Ephesians 1:14-23, Part 4
Having a rich relative or friend who bestows a lavish inheritance on us is a dream for many people. It is a common scene in literature, film, and television. A wealthy person dies, the family attorney calls the family together for the reading of the will, and it is revealed who gets what.
Often though, the revealing of a will turns a dream into a nightmare. The will might have some surprises that lead to utter disappointment, anger, and family drama.
So what does Paul mean in Ephesians 1, verse 18, when he prays that Christians would know, “The hope to which he has called us, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people”?
When you hear those words, “hope” and “his glorious inheritance,” it would easy to assume that Paul is talking about heaven only. Yes, Paul is talking about the hope we have for life after death. But Paul is not saying, “Christians, my prayer is that you die as soon as possible, so you go to heaven and experience the hope and inheritance of God.” As if hope and inheritance only kick in after we die.
The whole point of Paul’s prayer is that he wants the people to know that hope now, while they’re still alive. He is not saying that we can experience the fullness of eternity now. He is saying, however, that we can know it now. There is a way that we can dwell now in the hope God has blessed us with. That hope, though we will not experience it fully until one day in the future, still matters now.
It matters now that we are people who have hope. It matters now that we are people who have an inheritance.
Notice how Paul describes the inheritance: the riches of his glorious inheritance.
When it comes to the inheritance we receive from God, it is rich, and it is for all, and it is more than enough.
But what does that mean for the here and now? If all Paul were talking about was an inheritance in heaven, I get that. In eternity, while we cannot imagine how great it will be, we just trust and believe that it will be better by far than anything we could possibly imagine. That is the ultimate inheritance.
But here and now? How do we partake of our inheritance now? We find out in the next post.
Photo by Melinda Gimpel on Unsplash
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