to be about? If we look at Ephesians 1 and verse 18. Just a little bit further. If you have ever traced Paul's thinking in the book of Ephesians.

As it relates to inheritance. It almost is, at least for me as a student of scripture this week. A little bit exasperating. Because he speaks about how important this inheritance is. But he never seems to fully outline it.

But in verse 18 he speaks to the Ephesians. And he says that his prayer is that their hearts would be enlightened. That they would know what is the hope to which he has called us. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

And one would hope maybe that in a bracket he would say. And this is your inheritance.

It is this.

And it is this. And it is this. But we don't get that from the Apostle Paul. Except that it is linked very closely with hope. And so what we need to begin to do. Is to look at the whole landscape of the New Testament.

To truly gather what it is that our inheritance is in Christ. Now for the sake of time I could drag it. For the sake of drama I could drag it along. But for the sake of time I won't. And I want to simply show you, dear Christians.

What your inheritance is in Christ. It is so much more than merely existence in heaven. As we think about the resurrection of Christ today. As I said, that Christ did not simply give us a resurrection to exist in a resurrected state.

But he has given us a resurrection to look forward to. To receive something from him. If you have placed your faith in the crucified and risen savior of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ. Then all of these things are yours.

I'll have you follow along a bit with me. In Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 7. If you turn there with me. In Hebrews 11 and verse 7. We read about the man Noah. And of his faith that made him right with God.

In Hebrews 11 and 7 we see one of the many dimensions of what it means to have an inheritance in Christ. By faith Noah being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen. In reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household.

By this he condemned the world. And became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Now we do not see the word inheritance there. But we see something that is in the word inheritance. That is the word heir.

That he became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. One of the first things I want us to see is that one of the greatest things. One of the most beautiful glorious things that we receive in Christ as an heir.

As an inheritor. Is a righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus Christ. In Christ we have received an inherited righteousness completely apart from our own doing. What Martin Luther called an alien righteousness.

Not that it came from outer space on a spaceship. But that it came from a stranger. It came from someone outside of us. And it is imputed to us the righteousness of Christ that is by faith. And with this righteousness we are saved from the wrath of God.

Dear Christian for all of eternity. When you die. And when you rise. And when you go to be with the Lord. You will stand before him forever righteous. As a measure of your inheritance. What a thought.

And righteous not only in standing on a forensic level. But righteous in reality. That we would be sinless and perfect before him. More than that. And we will see because inheritance was so important to the Jews.

We spend a lot of time in Hebrews. That not only have we received righteousness by faith as an inheritance. But we have received salvation as a measure of our inheritance. In Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 14.

Some of these are just passing remarks. But I want you to see them with me. Are they. And this is now the writer of Hebrews speaking about the angels. Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve.

For the sake of those who are to inherit salvation. That those who are going to inherit something. One of the things that we will inherit is salvation. That we will be saved. And as the scriptures say.

Saved to the uttermost. In Titus chapter 3 and verse 7. I'm going to speed up a little bit. This is a snowball moving down a hill. That not only will we inherit righteousness and salvation. But Titus 3, 7 says that we will inherit eternal life.

It says so that being justified by his grace. We might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Heirs of eternal life. Looking at it negatively for a second. In Galatians 5, 21. We're speeding down this hill.

We inherit the kingdom of God. In Galatians 5, 21. Paul is giving a sin list. He says envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you as I warned you before. That those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

For those who do such things. They do not inherit the kingdom of God. And logically the opposite is true also. That those who refrain from such things. Those who are righteous in Christ. Those who have been regenerated.

Have a new nature. A new spirit. A new obedience. They will inherit the kingdom of God. Scripture goes so far as to say. That our inheritance is not only righteousness and eternal life. And the kingdom of God.

But it encompasses all things. In 1 Corinthians 3, 21. Paul says. For all things are yours. Whether Paul.

Or Apollos.

Or Cephas.

Or the world.

Or the life. Or death. Or the present. Or the future. All are yours. And you are Christ's. And Christ is God's. John Piper speaks of this. The nation of Israel. They got a parcel of land. Along the Mediterranean.

But the Christian receives the whole world. The new heavens. And the new earth. That it is not restrained to one sliver along the sea. But from Australia. To the North Pole. To South America. To Antarctica.

All is the Christian's in Christ. But perhaps greatest of all. Amongst the inheritance of the Christian. Is God himself. In Revelation chapter 21. Same chapter that D .L. Moody quoted from. When asked about the great Chicago fire.

It says there. Revelation 21 verse 3. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying. Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them. And they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God.

And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning. Nor crying. Nor pain anymore. For the former things have passed away. And if we bunny hop to Revelation 21 verse 7.

The one who conquers. Will have this heritage. That our dwelling place will be with God. That he will dwell with them. That they will be his people. That God himself will be with them as their God. And that verse 7.

The one who conquers will have this heritage. All of that. And I will be his God. And he will be my son. The greatest thing about our future inheritance. At the resurrection of our spirits. And then of our mortal bodies.

Will be this. That there we will receive. The ultimate prize of heaven and earth. The ultimate treasure of all things. God himself. And it's interesting that there is some debate. In Ephesians 1. About how we cut the passage exactly.

Some have said that what is actually being suggested here. Is not just that we would receive an inheritance from God. But that we ourselves are God's inheritance. That he will receive us as his inheritance.

That we are an inheritance that is coming to God. That we are his heritage. Now if that makes you feel at all uncomfortable. It's probably a healthy feeling. That God would be looking forward to receiving us as his inheritance.

But it is a biblical idea. In Deuteronomy 32. It says, but the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob, his allotted heritage or inheritance. That same idea is applied to the Christian. In 1 Peter 2. But you are a chosen race.

A royal priesthood. A holy nation.

A what?

A people for his own possession. That you may proclaim the excellencies of him. Who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Now without getting into all of the weeds of this interpretation.

I love what John MacArthur says. He says this. That whether we receive an inheritance from the Lord. Or the Lord himself receives us as his inheritance. He says it is grammatically and theologically legitimate.

To see that Christ's people are both heirs of the inheritance. And the inheritance belonging to God. Oh that God would open our eyes to see the inheritance that we have in Christ. That no eye has seen.

No eye has seen.

Nor ear heard.

Nor heart of man imagined. What God has prepared for those who love him. And so if someone were to ask you. If I were to call you to the front of the room. And say what is included in our inheritance?

Again if I can quote from MacArthur for a moment. He says this. Our every conceivable need is met by God's gracious provision. In accordance with his divine promises. We are promised as our inheritance.

Peace.

Love.

Grace. Wisdom. Mercy. Eternal life.

Joy.

Victory. Strength. Guidance.

Power.

Forgiveness. Righteousness.

Truth.

Fellowship with God. Spiritual discernment.

Heaven.

Eternal riches.

Glory.

And every other good thing that comes from God. Our inheritance. What we will one day awaken to. Is greater than we could ever even conceive of in this life. Greater than we can imagine in this life. And dear brothers and sisters.

Are you looking forward to that inheritance that we have in Christ? Or are you living with some measure of uncertainty? That you would live up to that inheritance? The rest of verse 11 deals with that.

The Certainty of Our Inheritance in God's Sovereign Purpose

So in him we have received an inheritance, it says. The second part of verse 11. Brothers and sisters, we have an inheritance to receive. But more than just the substance of that inheritance. We have a certainty of our inheritance.

We live in an age, I believe, when probably more than ever. Christians struggle with the assurance of their salvation. The assurance of their faith. That am I truly right with God. That he would receive me.

That he has a resurrection for me. That he has an inheritance for me. And I think that what Paul is getting at. In verse 11. The second part of this verse 11 is this. That he wants us to be assured.

Certain.

That not only do we have an inheritance in Christ. But a certain one. A sure one. One that is to come to every Christian. To all saints in God. And this was the context. The Ephesians lived in a culture.

That could never. They could never trust their, if I can call them lowercase g, gods. That the historical context almost demanded that there be no assurance whatsoever. In the Ephesian mind. Their understanding of gods.

Pagan gods in the plural. Is that gods were always fickle. Malevolent creatures in some ways. Always changing their minds. Never following through on anything. A god could say one thing today. And mean another thing tomorrow.

And there was never any certainty. That the gods themselves were subject to fate. That they were subject to good luck. And to bad luck. The people in Ephesus especially loved Zeus. If you think about your Greek mythology.

Back to the Greek god Zeus. That they held Zeus in such high regard. That they said that he was the father of the gods. And the father of men. And yet the Ephesians held that even Zeus was bound to fate.

That Zeus could see one thing. And declare one thing. But then be subject to another thing. And this is seen if anyone has ever read Homer's Iliad. When Zeus is in a battle. Or sorry, Zeus is seeing a battle between Hector of Troy and Achilles.

And Zeus had a special fondness for Hector. And he wanted to preserve Hector. He wanted Hector to win. But because of the laws of fate. As a result of this. Zeus had to bow down. And allow Hector to become whatever Achilles made of him.

And in response to this idea. That the gods are fickle, malevolent creatures. That maybe God too is like this. Paul builds an ironclad defense of the certainty of our inheritance. He protects this doctrine as it were from every single angle.

And I want you to see this with me. Just how jealously he guards the Christian's inheritance.

And why?

Because God wants us to have assurance in him. That's why the book of 1 John was written. That a person can have a true faith. And yet not have a real assurance. Faith and assurance are two different things.

But God desires that we would have faith and assurance. Together. Wed together. And I want us to see. We're going to look at three different aspects of the certainty that Paul is trying to build up in this passage.

And the first is this. That he wants to have certainty because of our sovereign election. Now if you don't like the idea of the sovereignty of God. The doctrine of election. I don't want to offend you.

But Paul is going to offend you in verse 11. That God wants us to have assurance because he is sovereign. The sovereign, electing, predestinating work of God permeates this entire passage. And I want you to see it with me in the language.

In verse 11. We're told that we have obtained an inheritance. That word obtained is very interesting because it has a few different meanings. One meaning is simply that idea of attained. That you have received this.

That it is something that you have been given. But another aspect to that word is that you have been chosen for an inheritance. That it requires an act of the will on God's part. And the reason why the Christian today.

If you are a Christian and you have an inheritance to look forward to. It is because God has chosen you to receive that inheritance. And it is issued in the aorist tense or the past tense. It is a completed action.

And so this means is that whenever something in the future was so certain. At least in the Greek mind. What they would do and we see this in the golden chain of redemption. Whenever something was so certain in the future.

That they knew it was going to happen. That it would never fail. They would speak about it as if it had already happened. As if it was already in the past tense. That God has chosen the Christian for an inheritance.

But there's more to that. Like I said Paul is guarding this from every angle. That you have obtained an inheritance. Having been. Notice again this is passive. Having been predestined. According to the purpose of him who works all things.

We have looked at that idea of predestination from a number of angles. But when God is predestining it to take place. It will take place. And he has predestined it.

It says.

According to the purpose. Or sorry.

Where are we?

Predestined.

Yes.

To the purpose of him who works all things. According to the counsel of his will. That idea of working all things. The Greek word is Energeo. Which sounds a lot like the word energy. That's where our word energy comes from.

And what it is.

Is this.

That as God works out his plan. According to the counsel of his will. He energizes every believer. With the power necessary to respond to the gospel. And according to the counsel of his will. I want you to see here with me.

Four different references to the sovereignty of God. That he has chosen us for an inheritance. That he has predestined us. That he works all things. According to the counsel. Or sorry. Works all things.

And then according to the counsel of his will. And Calvin says about that idea. The counsel of his will. From first to last. We have obtained salvation. He says. By free grace. Because the Christian has been freely adopted to eternal election.

And he says. God looked at nothing outside of himself. To move him. To elect them. For the counsel of his own will. Is the only actual cause of their election. Sproul says about the same one. He says.

This amounts to a sweeping statement on the comprehensive extent of God's will. And his sovereign power to enact his entire purpose and plan. Here we see in verse 11. An idea. A passage that backs up.

An airtight package that backs up. That God saves whom he will. Whom he wills. According to his will. According to the purpose of his will. And it made me think. That I have never really been fond of the title Calvinist.