Colossians 1:12
"Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet (prepared us made us fit) to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:"
What’s an inheritance? It’s something you gain by being an heir. Now we’ve got to tie all of this together. Come back with me to Romans chapter 8 because we want people to see that we’re not just digging something and making something of it without showing that it’s tied all the way through Scripture. Now for us, of course, the main parts of Scripture are Paul’s Epistles. Paul alone deals with this Age of Grace and though not said in so many words, the New Covenant of an Endless Life in Grace. You see so far we've learned this that Grace is the Living Lord Jesus in action within the soul/spirit of redeemed or regenesised mankind. All the rest of Scripture deals with the earthly people, the Hebrews and Gentiles in their natural state under Satan's dominion. And that this state is revealed through Religion matters not the name or denominational affiliation or affirmation. For Saul of Tarsus or Paul himself had experienced this release from religions hold on him as he resights in his gospel, where he uses the wrestling of his will with that of the living Lord's. But here this apostle of the Gentiles, the apostle of Grace, or as one author put it, I think, in the title of his book, "The Apostle of Souls Set Free." Hey, I like that. That’s what He’s done. He's given us eyes to see the snare or trap laid open before us by the fowler Satan and this trap or snare is religion. If we'd but study the word, "trap, net and snare" as recorded in Job, the Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. It’s through Paul’s writings that we’ve been set free. He has set all of mankind free not only from sin's dominion but also set us free from the sin of religion, religion on the grand scale of deception and mans destruction. Which the book of Revelation reveals is the ongoing battle for mans regenesis.
Somebody told me how they had come out of this religious background of "do this and do that." And they said, "Now I’m free." And I suppose I looked kind of quizzical, so he said, "Bill have you ever carried a bag of potatoes on your back?" I said, "Well, something close to it. I've carried feed and bucked bails of hay in Idaho." He said, "What does it feel like when you drop it?" Well, there’s the example. He said, "That’s what it’s like. You come out of all that legalism and religion and all its demands and you’re set free." Well, yeah, that’s what the apostle was. He was the apostle of the souls set free. He’s the apostle of Grace. Don’t you love that? You know, I just told a lady this morning, while at the food bank, who came out of one of these backgrounds, "You know, you folks are so much more exuberant than a lot of the people that I have generally grown up with, because you have experienced being set free." And many of you know what I’m talking about. Set free to become the humanity that God the Father designed and created us to be, His temples exhibiting His character through the ontological essence of the Spirit of Christ restored within us. In accord with John17.
Romans 8:14
"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons (or the children) of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit (that’s capitalized, which is a reference to the Holy Spirit ie..Christ's Spirit) of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."
Now then we find that same Spirit bears witness with our spirit. Now that’s a communal relationship, a oneness.
Romans 8:16
"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we (hope to be? NO) are the children of God."
Can you see the difference? How many of the religions of the world tell their people, "Well you can’t really know. The best you can do is hope." That’s not what my Bible teaches. My Bible says the Holy Spirit communes with me and convinces me, confirms within me that I am, you are, not "hope to be," see? Alright, now here it comes. That’s why I came back here.
Romans 8:17
"And if (we’re) 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."
You’re an heir! You’re an heir of God and a joint heir in Christ. Now that’s our relationship as believers in this New Age of Grace. We’re not under the Levitical Law. We’re not under its bondage. We’re not under the heavy burden of works, works, works. We're not to be caught in some hokey religion for we've been set free and it was for this freedom that Christ came. We’ve been set free (not that we ever were in subjection to it in the first place as it, the Levitical Law, was only a fence around the Hebrew children of disobedience) and now we are in joint heirship in Christ. How? through our being crucified, buried, resurrected and ascended in His likeness as flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. And this all by faith not of works for if it were by works then we'd have room to boast but NOT before God. Now, back to Colossians 1.
Colossians 1:12
"Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:"
We're to remain in the Light as He is in the Light, but many slip back into the darkness of religion the very thing that Paul is warning these Hebrew-Christians of not doing. That’s what took me back to Romans 8. Now verse 13. This same God:
Colossians 1:13
"Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us (already) into the kingdom of his dear Son:"
Now goodness sakes, where’s the Son? Well, He’s in Heaven, not here on earth. We are connected to His Kingdom in Heaven - not the earthly kingdom promised to those Hebrews who remained spiritually separated from God by religion, but that heavenly connection that we have in Christ. Now let’s come back to Hebrews chapter 12; and so we have not come to a physical mountain, Sinai, that can’t be touched by man or beast, but we have come to the Heavenly Zion and city of the Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem and that brings us into consort with what? "The innumerable company of angels." or in the margin of your Bible, probably says the myriads of myriads of angels. That’s part of heaven. This is repeated in Revelation as one of Johns many visions.
Alright, now to just get a glimpse of the glory that’s waiting for us. I wish I could get Christians excited. It seems everybody’s in the doldrums. I know the world is tough and I know that the news is never good, but listen, "The worse it gets, the closer we are to the Lord’s coming." And so you and I can rejoice. The worse it gets, the closer we are to His coming. It has to get really really bad before the end comes. So here we are, introduced into the heavenliest with that innumerable company of angels. In the ongoing action of spiritual battle for the souls of both unredeemed man and for those who have come into redemption and then on into salvation. For its within or the entering of God's salvation program that we become son's of God and God in Christ is enabled to restore His character to us. Now verse 23.
Hebrews 12:23
"To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,"
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