Chariots of Fire, Part Two

Ephesians 1:15-23
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, October 01, 2000
Copyright © 2000, P. G. Mathew

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Ephesians 1:15-23

We are studying the subject of the ultimate, everlasting, yet invisible, realities of the kingdom of God. I am using the phrase “chariots of fire,” found in 2 Kings 6, as a symbol of these realities. In that passage we find the story of Elisha’s servant, who became afraid when he saw the chariots and horses-all the military might of Syria-surrounding Dothan to capture his master Elisha and take him to Syria. But when the servant told Elisha about the Syrian army, Elisha remained absolutely unafraid, for, unlike his servant, he was able to see the superior, supernatural forces of God which surrounded them and would defend and protect them. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them,” Elisha told his servant in 2 Kings 6:16, just as the apostle John later told New Testament believers, “The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see” (2 Kings 6:17). God opened the servant’s eyes to see the armies of God surrounding them, and he was no longer afraid.

With us are God and his angels. The world does not see them, and I must say God’s people themselves fail to see this heavenly protection also because we have been afflicted by the cataracts of worldliness. We become anxious and afraid when we are confronted with troubles and trials and seemingly insurmountable problems. Thus, as we study this topic, I hope that we ourselves will pray, “Lord, open our eyes to see your heavenly realities, that we may not fear but rejoice in tribulations also.”

Our Need to Have Our Eyes Opened

Ultimate reality is found not in this world but in the kingdom of God, but our eyes must be opened to see it. In 2 Corinthians 4:18 Paul tells us the things we can see-this physical world-are temporal, but the things not seen are eternal. We must be able to see these heavenly realities so that we can live in this world of trouble and strife.

Just as Elisha prayed for his servant’s eyes to be opened, so also Paul prayed for the church, that the eyes of the saints of God may be enlightened to see the ultimate realities surrounding them. We find this prayer in Ephesians 1:15-19, where Paul says,

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart being enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

The apostle is praying that God, in his rich mercy, will open the eyes of believers and give them greater understanding. He is praying that God will remove the spiritual cataracts from our eyes-the cataracts of worldliness, the cataracts of arrogance and pride, the cataracts of love of pleasure, and the cataracts of trusting in this temporal world-that we may see the ultimate reality of God, his infinite power, and his great salvation. I assure you, all of our problems and fears would be instantly taken care of when we, by faith, see God as our Father and understand his loving care of us.

In this first chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians we also read that this God the Father has already blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Chapter 1 tells us he has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestinating us that we may be conformed to the very image of Jesus Christ the Son of God. To that end, he has redeemed us, forgiven all our sins, and adopted us as his sons. He has brought us under the headship of the Sovereign Lord of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ, to take care of us and sealed us with the Holy Spirit of promise. These are the truths we as Christians must understand and believe.

The Blindness of Unbelievers

What is the state of unbelievers? The Bible tells us they are, by nature blind to eternal realities. They are like the Sadducees, the materialists, those who say that the cosmos is all there is and ever has been. Such people believe in a closed universe and leave no room for the supernatural. They cannot explain the origin of this universe, but they are quite ready to deny the existence of an infinite, personal God and any role such a God could have had in creating it. They are self-centered and deny God so that they can affirm themselves.

In John 3:19 the Lord Jesus Christ declares the verdict of the eternal God on unbelievers. “This is the verdict,” Jesus said, “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” In 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 Paul tells us that unbelievers are blinded by Satan so that they cannot see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ through the gospel. In his epistle to the Romans Paul says that an unbeliever continuously suppresses the truth of the reality of God. In other words, as the truth wells up within him, he engages in the deliberate task of smothering it. As a firefighter, he wants to put out the fire of the knowledge of God that surrounds him and that wells up within him. He treats the gospel as foolishness.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones gives an illustration of the blind state of unbelievers in a story about an English parliamentarian of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, William Pitt the Younger, an unbeliever, and his friend, William Wilberforce, who was a real Christian and whose eyes were opened to heavenly realities. Wilberforce was so fascinated by the gospel that when he heard that a famous preacher, Richard Cecil, was coming to London, he invited his friend, William Pitt, to go with him to hear Dr. Cecil. Mr. Pitt gave in to Mr. Wilberforce’s entreaties and went with him to the meeting. As Wilberforce listened to the sermon, he was so moved that he described it as being taken from earth and placed before the presence of God in the heavenlies. Afterwards, of course, Wilberforce wanted to know how this powerful sermon had affected his friend. But as soon as they left the assembly hall, before Wilberforce could ask his question, Mr. Pitt turned to him and said, “You know, I was doing everything I could to focus my attention on Mr. Cecil and listen to his sermon. But let me tell you, Mr. Wilberforce, I did not have the slightest idea what he was talking about.”

This demonstrates the spiritual blindness of an unbeliever. There is a blindness of the spirit and heart that is worse than physical blindness. It is like showing a beautiful sunset to a blind person. The person simply cannot see.

Our Eyes Must Be Opened

How can an unbeliever’s eyes be opened? God must do it. So the second point we must understand is that salvation is by God’s initiative from the beginning to the end; thus, believers are those whose eyes have been opened by the initiative of God. Jesus Christ said, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again,” and “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:3, 5). God’s Holy Spirit must come and perform a miracle in the center of our being, in our hearts, so that we can see God. Only when he does that will we be able to have visions of chariots and horses of fire. When that happens, we will be able to see with our spiritual vision the heavenly realities of seraphim and cherubim and heaven and hell. Then we will see God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. When this happens, we will be able to put our trust in this ultimate reality rather than in this world that is passing away.

The apostle Paul speaks of the need for our eyes to be opened in Acts 26. The Lord Jesus Christ apprehended Saul of Tarsus, the enemy of the gospel, on the road to Damascus. God opened Saul’s eyes, and appointed him for a unique task, which we read about in Acts 26:17-18: “I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.”

Why does God appoint men to preach the gospel? To open the eyes of the spiritually blind and turn them from darkness to light. Whenever the gospel is preached, something happens in the lives of those listeners who are chosen from before the foundation of the world to be saved. All of a sudden they gain understanding of spiritual realities of God’s kingdom and begin to hope in God, trust in God, and rely on God. Their anxieties, phobias and depression go away forever and they become jubilant and confident in the Lord. How can we be anxious, fearful and depressed when we are given a vision into the abiding, eternal realities of God, who is our Savior?

So Paul says he was called to open the eyes of unbelievers “and turn them from darkness to light, and from the powers and the authorities of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” That is the reason we must preach the gospel.

Can anyone find God on his own? No. I recently heard a scientist testify about how he became a Christian. Let me tell you, he did not come to faith in Christ by doing research. No man can find the infinite personal God by doing research because God is a spirit and he will never submit himself to our notion of research. It simply will never happen. That is why we must depend on God’s own revelation, first, and also on testimonium spiritu sanctus internum-the work of the Holy Spirit in the interior of our being.

In 2 Corinthians 4:6 Paul described what happened to him, and what happens to everyone whose eyes are opened: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” Here Paul tells us that the God of creation is also the God of our redemption. It is he who opens our eyes that we might see him and be saved.

In Matthew 11:27 the Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples that God must reveal himself to them: “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” That is why I said we cannot find through research. God himself must open our eyes so that we can see God and his chariots and horses of fire-the eternal and abiding realities in which we can confide, rest, and trust forever.

We find this idea also in Matthew 16, where Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Peter confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Did Peter come up with this answer by doing research? No. In verse 17 Jesus said to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.”

The Son reveals the Father and the Father reveals the Son. This is the spiritual miracle of divine initiative. If we say we can see God and if we worship him, believe in him, hope in him and trust in him, it is all because God enabled us to do so.

Ongoing Restoration of Sight

Third, as believers we must understand there has to be an ongoing restoration of our spiritual sight. Some people say, “Well, I know I am saved because I remember twenty-five years ago I went forward one day.” Oh, no. If we have truly been saved, God will continue to open our eyes so that we can be brought into greater and greater degree of vision and, therefore, greater and greater degree of knowledge of this eternal reality in which we trust.

When we read Ephesians 1:1-14 we realize that God had saved these Ephesians. They were chosen, predestinated, and redeemed. Their sins were forgiven and they were adopted into the very family of God and sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. All of these things are stated there, and yet in verses 16-18 we find the apostle Paul praying that God would again enlighten these people so that they might come into greater understanding of God.

If you are a believer, I hope that every time you come before God, whether in prayer or worship or reading the Bible, you will ask him, “O God, open my eyes! As I read the Scriptures, may I understand what they are saying, that I may know you-not just know about you, but that I may know you, confide in you, trust in you, lean on you, and rest upon you. Then I will understand what your Son was saying: ‘Do not be anxious-your heavenly Father knows what you need.’ He knew what we needed from all eternity, and not only did he give us what he gives to the birds, the lions, and the wicked of people of the world, which is food and clothing, but he has also fulfilled our greatest need in the person of Jesus Christ, who accomplished redemption for us and has given us eternal life.”

We need to pray again and again that our eyes may be opened. Paul writes, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.” In the Greek it is apokaluspeôs en epignôsei autou, or “in the full knowledge of God,’ specifically God our Father, whose sons we have become by divine adoption. It is good to know who this God is.

What does epignosis mean? It means to have accurate, personal, experimental, intimate knowledge-not in the sense of the Greek understanding of knowledge, which is theoretical and intellectual, but in the Hebrew understanding of knowledge, which is personal knowledge. You see, many people know God as the demons know him, believing in certain propositional truths describing God and his character. In fact, there is no great difference between the intellectual orthodoxies of many people and those of demons.

But knowing about God is not the same as knowing God. Paul, therefore, is praying, not that we may know about God, but that we may know him! We must know God as a son knows his father, as a wife knows her husband, as a friend knows a friend. Paul is speaking about personal, experimental, intimate knowledge of God. In fact, this is how Jesus Christ defines eternal life in his high priestly prayer. In John 17:3 he prays, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

We gain further understanding of what it means to know God in the first epistle of John. In 1 John 1:1 John writes, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands touched-this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” These things are written down so that we don’t have to touch him to believe in him but can know Christ and believe in him through the eyewitness reports of John and others. John continues, “The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” What is the ultimate purpose of knowing God? Intimate fellowship with him.

When God opens our eyes, it results in increasingly greater and more accurate personal, intimate, vital knowledge of God the Father and God the Son. This, in turn, builds us up, so that we are no longer unhappy and afraid. Fuller knowledge of God results in greater confidence, so much so that when we have this fuller knowledge of God, we will join with Paul in saying, “If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far. . . .” (Philippians 1:22-23).

Through the Ministry of the Holy Spirit

Fourthly, we must know that this kind of understanding will not come to us in any other way but through the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God. In Ephesians 1:17 Paul says, “I keep asking,” meaning that he is praying continually, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,” that is God the Father, the Father of glory, “may give you the spirit of wisdom,” which is the Holy Spirit.

We must have the Holy Spirit if we are going to see God and the heavenly realities of his kingdom. We must desire the Holy Spirit, not only that we might speak in tongues or experience other charismatic gifts, but that we may gain understanding into the objective realities that abide forever.

This is what Paul was saying in 2 Corinthians 3:18, as he wrote, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect [or behold] the Lord’s glory. . .” Who took away the veil from our faces? God himself did. By a mighty operation of the Spirit of the living God, our eyes have been opened, and we have been granted a greater and greater degree of spiritual vision. As a result, we can look at the Lord Jesus Christ, and as we do so, we “are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

Pray for this ministry of the Holy Spirit. It is the peculiar work of the Spirit of the living God to apply to us the redemption accomplished by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We need an understanding into that objective reality, and we receive it as the Holy Spirit gives us wisdom and revelation.

Ephesians 1:13 tells us these people were sealed with the Holy Spirit, yet Paul asked God to enlighten the eyes of their hearts. We need the Spirit’s ministry coming into our lives continuously, because he is the Spirit of truth and we need to have God’s truth brought to us continually. In Isaiah 11:2 we read, “The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him,” meaning upon the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Then Isaiah defines who this Spirit is: “the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of God.” In other words, the enlightenment given by the Holy Spirit is an understanding into objective eternal realities. When we grasp and understand these truths, we will glory in them and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

When the Holy Spirit works with us in this way, we will see God throughout the Holy Scriptures. In John 5:39 Jesus Christ told the unbelieving Jews, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life.” But then he told them, “The Scriptures are speaking of me. Moses spoke of me. Why do you not understand?” His listeners did not understand who Christ was because their eyes were blinded. They had not received spiritual vision.

We can illustrate this very simply. A poor illiterate woman in the Third World who believes in Christ may know more of God than a professor of distinction in theology. How can this be? Because this woman is one who gets down on her knees and cries out to God in tears, asking, “O God, give me understanding!” God will give such a person great understanding of himself. But a professor who never prays or seeks God, no matter how brilliant he or she is, will never understand God in this way.

I pray that God will give all of us such personal, experimental, accurate, intimate knowledge of him through the ministry of his Holy Spirit, that we may confide in him and trust in him in all things!

The Hope of Our Calling

In verse 18 Paul prays “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened,” by the mighty operation of the Holy Spirit, “in order that you may know” specifically three things: “the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” As we conclude this study we will speak about the first two things, and speak about the third in the next study.

The first thing Paul says we need to know is the hope of his calling. The word “hope” in the Bible means to have absolute certainty and total assurance about something. This is contrary to the meaning of hope in today’s English language. Nowadays, when we speak of hope, we mean something is absolutely uncertain. If someone asks, “Are you coming to the wedding?” and you respond, “I hope so,” what are you really saying? “Don’t count on me.” That is how much the language has changed.

But when Paul prays, “that you may know the hope of his calling,” he is saying, “that you may know with absolute assurance and certainty that God will save you for all eternity-that he has saved you, that he is saving you, and that he will save you.” This is what we need to know.

In other words, the Bible speaks about hope as a sure hope. Hebrews 6 tells us we have this hope as the anchor of our souls. The hope of our salvation stabilizes our heart. It is called a living hope, not dead one. It is called the blessed hope, and Paul calls it the hope of the glory of God, a hope that will not embarrass or disappoint us-a hope that is certain because it is based on God’s covenant ; a hope that is based on God.

So the phrase “hope of his calling” speaks about the certainty of our calling. There are two calls. First, there is a general call, meaning many people, all sorts of people, hear the gospel, but they all don’t respond. But then there is an internal call, meaning that some who hear the gospel outwardly will respond to it. (PGM) They do so because they receive another call in the interior of their being by the mighty operation of the Spirit of God. When God calls us in this way, we come. This is effectual calling.

We must note that here again God is initiating the action. We may say, “Oh, I prayed to God and called upon his name, and now I am saved,” but such a claim will not mean much unless God calls us first. Our calling upon God is the result of his effectual call in our lives.

Why did God call us-the miserable nothings of the world, those who were rebels and sinners, without strength, at enmity with God, wicked people who are described as clay, mist, and grass? There is an amazing answer to this question: God wants to fellowship with us! This is the ultimate purpose of God’s glorious calling. God takes us who are sinful, wretched nothings, cleans us up, glorifies us, and escorts us into his presence that we may live with him forever, enjoying a life of immortality in the very presence of and in fellowship with him.

This is the hope of our calling, and the knowledge of it should give us great assurance. The same God who chose us in him before the foundation of the world will ensure that we arrive at the destination he predestinated us for, which is conformity to the image of Jesus Christ and eternal fellowship with him.

If you want still assurance, read Romans 8, beginning with verse 28. There you will find something that will give you great confidence that God will save you. Paul begins, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose.” God has a purpose, which is that we may have fellowship with him, having been made conformable to the image of Jesus Christ. Paul continues, “For those God foreknew. . . .” The word “foreknew” there means “fore-loved” or “loved before.” Here we see this idea that knowledge has an element of love in it. So Paul writes, “Those he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son,” which is a necessary requirement for fellowship with God, “that he might be firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”

If God begins the salvation process in us, he will bring it to completion. That is why Paul speaks of the hope, the assurance, the certainty of God’s plan of salvation. What, then, is the hope of our salvation? That we will be so qualified to live in God’s presence. All our sin will be removed, we will be filled with glory, and in that condition we will see him and live with him forever and ever. This is blessing. This is beatific vision. This is fellowship. This is God’s ultimate purpose for us.

If you are an unbeliever, I urge you to seek this beatific vision. If you do not, the Bible says your future is absolutely hopeless, and you will go from one degree of misery to another forever. God has to open your eyes, and I pray that you will ask him to do it. I urge you to call upon him, even today, that you may see the Lord Jesus Christ, in all his glory, and be saved.

What if you are a Christian? Then I challenge you to examine yourself to see whether or not you are suffering from spiritual cataracts that are preventing you from fixing your gaze on the realities of heaven. Perhaps you have fallen in love with this world and are like the third soil, which was rendered infertile by the deceitfulness of riches and the pleasures and worries of life. You are a Christian, yet, like unbelievers, you are anxious and fearful, timid and crazy because blindness has set in. If this is true of you, I urge you to pray, “O God, give me greater understanding. Enlighten my eyes, O Holy Spirit.”

What we see determines our priorities in this life and how we live today-what we will speak, what we will think, how we will spend our money, how we will spend our time, and how we will speak to our children. As we seek God, all these things will become governed by the vision of an abiding, eternal existence of sheer bliss. But if we do not seek God, we will be like Mrs. Lot, clinging to the temporary things of this world, but at the cost of our eternal soul. What miserable, wretched existences we find among the successful people in this world, whose only hope is in this life! Paul says that if we have hope only in this life, we are of all men most to be pitied.

A day is coming in which everyone will see ultimate reality, and no one will be able to escape. The ordinary man, the philosopher, the scientist, and the arrogant, unbelievers as well as Christians, are all going to see reality. The question is, what reality are you going to see? My prayer is that you ask God to open your eyes, that you may live your life in the now in accordance with that vision of the kingdom o f God.

The Riches of His Glorious Inheritance

The second thing Paul prays that we may know is, in the Greek, tis ho ploutos tês doxês klêronomias autou en tois hagiois, “what are the glorious riches, the exceedingly great riches, of his in the saints.” It is difficult to interpret this phrase, so I want to explain both interpretations, because both are true.

First, the text may mean that we, as a result of the Holy Spirit giving us illumination into the Holy Scriptures, may come to know that we are God’s riches, the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. The idea is that God looks upon us as his inheritance, as his treasure, as his glorious riches.

This is a mind-boggling thought-that the infinite personal God would look upon human beings as his portion, as his riches, as his inheritance, as his treasure! Yet, amazingly, this is a proper interpretation because the Bible teaches this truth elsewhere. For instance, in Deuteronomy 32:9 we read, “For the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance.” You see, God gave his people an inheritance, as we read in the book of Joshua, consisting of land in the beautiful country of Israel. But here we are told that God’s inheritance is his people.

The Bible says that we are the apple of God’s eye. In Zechariah 2:8 we are told that whoever touches us touches the apple of God’s eye. This means God will do all things to preserve, protect, keep, save, defend, and fight for us because we are his treasure. What an amazing declaration of truth!

In 1 Peter 2:9 we read, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God,” meaning a people of God’s possession, “that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” We belong to God, and in 1 Peter 1:18-19 we read how this came to be: “For you know that it was not with perishable things, such as silver or gold, that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

What was the price that God the Father paid for our redemption? The blood of his Son! Can anyone calculate the value of such a price? No. It is inestimable, an incomparable price paid to redeem the nothings of the world. But although we were nothing and pursued God as enemies, yet God loved us and chose us from before the creation of the world to be saved. He planned our redemption, sending his Son to shed his blood for us that we may be saved. Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.

What is at the heart of the covenant God makes with us? It is God’s statement, “I am your God and you will be my people.” What dignity, what worth God has placed upon you and me, his church! The nothings of this world are given an eternal weight of glory. Though we were nothings-things that are not-he chose us and poured into us glory, dignity, and worth, granting us the elevated position of being his inheritance.

I was thinking about one of you recently whose father is an accomplished professor of medicine. This man worked at a top university, yet he will not have anything to do with God. When I look at that family, there is only one person who is a Christian. God has chosen this person and invested in that person all the worth, dignity, and glory that God gives his people. God looks upon this person and says, “This one is my treasure, my jewel, my possession, my inheritance.”

In Psalm 16:6 David says, “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.” God is also saying, “The lines are fallen in beautiful places for me,” but he is saying it about us. Isn’t that wonderful? And notice the language: “the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” Rich would have been fine, but it says riches, and then, on top of it, glory.

This is what God does. The Father of glory takes people without any glory and makes them glorious and fit to be in heaven with him. We must be made glorious, for we cannot be with God if we are not glorious. We were not glorious, and he took us up, put into us glory, and now we are weighted down with glory. We are no ordinary people-we are glorious people, beautiful people, wonderful people, worthy people-based not our own worth, but on the worth he put into us. This is the first interpretation of this phrase.

But there is another interpretation which is also true, that this passage is speaking about our inheritance being God. In other words, some people say that Paul is praying that the Holy Spirit will give us wisdom and understanding in the knowledge of him so that we will know that we have a great inheritance. Then if you ask, “What is my inheritance?” the answer will come: “God.” What a glorious thought! In 1 Corinthians 2:9 we read, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.'”

We find this idea in Psalm 73, as well as in a number of other psalms. The psalmist was about to slip because he looked at wicked people and saw that they had no problem while he, who was a believer, was filled with problems. The wicked were always healthy and had everything, according to the writer, while he was about to slip and fall.

So the psalmist wrote, “When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered. . . .” Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever thought, “What’s the use of being a Christian? All I encounter are problems all the time while everyone else is doing fine.” He continued, “I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.” Have you ever behaved like a brute beast? I have, many times. But then the psalmist did one wonderful thing: he went to the house of God, where God gave him a revelation of his true situation. Then he said to God, “Yet I am always with you. . . .” I hope the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to heavenly realities, that you too will be able to say, “Yet I am always with you,” to God. And he continued, “. . . you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom I have in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” God was his portion, his inheritance, forever.

What do you want for your inheritance? Some rubies? Some gold? Some platinum? I will give my answer: I want God. I will say with this psalmist, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” God is my everlasting inheritance, my everlasting portion, my treasure. He alone is the pearl of great price.

We find the same idea in Psalm 119:57 and Psalm 142:5. Our inheritance and portion is not part of creation, but the Creator God himself, the Redeemer God, the self-existing, self-sufficient personal, almighty God, in whom we live and move and have our being.

Realization of this glorious inheritance promised by God prompted the apostle Paul to make a profound statement in the first chapter of his letter to the Philippians, beginning with verse 22. When God is our portion and cup, our great treasure, then we will join Paul in saying, “If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know.” Here Paul tells us that he does not know certain things, but he gives us a clue which he would choose. “I am torn between the two,” he says. “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.”

Some people very casually and superficially say they want to die. I hope that when your time comes, you will say that “to depart and be with Christ is far better,” because Christ is our inheritance. My inheritance is not a thing, but a person-an infinite, glorious person, the redeemer God, the Son of God, the mighty God, the one who loved us and gave himself for us. That is the idea.

In John 14 Jesus tells us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” This is eternal life. This is felicity. This is celestial blessing. This is God’s final purpose for us. A love relationship with the eternal God. My inheritance is God and his inheritance is me, two lovers being together forever and ever. What joy! No wonder Paul could said, “I rejoice in tribulations also.”

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21). Let me assure you, the moment we get such a vision of the knowledge of God, it will affect our entire outlook on the world and the things of the world, and we will realize that our true treasure is in heaven.

We find this language also in Colossians 3, beginning with verse 1: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above.” What does Paul mean by “things above?” Stars? Golden streets? No. Paul tells us, “Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated on the right of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

God made us alive, raised us up, and we are already seated with him. Our life is hid with Christ in God. What great security we enjoy! We are in Christ and in God. Isn’t that a reason to rejoice? God looks upon us as his portion, as his inheritance, as his pearl of great price, and we look upon him and say, “O God, you alone are my inheritance, my portion, my treasure.”

In light of all these things, may God help us to pray this prayer: “O God, open the eyes of my heart that I may see chariots and horses of fire!” And may we not just see holy angels, but may we see triune God. Grant us complete, actual, personal knowledge of God-not knowledge about God, not orthodoxy, but a divine/human encounter. May we experience your love for us, as you experience our love for you, and may your name be honored and glorified in all that we do. Amen.