Truth Today: Colossians 1:12

Here we have another result of growing in the knowledge of God, which is being enabled to give thanks joyfully to the Father.

But for what?

For being enabled to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.

So many things changed when we became Christians. We belong to a new kingdom (Colossians 1:13), and we become partners with Christ (Hebrews 3:14). We have turned from darkness to light (Acts 26:18).

We are enabled to see the truth (2Corinthians 4:6) and grounded in truth (1 Timothy 3:15), and to share God's perspectives on things as members of God’s household (Ephesians 2:19).

We are now a different class of beings (2 Corinthians 5:17). Though our name does not change on Earth, and we do not experience a change in height, race, complexion, or learned language, we now bear another spiritual name because God is our Father (John 1:12-13).

We are named by His name (2 Timothy 2:19) because He is now our Father. The Creator of the heavens and the earth, the God of the spirits of all humankind (Numbers 27:16), is now our Father. We have a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26), a new family, a new life—Christ is our life (Colossians 3:4).

There is a theme of joy surrounding salvation. Jesus said there is more joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10). Being saved is the ultimate divine intervention, where God says, "Let there be light" into the darkness of our hearts (Genesis 1:3).

When the disciples went out and cast out many devils, they returned exclaiming that the devils fled at Jesus' name. Jesus told them not to rejoice because of that, but because their names were written in heaven (Luke 10:20).

They were supposed to rejoice because they have an assurance of salvation. Is it assured if it can be taken away? No. That is the rejoicing: that we have been chosen to share in the inheritance that belongs to the saints, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), to belong to the new heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:1-4).

We have been ransomed out of every nation and tongue (Revelation 5:9) so that we might praise Him and thank Him in those languages, wherever we are (Hebrews 13:15).

Remember the children of Israel coming out of Egypt, from the house of slavery (Exodus 20:2)? A whole people came out, a whole people specially chosen by God to be His own from among all the peoples of the earth. They were delivered on Passover night when the lamb was sacrificed, its blood shed and applied to the doorposts of the houses of the people of Israel.

Jesus is our Passover lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7), whose blood was applied on the cross at Golgotha, as He took the wrath of God and tasted death for us. Now, the children of Israel left Egypt and passed through the Red Sea, and they sang a song (Exodus 15:1-21).

It was joy, joy, joy, as a response to deliverance from bondage, and they were moving toward an inheritance. For the Israelites, there was a time difference between rescue from Egypt and entering the inheritance in Canaan.

But for Christians, we have been immediately delivered from the power of darkness and transferred to the Kingdom His son (Colossians 1:13), from the power of darkness to the dominion of righteousness (John 8:30-36, Romans 6:17-18), from death to life (John 5:24), from slavery to sin, to the inheritance of righteousness (1Corinthians 1:30).

There is no process. The culmination was the cross of Jesus; the deal was sealed from the foundation of the world, because that is when our names were written in the Lamb's book of life (Revelation 21:27), and the application occurs when we obey the truth of the gospel in space and time.

So we rejoice because our believe in Christ means we have been chosen in Him from the foundation of the world. We rejoice because we have been chosen. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9), created in Christ Jesus for good works (Ephesians 2:10). We have the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22). We have an inheritance, undefiled, reserved in heaven, in the very presence of God (1Peter 1:4-5).

The light signifies revelation and the presence of God, and that is where our inheritance lies. Our inheritance is God Himself. Notice what God declared to be the inheritance of the sons of Levi, who have been consecrated to Him. He said they should not be given any inheritance, for He Himself is their inheritance, and they should not be given any land to possess, as He is their possession (Numbers 18:20).

This is our reality as Christians, but now to the nth degree. We are a new creation, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation, called to declare the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1Peter 2:9). We experience his favor (Psalm 89:15), and he advises us as he looks us in the eye (Psalm 32:8).