Outline
B
"You are… a son; and if a son, an heir also through God"—Gal. 4:7:
１
The New Testament believer is no longer a slave to works under law but is a son in life under grace.
２
The New Testament believers become heirs of God not through the law nor through their fleshly father but through God, even the Triune God—the Father, who sent forth the Son and the Spirit (vv. 4, 6); the Son, who accomplished redemption for sonship (v. 5); and the Spirit, who carries out the sonship within us (v. 6).
C
"If you are of Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise"—3:29:
１
To be Abraham's seed we must be of Christ, be a part of Christ.
２
Because we are one with Christ, we are 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 God, who is our portion.
３
Under the new testament, the believers as God's chosen people, being sons of full age, are such heirs, not under law but in Christ.
Ⅵ
Now we will consider the believers' status as heirs of God:
A
Christ is the Heir of all things (Heb. 1:2), and the believers are destined to be joint heirs with Christ.
B
After being saved, we are children of God, sons of God, partakers of the divine nature, and heirs of God.
C
When we reach the stage of growth of being joint heirs with Christ, we will be glorified.
D
"In order that having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life"—Titus 3:7:
１
Heirs in Titus 3:7 refers to not merely sons but heirs who are qualified to inherit the Father's estate—Rom. 4:14; 8:17; Gal. 3:29; 4:7.
２
Such heirs are born (John 1:12-13) of God's eternal life (3:16).
E
The believers have become heirs of God through regeneration in the resurrection of Christ—11:25:
１
When Christ was resurrected, we, His believers, were all included in Him; thus, we were resurrected with Him—Eph. 2:6.
２
In His resurrection He imparted the divine life into us and made us the same as He is in life and nature.
３
This is the basic factor of our regeneration to become heirs of God.
Morning Nourishment
1 Pet. 1:3-4 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 the dead, unto an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in the heavens for you.We need to be impressed with the fact that our inheritance is the Triune God Himself…The pledge of our inheritance is the Holy Spirit…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. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 1086)
Today’s Reading
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… 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…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.
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…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.
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.
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. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1086-1087, 1089-1092)
Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 101