WISDOM’S WAY
[p. 234] THE INHERITANCE
Acts 26: 16 - 18; Ephesians 1: 7 - 23
My thought is to dwell for a moment on what it is the purpose of God to communicate by the gospel. I am not now speaking of God’s revelation of Himself in the gospel; that is properly what the gospel brings; it brings to the soul the light of God. I do not think that anybody has really believed the gospel who is not conscious that it has brought him into the light of God. The gospel presents God in the way in which He is pleased to make Himself known to us. But I want now to dwell upon what God proposes to give to us by the gospel, and I find this brought out in the commission which was given to Paul. There are two things — forgiveness of sins, and inheritance. Now a great many people who preach the gospel speak a great deal about the forgiveness of sins, but they do not say so much about the inheritance, and yet the two things are bound up together. The apostle’s commission was to go to the Gentiles to open their eyes. That is the one thing that he had to do; no more. It was not for him to turn them from darkness to light; he could not do that; but he was to open their eyes, that they might turn from darkness to light, from Satan’s power to God. I have no doubt that the Lord had in view here Gentiles, who were completely under the power of idolatry; they were to turn to God in order that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance. I wonder if we all have thought as much of the inheritance as of forgiveness. I suppose there is no Christian but has the knowledge of forgiveness; but what about the inheritance? And yet the one is as much part of the gospel as the other. I think that any one can in a sense understand the idea of forgiveness [p. 235] of sins, but it is the inheritance that I dwell upon now.
Now in Ephesians 1 you get exactly the same two thoughts presenting themselves, and thus the chapter shows how really the apostle kept in view the commission with which he had started. The two things credited to saints in that chapter are forgiveness and inheritance. Then another thing comes out, and that is the Spirit given as the earnest of the inheritance. Forgiveness is in verse 7; then in verse 11, “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance”; afterwards, in verse 14, the Spirit is the earnest of the inheritance. So that you get the appropriation to the saints of forgiveness and inheritance, and the additional thought, which does not appear in the commission, of the Spirit as the earnest of the inheritance.
I will try now to show you what the nature of the inheritance is, and then say a word or two as to the earnest of the inheritance. It is most wonderful to see God’s pleasure in giving; it is one of the most striking things I know. There is not a single person in all the world but gets the benefits of God and tastes His good things. The wickedest man in the world enjoys God’s sunshine and God’s rain. What a sad thing it is that men have so little appreciation of the benefits they enjoy from God! They enjoy the benefits, but take no account whatever of the One from whom they derive them. If you could reckon up the immense mass of wickedness which this world contains and which passes under the eye of God, and think that in spite of all, men are enjoying good things from God, and yet they do not thank Him for them! God gives rain and fruitful seasons, filling men’s hearts with food and gladness, but they do not give thanks. They are accepted with thanksgiving by the Christian, who sees that God has created all these things to be received with thanksgiving of those who believe and know the truth; 1 Timothy 4: 4.
[p. 236] Now God has secured, it I may use the expression, an inheritance for Himself; and it is to be enjoyed in those who believe. He first secures the inheritance, and then gives it to be enjoyed by those who believe. Then He gives the earnest of the inheritance, and the apostle prays that the saints might know what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance. It is a great thing to get hold of the idea of inheritance. We do not get the present possession. God communicates two things to every believer, forgiveness and the Spirit; but the Spirit is but the earnest of the inheritance, and you cannot have any enjoyment of the inheritance until you first learn what the inheritance is, and that is what is unfolded to us here. I fear there are many who have but a poor idea of the inheritance. With the great mass of Christians their thought is that they have their sins forgiven and are going to heaven. But Scripture does not speak of forgiveness of sins and going to heaven; it speaks of forgiveness of sins and inheritance, and the inheritance has a great deal to do with the earth, as we shall see presently. It was the gain which the Gentiles were to get by the gospel. Forgiveness of sins means that the whole question of our responsibility has been for ever and completely settled. It is not simply forgiveness of past sins, but forgiveness of sins absolutely. Sin is not imputed to the believer. Instead of sin being reckoned to me I have forgiveness of sins, redemption. The great point of it is that the believer will not come into judgment. He is justified. Of course, in a general way, when we speak about forgiveness of sins, we refer to what we have committed; but the statement here is more abstract in its nature. Sins are not imputed to the believer, so that he can never come into judgment.
Now the next thing is that God has “made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself”. God has provided for His own pleasure. It is what God [p. 237] is entitled to do and will do. I may get a very great deal of blessing in the fulfilment of His pleasure; but God will provide for His own pleasure, and He has made known to us the mystery of His will. A mystery in Scripture is something which is known to faith, not something mysterious. God has made known to us the mystery of His will. Mark what it is for; it is in view of the dispensation of the fulness of times. If you ask what point of time that is, I have no doubt that it refers to the millennium. It is not exactly eternity. Inheritance does not, I think, connect itself with eternity; it is connected with the kingdom, the time to come. God is going to gather together in one all things in Christ. The expression is sometimes rendered, to head up in one all things in Christ. Everything which God has put forward dispensationally, and which has been placed provisionally in the hands of man, God has secured for Himself in Christ. If we have any sense at all of what has taken place here upon earth, how man has invariably forfeited everything which God has put into his hands, it is a wonderful thing to see that everything for God is secured in Christ. Nothing will fail. There is no single thought or purpose presented in the Old Testament in which God will not be glorified, because everything is headed up in Christ.
The first man was not the man of God’s purpose. God saw fit to test the first man in a variety of positions; but God had Christ in reserve. He was God’s resource, that is, God’s wisdom, and now God has made known to us the mystery of His will to head up everything in Christ. I want to give you an idea of that if I can, for you cannot understand what the inheritance is without it. You will find if you go through the Old Testament that a vast number of responsibilities have at one time and another been committed to man. Man has been put in a variety of positions in relation to God. Going back to the [p. 238] beginning, everything was put under Adam. So far as the earth and the lower creation were concerned Adam was put over all the works of God’s hands; there was nothing in the lower creation that was not put under him. We know what came to pass. Adam virtually surrendered his dominion to Satan. He listened to his wife and came under the power of evil. The temptation to Adam was to be a rival of God; that is what Satan proposed. And when man becomes a rival of God he wants to be more than a rival, he would put God out of the field. That is the thought which comes out in antichrist. He is not content to be a rival of God, but he would displace God; he sits in God’s temple and shows himself that he is God. That is how sin works out. There you get what I might call the logical result of the fall; God is completely displaced. And who do you think supports all that? If you read the book of Revelation you will see that it is Satan who supports it all. It only shows what an extraordinary place and footing Satan has contrived to get in this world as the result of the fall.
But I go on through Scripture. In Noah we see the principle of government brought in. But Noah in dishonouring himself became unfitted for the responsibilities which God had entrusted to him. When we go on to Abraham, he had promises; but he died — could not wait here for them. You will find if you read Acts 7 attentively that nothing here ever answered the mind of God. Stephen takes up one thing after another from the outset of God’s purpose and proves through what he said that nothing has ever met the mind of God. The men that had the promises died; the law was broken; the tabernacle was superseded by the temple; God does not dwell in temples made with hands: but the wonderful divine answer to it all was revealed to Stephen in Christ in glory. Stephen looked up stedfastly into [p. 239] heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus. His mind had passed in review everything that God had set up in connection with Israel; he had seen that nothing ever met the mind of God. He propounds to the Jews the weakness of everything here; and what was the secret of this weakness? That death was upon man. But after all nothing was lost. Nothing had really failed in the purpose of God; everything had failed in the hands of man; but what was in reserve was the glory of God and Jesus.
Now I pass on to another point, namely, the kingdom. If you remember, the kingdom was given to David. Saul was set up, the man after the flesh, in a sense; then David, the man after God’s heart. David was not allowed to build the temple because he had shed much blood, but the temple was built by Solomon. Solomon, however, followed after evil, had many strange wives, and sanctioned idolatry, and God warned him that the kingdom would be divided in the time of his son. For a moment there was a glimpse of the glorious kingdom. Scripture gives us a striking picture of the magnificence of his kingdom; and yet, after all, Solomon had to hear the solemn word that the kingdom would be divided.
I only refer to one more point, and that is to Nebuchadnezzar, the first head of the Gentile power. People in this day think that nothing can surpass the present glory of kingdoms; that there is a magnificence about royalty in the present day which has never been equalled. I do not think that is really so. I see that every kingdom which has succeeded the first kingdom has been marked by deterioration, and that there has not been any kingdom equal in majesty to that of Nebuchadnezzar. It was there that the imperial system really began; he was the head of gold. This was succeeded by other kingdoms more extensive and more tyrannical in character; but for majesty none came up to the first. I have often been struck [p. 240] by the fact — it is not an original thought of mine — that when God showed the succession of kingdoms to Nebuchadnezzar it was a great image with the head of gold. When God showed the same kingdoms to Daniel, the representative of God’s people, they were like four wild beasts. And what does Nebuchadnezzar do? He sets up an image all of gold; he does not rightly represent the image shown to him in the vision. He sets to work, too, to systematise idolatry in the empire by making the kingdom the object of worship.
I refer to these things to show how completely man has failed in all that God has been pleased to place from time to time provisionally in his hands. Time after time, one way after another, the practical result has been that an opening has been given to the power of evil. The times of the Gentiles are still going on; we have not yet come to the feet of the image; there is a phase of the fourth kingdom which has not yet come to pass. It is that of which the Lord speaks in the gospel of Luke; the times of the Gentiles had to be fulfilled. Now that some of these things have happened you can understand that to us they are history; but in one sense they are not past. Do you think God is going to allow those things to drop? The stone cut out of the mountain is to break in pieces the whole image. But God will have everything to His own praise and glory. Everything is to be headed up in Christ. If the first Adam failed, Christ is the last Adam. If government failed in Noah, a king will reign in righteousness. If Abraham and the patriarchs died not having received the promises, all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ. He is risen again from the dead. The promises were made to Abraham, but confirmed to Isaac when in figure Isaac was raised from the dead. God indicated that resurrection must come in so that the promises might be set beyond death. Christ is the true vessel [p. 241] and heir of promise. Then as to the kingdom, He is the true seed of David. Solomon was the immediate seed of David after the flesh, Christ is the true seed. Then He is the Head of the Gentiles. He says, “Thou hast made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me”. Psalm 18 shows us the way in which Christ is identified with the history of Israel from the outset, and in that psalm it comes out too that He is the Head of the Gentiles. Nothing has failed. We are here in the ruin of the church; everything has failed in the hand of man, to whom God has provisionally committed these things, but nothing has failed for God, for He is going to head up everything in Christ. God has a vessel for His pleasure. In the gospel of Matthew we see the blessed vessel of promise; everything is established for God there. The heading up of all things in Christ is presented to us in order to give us an idea of the inheritance. Christ is the heir of all things, and we have obtained an inheritance in Him. Your inheritance and mine is not short of Christ’s. It is God’s inheritance; God has vested it in Christ, and it is in Him that we have obtained it. Do you believe that you are going to share it with Him? Look for a moment at the two epistles to the Thessalonians. The rapture is brought in in the first epistle in order that we may know how we are going to be for ever with the Lord. But the second epistle tells us how we are to come out with Him that we may share His inheritance. It is an inheritance which we have of God, and we have it by Christ. If Christ in His solitary path here upon earth maintained everything for the glory of God, was made sin to put sin away and in death completely glorified God in the place of man’s distance, then He is suited to take the inheritance. It belongs to Him; He is the blessed vessel of promise; He takes the inheritance, and we have obtained it in Him. I cannot lay too much stress upon this point because we are [p. 242] all in danger of being dazzled by the glory of the world. Think of what it will be when Christ gets His rights as Son of man — universal dominion, perfect government, princes judging in equity, and think too of the glory in connection with God’s people. When Simeon took the child Jesus in his arms he said — “A light for the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel”. That is what Simeon saw in the Babe by the Holy Spirit. He was to bring the Gentiles out of their darkness and to be the glory of God’s people Israel. That has not yet come to pass. I would to God that we had more of the light of the inheritance in our souls.
It is important to see that nothing can baffle God. What really comes out is the patience and long suffering of God, bearing as He does with evil whilst He works out His purposes. But everything is firm and established in Christ. Every item of God’s purposes that is foreshadowed in the Old Testament is headed up in Christ. God has bid us walk through the length and breadth of the land to survey the inheritance, having told us that we have obtained an inheritance in Christ. Now the apostle says here that we have believed in Him, that is, in Christ. Believing in a person means that you have committed yourself to that person. There is a great difference between believing a fact and believing a person. A fact may be presented to me on sufficient evidence and I believe it, but if I talk about believing in a person I commit myself to that person, and I do not believe in a person unless I see that person is worthy of faith. I have committed myself to Christ. I have nothing in Adam, that is a clear case, but now in Christ I have forgiveness of sins. And further, “In whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory”. Now we [p. 243] have to wait a little, but we have the earnest of the inheritance, and that is in view of the redemption of the purchased possession. Christ has tasted death for everything; Hebrews 2. He has purchased the possession, paid the price, but the possession is not yet redeemed. Redemption in Scripture often conveys the idea of deliverance, and that is what is yet needed in regard to the inheritance.
Now if we have the Spirit as the earnest of the inheritance we ought to be able to give some account of what the inheritance is. You see what the apostle prays for at the close of the chapter — “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him”, that is of God, “the eyes of your heart being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling” — that refers, I imagine, to sonship — “and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”. Do you believe in the goodness of God? God has attained His purpose in Christ; and having secured the inheritance He does not reserve it for Himself, but He will have it enjoyed by those who believe. God is good, He loves to communicate. God does not need to receive, but God can give; He has secured everything for Himself in Christ, but secured it there in order that we might enjoy the inheritance. You can see the principle in regard to Israel. He will secure the land for Himself, and Israel will come into the promises made to Abraham, because the promises of God cannot fail. In Him (Christ) is the yea and in Him the amen, for glory to God by us. That is now. If we can give an account of the promises, it is glory to God by us.
It is a wonderful thing to think of what we have got; an inheritance, and the Spirit as the earnest of the inheritance. “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”; it is not that He gives it [p. 244] to you grudgingly. God is good, and it is His pleasure that whatever He has secured should be enjoyed by His saints. There is nothing more wonderful than the goodness of God. After all, in the consciousness of one’s own failure, in having to do with God we have to do with One who is absolutely good. When we have to do with Satan, it is with one who is absolutely evil. People think there may be some soft point about Satan; there is no such thing. On the other hand, God is good, and no one can be spoken of as absolutely good save God, and He has been pleased to make Himself known thus where man has failed.
I have not said a word in regard to proper Christian privilege, I have simply spoken of the benefits conferred by the gospel. I think anyone can take in the idea of forgiveness of sins and inheritance. Now those are what belong to the Christian. “God has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence”. Are you not interested in the wisdom and prudence of God? The idea of wisdom in Scripture is resource. A man that is marked by wisdom is a man of resource. Whatever combination of circumstances a wise man has to meet he always has a resource. God cannot be baffled, because He has a resource; Christ is the wisdom of God, He is God’s resource.
When I run my eye over the Old Testament it is a picture of terrible failure. Beautiful things are brought into view, but all ends in terrible failure on account of man. But my comfort is that nothing has failed for God, and I cannot conceive any greater privilege than that we should be brought into the light of what God has been pleased to effect for Himself. God is to have glory in these things.
I do not add more. I have just brought these things before you, trusting that they may tend to increase our interest in the study of Scripture. We see in the light of the New Testament that everything presented is to be established in the Man of God’s [p. 245] purpose. Christ is the Man for us, He is the Man for God. May God give us to know what is the hope of His calling, association with Christ in heavenly glory, and the exceeding greatness of His power, which will put us in complete possession of the inheritance, when the inheritance is redeemed.