In Him you also trusted, after you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:13–14—NKJV)
If you want a study which will cause your heart to sing with thanksgiving, research the perseverance of the saints. God perseveres in His electing grace, therefore the redeemed saint endures to the end. Despite earthly obstacles to successful Christianity, the saint is enabled to spiritually thrive and overcome. If you are genuinely born again, then you are a recipient of abundant resources to this end dispensed by your heavenly Father.
This first chapter of Ephesians is packed with tantalizing clues as to the hidden riches and unexplored vastness of Divine love extended toward you. As your life and witness unfolds before your steady progress through life, the richness of God’s provision for you rises to meet you. This experience is known as the life of faith. The provision is always sufficient for the need, always joyfully dispensed, and always effectively ministered. This is the inheritance of every saint.
God invests Himself in the perseverance of each individual saint because each saint is His inheritance. Verse 11 states that we have “obtained” (literally “been made”) an inheritance. The confusion in the translation is due to the fact that the truth of inheritance is a two-way street. God is procuring each saint as a trophy of His grace. He will not fail in His resolve, and presses into service all the resources of heaven to ensure His victory in you—thus insuring your obtaining your inheritance.
The Greek term for heritage is a word meaning “to cast lots, choose by lot, to assign a portion.” This is a word with significant Old Testament overtones such as, “But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day” (Deuteronomy 4:20), and “Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm” (9:29). In Psalm 16, David builds on the doctrine of God’s sovereign, electing grace toward His saints by personally applying the truth to aid him in interpreting events around him and tempering his actions in each day saying, “Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust. O my soul, you have said to the Lord, You are my Lord, my goodness is nothing apart from You. As for the saints who are on the earth, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Yes, I have a good inheritance. I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; my heart also instructs me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved (shaken, dislodged, overthrown).”
Your perseverance is expressly in the interest of your heavenly Father and that assures your inheritance. Our verses teach that the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is your guarantee. You received Him at the point of your salvation when you believed the Gospel in the Word of Truth, for you trusted in Christ. You were sealed with the Spirit of Promise (John 14:26, 16:7–15). At the moment of your salvation the Holy Spirit invaded your life, began His ministrations to you, and He is the down-payment of your “inheritance (the property into which an heir enters, a lot) until the redemption (release on payment of a ransom from the power and presence of sin, to serve God freely) of God’s own possession (“to make around,” completeness, possess as one’s property, to obtain and possess).” This persevering, unfailing love of God is seen in 1 Peter 2:9 and 1 Thessalonians 5:9.
Are you growing wobbly in your resolve in a trying time in your spiritual pilgrimage? Remember that God never waivers. He is presently pursuing you and your best interests as His inheritance to the praise of His glory. Remain faithful to the end. Trust and obey.
