MADE HEIRS ACCORDING TO THE HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE

Titus 3:7

Morning Meditation 3/27/16

This text says: "That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

The Bible is so rich that you can "put in" almost anywhere and you find yourself in a gold mine. Speaking of gold. You heard about the man who died and went to heaven. He put a little too much emphasis on money while on earth. He loved his gold so much that when he died he had all his assets put into gold and he melted it all down and put it in a gold bar. Well he showed up at the gate of heaven with this gold bar. The gate keeper told him that he couldn't bring that bar in. He argued until the gate keeper told him that he would go talk to the Lord about it. Well he went and the conversation went like this. "Lord, there is a man out here who has brought something from earth that he wants to bring in with him. I told him he couldn't be but he insists. So I told him that I could come and talk to you about it." The Lord asked, "What is it?" To which the gate keeper replied, "I don't know. It looks like a piece of pavement to me." Well that is how heaven looks at what we make so much of on this earth.

Now lets look at this verse. The words "that being justified" (dikaioo) means "to declare, pronounce, one to be just, righteous." It is an aorist passive participle. The aorist tense means that it happened at a point of time in the past. Where in the past did this take place? In verse five the words "he saved us" identify the time. It is at the point of salvation that God pronounces us to be just or righteous. The passive voice of this verb is where the subject (we believers) receive this act or declaration that God makes of us. It has nothing to do with experiential righteousness. Grace is where God declares us righteous in the righteousness of Christ. It is his righteousness given to us as a gift (Rom. 5:17) and is put to our account: Romans 4:5 says "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." The word "counted" (logizomai) means "to reckon, to count, to compute, to calculate." God is the Justifier. The believer is the recipient of that justifying act.. The God before whom all the world will stand, has brought us in harmony with himself through the mediatorship of Jesus Christ. Jesus stood in for us, paid the debt that we owed to God, and God received the payment as from us, and declared us righteous and does not see us now as ever having sinned. (Someone hold my mules I feel a spell coming on) What a merciful God! One other thing that will push us over the edge. The aorist tense of this verb describes a once-for-all act. The aorist tense is a point of time divorced from time and perpetuated forever. We were justified by God because of our faith in Christ at a point of time (the time of our salvation), and that point of time was divorced from time and it stands eternally and is protected by the power of God so that it will never need to happen again. One would have to change the mind of God or overcome the power of God for a believer to ever become unjustified.

The words "by his grace" mean that justification is not because of human merit. It comes to the sinner because of the generosity and mercy of God. God wants to be favorable to man. He has made a way where he can do that without contaminating his holiness and violating his on justice. It is called grace. Grace is defined as unmerited favor. It is unmerited on the part of man. It is merited on the part of Christ. Christ came into the world to be what God created man to be, i.e., perfect with unqualified faith in God.. Jesus was all God ever expected of a man. He glorified God and honored him in everything he did. Then he died the death of the sinner separated from God and this is brought out in his words "my God, my God why hast thou forsaken me." He rose again the third day after having satisfied the justice of God for the sins of the world. Then he went back to where he was before he came into the world. John 17:4-5 says "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." Now let me state a definition of grace. Grace is where God gives me as a totally unmerited gift what Christ deserves.

The words "we should be made" (ginomai) means "to become, i.e., to come into existence, begin to be, receive being." It is an aorist middle subjunctive verb. The aorist tense refers to a once-for-all act at a point of time. The middle voice is where the subject acts and participates in the result of the act. The subject is benefitted by the action. This means that this is the purpose God had in mind when he became the potential Savior of all mankind through the incarnation, life and death of the cross. God made it possible for the whole of mankind to be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The word "heirs" (kleronomos) means "in Messianic usage, one who receives his allotted possession by right of sonship." Jesus is the heir: Heb. 1:2 says "Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds." Jesus has very clearly been appointed heir of all things. How do we become heirs according to Titus 3:7? It is brought out in Romans 4:13-16 "For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all."

The way this happens is we become joint-heirs with Christ. Romans 8:16-17 says "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." Here again: grace is when we get what Christ deserves..

The words "according to the hope of eternal life" mean that being an heir is the hope that the possession of eternal life holds out to us. Hope is the joyful anticipation of a reality. Everything that God gives us by grace is a reality before it comes to pass.

Peter says in First Peter 1:3-4: 3 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." Our inheritance is reserved for us. The word "reserved" (tereo) means "to attend to carefully, take care of, to guard" It is a perfect tense. The perfect tense is completed action in the past with the result that it remains true. It was put under guard in the past and it remains that way. God has a reservation sign on our inheritance and he will not allow it to be changed. It will be there when we arrive.

May God bless each of you.

In Christ

Bro. White