Scripture Reading: Gal. 3:29; 4:7; Rom. 8:17; Eph. 1:18; Titus 3:7

DAY 1 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 2 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 3 & DAY 4 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 5 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 6 Outline　MorningRevival

«　WEEK 4　DAY 1　»

　　Titus 3:7 In order that having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

　　John 1:12-13 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name, who were begotten…of God.

　　Galatians 4:7 says, “You are no longer a slave but a son; and if a son, an heir also through God.” Here an heir is one who is of full age according to the law (the Roman law is used by Paul for illustration) and who is qualified to inherit the father’s estate. The New Testament believers become heirs of God not through the law or through their fleshly father but through God, even the Triune God—the Father who sent forth the Son and the Spirit (vv. 4, 6), the Son who accomplished redemption for sonship (v. 5), and the Spirit who carries out the sonship within us (v. 6). (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 1081)

　　In Titus 3:7b we see that the believers are not only sons but also heirs who are qualified to inherit the Father’s estate (Rom. 4:14; 8:17; Gal. 3:29; 4:7). We were born of God (John 1:12-13) with His eternal life (3:16). This eternal life is for us not only to live and enjoy God in this age, but also to inherit all the riches of what He is to us in the coming age and in eternity. Moreover, eternal life implies hope…Because eternal life is forever and cannot be terminated, it gives us hope. Hence, there is the hope of eternal life. God’s eternal life is our enjoyment today and our hope tomorrow.

　　Eternal life is the divine life, the uncreated life of God. It is not only everlasting, lasting forever, with respect to time, but in its nature it is also eternal and divine. The eternal life of God is given to all believers in Christ (1 Tim. 1:16) and is the main element of the divine grace given to us (Rom. 5:17, 21). This life has conquered death (Acts 2:24) and will swallow up death (2 Cor. 5:4). Eternal life and its consequent incorruption have been brought to light and made visible to men through the preaching of the gospel (2 Tim. 1:10). Furthermore, eternal life is not only for us to partake of and enjoy today, but also for us to inherit (Matt. 19:29) in its full extent for eternity…Its enjoyment today is a foretaste; the full taste will be the inheritance of it in the coming age and in eternity, which is the hope of eternal life. This is the blessed hope revealed in Titus 2:13, which is composed of the freedom of the glory of full sonship, the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:21-25), the salvation to be revealed in the last time (1 Pet. 1:5), and the living hope of the incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading inheritance reserved in heaven (vv. 3-4). This is the full, spiritual, divine, and heavenly blessing and enjoyment of eternal life, both in the millennium and in the new heaven and new earth (2 Pet. 1:11; 3:13; Rev. 21:6-7), referred to in 1 Timothy 4:8. According to this hope, we become heirs of God to inherit all His riches for eternity. This is the climax as the eternal goal of God’s eternal salvation with His eternal life given to us by grace in Christ.

　　The believers are heirs of God through justification by the grace of Christ (Titus 3:7a). To be justified (Rom. 3:24; Gal. 2:16) is to be approved by God according to His standard of righteousness. God can approve us in this way because our justification is based on the redemption of Christ…When the redemption of Christ is applied to us, we are justified.

　　Titus 3:7a tells us that we are justified by the grace of Christ. The grace of Christ is not merely His unmerited favor. The grace of Christ is actually Christ Himself as life and everything dispensed into us for our enjoyment. This grace is the transmission of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ into us. This grace plays the most important role in the economy of God’s salvation. When we received the grace of Christ, we were justified to become heirs of God. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1083-1084)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 101

«　WEEK 4　DAY 2　»

　　Rom. 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

　　16-17 The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, heirs also; on the one hand, heirs of God; on the other, joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified with Him.

　　The New Testament speaks of the believers as children of God, sons of God, and heirs of God. Being children of God is our initial, or primary, relationship with God. We may be children without the growth of a son, or we may be sons without the qualification of an heir. Therefore, we need to grow in order to become sons of God. Then we need further growth, growth to maturity, in order to be heirs of God. As heirs, we shall inherit the divine inheritance. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 1081)

　　[In Romans 8:14-17] three significant terms are used—children, sons, and heirs…The life of God works in three stages to make us sons of God. The life of God regenerates us in our spirit, transforms us in our soul, and transfigures our body. Hence, we have regeneration, transformation, and transfiguration. These together give us full sonship. As the result of these three steps, the sons are fully matured.

　　In this portion of Romans we are told that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God (v. 16). Verse 16 does not say “sons” or “heirs,” for in the first stage of sonship, we are simply little children who have been regenerated by the life of God. After this we will grow. Then verse 14 says that “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”…When we are capable of being led by the Spirit, it means that we have attained a certain growth in life. We have grown from children into sons who are able to take the leading of the Spirit. This means that we are in the second stage, the stage of transformation. Ultimately, we will become heirs…Therefore, in this portion of Romans we have children by regeneration, sons by transformation, and heirs by transfiguration, or glorification. We were born the children of God, we are growing up as the sons of God, and we are waiting for the time when we will be fully matured and legally declared to be the rightful heirs of God… The transfiguration of our body will qualify us to be the heirs of the divine inheritance. This transfiguration will be accomplished by glorification.

　　As a result of these three stages, we will obtain full sonship. These three stages [of sonship] correspond to the three stages of God’s salvation: the first stage, justification, produces children; the second stage, sanctification, enables the children to grow into sons; and the third stage, glorification, results in the transfiguration of the body so that we may become the legal heirs of the divine inheritance.

　　The condition for being heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ is that “we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified with Him” (v. 17)… Remember that suffering is the incarnation of grace…If we suffer with Him, we will be glorified with Him…The more suffering we pass through, the more our glory will be intensified, for suffering increases the intensity of our glory…In 1 Corinthians 15:41 Paul says that “star differs from star in glory,” indicating that some stars shine more brightly than others. We all will shine, and we all will be glorified, but the intensity of our glory will depend on the amount of suffering we are willing to take. It is certain that the apostle Paul in that day will shine more brightly than all of us…We will all be glorified, but the intensity of our glory will differ according to our suffering. Therefore, Paul says in Romans 8:18, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed upon us.” The present suffering means nothing compared with the coming glory. (Life-study of Romans, pp. 226-228, 219-220)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Romans, msg. 19

«　WEEK 4　DAY 3　»

　　Gal. 4:7 So then you are no longer a slave but a son; and if a son, an heir also through God.

　　3:29 And if you are of Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.

　　Galatians 3:29 reveals that the believers are heirs according to the promise given by God to Abraham…Abraham’s seed is only one, Christ (v. 16). Hence, to be Abraham’s seed we must be Christ’s, a part of Christ. Because we are one with Christ, we are also Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise, inheriting God’s promised blessing, which is the all-inclusive Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God to be our portion. In God’s New Testament economy, the believers as God’s chosen people, being sons of God, are such heirs, not under law but in Christ. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 1082)

　　Galatians 3 reveals that God intended to give the promise to Abraham according to His eternal purpose. Before this promise was accomplished, the law was given to serve as the custodian of God’s chosen people. Then, at the appointed time, Christ, the promised seed, came to fulfill God’s promise to Abraham…Now we are in Christ, the One who has fulfilled the promise, to inherit the fulfilled promise and to enjoy the blessing of the promise to Abraham. This blessing is the processed Triune God as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit.

　　The believers have become heirs of God through regeneration in the resurrection of Christ [1 Pet. 1:3]…Regeneration, like redemption and justification, is an aspect of God’s full salvation. Redemption and justification solve our problem with God and reconcile us to God. Regeneration enlivens us with God’s life and brings us into a relationship of life, an organic union, with God. Hence, regeneration issues and results in a living hope. Such regeneration takes place through the resurrection of Christ from among the dead. When Christ was resurrected, we, His believers, were all included in Him. Thus, we were resurrected with Him (Eph. 2:6). In His resurrection He imparted the divine life into us and made us the same as He is in life and nature. This is the basic factor of our regeneration to become heirs of God.

　　To be regenerated is to receive another life, the divine life, in addition to the human life…Because of God’s choosing, the Spirit’s sanctifying, and Christ’s redeeming (1 Pet. 1:2), God begets us, regenerates us. As a result, we have a second birth. Through regeneration God the Father imparts the divine life into us. Therefore, the first birth was the birth of our human life, and the second birth, the birth of the divine life. Once a person has been born on earth, he has the right to enjoy an earthly inheritance. In the same principle, once a person has been born again by God with His Spirit, that one is born unto a living hope, and this living hope is the inheritance (v. 4) of all the spiritual and heavenly blessings related to eternal life. Daily we need to take possession of this inheritance and enjoy it.

　　Through regeneration in the resurrection of Christ we have become heirs to inherit the Triune God as our inheritance with the Holy Spirit as the pledge. The “Holy Spirit of the promise” is the “pledge of our inheritance, unto the redemption of the acquired possession” (Eph. 1:13b-14). God is our inheritance. We shall inherit all that God is and has…The Greek word for pledge in verse 14 also means foretaste, guarantee, a partial payment in advance. God gives His Holy Spirit to us not only as a guarantee of our inheritance, securing our heritage, but also as a foretaste of what we shall inherit of God. In ancient times the Greek word for pledge was used in the purchase of land. The seller gave the buyer a sample of the soil from the land being purchased. Hence, according to ancient Greek usage, a pledge was also a sample. As a pledge, the Holy Spirit is the sample of what we shall inherit of the Triune God. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1083, 1085-1086)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 101

«　WEEK 4　DAY 4　»

　　1 Pet. 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in the heavens for you.

　　We need to be impressed with the fact that our inheritance is the Triune God Himself…The pledge of our inheritance is the Holy Spirit…A material mansion would not need the divine person of the Spirit as a pledge, sample, foretaste, and guarantee. Since the pledge of our inheritance is a divine person, the inheritance must also be a divine person—the Triune God Himself. The Triune God is the inheritance God intends to give to us, and the Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the Triune God reaching us is the pledge of this inheritance. As the pledge of our inheritance, the Spirit guarantees that the Triune God will be our portion for our enjoyment. This is the Triune God as our inheritance. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 1086)

　　Ephesians 1:14 says that the Spirit is the pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of the acquired possession. We, God’s redeemed ones, the church, are God’s possession acquired by His purchase with the precious blood of Christ (Acts 20:28). In God’s economy God becomes our inheritance, and we become God’s possession. As God’s possession, we still need the redemption of our body, for our body is still in the old creation… On the one hand, the Triune God is our inheritance; on the other hand, we are His possession. The crucial matter in Ephesians 1:14 is that the Spirit is pledged into us as a guarantee that God will be our inheritance in full…In the glory, we shall enjoy God as our inheritance, and He will enjoy us as His possession.

　　Our inheritance is not anything material. The Divine Trinity is our inheritance, and His consummated Spirit has been imparted into our being as a pledge. Now this pledge is working within us to redeem God’s possession until the day we enjoy Him as our portion and He enjoys us as His possession.

　　First Peter 1:3 tells us that through the resurrection of Christ we have been regenerated unto a living hope. Then verse 4 goes on to say, “Unto an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in the heavens for you.” At the end of verse 3 there is a comma, and verse 4 begins with “unto.” This indicates that “unto an inheritance” in verse 4 is in apposition to “unto a living hope” in verse 3. This means that the living hope is the inheritance and that the inheritance is the living hope. A living hope, resulting from regeneration, is our expectation of the coming blessing; an inheritance is the fulfillment of our hope in the coming age and in eternity. A living hope is a hope of life. In particular, it is a hope of eternal life. Eternal life is our enjoyment and also our inheritance. All the riches of God’s being are involved in His life. These riches have become our inheritance…Our daily experience of eternal life is also an experience and enjoyment of the inheritance kept for us in the heavens. This indicates that the living hope and the inheritance are one.

　　Through our second birth, regeneration, we have been born into a new inheritance. According to 1 Peter 1:4, this inheritance is not on earth; rather, it is kept in the heavens. Although this inheritance is kept for us in the heavens, we can enjoy it now on earth. Our heavenly, divine, spiritual inheritance is kept in the heavens; yet it is continually being transmitted into our spirit for our enjoyment.

　　The Triune God Himself will be our basic inheritance. Related to Him as our inheritance we have five other matters: the coming salvation of our souls, the grace to be revealed at the Lord’s coming, the glory to be revealed to us, the unfading crown of glory, and the eternal glory. These five items, added together, are a subsidiary inheritance related to God Himself. Although these items are not the Triune God directly, they are related to the divine life, which is God Himself. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1086-1087, 1089-1092)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 101

«　WEEK 4　DAY 5　»

　　Acts 26:18 To open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.

　　Phil. 3:21 Who will transfigure the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory…

　　In their status as heirs of God, the believers share with all the saints in the light the Triune God embodied in Christ as their portion. Acts 26:18 speaks of the forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Christ…This divine inheritance is the Triune God with all He has, all He has done, and all He will do for His redeemed people. This Triune God is embodied in the all-inclusive Christ (Col. 2:9), who is the portion allotted to the saints as their inheritance (1:12). The Holy Spirit is the pledge, the guarantee, of this divine inheritance, which we are sharing and enjoying today as a foretaste and will share and enjoy in full in the coming age and for eternity (1 Pet. 1:4). (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1087-1088)

　　Believers are generally taught that the inheritance in Acts 26:18 is a heavenly mansion. But this inheritance is actually Christ as the embodiment of the processed Triune God…Paul says that the Father has qualified us “for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light” [Col. 1:12].

　　The good land is a type of the all-inclusive Christ given to us as our inheritance. The Greek word rendered “portion” in Colossians 1:12 can also be rendered “lot,” referring to an allotment. When Paul was writing this verse, he no doubt had in mind the picture of the allotting of the good land to the children of Israel (Josh. 14:1) and used the word portion with the Old Testament record of the land as the background…Just as the land of Canaan was everything to the children of Israel, so Christ, the reality of the type of the good land, is everything to us. Therefore, Christ, the embodiment of the processed Triune God, is our inheritance, which we share with all the saints in the light.

　　Christ is now in glory. Eventually we shall be brought into glory and be glorified with Christ. When we are glorified, the body of our humiliation will be transfigured into a glorious body (Phil. 3:21). At that time we shall be completely and absolutely brought into God Himself as our glory. Then we shall appear with Christ in glory (Col. 3:4).

　　Some of us may hold strictly an objective concept of glorification. According to this concept, those who have been saved and regenerated will suddenly be glorified. Supposedly, the glorification of the believers will take place instantaneously at the coming of the Lord Jesus. But although our glorification may appear to be a sudden occurrence, it will actually be the consummation of a process of gradual growth and development in life. Through regeneration the life of glory has come into us, and now we have a seed of glory within us. The life that we have within us as a seed is the life of glory. This is Christ in us, the hope of glory (1:27). Eventually, this seed will blossom, and thereby we shall be brought into glory. It will be like the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus (Matt. 17:1-2). When the Lord was transfigured on the mountaintop, it was not that the shekinah glory suddenly came upon Him from the heavens; it was that the divine glory shone from within Him. Likewise, the glory into which we shall be brought is the out-shining of the very glory that is within us right now. This means that Christ is not leading us into some objective glory but into the very glory that has been sown into us as a seed. Therefore, to be glorified means to have the glory that has been sown into us as a seed saturate our whole being. When we have been permeated and saturated with the element of glory, that glory will come out of us. This is what it means for us, the heirs of God, to be glorified with Christ. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1088-1089)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 101

«　WEEK 4　DAY 6　»

　　Eph. 1:18 The eyes of your heart having been enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.

　　13 In whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in Him also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise.

　　As heirs of God, the believers are joint heirs of Christ according to the promise and the hope of eternal life, through justification by the grace of Christ and regeneration in the resurrection of Christ, to inherit the Triune God as their inheritance with the Holy Spirit as the pledge, to share with all the saints in the light the Triune God embodied in Christ as their portion, to be glorified with Christ, and to inherit an inheritance kept in the heavens as a living hope. This consummates in the believers being made God’s inheritance…The Greek word rendered “were designated as an inheritance” [in Ephesians 1:11] means “to choose” or “assign by lot.” Hence, this clause literally means we were designated as a heritage. We were made an inheritance to inherit God’s inheritance. On the one hand, we were made God’s inheritance (v. 18) for God’s enjoyment; on the other hand, we were made to inherit God as our inheritance (v. 14) for our enjoyment… It is by having the Triune God wrought into us that we are constituted into an inheritance. As God’s element is wrought into our being, we become His inheritance in reality. Therefore, we are still in the process of being made God’s inheritance in full. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 1092)

　　Ephesians 1:18 indicates that God’s inheritance is in the saints. First God made us His inheritance as His acquired possession and gave us to participate in all He is, all He has, and all He has accomplished as our inheritance. Consummately, all these become His inheritance in the saints for eternity. God’s inheritance is in and among the saints. We, the saints, are God’s inheritance. However, what we are by nature cannot be God’s inheritance. God does not desire to inherit our nature, our flesh, our natural being. He desires to inherit all that He has wrought into us of Himself. Therefore, whatever God has wrought into us of Himself becomes His inheritance.

　　As those who are God’s inheritance, we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit (v. 13)…Because we have been made God’s inheritance, at the time we were saved God put His Holy Spirit into us as a seal to mark us out, indicating that we belong to God. Actually the Spirit Himself is the seal. To be sealed with the Holy Spirit means that God has been dispensed into our being. Hence, this seal is living and moving within us, for the Spirit is constantly sealing us with God’s essence. To be sealed in this way is to be saturated with all that God is. Therefore, the sealing of the Holy Spirit also indicates that God is being wrought into us. Through the sealing of the Spirit, God is working His essence into our being that He may enjoy us, His acquired possession, as His inheritance.

　　It is God Himself within us who constitutes His inheritance among the saints. In this inheritance are the riches of God’s glory…The believers become precious to Him by being saturated with the divine essence…Now this precious God of matchless worth is working Himself into us to make us His glorious inheritance. When the New Jerusalem comes, we shall see that it will be altogether a valuable inheritance, shining with God’s glory.

　　After being saved, we are children of God, sons of God, partakers of the divine nature, and heirs of God. As heirs of God, we enjoy Him as our inheritance, and we become His inheritance for His enjoyment. Therefore, our enjoyment of the divine inheritance consummates in our being made God’s inheritance. We enjoy God. Then our enjoyment of Him makes us His enjoyment. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1092-1094)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 101