Our Possession's - What We have & Why

Introduction

The main idea is that we have some things "In Christ". As a matter of fact, all that we have of any significance is "In Christ".

Notice Paul did not say that we "will have", although there is obviously a reality that we cannot touch, taste and feel our inheritance now at this present moment. We are trapped in a body of flesh, bars of bone, a prison in a sense.

Romans 7:24 KJV 1900

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

1 Corinthians 15:50–57 KJV 1900

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

But prison never prevented Paul from rejoicing in his salvation and inheritance!

We "have" right now at this present moment "In Christ" riches far beyond our comprehension. God has given us a Book for the purpose that we might comprehend and understand!!!

Lets look at three distinct items we posses as believers and what the overall purpose of these items are:

I. We Have Redemption

Ephesians 1:7 KJV 1900

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

What is redemption? "the forgiveness of sins"

It has the idea of being free from slavery

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Two: How Rich You Are! (Ephesians 1:4–14)

There were 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire, and often they were bought and sold like pieces of furniture. But a man could purchase a slave and set him free, and this is what Jesus did for us. The price was His own blood (1 Peter 1:18ff). This means that we are free from the Law (Gal. 5:1), free from slavery to sin (Rom. 6), as well as free from the power of Satan and the world (Gal. 1:4; Col. 1:13–14). If we were slaves, we would be poor, but because we are sons, we are rich!

Illustration: Redemption is a term (much like Salvation) that has become so familiar that sometimes it loses its significance. Driving down I17 and seeing a billboard that said “Are you Saved”? I wonder if most people have any understanding of what that means? I wonder if as Christians we have lost sight of the significance of it!

A. The Moment of our Redemption- We have it Now!!

“we have redemption”

Illustration: Free but still a Slave

At Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural, shortly before his assassination in 1865, he spoke of how both parties deprecated war, and yet war came. He continued, “Neither party expected the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Each looked for an easier triumph. Both read the am Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. And with that, Lincoln let his own feelings show through as he spoke of how strange it was, “that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces.”

Ultimately, the black slaves were set free. Theoretically, it became legal as early as the first day of the year, 1863, in what has come to be known as the Emancipation Proclamation.

“The word spread,” in the words of one historian, “from Capitol Hill out across the city, down into the valleys and helds of Virginia and the Carolinas, and even into the plantations of Georgia and Mississippi and Alabama. ‘Slavery Legally Abolishedl’ read the headlines, and yet something amazing took place. The greater majority of the slaves in the South went right on living as though they were not emancipated. That continued throughout the Reconstruction Period.”

“The Negro remained locked in a caste system of ‘race etiquette’ as rigid as any had known in formal bondage, and that every slave could repeat, with equal validity, what an Alabama slave had mumbled when asked what he thought of the Great Emancipator whose proclamation had gone into effect. ‘I don’t know nothin’ ’bout Abraham Lincoln cep they say he sot us free. And I don’t know nothin’ ’bout that neither.”

How tragic. A war was being fought. A document had been signed. Slaves Were legally set free. The word is emancipated. And yet most continued to live out their years, and many of their children some of their years, in fear, saying, “I don’t know nothin’ ’bout that neither.” In a context of freedom, slaves chose to remain slaves, though they were legally freed. Even though emancipated, they kept serving the same master throughout their lives.

-Shelby Foote, The Civil War

We are no different! We are free, but we still live like slaves!

B. The Means of our Redemption- We have it through his blood (Blood Atonement)

“through his blood…according to the riches of his grace”

Exodus 12:13 KJV 1900

And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

John 1:29 KJV 1900

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Acts 20:28 KJV 1900

Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

II. We Have a Revelation of His Will

Its important to note the tendency for the church to separate Jew and Gentile and Paul was dealing with this fact. We know that God is now, at this present time building his Church and it includes all races, all colors and every economic class!

Ephesians 1:8–9 KJV 1900

Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

What is this "mystery of His will"?

It was not revealed in the old testament that God would allow the promise made to Abraham to also apply to gentiles.

Sin separated God from man

Sin separated man from man (Cain & Able).

Man tried to unite through the building of a tower (tower of Babel- which means confusion).

Genesis 11:1–8 KJV 1900

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

God called Abraham to put a difference between Jew and Gentile, a difference that was maintained until Christ's death on the cross.

God did not choose them because they were special, they were special because God choose them.

Genesis 12:1–3 KJV 1900

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Romans 1:16 KJV 1900

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Sin tears away but only through Christ is everything united!

III. We have a Reserved Inheritance

Ephesians 1:11 KJV 1900

In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

1 Peter 1:1–4 KJV 1900

PETER, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again 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,

Incorruptible - there is nothing that can destroy it! Not even the power of the biggest atomic bomb!

Undefiled - Anything made by man is defiled and corrupted - but not our inheritance

Illustration: Watching Jeopardy - College tournament- There was a student from MIT and she was explaining how she was part of a class that developed a lathe that could produce a product to the exactness of 30 microns which is 30 times smaller than the thickness of a piece of paper. However accurate they might get at some level there are still imperfections!

Unfading - The Arizona sun fades everything it touches but our inheritance will never fade

Reserved in Heaven - Our inheritance is the Lord Jesus! He is in heaven, seated at the right hand of the father and for all eternity we will enjoy his presence. Unhindered by sin, worshiping him for all eternity! God help us to get our minds eye on this truth and let it change our whole perspective!

Conclusion:

All of this is for a purpose. We have discussed the "what" now we conclude with they "why"!

Ephesians 1:12 KJV 1900

That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.