2.03.03. The heirs and their inhheritance
III. THE HEIRS AND THEIR INHERITANCE
’’Which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us agam unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." — 1 Peter 1:3-4.
I OPE is enjoyed here, possession hereafter. But the enjojonent of the inheritance is real, although it is as yet held only by hope. The hope is living. Not only will it surely be substantially satisfied in the end, but even in the meantime it secures the enjoyment. An inanimate cord might bind together the expecting heir and his ultimate inheritance, so that they could not finally miss each other; but a living nerve, extending from the new creature here in the body to the kingdom that is not of this world, conveys even now the revenue of the inheritance before the time, according to the Master’s own aspiration, “That my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full “ (John 15:11).
How may we be introduced into such a hope? Through the new birth. Peter’s doctrine here is in strict accord with the word of the Lord to Nicodemus: “ Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” — neither behold it in living hope now, nor enter it at last. These two terms, “ begotten again “ and the “ incorruptible inheritance,” are made for each other, like the two valves of a sea-shell. They shut accurately upon each other, but upon nothing else. Our inheritance by the first birth is neither undefiled nor unfading. To escape the curse of the first birth-right, we must have another birth. The new creature in Christ is joint-heir with him — heir of all things. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was the closing and culminating act of the redemption that he wrought. If the work had not thereby been completed, it would have been of no avail. The Spirit, through Paul, has clearly borne witness that unless the Redeemer’s work had been crowned by his resurrection, our hopes would have been in vain (1 Corinthians 15:17). The meaning is, that the completed work of Christ saves his people from sin, and gives them a right to the eternal inheritance. Those who are born again rise with him into resurrection life. The life that they now live in the flesh, they live by the faith of the Son of God. Earth becomes to these heirs the vestibule of heaven. The characteristics of the inheritance are all negative. The features that ordinarily go to mar an earthly heritage are enumerated for the purpose of declaring that they do not adhere to the rest that remaineth for the people of God. The inheritance is (1) incorruptible. It is not liable to complete dissolution, like a dead body that returns to dust.
It is (2) undefiled. It is not liable to have all its beauty dimmed by some unclean spot falling on its form. Often an earthly inheritance, while its substance abides the same, loses all its attraction for the owner. The eldest son, perhaps, for whom it was fondly cherished, has thrown away his good name. Henceforth the father cannot look with complacency on his green fields and waving woods. A glance at the landscape makes him shudder. His inheritance is defiled. Not so the heritage to which the children of God have, in the regeneration, been served heirs. The inheritance is (3) unfading; its bloom will never wither.
It is not subject to alternations of darkness and light, of winter and summer. The Lamb is the light thereof; and there shall be no night there. In exact accord with the imagery of John is the plain, earnest prose of Paul, when life and death were trembling in the balance. To be with Christ was the bright expectation which took all the terror out of death when it seemed very near (Php 1:23). The silence of Scripture, especially in contrast with the coarseness of earth-born systems, is sometimes as emphatic a testimony to its divine origin as its positive revelations.
Lights on the shore flash far over the ocean, and conduct the voyager to the land; but they do not reveal to him, while at sea, the particular features of the landscape. It is thus that the Bible exhibits lights sufficient to guide inquirers safe to heaven, but not sufficient to reveal its interior beauties. Those who reach the better land will discover its glories after they arrive.
Some are born to a great inheritance, and yet miss it. In our days thrones are frequently shaken, and their occupants cast off. Princes who were born to a royal heritage wander as exiles in a foreign land. But there are no revolutions in the kingdom of heaven. Every one gets his own there. The laws of nature give a token of the certainty that prevails in the region where the Lord reigns.
Although a globule of air were imprisoned for a thousand years within a shell at the bottom of the ocean, the moment its prison-house decayed it would rise sheer through the water, though it were miles in depth, and never halt till it emerged with a bound into its native element, the sky.
Behold a specimen of his power, who has promised “ none of them shall be lost.”
Here are two keepings promised; and the two constitute a pair. The inheritance is preserved for the heirs, and the heirs are preserved for the inheritance. Both keepings are needed; and both are provided in the covenant. The danger was not all over when Pharaoh consented at last to let Israel go. The danger was not all over even when the emancipated Hebrews reached the Red Sea’s farther shore.
They were saved; and yet they needed salvation. The returning waters overwhelmed the enemy, and protected their rear; but a howling wilderness lay between them and their rest. They needed keeping by an Almighty hand, those feeble heirs. They sing. Have they not begun their song too soon? Are they not hallooing before they are out of the wood? Have they not something harder than hymns to deal with? They have; and yet they have not too soon begun their song. They should rejoice in salvation already wrought, and go forward to work out their own salvation. Getting manna from heaven, and water from the rock, they must tread the rugged path and fight the cruel foe; and toiling forward, never breathe freely till, in the wake of the forerunner high priest, they pass the parted Jordan, and feel their footing firm in the promised land.