The fact that God is the Father of all who trust in the Lord Jesus is an astounding truth, which carries with it many practical results.
Our Father provides for us, and disciplines us to our profit. But He also promises us an inheritance as His sons.
We ought to stop and catalog the many wonderful benefits we have already received - salvation, peace, reconciliation, temporal provision, the precious written Word of God, the Holy Ghost poured out upon us, the brethren in the Lord, and the church.
But atop all this, we've yet to receive our promised inheritance. Oh the goodness of our Father, that He would lay aside for us greater riches still to be given to us in Glory!
Paul lays down the fact of this inheritance in Romans 8 and Galations 4. He writes that it flows inexorably from our positions as sons of God. Sons have entitlements from their fathers, and so too have we!
But we are not merely heirs of God, we are joint heirs with Christ! This means that we inherit with Him ALL the inheritance, not just the scraps.
Because we are accepted in Christ, and clothed in all his perfections, and so identified with Him in His death and burial and resurrection and exaltation, so too we inherit with Him everything the Father has!
The Father expects us to anticipate our inheritance. Indeed, the fact of our inheritance is given as an antidote to covetousness, materialism, fear, and disobedience. All those considerations ought to be set aside in consideration of the glorious inheritance we've been promised.
It is Christ's death that executes the covenant, or will, of the Father. By His death we obtain everything, including all the kingdom of God! |
