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.
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