OUR INHERITANCE

We are promised a "priceless inheritance" that is being kept for us up in heaven according to (1 Peter 1:4). This will apparently be the final stage of our salvation, which started with our receiving Jesus as our personal Savior. As you know our spirit is saved first at the moment we receive Christ and are "born again" into God's family. (John 3:3) Then starts the process of renewing our mind, (Rom 12:1-2, and 2 Cor 3:17-18) which is the second stage in which our soul is being saved. Then we have this promise from Peter of a yet future final stage of our salvation when our bodies will be saved. So we see that salvation is a process that begins by being born again, and ends with our resurrection or rapture.

I recently came to a fuller revelation of our inheritance from scriptures like (1 Cor 6:9-10) and (Gal 5:19-21), both of which refer to our inheritance as being our part in the Kingdom of God. I used to believe that we were born again into the Kingdom, but now realize that we are born into God's family, and not the Kingdom. We are "transferred" into the Kingdom (Col 1:13), which is an inheritance being reserved for us in heaven. Salvation is a gift, but inheriting our place in the Kingdom depends on our behavior according to both the scriptures mentioned above. We don't lose our position in God's family by committing the sins listed, but we do lose our position in God's Kingdom. This has a profound bearing on the age-old argument about eternal security, in my opinion. One side maintained that we are eternally secure in Christ, while the other side claimed that when we sin we lose our salvation.

If my understanding of these scriptures is correct, we have a solution to this dispute. We don't lose our place in God's family, which is a gift from God (Eph 2:8-10), but we can lose all or part of our position in His Kingdom by committing these sins after we are born again. The scripture does teach a system of rewards for faithfully obeying the commandments of God, and we know that not every believer will rule and reign with Jesus, but only the "over comers". Part of this being an over comer could be our acts of obedience to His still small voice, and abstaining from all forms of sin!

I don't expect everyone to agree with this understanding I have come to, but I trust you will read these scriptures carefully and see what the Holy Spirit shows you that they mean!

Sincerely submitted.

Gramp