"In Him" - Christ Our Inheritance - Part 3

by Rev. Wayne Monbleau

In the awesome foreknowledge of God, He has predestined us for this very inheritance which we have obtained (by grace) in Jesus Christ!

“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:10b-12

Perhaps some are wondering if all this talk about Christ being our inheritance may be a bit too esoteric, or impractical, for the here and now of our everyday lives. Not at all. In fact Paul follows his declaration, “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance,” by adding, “having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph 1:11). This is God’s glorious will for our lives. The truth of our inheritance being given to us is according to, or after, “the counsel of His will.”

In the awesome foreknowledge of God, He has predestined us for this very inheritance which we have obtained (by grace) in Jesus Christ! This is God’s predestined will for us, not only to obtain this inheritance but it seems abundantly clear to me that there is a purpose also in the realization of our inheritance in relationship to our presence in this world as true children and witnesses of God. Our Lord desires us to realize our inheritance in Him, to rejoice in our inheritance, and to walk or live in our inheritance. Why? Well, Paul next adds this, “to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.”

Do you see this? In God’s predestined purpose for us, “Who works all things after the counsel of His will,” His goal or “end” for us in understanding and living in our inheritance, is simply and fully that “we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.” It’s as if God were saying, “If you will fully embrace and be embraced by this truth of your inheritance, then you will be ‘to the praise of My glory.’ You will live and be for, or towards, ‘the praise of my glory.’ This vast inheritance I have granted you in Christ is designed to fill you so full that you will be bursting with My praises in the midst of this fallen, unbelieving and desperate world. That’s what I want, My children so lit up with the truth and light of ‘I am your inheritance’ that this world will have to see and believe that Jesus Christ is the True Living God, the King of the universe and the Savior Who desires to fill all with the salvation of Him, Himself.”

Is Christ your hope in this life? Are you placing all your hopes “in Him” today? Aren’t we, just like Paul, called to place our full hope and trust in Christ? I hope you know the answer is a big affirmative yes to each of these questions. As Isaiah declared and Paul later quoted in his letter to the Romans, “There shall come the root of Jesse, and He who arises to rule over the gentiles, in Him shall the gentiles hope” (Romans 15:12, Isaiah 11:10). Yes Christ is our hope, for now and forever! As the hymnist, Edward Mote, declared, “On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand - all other ground is sinking sand.”

Yes, we who live in the Lord today hope in Christ, just as Paul and the early Christians did. So, if we do personally agree and identify with Paul’s statement regarding “we who were the first to hope in Christ” then let us also identify with and behold God’s goal for us, His present body on earth today, in that we too “would be to the praise of His glory.”

Hallelujah! In the very act of receiving our inheritance in Jesus Christ and searching out the truth, the meaning and the application of each of these heavenly blessings (“every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” Eph. 1:3) God intends that this “search” will bring us to a whole new level of awareness in Christ, where we will joyfully and gratefully be living “to the praise of His glory.” This is so wonderful. This is a Christ-centered and holy way to see God’s purpose in granting us this unfathomable inheritance. God simply desires to fill us so full with the richness of Himself that we, His children, will have no other choice but to be overflowing “to the praise of His glory” as we live in this world.

Let us always be mindful of what our inheritance cost our Lord Jesus, so we may always be humble, contrite and grateful before him.

Once more this brings us back to the relationship between acknowledging our priesthood to God and seeing how this acknowledgment relates directly towards our being able, willing and desirous to receive with clarity and substance our spiritual inheritance in Jesus Christ. For it is as priests unto the Lord that we are brought to the great covenant truth that “I am their inheritance” (Ezekiel 44:28). This declaration of reward and intimacy with God, given to the ministers unto the Lord in the Old Testament, is now completely fulfilled for us and explained to us in Jesus Christ. The all sufficient statement, “I am their inheritance,” is specifically defined through the finished work and risen nature of our Savior, Lord, King and High Priest, Jesus Christ.

Our delight, as God’s beloved children and priesthood, is to search out, for the rest of our sojourn here on planet earth, this vast and endless inheritance which “we have obtained” in Jesus Christ. I believe God intends this search to always remind us of our priesthood and of our call to follow Jesus. This daily search is intended to daily help us to be close to Jesus Christ all of the time and to, as a result, be lit up with the true light of Christ for this world.

Not only is our inheritance in Jesus Christ a most awesome blessing, but even our searching out this inheritance is a great blessing, for us in the Lord, and for this world that does not know or believe in God. It is just like being in the river of living water. God flows to us, enriching us and enlivening us with Himself. Then God flows through us and out to the world around us, so that others may hear and know of the glory of God too.

I hope and pray, that the entire present body of Christ in this world today would be authentically moved upon by God’s Holy Spirit so that we all, with one voice, “would be to the praise of His glory.” If all of God’s children were to be enlivened and enthused on the inside with the reality of the indwelling Christ, and if we were to realize that God has granted us this vast inheritance so we may live with joy and power in this present world, declaring His praise above all else that comes out of the body of Christ, then I have to believe this would do more to wake up God’s church, and this world, to the actual reality of Jesus Christ, more than any other plan or campaign that we could ever come up with.

Let us “be” and live “to the praise of His glory.” What joy! God has given us an eternal inheritance in Jesus Christ that we may live in now and that we will live in through all of time. This is “according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.” God’s desire and purpose is to enrich the body of Christ, His body, with the knowledge of our inheritance so that we may simply and fully “be to the praise of His glory.”

Have you glorified God yet today? Have you praised His name for giving you life, breath and salvation? Have you thanked Him for all that He is and all that He has done for you? Don’t let yourself get rusty. Let that river of the living waters of praise flow from your heart to the Lord. Live in and search out your awesome inheritance in Christ every day for this will always remind and prompt you through God’s Holy Spirit that we are here, functioning best, when we live “to the praise of His glory.” It is when we are living “to the praise of His glory” that we are walking in the light of His countenance, just as the Psalmist wrote, “How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! O Lord, they walk in the light of Your countenance” (Psalm 89:15). Oh what a joyful sound is our inheritance in Jesus Christ!

And there is still even more. As you are about to see, we are not yet finished with the phrase, “to the praise of His glory.” Not by a longshot.

There is something else that Paul mentions, something so wonderful that God has done and will do, for you, “to the praise of His glory!”

God flows through us and out to the world around us, so that others may hear and know of the glory of God too.

Continuing his discussion in Ephesians regarding our inheritance, our “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” inheritance in Jesus Christ, Paul wrote, “In Him (once more we see that all we have is ‘in Him’) you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation - having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14).

Praise the beautiful Name of the Lord, you have been “sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise!” Did you know that? “As a pledge of our inheritance,” God has sealed you in Christ “with the Holy Spirit of promise.” When did this happen? It happened when you listened to and believed “the gospel of your salvation.” When you received Christ as your Savior, God sealed you in Christ with His Holy Spirit of promise. And what, specifically, is the promise? The promise is that God’s present Holy Spirit within you is “a pledge of our inheritance in Jesus Christ,” an ongoing gift from God to you, to remind and assure you every day that, one day, God Himself will ultimately and forever redeem you, “God’s Own possession,” from this world to Himself, “to the praise of His glory!” Bless His Holy Name for what He has done for you “to the praise of His glory.”

The Holy Spirit is a seal, unbreakable and protective, upon us “in Him” (as we live centered “in Him” we may see and live in this truth) which God has designed to be a promise to us, always reminding us of our complete redemption. This is no dry theological observation. This is about recognizing your own self as being “God’s own possession,” precious in His sight. This is a promise to be seized with joy and gratitude. Hallelujah - you are “God’s own possession.” Of course God is going to fully redeem you! After all you’re His “own possession.” Oh, amazing grace, how sweet the sound! And this, also, God does “to the praise of His glory.”

Let us live and “be to the praise of His glory.” God has granted us this ever increasing inheritance in Jesus Christ so that we may be full of His Holy Spirit, sealed and rejoicing in Him, living in this world “to the praise of His glory.” God blesses us and fills us with Himself, being our very life and inheritance so that, in living “to the praise of His glory,” we may then bless others by declaring the truth of God, Himself, in all His fullness. This world so needs to hear from truly saved people who have risen above the religious dissonance of this world in order to proclaim the supreme truth of God Himself - His plan of salvation and the great truth of our Awesome God Who offers life, abundant and eternal, in Jesus Christ.

Let me encourage you (in the same way that Paul spoke of God’s Own attitude) to live each day of your life with“a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” This is what searching out your inheritance in Jesus Christ will do for you every day. It will constantly remind you that you are favored of God; you are His “own possession,” destined for and blessed now in a divine eternal inheritance. He has sealed you “in Him” with His Own Holy Spirit for you have become His “own possession.” This is part and parcel of your salvation and is more readily, willingly, and successfully realized as you walk in the present truth of your priesthood before God.

Go ahead. View yourself as God’s precious possession, sealed “in Him,” that is in Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit of God’s promise of complete redemption. Get used to seeing yourself this way. All of this goodness from God on your behalf is intended to produce in you a response of gratitude and loyalty so true to Him that you will, from here on out, joyfully live and “be to the praise of His glory.”

Living and being "to the praise of His glory" becomes a shower of blessings that YOU give and breathe out into the world in Jesus' Name!

God desires you to praise Him for these things, for in praising Him life is ministered to you (even as you praise God for His blessings you become more aware of the very blessings you praise Him for) and you become a minister of life to others. Praising God on a regular and continuing basis for what He has accomplished for you further fortifies the truth of your glorious inheritance in your innermost being where Christ dwells. And a genuine heart that praises God for these truths becomes a heart that joyfully testifies of God’s goodness to a fallen world. Living and being “to the praise of His glory” becomes a shower of blessing that YOU give and breathe out into this world in Jesus’ Name! The more we live “to the praise of His glory,” the more others may have a chance to also “taste and see that the Lord is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” (Psalm 34:8). Let us let everyone know, so more may also “be to the praise of His glory,” for He has done great and mighty things.

But even now I must pause and stop thinking of how blessed I am, and we are, in our inheritance in Jesus Christ so I may give my full thanks and devoted attention to God Himself, praising Him for His glory. For even as I do recognize in this phrase,“be to the praise of His glory,” the many benefits for our own lives in Christ and our purer testimony, because of the light of God shining through us, to this world, my own ultimate response is truly, simply and fully to “ the praise of His glory.” What I mean is that, in the final analysis, “the praise of His glory” is not about me or others, but it is about Him and Him alone. All of these truths of our priesthood and of our inheritance in Jesus Christ are “to the praise of His glory” for He is glory! We praise Him for Who he is and for what He has done and it is all “to the praise of His Glory.”

Forever let us be towards “the praise of His glory.” Let us incline our hearts and minds towards “the praise of His glory” and let us praise Him for His glory. See and envelop yourself in your inheritance and praise Him for His glory on all sides. He has been so kind and gracious to us and this is all “to the praise of His glory!” Let us glorify Him. Send up waves of glory to God. Tell Him your praises repeatedly and declare His praises to others. Let all that is within you “be to the praise of His glory.” Yes, praise Him for His glory! “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name” (Psalm 103:1).

End