Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Giving thanks to the Father is due because He has made believers fit to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, a privilege belonging to every Christian. That fitness is joined to being rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the kingdom of His dear Son, where there is redemption through His blood with forgiveness of sins and reconciliation. This was made possible because Christ came to break Satan's false claim to this world, planting His cross between heaven and earth to overcome the powers of darkness and giving His life so that sinners are presented holy and unblameable. The fitting is done in this present life, which is a training school for the life to come, by full consecration to Christ, obedience even when hardest, overcoming sinful tendencies through His strength, and being clothed in His righteousness until the character is changed into His likeness. The inheritance itself is eternal life in the kingdom of glory in companionship with the saints in light and with Christ face to face, and its fitting response now is joy, patience, courage and continual praise that glorifies God and makes His light visible.
Words and Prayer Context
Giving thanks to the Father is the heart of the verse, because He Himself has made believers fit to share the inheritance of the saints in light, and this fitness is the privilege of every Christian. That fitness is enjoyed through redemption in Christ, and it fills the one who hopes in it with joy and courage. It comes by full consecration to Christ through His grace, with constant growth in grace and knowledge of the truth, meditation on the truths of the gospel and on the lives of faithful followers, and following their godly example, while a mind beclouded by wrong habits of eating and drinking cannot appreciate these blessings.
The verse belongs to Paul's prayer that believers be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, be fruitful in every good work, increase in the knowledge of God, and be strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. That prayer is answered when believers rest with steady faith on God's Word rather than on feeling or distrust, showing a living, acting faith and not an idle, dead faith. It holds out the higher life, even the life of God, with faith in Christ, love to all the saints, and hope laid up in heaven through the gospel bringing forth fruit, even fruit that brings forth more fruit unto eternal life. It therefore calls for planning wisely to increase in spiritual, mental, and physical power instead of dwarfing self by overwork that loses health and courage and faith in God. This fitness comes through prayer, watchfulness, and growth in understanding, including growth in knowledge of how to share God's Word acceptably, so that believers are prepared to communicate the living Word, the truth for this generation, as present truth to all with whom they come in contact.
The words made meet mean being fitted up now in this present life to dwell in the mansions Christ has gone to prepare for those who love Him. The language of the verse is full with measureless depths of meaning, with long-suffering with joyfulness leading into this thanksgiving.
That fitness is joined to being delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son. There is redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, so that those made fit live and rejoice as redeemed, talking of deliverance rather than bondage, joyful rather than cast down, with love for Christ burning in the heart and love for the brethren, getting the mind off dark pictures and thinking on things that give light. This deliverance was secured because Christ came to expose the falsity of Satan's claim to sovereignty over the world and to reassert God's original ownership and supreme authority, placing Himself as Restorer and Life-giver in the enemy's pathway and planting His cross midway between heaven and earth to wrestle with and overcome the powers of darkness, giving His life for the life of sinners so that Satan the prince of the world was cast out.
Christ's Saving Work
Fitness for the saints' inheritance was made possible because Christ came to expose as false Satan's claim to sovereignty over the world and to reassert God's original ownership and supreme authority. As Restorer and Life-giver He placed Himself in the enemy's pathway to dispute his hold on human souls and bodies, planting His cross midway between heaven and earth to wrestle with and overcome the powers of darkness. He gave His life for the life of sinners, Satan the prince of the world was cast out, and believers are thereby delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son.
That deliverance is redemption through His blood, bringing forgiveness of sins and reconciliation that presents believers holy and unblameable. The inheritance belongs together with this transfer from darkness into the kingdom of the Son, where forgiveness is found in Christ. For this deliverance praise belongs to Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us.
The fitness was made possible because Christ took humanity, was humiliated and died in the transgressor's place, and by His resurrection, ascension, and mediation gives the Holy Spirit to cleanse, purify, and sanctify estranged fallen sinners to receive the inheritance. The Father gave His only begotten Son who knew no sin to be made sin for us, so that people of all ages including the youth may be saved to share that inheritance. He exchanged His royal crown for a crown of thorns and His robe of majesty and glory for mockery, becoming a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities, bearing the chastisement of peace so that by His stripes there is healing.
The ransom for salvation was paid at great price because fallen people could not remedy their own depraved condition, and Jesus died in their place with all heaven working for their salvation. Strength to endure with patience and longsuffering with joyful thanksgiving does not come from looking at personal infirmities but from looking to Jesus for sufficiency and power and committing the soul to God as a faithful Creator. God Himself makes people fit by freely giving, with Christ whom He did not spare, grace for every requirement of His law to those who desire to be saved from evil, seek a meek contrite humble spirit, feel their weakness and responsibility to observe His law, plead for divine assistance, and draw on heaven opened to all seeking access to the Source of strength.
Jesus as the exalted Head delivers from the powers of darkness and makes His people fit, bringing them into the kingdom of His dear Son. Through His grace and power this fitness keeps believers marching on to victory in the forward ranks and standing in the forefront of the battle in the light to the close of earth's history. Holding that place depends wholly on personal course of action, by staying ever in covenant relation with God and with His adopted children and knowing oneness with Jesus. It requires walking in the light as He is in the light with clear unobscured discernment, humbling the heart like a little child to be pardoned and forgiven, with the Holy Spirit resting upon the believer.
Made Fit in This Life
This life is a training school for the higher school and a preparation for the life to come, where receiving, believing, and practicing truth makes ready for entrance into the heavenly courts and a home with the saints in light. That preparation purifies heart, character, and conduct until without spot or wrinkle, because sin cannot enter there. Those who belong to heaven are being purified now to be fit for that inheritance.
Fitness comes by full consecration to Christ through His grace, with an intense desire to be like the Saviour and constant growth in grace and knowledge of truth by meditating on the gospel and following the godly example of faithful followers. It advances by cultivating the grace of Christ, being meek and lowly of heart, and being firm, unwavering and steadfast in truth. This requires correcting past errors, beginning with entire renunciation of self, praying for clear discernment of the Saviour's claims, and being always and everywhere His witnesses. The soul is purified by obedience to truth through looking to Jesus, speaking with Him, and shaping life after His example until beholding Him changes character into His likeness and perfects the taste for purity for heaven. More than a passing desire to do right is needed, for life must be cleansed and character transformed by converting power, bearing good fruit and being strengthened by glorious power as knowledge of God increases.
The fitting requires learning to submit the will to God's will, and obeying even when hardest is true surrender that quickens the moral nature and subdues pride. That surrender refines, purifies, and ennobles day by day through free grace. It is proved by supreme love to God bearing fruit in love to neighbors as self and in obedience to the commandments, without pride or rebellion over another's greater honor, receiving heaven's joy with humility as undeserved.
No one is elected to be saved in disobedience, for God has elected a certain excellence of character unto sanctification through obedience to truth. Right to eternal life in the kingdom of glory and the rest remaining for God's children is proved by obedience to the commandments. Only those who through Christ reach His standard, wear His yoke, bear His burden, lift His cross, labor together with God, and make calling and election sure will have abundant entrance and right to the tree of life, bearing the cross if they would wear the crown. At the judgment separation the obedient are united to the company of saints, marked righteous, kept in the book of life, and brought through the gates into the city while the wicked are left to eternal separation.
Fitness requires the grace of humility through Christ, growing as one lives nearer to God and draws closer to Jesus with advancing divine illumination of mind. Beholding Christ's purity gives clearer sense of littleness, reveals defects of character before unnoticed, shows duty as God presents it, and leads to acknowledging and obeying God in all ways and humbling under His mighty hand so that exaltation comes only from the Lord. It is revealed in asking forgiveness with earnest fervent prayer, giving self wholly to Christ to resist the devil in and through Him, and trusting God under trial until every overcomer wears the crown of life. This humility counters Satan's ambition and delusion and fits the imperfect for where God is all and in all.
The fitness requires overcoming hereditary and cultivated tendencies, evil traits, impurity of flesh and spirit, excesses, defilement, and self-destroying appetites through Christ's strength and grace. Left unconquered they grow stronger by use and pollute mind and character, and those who do not overcome them are unworthy of fellowship with the saints in light. Physical and moral cleanliness is necessary preparation for promised immortal life. A mind beclouded by wrong habits of eating and drinking cannot appreciate God's blessings, so right habits belong to this victory and every tempted soul may find refuge and receive the privileges brought through grace.
No one has a place with the saints in light unless clothed with the garments of Christ's righteousness. That fitness is made in this life for present and future good by earnest labor to bring the best material into character-building, becoming useful, true to God and others, spotless, prizing God's approval above all, wearing the white robe and winning heaven and the unfading crown. The gospel must be presented so the perishing understand this need rather than means being diverted to outward display. Spending God's money to clothe the body with fashionable dress gratifies pride, robs mission work, and following worldly fashion after great light separates the soul from God and forfeits that place.
True education fits for this inheritance by teaching what continues through eternal ages in view of Christ's soon coming, reaching the highest point of education. Searching Scripture gives experiential knowledge of salvation, restores God's image, strengthens against temptation, and prepares to work with Christ as a member of the heavenly family. Gaining knowledge of God through His word and living in vital connection with Him fits for companionship with the saints in light, and without it eternal life is lost. Erroneous education mingled with error and infidel sentiments molds after a false standard and makes the mind unsusceptible to truth.
Fitness is formed especially in the home as an educating school for the future higher grade, requiring thorough transformation of every member by genuine daily conversion and the Spirit's influence into God's likeness with understanding of spiritual things. It manifests Christ's character, keeps all God's commandments, brings ways and will under subjection to God and discipline by the Holy Spirit, and lays aside crude ideas, hereditary and cultivated faults, murmuring and complaining. It is proved by courtesy, gentleness, forbearance, patience, meekness, fortitude, and harmony that carries a pleasant savor abroad. Those constantly in disagreement who do not practice the Lord's words will not enter the heavenly mansions, for their taste would find even heaven unsuited, while those manifesting purity, love, and obedience have a heaven to go to heaven in and are cheered by glimpses of the home Jesus prepares where the pure meet to part no more.
God Himself makes those in His service meet through the moral power Christ gives, expressed as each overcomes through Christ in individual character. He breaks up indifference toward fellow men and kindly educates, trains, and disciplines by His Word and experience for greater consecration and higher life, developing virtues and powers. Those who surrender to God rather than looking to men or depending on the finite receive a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Readiness is shown by a life loving God and others, representing Christ in word, spirit, and action, and seeking victory under His yoke, bringing peace, righteousness, and riches for eternity. Those delivered from darkness and translated into the kingdom of the Son with redemption and forgiveness give thanks with joyfulness, walking worthy, fruitful in every good work, increasing in knowledge, strengthened unto patience, and speaking the language of the kingdom free from cheap levity that the Father hears with pleasure. Learning now to speak of heavenly things fit for angels and saints reflects the sought heavenly company and country. Those tested and proved in this love are fit, receiving heaven's joy with humility.
Even one left as a child in reason by hereditary impairment, without consciousness of sin, can by grace share the inheritance through childlike submission and obedience. Such deficiency through no sin of his own will have all incapacity removed by grace. When mortals put on immortality, sad marks are obliterated and the restored receive future immortal life by the great Restorer.
Inheritance of Saints
The inheritance is eternal life in the kingdom of glory, the rest that remains for the children of God, the saints' home in light and the heavenly home with its mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for those who love Him. This life is the preparation for that home, where receiving, believing, and practicing the truth makes ready for entrance into the heavenly courts, since sin cannot enter there. It is a future hope to be kept in view with quiet trust rather than building hopes in this life, and readiness for it belongs with preparing to meet the expected coming of the Lord. Right to it is proved by obedience to God's commandments, with abundant entrance for those who through grace reach the standard of His requirement. No one is elected to be saved in disobedience to the law; election is to a certain excellence of character unto sanctification through obedience to the truth, to wearing the yoke of Christ, bearing His burden, lifting His cross, laboring together with God, and making calling and election sure in order to wear the crown.
To share it means to share the perfection of the saints' characters and to be made able to enjoy that perfection. Everyone who is saved goes forward and upward from strength to strength, with self not woven into the life, receiving each revelation of correction, warning, and counsel as a blessing, constantly seeking the wisdom and righteousness of Christ and pressing toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, with thoughts brought into captivity to Christ and oneness with Christ. Each step upward on the ladder of progress prepares for climbing still higher until the bright beams of God's glory shine upon him, never resting but ever attaining. In the day of judgment no one retaining the frailty and imperfection of natural humanity will be vindicated, for he could not enjoy that perfection and will have no place in heaven. The faith that gives entrance into the kingdom of God is faith sufficient to believe that Christ can keep a person from sinning. To be meek is to be like the saints in light, keeping God's glory before the eyes, following God as dear children through appreciation of Bible truth, with Christ formed within as the hope of glory.
It is companionship with the saints in light and membership in the heavenly family, seeing Christ face to face and dwelling with Christ in eternity. Those who gain knowledge of God through His word and live in vital connection with Him are fitted to become such companions, and without this knowledge a person will lose eternal life. Searching Scripture gives an experiential knowledge of salvation, restores God's image in the soul, strengthens the mind against temptation, and prepares a person to work with Christ, and all knowledge that helps form such a character in this life of probation is true education. That fitness brings blessing to self and others in this life and secures the future immortal life with its imperishable riches. It is offered through faith and obedience within the good news of salvation through Christ, connected with the gospel promise of Christ's return in glory to redeem His people. The fitting requires thorough transformation for every member of the family through genuine daily conversion and the transforming influence of the Spirit, bringing them into the likeness of God with understanding of spiritual things, while living now with peace, confidence, assurance, and love and letting light bless others.
The poor in spirit, the meek, and those persecuted for righteousness' sake are being made fit to share it, and their place in Christ's spiritual kingdom is already being prepared, though its work is not yet fully accomplished. It is not yet revealed or made manifest who will overcome and receive it as heirs of salvation. Believers have a conscious title to it with the saints who are raised and with the living saints who are translated, belonging to heavenly citizenship and a life bound up with Christ, cooperating with Him, partaking of the divine nature, and overcoming the world's corruption. At the judgment separation of righteous from wicked, those obedient to His commandments are united with the company of the saints, marked as righteous, taken, kept in the book of life, and brought through the gates into the city with right to the tree of life, while the wicked with whom they lived and worked in the same field and family are left to eternal separation from God. Angels of heaven are now sent forth to minister to those who shall share that inheritance, passing throughout the earth to comfort the sorrowing, protect the imperiled, and win hearts to Christ, with equal care for every soul because God is no respecter of persons.
It is an eternal possession that the enemy works hardest to cheat people out of by binding them up in worldly enterprises, and he can succeed far more than they realize. Those who choose worldly pursuits can reach eternity unprepared for that fellowship with Christ, though eternal life and the glory of heaven are offered. Each day a person's choices show whether he will share that life and fellowship or have heaven's gates closed against him, and how others treat him does not force him to think or act wrongly. The promise of this inheritance refutes the doctrine of unconditional election and predestination.
Thanksgiving and Christian Living
Giving thanks to the Father who has made believers fit to share the inheritance of the saints in light is the fitting response to receiving Christ as personal Saviour, for then sinners realize the greatness of God's gift and praise and thanksgiving flow to the divine Giver. Too few actually offer that praise and show by thanking the Giver that they appreciate their blessings, yet offering praise glorifies God. A fragrant atmosphere surrounds the believing, thankful soul who offers grateful praise to the heavenly Father, and believers reflect bright beams of light when in the home and in the church they express appreciation of the Lord's goodness. The grounds for this thanks are redemption through His blood, deliverance from the power of darkness, translation into the kingdom of His Son, and the constant service of heavenly angels bringing wonderful opportunities and blessings, so there is no reason to be slow to express thanksgiving.
That thankfulness is to be offered with joy and patience and long-suffering, talking of deliverance rather than bondage, being joyful rather than cast down, and acting as subjects of the kingdom of His dear Son with love for Christ burning in the heart and love for the brethren. It means living and rejoicing as those redeemed by the blood of Christ with forgiveness of sins, getting the mind off dark pictures and thinking on things that give light, filled with joy and courage by the hope of sharing the immortal inheritance. The Father is to be praised and thanked because He has revealed His will and purposes in His promises and given a glimpse of eternal glory, and since the inheritance of light is heavenly and future, hopes are not to be built in this life but the eye kept upward to it in quiet, calm trust. The promises awaken hope and expectation, strengthen firm faith and reliance in trouble, and show amazing love in the beautiful things of nature and in the Word, and those striving for this glorious inheritance reserved for the saints in light should live with joy and make Christ's light visible to others by words and conduct, especially to the young.
The religion of Christ makes all who possess it truly benevolent, with a nobility that allows no littleness, no mean transactions, and none of the cheap, covetous actions that are a disgrace to the doer. Those in responsible positions are therefore called to make straight paths for their feet lest the lame be turned out of the way, for this instruction is of the highest value. The inheritance of the saints in light belongs to those who overcome, though it is not yet revealed or made manifest who will overcome and receive it. Angels of heaven are now sent forth to minister to those who shall share that inheritance and inherit salvation, passing throughout the length and breadth of the earth to comfort the sorrowing, protect the imperiled and those in danger, and win hearts to Christ and lead people to Him, with equal care for every soul because God is no respecter of persons.
This fitness belongs to Paul's prayer that believers be filled with the knowledge of God's will in wisdom and spiritual understanding, walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, be fruitful in every good work, increase in the knowledge of God, and be strengthened unto patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. It stands with deliverance from the power of darkness, translation into the kingdom of His dear Son, redemption through His blood and forgiveness of sins, and reconciliation to present believers holy and unblameable if they continue grounded in the faith and hope of the gospel. That deliverance was accomplished when Christ came to expose the falsity of Satan's claim to rule the world and to reassert God's original supreme ownership, placing Himself as Restorer and Lifegiver in the enemy's path to dispute his hold on human souls and bodies, planting His cross between heaven and earth to wrestle with and overcome the powers of darkness, and giving His life for sinners so that Satan the prince of the world is cast out. God's Spirit-given instruction warns people against the enemy's snares and prepares them for that inheritance as present truth to be given to those in the darkness of error for the saving of souls ready to perish, requiring constant watchfulness in prayer under God's unfailing promises, being sanctified body, soul and spirit and cleansed through the washing of the Word, and continuing grounded and settled in a faith that works by love and purifies the soul without being moved away from the hope of the gospel.
Fitness comes through prayer, watchfulness, and growth in understanding and in the knowledge of how to share God's Word acceptably, by which believers are strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness and are thus prepared to communicate the word of the living God, the truth for this generation, acceptably to all with whom they come in contact. It is the privilege of believers to have the higher life, even the life of God, with faith in Christ Jesus, love to all the saints, and hope laid up in heaven through the gospel bringing forth fruit, belonging to a worthy walk that is fruitful in every good work and brings forth fruit that brings forth more fruit unto eternal life. This calls for planning wisely to increase in spiritual, mental, and physical power instead of dwarfing self by overwork that loses health and courage and faith in God.
Thanksgiving for being made fit is the outcome of unceasing prayer that converts be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, be fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, and be strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. Their love in the Spirit is love born of the Spirit of God seen in words and character, not unsanctified love of smartness, ability, or oratory. Ministers who labor in towns and cities must not feel content nor their work ended until those who have accepted the theory of the truth realize the effect of its sanctifying power and are truly converted to God, for God is better pleased with six truly converted than with sixty nominal professors not thoroughly converted, so ministers must give less time to preaching sermons and reserve strength to visit and pray with the interested and give godly instruction to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
Giving thanks to the Father is due because He has made believers fit to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, a privilege belonging to every Christian. That fitness is joined to being rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the kingdom of His dear Son, where there is redemption through His blood with forgiveness of sins and reconciliation. This was made possible because Christ came to break Satan's false claim to this world, planting His cross between heaven and earth to overcome the powers of darkness and giving His life so that sinners are presented holy and unblameable. The fitting is done in this present life, which is a training school for the life to come, by full consecration to Christ, obedience even when hardest, overcoming sinful tendencies through His strength, and being clothed in His righteousness until the character is changed into His likeness. The inheritance itself is eternal life in the kingdom of glory in companionship with the saints in light and with Christ face to face, and its fitting response now is joy, patience, courage and continual praise that glorifies God and makes His light visible.
Words and Prayer Context
Giving thanks to the Father is the heart of the verse, because He Himself has made believers fit to share the inheritance of the saints in light, and this fitness is the privilege of every Christian. That fitness is enjoyed through redemption in Christ, and it fills the one who hopes in it with joy and courage. It comes by full consecration to Christ through His grace, with constant growth in grace and knowledge of the truth, meditation on the truths of the gospel and on the lives of faithful followers, and following their godly example, while a mind beclouded by wrong habits of eating and drinking cannot appreciate these blessings.
The verse belongs to Paul's prayer that believers be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, be fruitful in every good work, increase in the knowledge of God, and be strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. That prayer is answered when believers rest with steady faith on God's Word rather than on feeling or distrust, showing a living, acting faith and not an idle, dead faith. It holds out the higher life, even the life of God, with faith in Christ, love to all the saints, and hope laid up in heaven through the gospel bringing forth fruit, even fruit that brings forth more fruit unto eternal life. It therefore calls for planning wisely to increase in spiritual, mental, and physical power instead of dwarfing self by overwork that loses health and courage and faith in God. This fitness comes through prayer, watchfulness, and growth in understanding, including growth in knowledge of how to share God's Word acceptably, so that believers are prepared to communicate the living Word, the truth for this generation, as present truth to all with whom they come in contact.
The words made meet mean being fitted up now in this present life to dwell in the mansions Christ has gone to prepare for those who love Him. The language of the verse is full with measureless depths of meaning, with long-suffering with joyfulness leading into this thanksgiving.
That fitness is joined to being delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son. There is redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, so that those made fit live and rejoice as redeemed, talking of deliverance rather than bondage, joyful rather than cast down, with love for Christ burning in the heart and love for the brethren, getting the mind off dark pictures and thinking on things that give light. This deliverance was secured because Christ came to expose the falsity of Satan's claim to sovereignty over the world and to reassert God's original ownership and supreme authority, placing Himself as Restorer and Life-giver in the enemy's pathway and planting His cross midway between heaven and earth to wrestle with and overcome the powers of darkness, giving His life for the life of sinners so that Satan the prince of the world was cast out.
Christ's Saving Work
Fitness for the saints' inheritance was made possible because Christ came to expose as false Satan's claim to sovereignty over the world and to reassert God's original ownership and supreme authority. As Restorer and Life-giver He placed Himself in the enemy's pathway to dispute his hold on human souls and bodies, planting His cross midway between heaven and earth to wrestle with and overcome the powers of darkness. He gave His life for the life of sinners, Satan the prince of the world was cast out, and believers are thereby delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son.
That deliverance is redemption through His blood, bringing forgiveness of sins and reconciliation that presents believers holy and unblameable. The inheritance belongs together with this transfer from darkness into the kingdom of the Son, where forgiveness is found in Christ. For this deliverance praise belongs to Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us.
The fitness was made possible because Christ took humanity, was humiliated and died in the transgressor's place, and by His resurrection, ascension, and mediation gives the Holy Spirit to cleanse, purify, and sanctify estranged fallen sinners to receive the inheritance. The Father gave His only begotten Son who knew no sin to be made sin for us, so that people of all ages including the youth may be saved to share that inheritance. He exchanged His royal crown for a crown of thorns and His robe of majesty and glory for mockery, becoming a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities, bearing the chastisement of peace so that by His stripes there is healing.
The ransom for salvation was paid at great price because fallen people could not remedy their own depraved condition, and Jesus died in their place with all heaven working for their salvation. Strength to endure with patience and longsuffering with joyful thanksgiving does not come from looking at personal infirmities but from looking to Jesus for sufficiency and power and committing the soul to God as a faithful Creator. God Himself makes people fit by freely giving, with Christ whom He did not spare, grace for every requirement of His law to those who desire to be saved from evil, seek a meek contrite humble spirit, feel their weakness and responsibility to observe His law, plead for divine assistance, and draw on heaven opened to all seeking access to the Source of strength.
Jesus as the exalted Head delivers from the powers of darkness and makes His people fit, bringing them into the kingdom of His dear Son. Through His grace and power this fitness keeps believers marching on to victory in the forward ranks and standing in the forefront of the battle in the light to the close of earth's history. Holding that place depends wholly on personal course of action, by staying ever in covenant relation with God and with His adopted children and knowing oneness with Jesus. It requires walking in the light as He is in the light with clear unobscured discernment, humbling the heart like a little child to be pardoned and forgiven, with the Holy Spirit resting upon the believer.
Made Fit in This Life
This life is a training school for the higher school and a preparation for the life to come, where receiving, believing, and practicing truth makes ready for entrance into the heavenly courts and a home with the saints in light. That preparation purifies heart, character, and conduct until without spot or wrinkle, because sin cannot enter there. Those who belong to heaven are being purified now to be fit for that inheritance.
Fitness comes by full consecration to Christ through His grace, with an intense desire to be like the Saviour and constant growth in grace and knowledge of truth by meditating on the gospel and following the godly example of faithful followers. It advances by cultivating the grace of Christ, being meek and lowly of heart, and being firm, unwavering and steadfast in truth. This requires correcting past errors, beginning with entire renunciation of self, praying for clear discernment of the Saviour's claims, and being always and everywhere His witnesses. The soul is purified by obedience to truth through looking to Jesus, speaking with Him, and shaping life after His example until beholding Him changes character into His likeness and perfects the taste for purity for heaven. More than a passing desire to do right is needed, for life must be cleansed and character transformed by converting power, bearing good fruit and being strengthened by glorious power as knowledge of God increases.
The fitting requires learning to submit the will to God's will, and obeying even when hardest is true surrender that quickens the moral nature and subdues pride. That surrender refines, purifies, and ennobles day by day through free grace. It is proved by supreme love to God bearing fruit in love to neighbors as self and in obedience to the commandments, without pride or rebellion over another's greater honor, receiving heaven's joy with humility as undeserved.
No one is elected to be saved in disobedience, for God has elected a certain excellence of character unto sanctification through obedience to truth. Right to eternal life in the kingdom of glory and the rest remaining for God's children is proved by obedience to the commandments. Only those who through Christ reach His standard, wear His yoke, bear His burden, lift His cross, labor together with God, and make calling and election sure will have abundant entrance and right to the tree of life, bearing the cross if they would wear the crown. At the judgment separation the obedient are united to the company of saints, marked righteous, kept in the book of life, and brought through the gates into the city while the wicked are left to eternal separation.
Fitness requires the grace of humility through Christ, growing as one lives nearer to God and draws closer to Jesus with advancing divine illumination of mind. Beholding Christ's purity gives clearer sense of littleness, reveals defects of character before unnoticed, shows duty as God presents it, and leads to acknowledging and obeying God in all ways and humbling under His mighty hand so that exaltation comes only from the Lord. It is revealed in asking forgiveness with earnest fervent prayer, giving self wholly to Christ to resist the devil in and through Him, and trusting God under trial until every overcomer wears the crown of life. This humility counters Satan's ambition and delusion and fits the imperfect for where God is all and in all.
The fitness requires overcoming hereditary and cultivated tendencies, evil traits, impurity of flesh and spirit, excesses, defilement, and self-destroying appetites through Christ's strength and grace. Left unconquered they grow stronger by use and pollute mind and character, and those who do not overcome them are unworthy of fellowship with the saints in light. Physical and moral cleanliness is necessary preparation for promised immortal life. A mind beclouded by wrong habits of eating and drinking cannot appreciate God's blessings, so right habits belong to this victory and every tempted soul may find refuge and receive the privileges brought through grace.
No one has a place with the saints in light unless clothed with the garments of Christ's righteousness. That fitness is made in this life for present and future good by earnest labor to bring the best material into character-building, becoming useful, true to God and others, spotless, prizing God's approval above all, wearing the white robe and winning heaven and the unfading crown. The gospel must be presented so the perishing understand this need rather than means being diverted to outward display. Spending God's money to clothe the body with fashionable dress gratifies pride, robs mission work, and following worldly fashion after great light separates the soul from God and forfeits that place.
True education fits for this inheritance by teaching what continues through eternal ages in view of Christ's soon coming, reaching the highest point of education. Searching Scripture gives experiential knowledge of salvation, restores God's image, strengthens against temptation, and prepares to work with Christ as a member of the heavenly family. Gaining knowledge of God through His word and living in vital connection with Him fits for companionship with the saints in light, and without it eternal life is lost. Erroneous education mingled with error and infidel sentiments molds after a false standard and makes the mind unsusceptible to truth.
Fitness is formed especially in the home as an educating school for the future higher grade, requiring thorough transformation of every member by genuine daily conversion and the Spirit's influence into God's likeness with understanding of spiritual things. It manifests Christ's character, keeps all God's commandments, brings ways and will under subjection to God and discipline by the Holy Spirit, and lays aside crude ideas, hereditary and cultivated faults, murmuring and complaining. It is proved by courtesy, gentleness, forbearance, patience, meekness, fortitude, and harmony that carries a pleasant savor abroad. Those constantly in disagreement who do not practice the Lord's words will not enter the heavenly mansions, for their taste would find even heaven unsuited, while those manifesting purity, love, and obedience have a heaven to go to heaven in and are cheered by glimpses of the home Jesus prepares where the pure meet to part no more.
God Himself makes those in His service meet through the moral power Christ gives, expressed as each overcomes through Christ in individual character. He breaks up indifference toward fellow men and kindly educates, trains, and disciplines by His Word and experience for greater consecration and higher life, developing virtues and powers. Those who surrender to God rather than looking to men or depending on the finite receive a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Readiness is shown by a life loving God and others, representing Christ in word, spirit, and action, and seeking victory under His yoke, bringing peace, righteousness, and riches for eternity. Those delivered from darkness and translated into the kingdom of the Son with redemption and forgiveness give thanks with joyfulness, walking worthy, fruitful in every good work, increasing in knowledge, strengthened unto patience, and speaking the language of the kingdom free from cheap levity that the Father hears with pleasure. Learning now to speak of heavenly things fit for angels and saints reflects the sought heavenly company and country. Those tested and proved in this love are fit, receiving heaven's joy with humility.
Even one left as a child in reason by hereditary impairment, without consciousness of sin, can by grace share the inheritance through childlike submission and obedience. Such deficiency through no sin of his own will have all incapacity removed by grace. When mortals put on immortality, sad marks are obliterated and the restored receive future immortal life by the great Restorer.
Inheritance of Saints
The inheritance is eternal life in the kingdom of glory, the rest that remains for the children of God, the saints' home in light and the heavenly home with its mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for those who love Him. This life is the preparation for that home, where receiving, believing, and practicing the truth makes ready for entrance into the heavenly courts, since sin cannot enter there. It is a future hope to be kept in view with quiet trust rather than building hopes in this life, and readiness for it belongs with preparing to meet the expected coming of the Lord. Right to it is proved by obedience to God's commandments, with abundant entrance for those who through grace reach the standard of His requirement. No one is elected to be saved in disobedience to the law; election is to a certain excellence of character unto sanctification through obedience to the truth, to wearing the yoke of Christ, bearing His burden, lifting His cross, laboring together with God, and making calling and election sure in order to wear the crown.
To share it means to share the perfection of the saints' characters and to be made able to enjoy that perfection. Everyone who is saved goes forward and upward from strength to strength, with self not woven into the life, receiving each revelation of correction, warning, and counsel as a blessing, constantly seeking the wisdom and righteousness of Christ and pressing toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, with thoughts brought into captivity to Christ and oneness with Christ. Each step upward on the ladder of progress prepares for climbing still higher until the bright beams of God's glory shine upon him, never resting but ever attaining. In the day of judgment no one retaining the frailty and imperfection of natural humanity will be vindicated, for he could not enjoy that perfection and will have no place in heaven. The faith that gives entrance into the kingdom of God is faith sufficient to believe that Christ can keep a person from sinning. To be meek is to be like the saints in light, keeping God's glory before the eyes, following God as dear children through appreciation of Bible truth, with Christ formed within as the hope of glory.
It is companionship with the saints in light and membership in the heavenly family, seeing Christ face to face and dwelling with Christ in eternity. Those who gain knowledge of God through His word and live in vital connection with Him are fitted to become such companions, and without this knowledge a person will lose eternal life. Searching Scripture gives an experiential knowledge of salvation, restores God's image in the soul, strengthens the mind against temptation, and prepares a person to work with Christ, and all knowledge that helps form such a character in this life of probation is true education. That fitness brings blessing to self and others in this life and secures the future immortal life with its imperishable riches. It is offered through faith and obedience within the good news of salvation through Christ, connected with the gospel promise of Christ's return in glory to redeem His people. The fitting requires thorough transformation for every member of the family through genuine daily conversion and the transforming influence of the Spirit, bringing them into the likeness of God with understanding of spiritual things, while living now with peace, confidence, assurance, and love and letting light bless others.
The poor in spirit, the meek, and those persecuted for righteousness' sake are being made fit to share it, and their place in Christ's spiritual kingdom is already being prepared, though its work is not yet fully accomplished. It is not yet revealed or made manifest who will overcome and receive it as heirs of salvation. Believers have a conscious title to it with the saints who are raised and with the living saints who are translated, belonging to heavenly citizenship and a life bound up with Christ, cooperating with Him, partaking of the divine nature, and overcoming the world's corruption. At the judgment separation of righteous from wicked, those obedient to His commandments are united with the company of the saints, marked as righteous, taken, kept in the book of life, and brought through the gates into the city with right to the tree of life, while the wicked with whom they lived and worked in the same field and family are left to eternal separation from God. Angels of heaven are now sent forth to minister to those who shall share that inheritance, passing throughout the earth to comfort the sorrowing, protect the imperiled, and win hearts to Christ, with equal care for every soul because God is no respecter of persons.
It is an eternal possession that the enemy works hardest to cheat people out of by binding them up in worldly enterprises, and he can succeed far more than they realize. Those who choose worldly pursuits can reach eternity unprepared for that fellowship with Christ, though eternal life and the glory of heaven are offered. Each day a person's choices show whether he will share that life and fellowship or have heaven's gates closed against him, and how others treat him does not force him to think or act wrongly. The promise of this inheritance refutes the doctrine of unconditional election and predestination.
Thanksgiving and Christian Living
Giving thanks to the Father who has made believers fit to share the inheritance of the saints in light is the fitting response to receiving Christ as personal Saviour, for then sinners realize the greatness of God's gift and praise and thanksgiving flow to the divine Giver. Too few actually offer that praise and show by thanking the Giver that they appreciate their blessings, yet offering praise glorifies God. A fragrant atmosphere surrounds the believing, thankful soul who offers grateful praise to the heavenly Father, and believers reflect bright beams of light when in the home and in the church they express appreciation of the Lord's goodness. The grounds for this thanks are redemption through His blood, deliverance from the power of darkness, translation into the kingdom of His Son, and the constant service of heavenly angels bringing wonderful opportunities and blessings, so there is no reason to be slow to express thanksgiving.
That thankfulness is to be offered with joy and patience and long-suffering, talking of deliverance rather than bondage, being joyful rather than cast down, and acting as subjects of the kingdom of His dear Son with love for Christ burning in the heart and love for the brethren. It means living and rejoicing as those redeemed by the blood of Christ with forgiveness of sins, getting the mind off dark pictures and thinking on things that give light, filled with joy and courage by the hope of sharing the immortal inheritance. The Father is to be praised and thanked because He has revealed His will and purposes in His promises and given a glimpse of eternal glory, and since the inheritance of light is heavenly and future, hopes are not to be built in this life but the eye kept upward to it in quiet, calm trust. The promises awaken hope and expectation, strengthen firm faith and reliance in trouble, and show amazing love in the beautiful things of nature and in the Word, and those striving for this glorious inheritance reserved for the saints in light should live with joy and make Christ's light visible to others by words and conduct, especially to the young.
The religion of Christ makes all who possess it truly benevolent, with a nobility that allows no littleness, no mean transactions, and none of the cheap, covetous actions that are a disgrace to the doer. Those in responsible positions are therefore called to make straight paths for their feet lest the lame be turned out of the way, for this instruction is of the highest value. The inheritance of the saints in light belongs to those who overcome, though it is not yet revealed or made manifest who will overcome and receive it. Angels of heaven are now sent forth to minister to those who shall share that inheritance and inherit salvation, passing throughout the length and breadth of the earth to comfort the sorrowing, protect the imperiled and those in danger, and win hearts to Christ and lead people to Him, with equal care for every soul because God is no respecter of persons.
This fitness belongs to Paul's prayer that believers be filled with the knowledge of God's will in wisdom and spiritual understanding, walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, be fruitful in every good work, increase in the knowledge of God, and be strengthened unto patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. It stands with deliverance from the power of darkness, translation into the kingdom of His dear Son, redemption through His blood and forgiveness of sins, and reconciliation to present believers holy and unblameable if they continue grounded in the faith and hope of the gospel. That deliverance was accomplished when Christ came to expose the falsity of Satan's claim to rule the world and to reassert God's original supreme ownership, placing Himself as Restorer and Lifegiver in the enemy's path to dispute his hold on human souls and bodies, planting His cross between heaven and earth to wrestle with and overcome the powers of darkness, and giving His life for sinners so that Satan the prince of the world is cast out. God's Spirit-given instruction warns people against the enemy's snares and prepares them for that inheritance as present truth to be given to those in the darkness of error for the saving of souls ready to perish, requiring constant watchfulness in prayer under God's unfailing promises, being sanctified body, soul and spirit and cleansed through the washing of the Word, and continuing grounded and settled in a faith that works by love and purifies the soul without being moved away from the hope of the gospel.
Fitness comes through prayer, watchfulness, and growth in understanding and in the knowledge of how to share God's Word acceptably, by which believers are strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness and are thus prepared to communicate the word of the living God, the truth for this generation, acceptably to all with whom they come in contact. It is the privilege of believers to have the higher life, even the life of God, with faith in Christ Jesus, love to all the saints, and hope laid up in heaven through the gospel bringing forth fruit, belonging to a worthy walk that is fruitful in every good work and brings forth fruit that brings forth more fruit unto eternal life. This calls for planning wisely to increase in spiritual, mental, and physical power instead of dwarfing self by overwork that loses health and courage and faith in God.
Thanksgiving for being made fit is the outcome of unceasing prayer that converts be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, be fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, and be strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. Their love in the Spirit is love born of the Spirit of God seen in words and character, not unsanctified love of smartness, ability, or oratory. Ministers who labor in towns and cities must not feel content nor their work ended until those who have accepted the theory of the truth realize the effect of its sanctifying power and are truly converted to God, for God is better pleased with six truly converted than with sixty nominal professors not thoroughly converted, so ministers must give less time to preaching sermons and reserve strength to visit and pray with the interested and give godly instruction to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.