OUR INHERITANCE

A. J. E. Welch

1 Peter 1: 3–9; Ephesians 1: 8–14

I seek grace to speak briefly of our inheritance, a very wide and intensely attractive matter.

The word is used, I believe, to impart to our hearts a sense of settled assurance for what is in the heart of God for us. The idea of inheritance in human terms imparts a unique right to possession. If you have an inheritance in some distant land, which someone may have bequeathed to you, you know it is yours; you know that the laws of the land will not sanction any other claim upon it but yours. You may never have seen it, but it is yours. Whilst the human idea never fully reaches to the divine thought in such matters, I believe the principle remains that God would afford us assurance that we have an inheritance. Moreover, as I hope to show as we go on. He would give us immediate knowledge of it. We are not in it in fulness and finality as yet, but He would give us knowledge of it.

It is very interesting to take this up first from the viewpoint of the beloved apostle Peter, and then to see it as it is conveyed to us by Paul at the height of his teaching. Peter had a range of experience which Paul did not have; he had been with Jesus in the days of His flesh, in close proximity at least to those happenings that surrounded His dying, His resurrection, and His going into heaven, and the coming of the Spirit. Peter, moreover, would have had his early outlook in Jewish terms, and the nation of Israel and those who composed it would be very strongly impressed with the idea of an inheritance, a territory promised of

God for them. It was marked out for them as a nation, and they will still come into it.

Just visualise a little the experiences of Peter, without going into detail. He had witnessed at the closest quarters the perfection of holy manhood in Jesus here, in the days of His flesh; in the midst of all that He passed through in this scene. Peter had seen moral perfection in Jesus.

There was not a spot, not a stain, not the slightest diversion from the course that He pursued according to God’s will. He answering to God’s will to the tiniest detail at every step; and Peter saw that. He had in his mind and affections a view of what is perfect in the sight of God, and that in manhood. That had never been seen before, although looked on to in the language, often very enriching and stirring language, of the prophets, but never seen before.

In Jesus was perfection in manhood, the uttermost devotion to God’s will even to the point of laying down His precious life. What it must have meant to Peter to see Jesus going into death, to think of such a life as that being taken from the earth! What it means to us all, of course, but I am speaking for the moment of Peter. A life that he had learned to be entirely unique in the moral sense was laid down; what a hold that would have on Peter! May I pause to ask, Has it really got a hold upon ourselves? You young lads and young lassies here, think of such a One laying down His life, and that on our account. When the empty tomb was disclosed Luke tells us that Peter went away home (Luke 24: 12). You wonder what was in his mind; you would think that for the moment probably his mind was in a turmoil, but however it was he went away home.

But then the glorious fact was borne in upon him that Jesus was out of death. The tomb was empty, that was the first thing; but very soon as among the disciples he was brought to have his eye

upon Jesus in life, raised from among the dead, the power of death broken. Think of it, you young people, the power of death was broken, broken by one glorious Man; I speak reverently, never forgetting who He was, I trust, but death’s power was broken by one glorious Man going down into death, and coming forth glorious in power and majesty. Peter would have some sense of these things; his attitude to things here, which were altogether out of accord with what had been seen in Jesus, must for him be a settled matter. He could not go on as if Jesus had never died and risen again. Sometimes I fear that we do things that might suggest, for the moment at least, that we have overlooked the fact that this is the scene of the dying and burying of Jesus.

In being raised from the dead He has opened up a new scene altogether, “gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being subjected to him”; He is gone into a place of pre-eminence. Peter would say, as in effect he does say in writing this epistle, I must stand related to Christ where He is. The power of resurrection has come in, another scene has been opened up in a risen Man; just as in the days of His flesh there was moral excellence and perfection in Jesus, there was something new and glorious in that risen Man glorified. You can understand the thrill that would fill the heart of Peter when it fell to him under the Spirit’s touch to publish that God has made Him “both Lord and Christ”, Acts 2: 36. I wonder if we have all experienced, and it is of God that we should, something of that inward thrill when we refer to Christ, gone into heaven into the place of pre-eminence, the One into whose hand the Father has committed all things. Get a view of Christ up there!

Now Peter would say to us. You have an inheritance up there, you have a place and a portion up there; as a believer in the Lord Jesus, having

received the Spirit, you have a place and a portion up there which is yours, and no other claim to it can be effective. Think of having an inheritance, as Peter says in this passage, in the heavens; but the important point which turns me to this scripture is how he describes it; he says, “an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance”. You might regard his description as put in negative terms, incorruptible, undefiled, unfading. It shows how well acquainted Peter was, as we are, beloved brethren, with that which is corruptible, which is defiled, and which fades. We know something about these things, corruptible things, defiled things, and fading things. Peter is just saying, Your inheritance is not related to that at all, it is outside of the whole system of things to which those features belong. It must have been a great matter in Peter’s history to think of that; having the Jewish nation very much in his mind, he was accustomed to think of an inheritance here. He says, No, that is not the point, the inheritance is “incorruptible and undefiled and unfading”. It is a wonderful matter to learn in that way, to learn it by contrast.

Scripture often teaches us much by contrast, and this is a very strong case of it; those features with which we are so familiar have no part up there; what characterizes everything up there is the glory of Christ. So he says. He “has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead”— a living hope. What a hope we have, beloved brethren, an assured hope, and the inheritance stands related to that; we have a portion where Christ is, as Peter goes on to say, “reserved in the heavens for you”. It is totally beyond the reach of the enemy’s power. There can be no spoiling of that inheritance, reserved for you. Would you not love to enter into it? We will come to that side in a minute, but think first

of the character of this inheritance, and note that we have been begotten again “to a living hope” in view of it. In the meantime, as he says, we “are kept guarded by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time”, kept, preserved here, but with an inheritance in view. Our day-by-day matters often hold our minds and attention far more than they need. Think of this inheritance, the assured portion that you have up there; none can touch it; in the sense of what Peter is presenting it is yours. The force of the word inheritance attaches to it, it is yours, you can rest assured of the possession of it.

But he goes on to remind us that there may still be some time in which in—the Lord’s will we are left here. “Wherein ye exult”, he says first; I would love that we catch the exultant note of this scripture; the word itself is used more than once. “Wherein ye exult, for a little while at present, if needed, put to grief by various trials”; that is, a change of the character of things here is not in mind. In the will of the Lord, the perfect wisdom in which that will is brought to bear upon us. He may leave us a little while; He may test our faith, there may be various trials, a very real thing; it is but to bring out the reality to us of what faith opens up.

The character of things here, in the midst of which Jesus in the days of His flesh had moved, is not changed; in many respects its moral character has worsened, but basically it is not changed. The scene is one in which sin is found, and is working extensively and in the most subtle ways possible; it is not changed. You might say there is no need for it to change, from one viewpoint, because we have a portion up there. Of course, ultimately, the character of things here shall be changed. How? By the appearing of this glorious Person, to which Peter looks on here in verse 7, “be found to praise and glory and honour in the revelation of Jesus Christ”. He is coming; once rejected, scorned, crucified, buried, He is coming to take up His rights. Does it not give you a thrill? Think of every element of evil having to give way; think of all the confusion removed for ever. Dear young brethren, what a confused world we are in! What corruption, what defilement, what fading there is; we see it on every hand, but we have an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, unfading. The Spirit of God would say, It is yours.

Now that brings me briefly to Paul. Paul speaks of the inheritance amid all the wealth of this epistle, the whole character and outlook of which is heavenly. Paul had not been in the way through which Peter had passed, in that part of his history which is of consequence. He had been apprehended by Christ, who, as Mr. Taylor used to say expressively, came out of heaven to secure him. Paul’s whole outlook was Christ in glory; he never knew Him in the days of His flesh. All that entered into Paul’s soul really stood related to a glorified Christ and the Spirit come; that was Paul’s experience. It is very interesting how he came into things; the Lord appeared to him first, and he went into Damascus, and a brother came to him and spoke to him of the Holy Spirit. He gets a touch from Christ first, and then he is brought into acquaintance with the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Spirit. I wonder what experience each one of us here has of Christ in glory. What an objective! What His love has done for you, and is doing for you, and always shall do for you! It is a very simple touch, but we need to have our view lifted towards that glorious objective; He is there in manhood, so that we can by the Spirit apprehend the glory that is there. Putting it very simply, and with reverence, there is nothing mystical about the presence of Jesus in heaven; He is a real Man up there, “carried up into heaven”, as Luke says.

But then, as exalted, He has sent the Spirit; He begged the Father and the Spirit has come. What experience have we of that? Have we any experience of it today? Think of this company of persons, all committed, I believe with great genuineness, with a desire to be here in the grace and power in which the Spirit would sustain us in our links with Christ where He is. This, we might say, is Pauline, as he speaks of our inheritance. Verse 10 refers to “the administration of the fulness of times”, the heading up of all things in Christ. Think of all the dispensations yielding a full answer, in which God’s rest shall be eternally. On what principle shall that be established?—the heading up of all things in the Christ; everything is to be adjusted by its relation to that glorious Man where He is. Everything is to stand related to Christ, but the blessedness of it is that through the Spirit we stand now in active relation with Him. There is that which we wait for which enters into our hope; there is that which is to enter constantly into our calculations, especially as we partake of the Lord’s supper, but we know this glorious Person. What a resource the believer has, to take everything to Jesus, knowing that the whole vast scene of things is soon to be rightly regulated, adjusted in whatever way may be needed, and what a vast matter it shall be as coming under the hand of that glorious Person. He is about to come and effect everything to secure the scene of the divine eternal rest, and yet whatever your problems, whatever your troubles, He will come into them today with a heart that is full of love for you and just give you the answer to every problem, every one.

It says, “in him, in whom we have also obtained an inheritance”; it does not say we shall obtain, but we have obtained an inheritance. He goes on lower down to speak of the Spirit as the earnest of it; I am coming to that; but let me first point out that we have obtained an inheritance, it is not put off to the future. It is up there in, heaven; Paul would enlarge to us the side of what is in the heavenlies, just as Peter did to a different people, but Paul relates everything to a heavenly Christ and the Spirit down here. He says, in that Person you have an inheritance. Why does it say, “in him”? Because by reason of where He is and the place He fills that inheritance becomes ours. We have no demonstrable claim for it in anything that we may possess here, it is in Christ. A very attractive expression that, which you young people might like to look into, what is said to be “in Christ”. What is effected is completely effected in Him, and that for us; we may not be in the literal possession of it yet, but it is ours in Him, and as you come into the presence of Jesus you get some impression of what your inheritance is, it is “in him”. And we are “marked out beforehand according to the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory”; it has in mind, beloved brethren, our being secured now for the praise of His glory. We think of that as we come within a few hours, perhaps, to the Lord’s day, “to the praise of his glory”. He is the glorious Object, God Himself, who has thus blessed us. This is all positive in a heavenly sense, the centre of everything is up there, and involves a Man up there, and what we have in that Man includes our inheritance; and we may enjoy it now.

So that lower down it says, “ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance to the redemption of the acquired possession to the praise of his glory”. That is to say that, having the Spirit, we gain from the Spirit and from His activity an impression of what that inheritance substantially is; He is the earnest of it. In its essential character let me describe it very simply, it is a place with Christ.

Think of the assembly’s place with Christ; think of Him in His glorious manhood sharing everything that is His as Man. That relates, I believe, to the character of our inheritance, and we learn it in a more extensive sense in the earnest of the Spirit, engaging us with that glorious Man as He is and where He is. The Spirit has been much in our minds today in other connections, but let us prove Him in this sense, awaiting the time for finality, “to the redemption of the acquired possession to the praise of his glory”. We shall soon be in it actually, and as being in it actually it will be for God’s praise. In the meantime we have the Spirit, who is the earnest, to enter now into the glorious features of what is really our assured possession, not in this scene with all its darkness, but in a heavenly scene. May He give us increasingly entrance into it, for His glory.

Address at Redbridge
9 January 1982