Outline

«　WEEK 4　DAY 6　»

　　Eph. 1:18 The eyes of your heart having been enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.

　　13 In whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in Him also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise.

　　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…The Greek word rendered “were designated as an inheritance” [in Ephesians 1:11] 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 (v. 18) for God’s enjoyment; on the other hand, we were made to inherit God as our inheritance (v. 14) for our enjoyment… 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. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 1092)

　　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. 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 (v. 13)…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.

　　It is God Himself within us who constitutes His inheritance among the saints. In this inheritance are the riches of God’s glory…The believers become precious to Him by being saturated with the divine essence…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.

　　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. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1092-1094)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 101