April 2 Your Inheritance

Ephesians 3:11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
 
PAUL explains God’s plan further. He teaches us that we have “obtained an inheritance” as God brings to salvation all he chooses to accept into his presence. Again, as stated previously, he chooses those who confess to the Father their sins and then confess Jesus Christ as Lord. (Romans 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” ­)
    Regarding “predestined” some believe that God has pre-chosen, elected, all who will be saved from eternity past. Others read “predestined” in the understanding that God has known from eternity past who will be saved. And he awaits their decision. I believe and teach the former. I understand the latter.
    The key for your salvation is that the Holy Spirit originates in you an understanding of your sin and how it separates you from God. Then he shows you the Savior as a solution for your sin. In that knowledge, you believe that Jesus has paid the deadly cost of your sin with his holy blood on the cross. God has acted to save you. As surely as you could not have been physically born without the Creator’s power, God must act to bring you out of sin’s death into the Savior’s life.
    Also, in the context of this passage, “predestined” could refer to God’s plan for the Jews. He formed his people with a plan in which he predestined them to be a nation who would be the first people group to believe in Jesus, the Messiah. From the Jews, God’s predestined plan of redemption would go forward into the Gentiles, to whom Paul is writing.            
    This Jew-to-the-world plan is what Paul means in his language of inheritance. Paul is assuring the Ephesian Gentiles that they, too, are saved in Jesus. Jesus’ act of salvation is for everyone who believes down through the ages.
    Paul and the Jews are the first fruits of the Spirit’s redeeming harvest. From the first fruits of a new crop comes the rest of the harvest. From the first fruits of the church, the harvest in the Kingdom of God has populated the world with those who call on the name of the Lord.
    We can see God’s plan of salvation as we remember that Pentecost, when the church began (Acts 2) was also called the Feast of First Fruits. It was given to the Jews to remember how God had formed them to be his people through the law. God then elected Pentecost to be the day he delivered the new harvest of the gospel of salvation through the Holy Spirit. That delivery is for all time, for all people who call on Jesus.
    This has been God’s plan from eternity past. He has said he would bring all nations under his care. And he has done so. You can believe in the God who keeps his promises.
 
Prayer: Father, your plans are so very remarkable. You established a salvation plan before time began. You are fulfilling that plan. I thank you that you have made me part of that plan. By your grace, I have been saved. In Jesus’ name I rejoice! Amen.