The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Inheritance, continued

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. (Romans 8:17)

The prayer that the God of Heaven placed on the heart of His only begotten Son is the burden for the Kingdom of God, for the land of promise, for the inheritance of Christ and His saints.

The Word of God on being declared to be the Son of God, a Man, immediately was given the following burden. This is the true burden of all saints, of all the sons of God: "I will give thee the heathen [nations] for thine inheritance, and the farthest reaches of the earth for thy possession."

The inheritance, the land of promise, "Canaan," the goal of Christ and His coheirs, consists of the nations of the earth, and the earth itself.

What is the Kingdom of God? The Kingdom of God is Christ doing God's will in the earth. The Kingdom of God is the rule of Christ with and through the saints over all persons and things in the heavens and on the earth (Ephesians 1:10). The emphasis of the Scriptures is on the persons and things in the earth.

The Kingdom of God began with the resurrection of Christ and continues in the heart of the saint. The Kingdom of God will come to the earth when the Lord Jesus returns with His saints to rule the nations of the earth.

If it is true that the nations of the earth and the farthest reaches of the earth are the possession, the inheritance, the promised land of Christ and His saints, why, then, has it been true up to the present hour in the development of the Christian Church that we have considered Heaven to be the inheritance, the eternal home of the saints?

The reason we have regarded Heaven as being Canaan, as our inheritance, is that our life in the present hour is in Heaven in Christ at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1-4). But when Jesus returns to earth to receive His (and our) inheritance we shall return with Him. Where Jesus is, that is where our eternal home is.

But what is home to us? For what are we yearning? For what are we being prepared throughout our pilgrimage on the earth? Where is the place of our rest, our inheritance in the Lord?

What is the meaning, the purpose of our life? Why were we called out of the world to become a member of the Church, the Body of the Christ? Where are we heading?

Every person who struggles through the problems of the world has a dream of a land beyond the rainbow, a place of victory that makes the battle worthwhile.

But what or where is it? We call it "Heaven." But what is Heaven to us?

There is a place in the spirit realm called Heaven. But the eternal home of the saint is God Himself. God is our inheritance, our home. Since God in Christ desires to be among the peoples of the earth and to rule them in love, our inheritance as members of the Body of Christ is to participate in Christ in God as the Kingdom of God is established throughout the earth.

To be continued.