MESSAGE

FROM THE

WORD

QUALIFIED TO INHERIT HEAVEN

Colossians 1:12-14

SERIES:  Colossians                                                                                            Message # 7

            The Bible is filled with many great questions.  One of the most profound questions was asked by an individual whose name is never revealed.  We know him simply as “The Rich Young Ruler”.  We read,             LUKE 18:18   There are few questions that are more important than that question.  To that question, our society hears many answers.  Some say, “be  good”, “go to church”, “do your best”, “go through a religious initiation”, or “be spiritual”.

            There is another answer to that question and it is answered by Jesus.  When asked what was required to make it into Heaven, Jesus answered in verse 22 and simply said, “FOLLOW ME”.  If you want a simple answer to the question of what is essential in gaining eternal life, it is to follow of Jesus Christ.  What it means to be a follower of Christ has many avenues of pursuit, but that at least is a beginning point.

            This brings us to our message in Colossians.  Paul is seeking to defend the truth against many different enemies.  There are those who deny the deity of Jesus Christ.  There were those who were promoting salvation by works.  There were those who were teaching that a holy life was optional.  There were some who taught that salvation was only open to those who knew the secret codes of the mystical world.  To all these, Paul wanted to set the record straight.  We read,           COLOSSIANS 1:12-14             As a beginning point let me state that the term “THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS…” is synonymous for salvation.  The key word in this passage is the word “QUALIFIED”.  The question before us, and the question asked by the rich young ruler then, is how does one become qualified to gain salvation?

In 1978, I graduated from college, was ordained to the ministry, got married, went on a honeymoon, and moved to Indiana, all in five weeks.  After our wedding, Nicki and I spent a week in Hawaii and then returned to San Jose for a short period of time before moving to Indiana.  In preparing for our move, I had to finish some paper work at the college I attended, so I dropped by to take care of that task.  As I walked into the office, the Dean of students came out and stated, “we need your diploma back”.  I thought he was joking, bur soon realized he was serious, so I asked him why that was necessary.  He informed me that one of my professors had given me an F in Contemporary Theology.  The professor happened to be on campus so I went over to talk to him.  I knew that a mistake had been made because I had passed all of my tests, received an A on my term paper and done very well on the final.  When I went to see him, he told me that I had missed too many classes and therefore received a failing grade.  I informed him that two of the absences were because of our church Easter musical and two of them were because of my interview for the church in Indiana.  I told him that his grade was going to prevent me from receiving my diploma and couldn’t he at least give me a D.  He looked at my grades and said, “All you need to do is get a passing grade to graduate?  You did A work, so I will give you a C”.  I deserved an A, but I only cared about the fact that I was still qualified to receive my diploma.  As long as I was qualified to graduate, I didn’t care what my GPA was. 

What does one have to do to be qualified to enter into God’s Heaven?  This is what we will learn in this study.

FIRST, WE SEE THE AUTHOR.  Paul talks about “THE FATHER WHO HAS QUALIFIED US…”  This is one of the distinctions of Christianity and other religions.  Almost all other faiths are a system of deeds or rituals by which the individual can prove to be worthy of entrance into the presence of God.  One of the most popular books on the market today is entitled, The Five People you will meet in Heaven.  Its author contends that when you die, you will meet the five people who most transformed your life and made you eligible to spend eternity in Heaven.  In fact, everyone gets to make up their own Heaven.  In the case of the star of the book, he was a handyman at the local carnival and was always having to fix the various rides.  Heaven for him was being able to ride the Ferris wheel with his wife and having it never break down. 

When you stand before God, He is not going to ask five people to come forward and give testimony as to whether you should come into Heaven.  There is one person He will ask and that is Jesus.  He will turn to His Son and ask, “Is this a follower of you”?  This is why Paul could write,                II CORINTHIANS 5:21                      The only way we can enter into Heaven is to be righteous.  The only way we can be righteous is to borrow from Jesus.  Let me state why this is important.  John writes,            REVELATION 22:3                     Heaven will be a place where everyone will serve God.  If anyone enters Heaven who has no desire to serve God, the first act after they arrive will be open rebellion against God’s will.  Since that is a sin, Heaven will be polluted with sin.  This is why it is necessary to go through Jesus Christ.  It is only as we come to Christ and submit our will to His that we are prepared to enter Heaven and submit our will to God’s. 

This is why it is essential when we present the gospel to people that we do not end by simply asking people if they want their sins forgiven.  Who doesn’t want to have their sin forgiven?  The issue is for them to turn their life over to the control of Christ.  That is what Paul meant when He said that we must, “CONFESS WITH OUR MOUTH JESUS AS LORD…”  It is not sufficient to just say “Jesus take away my sin while I continue to run my life. Thank you”.  Those are the ones Jesus was referring to when He said, “MANY WILL COME TO ME AND SAY, ‘LORD, LORD…”  He will reject them because their confession was only verbal.  We will look at this issue more a little later.

SECOND, WE SEE THE ADOPTION.  This may sound like a strange term to use at this point, but it does fit.  Paul writes that because of the work of Christ on the cross we are qualified, “TO SHARE IN THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS IN LIGHT.”  God has determined that only His children will be allowed into His home.  They are the ones who will receive the inheritance.  As we mentioned previously, our problem is that no one can be born a child of God.  The only way to become His child is for Him to choose us.  Paul discussed this in Ephesians.  We read,           EPHESIANS 1:3-6       God calls out to those whom He wants to be His children.  This discussion is at the heart of the centuries old debate on predestination and free will.  We will not go their today.  Let me just say that God knows those whom He has chosen.  How do we confirm His selection?  We respond to His call. 

Let me expand on this idea for just a moment.  The inheritance is more than just Heaven.  The inheritance is also a relationship with the father.  When we are adopted into His family, we have the joy of intimacy with the God of the universe.  One of the ways we understand if we are truly God’s children is our response.  When we enter into this “adoption”, is our desire to squander the inheritance, or to spend time with the Father?  This is what Heaven will be.  God’s true children will say, “Father, can we talk”?

THIRD, WE SEE THE ACTIONS.  What is it that God did to qualify us to be His child?  In this passage, Paul gives us four pictures that really describe what it means to be a Christian.  We tend to think of being a Christian as what we have done.  In this passage, we are given a picture of what God has done to cause us to become a Christian.

First, He has rescued us.  In understanding what it means to be a Christian, it is essential that we understand this point.  God “RESCUED US FROM THE DOMAIN OF DARKNESS…”  What does that tell us?  It tells us first of all that we are not all that we think we are.  Jesus did not come to die on the cross just to make our life better.  He died on the cross to save us from a life of sin.  We read,                  EPHESIANS 2:1-3                 Our life before Christ was not OK but it could be better.  Our life before Christ was in darkness.   This is the picture God gives us of sin.  It is utter darkness.  We were in the Kingdom of Darkness and Jesus came to rescue us from that Kingdom.

Second, He transferred us.  Notice to where we were transferred.  We are now in “THE KINGDOM OF HIS BELOVED SON.”  This is essential for us to understand.  Around our nation are congregations seeking to reach people for Christ.  However, they are doing it in such a way as to convince people they are believers when in fact they may not be.  Let me explain what I mean.  I talk to someone who is living in a sinful situation and ask them if they want to have their sins forgiven.  All they have to do is “pray to receive Jesus…” and they don’t even need to change their behavior.  Is that person a believer?  The fact is, we don’t know.  I say that for several reasons.  When we ask someone to “pray to receive Jesus…” or to “accept Christ into their heart,” they have to understand what that means.  We have thousands of people “praying to receive Christ”, while at the same time refusing to yield the control of their life to Christ.

Some say this is legalism.  Let me show you why this is not legalism.  The Apostle John writes,            1 JOHN 3:10     The primary difference between a believer and a nonbeliever is the desire to be righteous.  Is this works?  Not if you understand Colossians 1:12-14.  The difference between a believer and an unbeliever is the believer wants to be righteous and the unbeliever doesn’t.  The difference between the believer and the unbeliever is the unbeliever is in the Kingdom of darkness and the believer has been transferred to the Kingdom of Light. 

Do you see it? 

When a person comes to Christ, He brings them out of darkness and into light.  How do we know this has taken place?  Because the individual will have the desire to do deeds that are consistent with light and not darkness.  This is what it means to be converted.  How do we know they can do this?  Because when the unbeliever is transferred into the light, God fills them with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit leads them to live out the desires of the Kingdom of Light.  Paul wrote                      TITUS 2:11-14                        When you are transferred into the Kingdom of light, the desire will always be to walk in the light.  We read             1 JOHN 1:6-8          This is what Paul is saying in Colossians.  Those who are in the Kingdom of light walk in the light.

Living a righteous life is not works, neither is it legalism.  Living a righteous life is a manifestation of the presence of the Holy Spirit whose responsibility it is to lead us into a Christ-like life.  To say you are a child of the light while wanting nothing to do with the Kingdom of light is nonsense. 

Third, He redeemed us.  To redeem something is to exchange it for something more valuable.  When someone is kidnapped, they give money back so they can redeem the one held hostage.  That is the picture of redemption.  It is a similar picture to the kingdom of darkness/kingdom of His son.  There is a difference in this regard.  In redemption, there must be a price paid.

The best example of this in the Old Testament is the story of Ruth.  After her husband passed away, Ruth returned with Naomi to live with the people of God.  Marriages were more arranged in those days than in today’s culture.  There was a specific order of relatives that could marry a widow.  If someone down the line wanted to marry the widow, they had to pay a price.  We read,                   RUTH 4:1-10            You may read this and wonder what was going on.  When a married man died, leaving a widow, the next brother who was single was to marry the lady and their first child was to be named after the older brother and the inheritance was to go to that child.  The reason Ruth was not chosen by the first relative was because he did not want to give his inheritance to a child that legally was not his.  Boaz came forward and said, “I will risk my inheritance to redeem this woman”.  Do you see the picture?  Jesus came to “risk His inheritance” to pay the price for His bride.  How much does Jesus love you?  He loves us enough to risk everything for you.

Fourth, He forgave us.  Is there a greater need than forgiveness?  There is no greater struggle in our nation today than in dealing with the consequences of guilt.  Some conclude that the solution is to eliminate all guilt.  They seek to rationalize, medicate and overcome guilt away.  However, there is a reason why people feel guilty and that is because they are.  You cannot wish guilt away any more than you can wish away cancer, polio, or leukemia.  There is only one way to deal with guilt; bring it to the great healer and have Him forgive it.  This is what repentance does.  We read,            ACTS 2:38; II PETER 3:10                   Repentance is no more works than is faith or belief.  We read elsewhere            ACTS 5:29-32; 11:18; 20:17-21; 26:16-20               There will be no one in Heaven who does not come through God’s grace.  “FOR BY GRACE ARE YOU SAVED…”  But, God’s grace always leads the sinner to action.  Belief, confession, repentance are all manifestations of God’s grace.  They are not works; they are a natural outpouring of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of a sinner.  The greatest tranquilizer in the psychiatric community is forgiveness.  When we turn our life over to Him and present Him with our sin, He washes the slate clean and brings forgiveness to the sinful and guilty heart.

FOURTH, WE SEE OUR ATTITUDES.  You may have noticed that all of this activity was in God’s hands.  Salvation is God’s act.  However, we do have a response.  What should our actions be because of the forgiveness God gives?  Paul writes, “…JOYOUSLY GIVING THANKS TO THE FATHER…”  What should be our response to forgiveness?  How about living a life of thanks and gratitude to the Father who made it all possible?  We read            ACTS 13:48, 49              What was the response of these Gentiles to hearing that the plan of salvation had now opened up to them?  They threw a party.  They jumped for joy and praised God.  This is the proper response to those who know God. 

This has been historically practiced.  We read               PSALM 33:12              When a nation puts its trust in God, He blesses that nation.  This was how our nation began.  At the top of the Washington Monument is an aluminum cap.  On that cap are inscribed seven letters, Laus Deo.  That is Latin for “may God be praised”.  Hardly a separation of church and state engraving, isn’t it?  President Washington never joined a church, but he had a strong belief that the God of the Bible ruled over the affairs of men and God’s hand was upon this young nation.  There was one reason for this belief, because its churches were strong and allowed to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This should be our desire.  To understand our salvation is to understand that we were in sin and Jesus rescued us.  To understand our salvation is to understand that we are unable to stand in the presence of God, but Jesus has qualified us to enter on His authority.  To understand our salvation is to understand that we were slaves to sin and Jesus redeemed us.  To understand our salvation is to understand that we were under the penalty of sin and Jesus forgives us.  To understand our salvation is to understand your need to cry our “Laus Deo”.  Praise be to God!!  Do you know why most believers aren’t that thankful?  It is because we do not truly believe we deserve God’s wrath.  We read,                   EPHESIANS 2:1-3a           Do you truly believe you were totally strangled by sin?  Do you truly believe you will spend eternity with God only because His mercy is real in your life?  If you truly believe that, praise and thanksgiving will be a normal expression of your life.

This is the picture of the believer.  One who understands God’s authority in their life, and has only one response; Laus Deo.

This message is from the teaching ministry of Glen Jackson, pastor of Faith Christian Church in Simi Valley, CA.