Colossians Bible Study: Our Eternal Inheritance.

"Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as recompense. You serve the Lord Christ." Col. 3:24.

I really enjoyed that there is an inheritance for the believers! "The inheritance as recompense indicates that the Lord uses the inheritance which He will give His believers as an incentive that they may be faithful in their service to Him."

So what is the inheritance? We can see what it is in the following verses:

• "And if children, heirs also; on the one hand, heirs of God; on the other, joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified with Him. " - Romans 8:17. He we see that we are heirs of glory, our inheritance is to be glorified in Him!

• "To open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me." - Acts 26:18. This inheritance is the Triune God Himself with all that He has, all He has done, and all He will do for His redeemed people. This Triune God is embodied in the all-inclusive Christ. This is the greatest inheritance we can ever get! How awesome is that? Our inheritance is Christ Himself!

• "Unto an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in the heavens for you." 1 Peter 1:4. Our inheritance is incorruptible in substance, indestructible, not decaying; undefiled in purity, unstained; and unfading in beauty and glory, not withering. 1 Peter 1:2a says, "Chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father..." So here we see that we were already chosen according the foreknowledge of God the Father. When we put these two verses together, we see that our inheritance was already allotted to us since the eternity past! Even before we exist, the Lord already prepared this inheritance for us.

Actually, what is inheritance? I wiki-ed it and it says: Practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights, obligations upon the death of an individual. Someone can become an heir only ipon the death of the decedent. It is improper to speak of the "heir" of a living person since the exact identity of the persons entitled to inherit are not determined until the time of death.

So, death! Someone has to die to pass on this inheritance. Praise the Lord, Christ died to us so we can have this inheritance! After Christ died for us, then we become heirs. But in 1 Peter 1:2 says that our inheritance has been there since before the foundation of the world. What does this mean? We have to see Revelation 13:8b, "...the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world." When I was trying to connect all these dots, I was just amazed how the Lord has prepared all these things for us without flaw since the eternity past, way back before we even existed! Thus, our serving Him today is nothing compared to all what He has prepared and done for us since the eternity past!

Praise the Lord for our amazing and awesome Lord of all!