Our Inheritance in Light
Colossians 1:12-13 “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.”
We have an inheritance….both in heaven (1 Peter 1:4)…and here….and we can thank our Heavenly Father for it.
He ‘has made us able in Christ Jesus’ to be partners in the inheritance which Christ won for us…..along with all the saints.
This inheritance is “in light”.
(Think of all the things we have from the light of God: a knowledge of Him,…..knowledge of ourselves,….an understanding of what the scriptures say to me…light is power against the darkness of this world….all these and more we have in our inheritance!)
God has delivered us from….the power of darkness….in Christ Jesus.
……and not only so, but God has translated us into the kingdom of His Dear Son.
Translated is a Roman term……
When Rome wanted a city built along a road…..or by a sea, for shipping;….
….they would take another city near by, and move everyone in it,…..to the new site, and tell them to re-build there.
They would move them….and let the people build new lives there….under the protection and citizenship of Rome.
For when they translated a city, every person became a Roman citizen automatically, with all the rights and privileges of that.
So Paul is saying that God has done the same thing to us.
God has taken us….and moved us to a new life in Christ’s kingdom. He has given us heavenly citizenship in Him, and all the rights and privileges of being His citizens.
(Ephesians 2:19 “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God:”)
We are to see that we remove everything of the old life….for it we don’t….we might look back on it, causing an occasion for us to be tripped up.
(Remember Lot’s wife. Luke 17:32)
God has told us to build our new life with Him….in His Light…
1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
This is building our new life;……walking in the light….this is the path our new life takes….
Proverbs 4:18 “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
The light dawns….you may not see the sun yet, but the darkness is turning to light.
Then the sun is up….how it brightens our senses; our hearts rejoice….our minds wake up….our bodies are nourished.
But it is not at high noon….for the sun casts it light….and as it does, it makes shadows from the things which are between it and us.
The sun can still be hid behind trees, our house, etc.;…..until…
…it comes to high noon.
Then it is straight above us…..where nothing can come between it and us.
All is light, then.
This is the plan of God for our lives….to remove all hinderances to His Light in our lives …..so that we are walking in the sunshine of His love, with nothing between He and us.
This is our inheritance, here. We have an inheritance in heaven as well,….but here, our inheritance is light…..having fellowship with God….and all that it gives…for “God is light” (1 John 1:5)
His light gives us true sight….for we can not see things in the darkness…
(and how much darkness there is in our old resentments, in anger, in fear and panic, in greed, or pride….for these things magnify “our feelings”, and block the Light He wants to give us.)
Ephesians 1:18 “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”
His Light gives us heat…for our hearts are to be fired up for Christ.
Revelation 3:19 “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous (boiling hot) therefore, and repent.”
All we need to be delivered from the power of the sin in our lives, is given us in Christ Jesus….
Romans 13:12, 14 “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.”
Light purifies and cleanses….in the truth
1 John 1:8-9 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
When we are walking in the light….We have love for God and the fellow saints…
1 John 1:10 “he that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.”
What the sun’s light is in the natural world, God is to the spiritual….spreading HIs healthful rays out….to us.
James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
The closer we walk with God, the more light we have to know His Will, and the more power to do it.
1 Peter 2:9 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
Preaching, Teaching, and Notes 