THE INHERITANCE
[p. 267] THE INHERITANCE
In reading this verse I wish to call attention to the thought of the inheritance. I hope to refer to other scriptures later on. I read this because it contains the Lord’s opening words to Paul, and in that word He announces His thought of the inheritance and too, that it should be among the sanctified. One has a sense that many receive the light of the gospel and fall short of the thought of the inheritance, hence they do not find that compensation which the Lord intended they should, for that is a present position. We have in Colossians that the Father hath “made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light”, Colossians 1: 12. We need that portion, and I would suggest that there is that which is provisional for us, and that which is eternal, and what impresses me is that we largely miss what is provisional and that is a portion now of the inheritance. “Our inheritance”, that which is peculiarly our own, is opened up to us in Ephesians, and of that inheritance we have but the earnest now. “In whom also, having believed, ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance to the redemption of the acquired possession”, Ephesians 1: 13, 14. I need not suggest that the earnest of a thing is not the thing itself. But then there is that which we have now, and that does not need an earnest. The inheritance of which we have an earnest is one which is peculiarly ours, and which is not shared by others; but then we come into an inheritance which others can share in, and in the meanwhile, so as to furnish us by the way we have this inheritance.
I wish particularly to dwell upon those things, not that one can ever exhaust them, but I would suggest what we have in the way of inheritance at the present time. The Lord had that in mind in this passage, “That they may receive ... inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me”, Acts 26: 18.
[p. 268] Now I would read Deuteronomy 33: 1 - 4. The Old Testament greatly aids us in the understanding of all truth; it was written for our learning, so I would refer to the feature of our inheritance in Deuteronomy in the blessing of Moses the man of God. God loved the people. That fact should be well noted, for it lies at the bottom of all His activities on our behalf. One in the throes of the conviction of sin is not prepared for the great fact that God loves him; he needs forgiveness, the gospel announces forgiveness; then after forgiveness is known and the Spirit received the precious fact that God loves comes home. So Moses said, “Yea, he loveth the peoples”, and he had said, “Jehovah came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir ... . From his right hand went forth a law of fire for them”. The law was not against them for nothing that issues from God can be against us. The Lord says He is for them, so Moses says, “Yea, he loveth the peoples”. Then it goes on, “Moses commanded us a law, the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob”. I wish to speak especially of that. The law was a heritage; we shall not need it in heaven, so there is no question of having an earnest of that inheritance, we have got the whole thing, and we do well to note it. This is connected with Romans and Corinthians — a precious heritage — without it a journey through the wilderness would be impossible. So that the law is regarded as a “heritage”.
It is not the congregation of Israel, but the congregation of Jacob; Romans and Corinthians contemplate the congregation of Jacob, that is to say, we are all conscious of the authority of Christ, we have wills and these wills need to be broken — they do — and one of the great services that the Lord renders is to break my will, or, rather, to subdue me.
It is me, the person that has to be subdued, and the Lord will not move on with us unless we are subject to Him.
Nor shall we freely and happily enjoy our portion unless we are subdued. So Paul says to the Roman saints, “ye have obeyed from the heart the form of teaching into which ye were instructed”, Romans 6: 17. It was delivered to the early saints, and those in Jerusalem continued steadfast in the apostles’ doctrine. I understand by that that the [p. 269] authority of Christ is asserted in the way of teaching. The first great instruction that we get from the Lord is that we should be subject. Romans is the authority of the Lord for individuals. Corinthians is the inheritance for all the congregation of Jacob. We may not regard the inheritance in that respect. The epistles to the Corinthians are a precious inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. I apprehend that the congregation of Israel applies more to Colossians and Ephesians; Jacob is the saints viewed in responsibility, and this precious inheritance is the teaching that refers to the authority of God in Christ. God must rule in individuals first, then in the assembly, therefore we read “a law, the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob”. Many of God’s dear people do not value this inheritance; they take their own way; they link themselves up with all kinds of associations: they have no regard for what the law says in Corinthians. The Lord said, “He that has my commandments” (John 14: 21), who is the ‘he’? One of the congregation of Jacob. “He it is that loves me; but he that loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him”. How many there are who disregard that. I suppose in any country one of the most valuable items is the established law, as in this country we have the Magna Charta, and all the laws hang upon it. What community can subsist without a law, how much less the congregation of Jacob where God is to be known. God proposes to walk among us, and how can that be apart from a law to regulate us? The first epistle to Corinthians insists on holiness, the second is the bringing in of love so that God might dwell. What a precious inheritance! Then we have the very groundwork, the love of God. We do not want the earnest of the love of God; we have got the love of God. Think of the inheritance we have come into, it is not only attested to in the death of Christ, but the Holy Spirit has brought it in too. The Holy Spirit is not here as the earnest of the love of God, for He has brought it in. The love of God is here in this world, but apart from the recognition of the inheritance of the law it is impossible to enjoy the love of God. If [p. 270] my will is active how can I enjoy the love of God? The Lord’s supper brings in to us, in the body of Christ, the witness that the will of God has been carried out. If I put my hand forward and partake of it, it is a very solemn act, for I am committing myself to that in which the will of God was carried out here. Any other line is inconsistent. “Behold, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me — To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight”, Psalm 40: 7, 8. I would say that that book is the foundation of all books, any book not founded on that is not fit for a christian library. What is not founded on the will of God must be spurious. The bread is the communion of the body of Christ and it places on me an obligation to pursue the course of subjection to God. Then that brings in what God is to me. So the cup is called the cup of blessing, it is a positive thing, present to me.
When I come to the love of God I come to a heritage which others share; every family will share the love of God. The love of God is expressed in the new covenant, and that is ours, a present heritage. The Lord would have us to be, happily in the enjoyment of the love of God. “He that abides in love abides in God”, 1 John 4: 16. “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us; and we ought for the brethren to lay down our lives”, 1 John 3: 16. This is present love, and where that is God dwells, therefore the two letters to the Corinthians bring in the covenant and make room for God to dwell.
Then there is the Father’s love, that is not the love of the covenant, but the love that Jesus knew down here and He calls that a heritage. He says, “Jehovah is the portion of mine inheritance”, and then “the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places: yea, I have a goodly heritage”, Psalm 16: 5, 6. He refers to the lines of Joshua and Eleazar; you remember how Moses gave an inheritance to the two and a half tribes, well, the Lord does not refer to that, for that was on the wilderness side of Jordan. He referred to the lines that Joshua and Eleazar knew. Think what Jesus found in His life here. His lot was the Father. He had a goodly heritage. John says, “We have contemplated [p. 271] his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father”, John 1: 14. They saw what He had, He enjoyed continually the Father’s love. I need not say that that is not covenant love. It is a love of relationship, a family love, the Father’s love. The most precious feature of our inheritance is what lies in the family, and we have not the earnest of that, for we have got the thing itself. We cry “Abba, Father” by the Holy Spirit — we are brought into direct relationship with the Father, and the Son, and we have got the spirit of that relationship. It is a present thing, a rich heritage — the Father’s love, the Son’s love and the love of the brethren, so that we have truly, as Jesus had, a goodly heritage.
There is that which is beyond the Jordan, and so in Ephesians we have “our inheritance” in the passage read. The inheritance in Ephesians is our inheritance and that is over Jordan, and of that we have but the earnest now. But what an earnest! The Holy Spirit who knows every part of that domain has come down to make known in our hearts in principle what we are soon to be introduced into. In the Ephesian epistle we are blessed with every spiritual blessing; where? In the heavenlies. The Lord would divert us from earth, for the more you lay hold of what is properly ours the less you will think of what is not ours. “If ye have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who shall give to you your own?”, Luke 16: 12. Our own is Ephesians. “Arise, shine! for thy light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee”, Isaiah 60: 1. That is what Ephesians is to us, the fight which refers to us exclusively. So we are blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”, Ephesians 1: 3. How the heart and mind expand at the thought of it. So the apostle prays to the Father of glory, that He “would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation”, Ephesians 1: 17. The things that belong to us are so great that in chapter 3 he bows his knees “to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named, in order that he may give you ... to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man; that the Christ may dwell,
[p. 272] through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love, in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ”, Ephesians 3: 14 - 19.
These dimensions refer to us only. There are no dimensions found elsewhere. If you think of the height you think of Christ ascended, if you think of the depth you think of the love that led Him to go so low. Then you think of the wide domain in which the love of Christ is known in relation to all the saints. There is not one omitted from that. If I know what the love of Christ is then the thing is to apprehend it with all the saints.
The Lord would touch us in regard to what is our own. That which is for every family is what we are enriched by in the wilderness; but there is that which is particularly our own and of that we have the earnest, the earnest of the Spirit; the Spirit would lead us more into the apprehension of it, and that brings you to eternity.
‘And see! the Spirit’s power
Has ope’d the heav’nly door,
Has brought us to that favoured hour
When toil shall all be o’er’.
However many visits I make there, I can never define to you what I see there. Paul said after fourteen years, “Whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knows”. God inhabits eternity, but I am to be there; I already have access there and that is peculiar to our dispensation. You remember the feast of weeks; the Jews were to go up to Jerusalem three times every year. The feast of weeks is not limited. Why is that? Because the believer has to count from the time the sheaf is offered up. There are fifty days, if you count those fifty days spiritually, you arrive at eternity. What does the counting mean? The Lord remained after His resurrection forty days, then they began to count. The sheaf was offered to Jehovah when Christ rose from the dead, and you count from when it was offered.
[p. 273] Every day would bring in some fresh thought of that Man risen. He had risen and left all the grave clothes behind; not like Lazarus who came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes. The Lord came in through closed doors on the first day of the week. “Ye shall count”. What an experience! An experience of the Lord coming in through closed doors. It was spiritual experience. The apostle writes, “If even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer”, 2 Corinthians 5: 16. We have got to learn to know Him thus, and so you go on counting until you come to fifty days of spiritual experience. These are wonderful days if you count them with Christ. The assembly’s history is a history of weeks; the believer’s history is made up of days; but whether days or weeks, it ends in a feast of no limitation. It begins when the Spirit’s power opens the heavenly door. We are linked up with eternity already. In those countings we arrive spiritually at the time when we have access to heaven itself. That is our own inheritance, and we have in the Holy Spirit the earnest of it now.