FRIDAY June 7th
Ephesians 1:18 ‘. . . having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints . . .’
We continue from the previous devotion, which is that we will have our hearts enlightened towards that which ‘are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints’.
At first, we would consider the word inheritance and think of that which is ours in Christ, because we are heirs of Father, joint heirs with the son, but commentators suggest that what Paul is expressing here is that we as the redeemed of the Lord are the riches of God’s glorious inheritance. When God brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt, it is later said of them in Deuteronomy 9:29 ‘For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’ The NIV uses the word inheritance, ‘But they are your people, your inheritance that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.’
The children of Israel became God’s chosen possession, it is said of them in Deuteronomy 7:6 ‘For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.’ Now, before we move on this surely is sufficient for us to realise even today in the 21st Century, that Israel as a nation and Israel as a people are extra special to God out of all the nations and peoples of the world. After all, we often say, the God of Israel. That is why it is so important that we pray for the nation and the people of Israel.
But when we come to 1 Peter 2:9-10, it is said of the church ‘But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.’
Does this mean that the church has replaced Israel—not at all, God has not finished with Israel, he still has much to fulfil through them as a nation and as a people, the wonder is this that God has chosen to gather from the Gentiles those who will make up the Church, the body of Christ who have become his glorious inheritance, when God looks at Israel he sees them as his inheritance, when God looks at the church he sees us as his inheritance, that is we belong to him, we are precious to him. And how has this been made possible? Through the riches of his grace, as Paul has said earlier in Ephesians 1:7-10. ‘In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.’ In Malachi 3, there is a verse that says ‘“They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.’
When we fully grasp this, who we are and what we have become in Christ, and especially that God sees us as his glorious inheritance or heritage, we would ensure that all times we would seek to bring glory to God by the manner of life that we live, what we do, where we go, how we speak and act, for as his inheritance he has the right to demand that just as he is holy, so we too should be holy. Ephesians 1:12 ‘so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory’.