Hebrews 11 is about men and women coming into their inheritance. Inheritance is what we receive when we persist in faith. Once saved, always saved; that is a given. But, sadly, not all who are saved automatically come into their inheritance. Inheritance is what we get by not giving up.
There are two kinds of faith: saving faith and persistent faith. Saving faith is described in Romans 4:5: “To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness”. Persistent faith is described in Colossians 2:6: “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him”. We received Christ by faith – which is what saves, or justifies, us. That fits us for Heaven. Forever. It’s done. But we are to continue – persist – in the same faith. Doing so is not done with the view of making sure we get to Heaven. No. Heaven is ours. So why do we persist? For basically two reasons: (1) to show gratitude to God for saving us – which is a life of holiness. Sanctification is essentially the doctrine of gratitude. It is not what saves us or gets us to Heaven but shows we are grateful that we are eternally saved. But also (2) God invites us to come into our inheritance. He has an inheritance for each of us. What may be yours may not be mine; what may be mine may not be yours. For example, I could not have known on April 5th 1942 (when I was saved) that one day I would be a Bible teacher. This was God’s inheritance for me. He has an inheritance for you. It may not be full-time Christian ministry. You can be a nurse or lawyer or banker or secretary in God’s will as perfectly as I am as a Bible teacher.
But sadly there are Christians who forfeit their inheritance. By ingratitude. Disobedience. Foolishness. They don’t lose their salvation. But they risk – if they are not brought back to repentance – forfeiting their inheritance. Those in Hebrews 11 had in common that they believed God, persisted in faith and came into their inheritance. They did not receive what they thought they would get. But what they got was better than what they aimed for! And it was said of them: “of whom the world was not worthy” (Heb.11:38).
The most dazzling thing is this: you and I can do what they did. By persistent faith. Believing God.
RT
You can read much more about this in my book: Believing God available at a discount for this month.
