Colossians Chapter 1 Verses 12-14, part 1

Col. 1:12 “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:”

“Giving thanks unto the Father…” Often in our prayer life we are asking God to help us or to bless us or to help someone we know and to bless them. One of the most neglected aspects of most of us in our prayers lives is to give thanks unto God. We have much in which we should be thankful to God for his blessings upon us. In the above passage, Paul outlines four things that we should be especially thankful for and that we should express thanks to God for. These four things are as follows:

    1. That he has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

    2. That he has delivered us from the power of darkness.

    3. That he has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.

    4. That in Christ we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

We will now deal with these four things in the order they are presented to us.

First, God has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. One of the grand and glorious themes of the bible and especially of the New Testament is that there are a people who have an inheritance awaiting them. Peter tells us about that inheritance in 1 Pet. 1:3, 4: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you…” From this there are several points that we can make about this inheritance:

        1. This inheritance is a heavenly inheritance. It is not an earthly inheritance but one that awaits us in heaven.

        2. This inheritance is incorruptible. All earthly inheritances are corruptible and do corrupt over time. We live in corrupt bodies that corrupt unto death over time. That will not be the case in heaven. Our bodies will be changed in the resurrection and be incorruptible. Nothing about the glory world will be corrupt or corruptible. There will be no decay brought about by sin or anything else.

        3. This inheritance is undefiled. We live in a world that is defiled by sin brought about as a result of the sin of our father Adam and exacerbated by the uncountable multitudes of sin by mankind ever since. There will be no defilement with sin in heaven and no possibility of sin in heaven. That glory world is and will always remain undefiled.

        4. Unlike earthly inheritances, that heavenly inheritance will not fade away over time. The joys and blessings of that glory world will be just as great after ten billion years as it was when we first arrive in the glory world.

        5. That inheritance is reserved. There has been a reservation made for God’s people in that glory world. There will be no such thing as someone arriving and finding that there simply is no room for them. That reservation is a specific and not a general reservation. Sometimes reservations are made by businesses or churches or other organizations for a block of rooms. These are non-specific reservations. Our reservation in heaven is a specific reservation. It is reserved for “YOU.”

Since the reservation of that inheritance is made by God, there is a certainty to that reservation that could not be if the reservation was made by man. We are told in Eph. 1:11 “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:” Paul tells us that we have already obtained that inheritance by promise of God as he has “predestinated” us to it according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. The word “predestinated” simply means that God fixed the final destination beforehand. The final destination of those that God purposed after the counsel of his own will was that they obtain an eternal inheritance.

Next, we ask ourselves “Who has the right of heirship of this inheritance?” There are four ways in which a person can be an heir. A person can be an heir by natural birth. A person can be an heir by adoption. A person can be an heir by marriage. A person can be an heir by being named in a will. God’s people are heirs by all four ways.

First, they are heirs by spiritual birth: 1 Pet. 1:23 “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” Also, 1 John 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”

Next, they are heirs by adoption. Adoption is the process whereby a person is taken out of one family and placed in another family. God’s children were in the family of Adam by natural birth. While they are given a new nature in the spiritual birth, they still have the Adamic nature in their bodies. We read in Eph. 1:5: “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will…” There are three great requirements in adoption. First, the child to be adopted must be chosen. Note that the child never does the choosing, but the parents do the choosing. In this case, God does the choosing and not the person being chosen. According to Eph. 1:4 this choosing took place before the world began: “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:” The second great requirement in adoption is that the legal requirements must be met. All debts of the child must be satisfied. Each of those God chose had a great debt of sin and had not ability to pay the debt. However, Christ paid the debt for them as we read in 2 Cor. 5:21: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” This payment of debts was made when Christ hang on the cross and suffered the wrathful judgment of God in their place and to satisfy God’s wrath against their sins. The third thing is that the child is removed from the original family and taken home to the adopting family. This will take place in the resurrection. The children of God are predestinated unto the adoption of children. Since God has determined and fixed their final destination beforehand, the outcome is just as certain as God is.

Third, God’s children are heirs of God as they have been made part of the bride of Christ. Those for whom Christ died are made to be his bride as we read in Eph. 5:25-27: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” In this passage, husbands are admonished to love their wives in the same manner as Christ loved his bride and gave himself for her and presented her to himself as a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing…

Fourth, God children are heirs of God by will or testament: Heb. 9:15 “And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. 16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. 17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.” There are several conclusions that we make from the above passage:

    1. Christ is the testator as well as the mediator of this testament.

    2. A testator must die before the testament is in force.

    3. Names cannot be added to a testament or changes made to the testament once the testament is in force.

    4. When Christ died, the testament came into force.

    5. Since the testament is already in force, there can be no changes made to the testament or names added to the testament.

    6. All those named in the testament are legal heirs of the testator and have the testator’s inheritance.

Next, we ask ourselves, “When was this testament made and what were the terms of this testament?” The answer is found in Rom. 8:29, 30: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” As we previously noted in Eph. 1:4 God’s children were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. According to the passage above the final outcome of that testament is that those God foreknew will be conformed to the image of Christ and will be glorified.

Therefore we conclude that God’s people are heirs by all four ways in which someone can be an heir.

In addition, we are told some more great things about this inheritance in Rom. 8:16 “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. 18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” From this we make the following observations:

        1. We have a two-fold witness that we are God’s children. We have the spirit that God gave us in regeneration. We also have the Holy Spirit begin witness with the spirit that God gave us that we are the children of God.

        2. Since we are children we are also heirs of God.

        3. The nature of our inheritance is awesome! We are joint-heirs with Christ. This simple means that everything that is Christ’s is also ours! In joint-heirship everything that is ones belongs jointly to everyone else as well! In other words, we share jointly everything that is Christ’s! There is no such thing as one having more than another in heaven.

        4. The glory of our inheritance is not said to be revealed to us, but is revealed in us. Again this is awesome, that those whose nature is corruptible and full of sin, should one day possess the glory that has been promised to us.

Moreover, there are times when an heir will not come into full possession of the inheritance until an appointed time. For instance a man may have a will in which he leaves his estate to his only son. However, the son cannot get full possession until he is 30 years old. In the meantime the father made arrangements that the son would draw an earnest of the inheritance until he reaches the age of 30. This could be something lake a monthly stipend until that time he comes into full possession. This arrangement is called an “earnest” of the inheritance.

We read about how God’s children can have an earnest of the inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession in Eph. 1:13 “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” Coming into possession of the earnest of the inheritance begins when someone hears the word of truth and trust in Christ for their eternal redemption rather than seeking to justify themselves before God by their works or actions. Once they believe that Christ has delivered them from their sins and heaven shall be theirs by the grace of God, they are then sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. This seal is not like sealing a box with tape, but rather is like the king’s seal whereby the king had a ring that was peculiar to the king and in which he pressed on an ink pad and then upon a document to authenticate the document as being his document. When we believe that Christ died to redeem us from our sins and that by his grace alone, then the Holy Spirit impresses upon our hearts that we are one of his. This is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of our bodies. It brings great peace and rest and comfort to the believing child of grace to know that heaven and all its glory awaits him at the end of his journey on earth.