Christ’s Inheritance

In all we have been saying about the Christian’s inheritance we have been looking at things from the point of view of our own advantage.  But there is another point of view—a higher one, I would say.

God, too, has an inheritance.

For the LORD’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance (Dt. 32.9).

This is why God lifted up Israel “on eagle’s wings,” and brought them unto Himself—not only to give them the inheritance He promised Abraham, but that they themselves might become His own inheritance as well, His own inheritance among all the peoples of the earth.  For all the earth was His, He told them, but they were to be a special people among all peoples (Ex. 19.4-6).  His desire was to live and walk and dwell among them.  He wanted to come in and settle down in their midst.  Among them He would be able to, as it were, put His feet up, and say, “At last, I’m home.”  In them He could have total liberty to just be Himself.  In them He would have things His way.

Now, this was not to be something exclusive of other peoples; Israel was to be “a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.”  God always had in mind to increase this inheritance to include all peoples.  And so even under the Law provision was made for “the stranger” to become part of Israel.

But ultimately God’s longing for an inheritance that included all peoples is fulfilled in His invitation to Christ:

Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession (Ps. 2.8).

Christ did ask, and “for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross.”  It was the joy and hope of being given a people who would become His own inheritance.  A sister in the Lord mentioned this to me a while ago, adding how humbled she felt that Christ would die on the cross to purchase with His precious blood lost sinners like her to become His own inheritance.  It is humbling.  What value did He see in us?  But, looking through the eyes of love He saw a people in whom, as a result of the Cross, He would be able to put His feet up and say, “At last, I’m home.”

And so there is an intertwining of these two aspects of the inheritance.  Our inheritance.  God’s inheritance.  What a beautiful and mutually satisfying relationship we are called to.  The Lord is our inheritance, and we are His inheritance.  He is our dwelling place, and we are His dwelling place.  “Abide in Me,” He urges, “and I in you.”  To the one who hears Him knocking, He says, “I will come in and sup with him… and he with Me.”

Is that not a wonder?  To think that God is hungry for something that only you and I can satisfy?  We know readily enough that God has much to satisfy us with, and we go to Him continually holding out our empty plate.  But what about God’s empty plate?  What about that empty feeling He has?  “What can I give God?” you ask.  “How can I feed God?”  With fellowship.  He delights in fellowship with us as much as we delight in fellowship with Him.  He is very willing to share what’s “on our plate.”  Really, Lord?  Do you know what’s on my plate?  Yes, He does.  And He is willing to share it with me.  For He is meek and lowly of heart.  And He invites us to share what’s on His.

It was He who sought out Adam and Eve in the Garden.  He called out, “Adam, where are you?”  What was He looking for?  Friendship.  Fellowship.  And though that fellowship was broken, He never gave up on it.  He restored it in His Son, that in Him He could find fellowship with man again…

…And in Him we could find fellowship with God again.

“For the LORD taketh pleasure in His people,” David said (Ps. 149.3).  How can this be? David tells us.  “He will beautify the meek with salvation.”

Let us believe the love He has for us, beloved.  He will not rest till He has fully possessed His inheritance, till He has made that which He purchased on Calvary fully His own… so that in us He lives, in us He talks, in us He walks, in us He looks upon those around Him, in us He  stretches forth His hand to heal.