Qualified for Inheritance

Qualified for Inheritance

Words of Faith 10-1-19

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2019

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

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Colossians 1

     [9] For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.  [10] And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, [11] being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully [12] giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

      A common question in our world has to do with qualification.  We ask: Are you qualified for the job?  Is he qualified for the office he seeks?  Are you qualified to run that particular piece of machinery?  Some qualifications-- such as the right to vote-- are won and protected for us by the sacrifice of others, but are also given to us, requiring only that we register that qualification.

      Paul concluded this magnificent pastoral prayer talking about a qualification.  He prayed that the believers in Colosse might joyfully give thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

      It is an interesting phrase because qualification for inheritance is not something one can earn or deserve; it always is a matter of family heritage. Yet the Greek word used here carries the sense of empowering or authorizing as well as making sufficient or competent. Usually a person was qualified for inheritance by documenting proper family lineage.  That is certainly the case here, but that lineage is something that the Father authorized and empowered on our behalf.  It is the language of complete and legal adoption.

      The strong sense of the language is that the believers have no fitness in themselves for sharing in the heritage of God's people. They can experience this only as God qualifies them for such a privilege.  In fact, the tense of the word expresses a one-time completed and instantaneous act.   Yet the concept of inheritance also speaks of having always been part of a family.  It is as if the Father qualifies or authorizes something that was always intended from the beginning of time.

       It is a marvelous inheritance that the believer "shares in" with "the saints"-- those who have also been qualified to be part of the family.  There is an obvious allusion to the shared inheritance of ancient Israel in the Land of Promise. Gentile Christians, as those adopted and grafted into the people of God, also have an inheritance, and each believer has a share allotted to him.

        So, the most obvious question is this-- Have you received your qualification to share in the inheritance of the saints?  It is a work that God has done on your behalf in Jesus Christ, but we must receive that qualification by faith.  But like the qualification to vote, won and earned by the sacrifice of others, it is something that one must receive by faith and register in eternity.  Have you received the qualification? 

       Father God, I pray that I might live a life worthy of the You and may please You in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. Strengthen me with all power according to Your glorious might so that I may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully give thanks to the Father, who has qualified me to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. In Jesus' Name.  

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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, and our website, and our church app, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.  

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