A Word in Season: The Inheritance of the Saints (Colossians 1:12)

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Wonderful news arrives. You are entitled to an inheritance.

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Perhaps you'd not even expected this, but the word now comes through to you that you are in line for a wonderful blessing.

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There's a great amount of money coming your way, you're going to be set up for life, there's a home, there are gardens, there are cars, an entire estate, an entire living, if you will, and it's all going to be granted to you.

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It's yours by right. Who you are and what you are is what qualifies you for that inheritance.

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There's a direct line of descent, there is no question, all of these things are yours.

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And I expect that if most of us got that kind of news we'd be fairly excited, even if we thought all we could do is realize the assets and maybe keep living much in the manner to which we're already accustomed.

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But still that sense of receiving such blessing, looking forward to such favor, that would really delight us.

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How much more then when the Apostle Paul tells us in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 12 that we are to give thanks to the

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Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

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How much do we give thanks to God for that great inheritance, qualified to participate, to enter in and enjoy the inheritance of the saints in the light.

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Now what is that qualification? It is fundamentally the reality of our having been made sons of God through a relationship with the

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Lord Jesus Christ. God has called us into his family, he has brought us into union and communion with his

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Son and therefore with himself, and sons inherit. We stand now accepted with God, clothed in the righteousness of his beloved

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Son Jesus Christ, and as sons so heirs, heirs of God himself.

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We are now fitted, we are suited to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

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Paul is looking forward here to the glory which is to come. There is this blessing that is stored up for us and to which we are now entitled, no one can take that away from us.

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It's an inheritance for the saints, these are not super Christians of some kind, these are those who are sanctified or set apart to God in Christ Jesus.

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Again they're simply the ones who belong to him and so this inheritance is not for a few

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Christians, it's not for a select group of unusually gifted or gracious men and women, this is the inheritance that every single

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Christian is entitled to and it is in the light. That probably is one of those references, one of those descriptions that seems to fall so far short of what you want to say but it's the reality of the presence of God in the world which is to come.

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Paul goes on to say that God has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the

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Son of his love in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins and it's the full reality of that kingdom, the glory of the resurrection life, the excellence of knowing

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God face to face in the person of his Son so that he is always sweetly, gloriously, wonderfully mediated to us.

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Now if we are partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light then that light will show itself in us now, we will be living like sons of God, we'll be walking in the light to use some of Paul's other language to the

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Ephesians but surely then this ought to move us to give thanks to God, whatever we may be or have here, whatever may be our current lot and circumstance nevertheless if we are trusting in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, if we have been brought to God then he has now qualified every single believer to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in the light, that's our true destiny, that's what we're looking forward to and we do so with a confident hope because God has saved us,

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God is saving us, God will save us in and through Christ Jesus and so we give thanks to the

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Father because this is what we now possess and what we are looking forward to already.