Romans 8:17a
"And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;..."
Now for goodness sake everybody knows what it means to be a joint heir. It means everything's equal! In other words you're not going to get just a little handout. Everything that's Christ's is ours. Now we know this is mind boggling, and overwhelming to many but it's the promise we find here, and take it in by faith. The last part of verse 17 has a price with it.
Romans 8:17b
"...if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."
So there is a price to pay. Now we in America don't really know what it is to suffer for our faith. We may come under a little opposition, and of course we think that opposition is growing, but nevertheless we're still in a nation that protects our freedoms and liberties. But there are a lot of areas in the world today that are under intense persecution. Thousands of believers are losing their lives for their faith. But the promise is that if we do suffer, or to take the Lord's cup, we're going to certainly one day enjoy all the glory of it, as he says in verse 18.
Romans 8:18
"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us,"
So this is part and parcel then of our salvation experience; that yes, we are now children of God, and if we're children of God then we're heirs of God. If we're heirs of God, then we're joint-heirs with Christ! This is the restored Gospel of Christ which was hidden within the Lord's Last Suppers (the evening of the supper, the garden and its cup and betrayal, the illegal trial, execution of the tree, burial in the ground for three days and nights, resurrection, ascension with those held in Abraham's bosom, and return to walk with His followers for 40 days during which time He revealed or opened their hearts mind to the scriptures and then the finial ascension just days before Pentecost) framework as we've revealed else where. Now back to Ephesians chapter 1, and looking at verse 11 again.
Ephesians 1:11a
"In whom also we have obtained an inheritance,..." (became joint-heirs)
We're so thankful that the Lord opens hearts. So these things are exciting to us, to see it's not a hope for a thing. It's not a religion, but rather it's a position that we enjoy in Christ. And like we're shared in previous lessons, how do we know that we're in Christ? By Faith! The Bible says we are, and we believe and then receive it, we trust it. By our receptivity we have confidence and a Love of the Truth which is Christ our guaranty. Just here I must say this, faith in order to be faith is likened to our walking down a forest trial or within our own home with NO light what so ever by which we can see anything in our path. For this is the meaning of "we walk by faith not by sight." Before we return to our verse allow me to share another passage of scripture found in Amos chapter 8.
Amos 8:11-12
"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it."
This pretty much describes what we have been suffering now for the past almost 2000 years and answers why so many don't hear or understand spiritual things. Now reading on in verse 11. We've found out in this verse we have an inheritance, which is our being joint-heirs with Christ, now then we -
Ephesians 1:11b
"...being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:"
In this portion of this verse we've got so many references that have come flying through our mind, we don't know just where to go first. We're going to look up the word counsel first. So go back to Acts chapter 2, and let's look at this counsel. What's a good definition of counsel? Well a meeting of the minds. You can appoint a committee to accomplish something, and so they meet. Out of that meeting comes some real concrete results, so what do you say they did? They counseled. They had a meeting of the minds and agreed. Now looking at Acts chapter 2, let's see what happened in the Godhead. And in this verse we find Peter saying this and remember Peter is preaching to the Jews, the Nation of Israel, the Hebrews on the day of Pentecost, and he says-
Acts 2:23
"Him, (speaking of Christ) being delivered by the determinate counsel (where and when did this counsel take place?) and foreknowledge (before creation was ever laid down) of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:"
Do you know what that verse is saying? That's telling us that sometime way back in eternity past, before anything was ever called into being out of nothing, when it was still nothing, just darkness of space, the Triune God (Elohim) had a counsel, and since they were all members of the Godhead they didn't have to deliberate for half and hour. But nevertheless the Trinity came together and in a counsel agreement set everything in motion. This squashes the opinion of many that there is no Godhead made up of two or three because in order to have a counsel there by definition requires at least two parties. So we have the three Persons of the Trinity agreed that they would create the universe, and that they would put one little planet down there called earth in the midst of it. And on that planet they would put the spiritual race who would become the human race. For they knew the human race would sin, it would fall out of fellowship with their Creator, that they would then become flesh and blood and immediately after that happened He could promise a Redeemer, a seed of woman. We get this all in Genesis chapters 1 through 3. He also knew that He would do as Amos tells us which is to say that we're to live by faith not by hearing or sight as the early Hebrews had. For they saw and heard, they tasted and eat but it did them NO good because it did not produce trust or faith in Him.
Then in the Old Testament the Redeemer is being prophesied all the way through. All according to this predetermined counsel of God, and then one day here He came. He came at the exact right moment in time, as the last days. And when we analyze history, nothing would have ever worked out right had He come a 100 years sooner or 100 years later. But rather this Redeemer came at just exactly the right time, according to that predetermined counsel of the Godhead. See how beautifully everything fits. This verse also speaks of the foreknowledge of God. God knew everything that was ever going to happen. It was all in that predetermined plan of the ages, way back before anything was ever created, that Christ would go to the Last Supper, the garden and then the Cross. And through it brought these things back on plan or into focus in the right direction again, spiritually speaking. Now coming back to Ephesians chapter 1. Everything that has been unfolding now for 6000 plus years of human history, not to mention however long it was before that, that the universe was already out there spinning around. But everything was-
Ephesians 1:11b
"...predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:"
So everything has been set right on schedule. We don't know when the Lord's coming, but He does, and it won't be 1 hour too late or too early, it will be right on schedule. What is this purpose of God? Now let's go to II Timothy, chapter 1, and look at that for a moment. These verses are all so good it's hard for us to know where to start, we really don't. But let's just jump in at verse 7.
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