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A GLORIOUS INHERITANCE

A. Introduction: Paul the apostle (an eyewitness of Jesus) called the many troubles and hardships he faced in
life momentary and light in comparison to the glory that is ahead for those who know the Lord. II Cor 4:17-18
1. We have been talking about glory to help us understand how anticipating future glory helped Paul. This
is an important topic because awareness of what is ahead gives us hope for the future and helps us now.
a. The hope of glory provides us with peace of mind now because we live with the realization that
there’s more to life than just this life, and what is ahead far outshines what we must deal with now.
b. It also helps us understand our purpose—why we exist, why we’re here. And it helps us know how
we’re supposed to live—what God wants from us and does for us in this life.
2. The word glory is used in several ways in the Bible with various shades of meaning. We have been
focusing on how it is used in connection with God Himself and with the salvation that He has provided
for us through Jesus.
a. Glory is used for the honor and praise that is due to Almighty God because of who He is and what
He does, and it is used for God Himself. Glory is the essence of God Himself. God is by nature
glorious—splendid, magnificent, beautiful. He is a glorious Being who does glorious things.
b. The word glory is also used for the salvation that Almighty God provides for those who believe in
Him. We have more to say in this lesson about the glory that is connected with our salvation.
B. We’ve made the point that God created human beings for a position of glory. Ps 8:4-4—What is man that
you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you are for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than
the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor (ESV).
1. In eternity past God designed a plan to have a family of sons and daughters who would live with Him in
loving relationship forever. We were created to become sons and daughters of God, a glorious position.
a. God created human beings in His image and likeness (Gen 1:26). The Hebrew grammar in Genesis
1:26 indicates that the Lord made us to be imagers or reflectors of Him.
b. Almighty God created us with the capacity to be indwelled by Him (His Spirit and His eternal life)
and then reflect His glory (His moral excellence—love, joy, peace, holiness, goodness; etc.) to the
world around us, and bring glory (honor and praise) back to Him by the way that we live.
1. I Pet 2:9—You are…[God’s] own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the
wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light (Amp).
2. Matt 5:16—Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and
your praiseworthy, noble and good deeds, and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your
Father Who is in Heaven (Amp).
2. Beginning with Adam, human beings have chosen independence from God through sin, and have fallen
from (are no longer qualified for) their created position as His holy sons and daughters. Rom 3:23
a. Jesus came into this world and died as a sacrifice for sin to open the way for all who believe in Him
to be restored to their created position and sons and daughters of God. I Pet 3:18
b. Jesus came to restore human nature and to glorify it. He restores us through the salvation He
provides so that we can fulfill our created purpose. The end result of salvation is restoration to
glory, as fully glorified sons and daughters who reflect God’s glory.
1. Heb 2:9-10—Jesus suffered and died “in order to bring many sons to share his glory” (Good
News Bible).
2. II Thess 2:14—(God) called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ (NKJV); to share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (CEV).
3. In Rom 8:29-30 Paul described the process through which God restores sinful men and women to their
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position of glory: For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His
Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined, these He
also called; whom He called, these He also justified, and whom He justified, these He also glorified
(NJKV). Note these points.
a. God knew us before we existed and predetermined (decided beforehand) that we would be part of
His family. And He decided that Jesus (in His humanity) would be the pattern for His family.
b. When we acknowledge Jesus as Savior and Lord God restores us to our created position of glory.
On the basis of Jesus’ sacrificial death, God can justify us (declare us no longer guilty of sin) and
impart His Spirit and life to our inner being, which makes us His sons. But there is more to it.
1. We now have the glory of God in us because God, Who is glorious, is in us. He is in us to help
us, empower us, to live and walk in a new life, a life where we actively seek to grow and
become increasingly like Jesus in our character and behavior. Rom 6:4; Col 1:11; II Cor 3:18
2. And although our bodies are still mortal and subject to corruption, we now also have the hope of
glory. In connection with Jesus’ second coming and resurrection of the dead our bodies will be
glorified—instantly made immortal and incorruptible like Jesus’ resurrected body. Phil 3:20-21
4. Christianity is not simply people trying to be good and live a better life. It’s supernatural. God
indwells human beings by His spirit, His uncreated life, and raises us to a higher level of existence by
restoring us to what He always intended us to be—sons and daughters who are fully glorifying to Him.
a. We don’t become Jesus, nor do we lose our individuality. We become the person that God
intended us to be before sin damaged His creation—sons and daughters who are fully glorifying to
our Heavenly Father in every thought, motive, word, and action.
b. We don’t become God, nor is His glory never our possession. It’s always His life, His glory, in us
and through us. He fills us and we shine with His glory. This doesn’t mean that His glory (His life
and Spirit in us) comes and goes. It means that He is always God and we always are not.
c. God’s purpose in salvation is to restore those who believe in Him to the position of glory He intends
for His sons and daughters. Salvation is the complete transformation and restoration of human
nature, by the power of the Holy Spirit, on the basis of Jesus’ sacrificial death. That’s glorious!
C. Paul and the other apostles were commissioned by Jesus to proclaim this message about God’s plan to have a
family of holy sons and daughters through Jesus, who fully glorifying to Him. Note what Paul wrote.
1. Eph 1:4-6—Before the world was made…God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would
bring us to himself as his sons—this was his pleasure and purpose. Let us praise God for his glorious
grace, for the free gift he gave us in his dear Son (Good News Bible).
a. Eph 1:9—God did what he had purposed, and made known to us the secret plan he had already
decided to complete by means of Christ (Good News Bible).
b. Eph 1:10—God’s plan, which he will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation
together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as the head (Good News Bible).
2. Then in the next portion of this letter, Paul used the word inheritance three times in reference to God’s
plan for a family. Eph 1:11; Eph 14; Eph 1:18
a. We think of an inheritance as something we get. But Paul’s meaning is much bigger. Paul calls
believers God’s inheritance: Eph 1:11—In (Christ) also we were made an inheritance (Wuest); In
Him we also were made [God’s] heritage (portion) and we obtained an inheritance (Amp).
1. The Greek word that Paul used for inheritance includes this idea: to be chosen as an inheritance.
Yes, we get something out of salvation, but so does God. He gets His family.
2. Paul was a Jew who was thoroughly schooled in the Old Testament. In these Scriptures we
first find the concept of God’s people being His inheritance or His portion.
A. Deut 4:20—Remember that the Lord rescued you from the burning furnace of Egypt to
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become his own people and special possession; that is what you are today (NLT).
B. Almighty God did actually deliver Israel from slavery in Egypt, but that event also
foreshadowed what God does through redemption (salvation). He brings men and women
out of bondage by His power and makes them His people, His inheritance through Jesus.
b. Then Paul wrote: Eph 1:13—And now you have also heard the truth, the Good News that God
saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy
Spirit, whom he promised long ago (NLT). (Ezek 11:19-20; Ezek 36:25-27; Joel 2:28; etc.)
1. Not only has God identified us as His own, when we believed “(we) were stamped with the seal
of the long-promised Holy Spirit” (Eph 1:13, Amp). Then Paul calls the Holy Spirit “the
guarantee (earnest) of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph
1:14, NKJV).
2. Eph 1:14—The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us everything he promised—and that
he purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious
God (NLT).
A. The Holy Spirit is called our seal and our guarantee. The indwelling Holy Spirit is the
stamp or mark that you now belong to God and He is also the guarantee that the full
salvation God provided for you through Jesus will be completed.
B. God’s inheritance is you restored to the family as His son or daughter through Jesus. Our
inheritance is the glorification of our body when Jesus returns, our body made immortal
and incorruptible—death fully and finally defeated.
3. Paul made this clear in other parts of his writings. Note another statement that Paul made about the
Holy Spirit later in this same letter, in the context of developing Christ-like character in this life.
a. Eph 4:30—And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way that you live. Remember, he
is the one who has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of
redemption (NLT). Day of redemption refers to the completion of God’s plan when Jesus returns.
1. You may be thinking: Aren’t I saved now? Yes you are saved (justified, in right relationship
with God) through faith in Jesus, and glory is in you now because God (Jesus, by His Spirit) is
in you to help you grow in Christ-likeness. But your body is still mortal and corruptible.
2. The salvation God provides includes a glorified body, a body that is immortal and incorruptible,
a body that radiates God’s glory. This will not happen until the day of redemption, the day of
“final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin” (Eph 4:30, Amp).
b. That day is the second coming of Jesus and resurrection of the dead. Paul wrote about that day in
his letter to the Romans. Note its context—the hope that comes from knowing the glory ahead.
1. Rom 8:18—Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later. For
all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really
are (NLT).
2. Rom 8:22-23—We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth
right up to this present time (NIV). And not only the creation, but we ourselves too, who have
and enjoy the first fruits of the (Holy) Spirit—a foretaste of the blissful things to come—groan
inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies [from sensuality and the grave, which will
reveal] our adoption (our manifestation as God’s sons) (Amp).
A. There is provision from God for this life. But this life is temporary. We’re only passing
through this world in its present form. The best is yet to come. I Cor 7:31; I Pet 2:11; etc.
B. This is why Paul could endure hardships and face death by execution. He knew that he
would join the Lord in Heaven and get back his body (glorified) at Jesus’ return. 4.
Paul was not the only apostle to write about present glory and future glory and a glorious inheritance.
Note what Peter the apostle wrote when he was exhorting church leaders to care for believers.
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a. Peter called himself a partaker of God’s glory: I Pet 5:1—So I exhort the elders among you, as a
fellow elder and a witness of the suffering of Christ, as well as a partaker of the glory that is going to
be revealed (ESV).
b. As an original apostle, Peter had some knowledge of God’s glory. He witnessed Jesus’ person and
works for three years. Jesus was and is God Incarnate, God’s clearest revelation to us. John 1:14
1. Peter saw Jesus and saw Him manifest His glory through miracles—This beginning of signs
Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory (NKJV, John 2:11).
2. Peter saw Jesus’ glory at His transfiguration (Matt 17:1-6). He wrote: We were not making
up clever stories when we told you about the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and his coming
again. We have seen his majestic splendor (glory) with our own eyes (II Pet 1:16, NLT).
5. Note what Peter wrote a few lines earlier. II Pet 1:3—As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives
us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive His own glory and goodness
(NLT). Peter referenced help from God to live a godly life now, by God’s power, and reminded his
readers that God has called us to receive His glory and goodness. Then Peter wrote:
a. II Pet 1:4—By that same mighty power, he has given us all of his rich and wonderful promises. He
has promised that you will escape the decadence (rottenness and corruption, Amp) all around you
caused by evil desires (lust and greed, Amp) and that you will share in his divine nature (NLT).
b. Jesus’ sacrifice opened the way for us to become sharers or partakers of glory or “God’s essential
nature” (II Pet 1:4, J. B. Phillips). Partaker is from the Greek word koinoneo. It means to share in
and is translated elsewhere as fellowship and communion.
1. We are now sharers (participators) in the glory of God so that we can live in a way that pleases
(glorifies) God and so that we can escape the corruption in the earth through resurrection.
2. We don’t possess God’s glory in the sense that it is ours or becomes ours—It’s like water in a
sponge. The water doesn’t become the sponge, the water infuses the sponge. It’s His glory in
us and through us. It’s a union. We are infused, indwelled, and purified by God.
c. Like all the apostles, Peter understood that we possess present glory—God in us to strengthen and
change us. But a future glory awaits us—our bodies made immortal and incorruptible. We will
then live in loving relationship and fellowship with our glorious Father forever. Peter also wrote:
1. I Pet 1:3—All honor to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is by his boundless
mercy that God has given us the privilege of being born again (present glory). Now we live
with a wonderful expectation because Jesus rose from the dead (NLT).
2. I Pet 1:4-5—For God has reserved a priceless inheritance for his children. It is kept for you,
pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay (future glory). And God, by his
mighty power will protect you until you receive this salvation because you are trusting in him.
It will be revealed on the last day (the day of redemption) for all to see (NLT).
D. Conclusion: We have a glorious future ahead of us—complete deliverance from all the corruption and death
in this world, full restoration to all that God created us for, and an eternity of joy, peace, and happiness with
Almighty God. That’s our inheritance. We have more to say next time, but consider one more thought.
1. Paul used the word inheritance three times in the first chapter of Ephesians. The third time, he prayed
for Christians that the eyes of their understanding would be opened “so that you can know and
understand the hope to which he has called you and how rich is His glorious inheritance in…His set apart
ones, And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing
greatness of is power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength,
Which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead” (Eph 1:18-19, Amp).
2. Ask God to help you know and understand the hope inspired by His call to us to become His sons and
daughters, to help you live with the awareness of the glorious inheritance He gives us.