Ephesians: Our Inheritance, Hope, and Glory in Christ

“In Him, we also have been made an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, to the end that we who first have hoped in Christ would be to the praise of His glory” (Eph. 1:11-12).

We again find the phrase “in Him” signifying that all spiritual blessings, which we have now and for eternity, are “in Christ.” Here Paul speaks of us having “obtained an inheritance,” which in the Greek translates a single compound word.

When something in the future was so certain that it could not possibly fail to happen, the Greeks would often speak of it as if it had already occurred; Paul uses the word in that tense here, so Paul is speaking and saying this to communicate that the inheritance is certain. Redemption cannot fail to happen because God is accomplishing the work, so the inheritance is already obtained. “Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, you blessed of the Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34). We have an inheritance promised to us, and one day we will come into possession of that inheritance.

Certainly, this is not the only place where the Scriptures speak of our inheritance. This theme of inheritance, of having obtained an inheritance from God through Christ, runs throughout the New Testament (Acts 20:32, Rom. 8:17; Col. 1:12).

We remember the words of Jesus who says “I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). Throughout the epistles of Paul, Peter, and John, we likewise have promises of Christ coming again to bring us to Himself, and to deliver us into an eternal kingdom of life and glory. In the book of Revelation, we are given a glorious picture of the Groom, Jesus Christ, coming again for His Bride, the Church, and delivering to us the inheritance we have been promised as heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ. How can we know this will come to pass? “For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him. That is why it is through Him that we utter Amen (it is true) to God for His glory” (2 Cor. 1:20).

After Paul writes that we have obtained an inheritance, he points us back to the cause and the source of this inheritance: it is because we “have been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” This looks back at the portion of the letter where Paul writes that “in love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ.” In love He predestined or foreordained us as His sons, and we find that the reason God did this was for His purpose, to save a people for Himself.

When we look at Scripture, when we look at history, and when we look at prophecy in particular, we understand it is God who is “working” these things; that they are not so-called luck, chance, fate, karma, or the universe working things out, but it is God working according to His purpose. “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Rom. 8:28). God is in control. He purposed it, and in the midst of that purpose He is working to accomplish, knowing that it surely will be accomplished, what He purposed.

A prime example of God bringing about and accomplishing His purposes is seen in the fulfillment of prophecy. How does prophecy come to pass? For one, prophecy is spoken concerning what God has purposed in His good pleasure to do, and then God is working in the midst of people and circumstances to bring His good pleasure about.

Examples of this are found throughout the Scriptures. When God flooded the earth in the days of Noah, He purposed to bring judgment on the world because of sin, but He also purposed to preserve man by showing Grace to Noah and his family.  God later purposed to form a nation out of which Christ would be born, and He called out Abraham and his family to establish a covenant with Him. Joseph was then sold into slavery, but it was the working of God in that Joseph was eventually raised to a position of great power in Egypt, allowing much of Egypt to be saved from starvation, but primarily Israel was preserved and eventually came into the Promised Land.

God especially purposed, even before the world began, to save His people through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He called out Mary and worked in her womb through the Holy Spirit to bring about a divine conception. Jesus was born and then died according to the purpose of God to save a multitude from their sins. God is working and bringing about “the counsel of His will,” meaning the counsel of what He is inclined to do. We can be thankful that His inclinations are for good, but make no mistake: He is doing what He wills to bring about His purpose, which is the Church built for His glory and our eternal good.

This is the will of the One who is doing all of this we see here in the first chapter of Ephesians: He has purposed it, He is working in it all, and He will bring it about, because it is His will and desire to save those chosen in Christ. “I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).

While our salvation certainly has an eternal benefit for us, including every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, being chosen in Christ, holiness and blamelessness before God, adoption by the Father, redemption, and forgiveness of sins through the blood, the riches of Grace, being included in the body of Christ, the purpose of our lives is to “be to the praise of His glory.” Certainly that is seen in the book of Revelation in the praise expressed toward God the Father and the Son, but our lives are to be to His praise now in the present.

I think of praise as a corporate activity in the Church when we are together. David says “From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear Him” (Ps. 22:25). The apostle Peter also writes “but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9).

We give praise and we give Him glory because our salvation is a cause of the “praise of His glory.” That praise is not only demonstrated by us and through us in worship on the Lord’s Day, but speaks of our everyday lives away from the church. Those days also are to “be to the praise of His glory.” The transformation of our lives, becoming conformed to the image of Christ, is also a proclamation of praise to the glory of God. Our entire lives, from the moment of our salvation and throughout all eternity, are meant to be "to the praise of His glory."