Joyful Thanksgiving for the Gift of Inheritance. (Colossians 1:12).

Class Outline:

Wednesday August 26, 2026

 

Introduction

 

God has planned an inheritance for every believer in Christ. It would be odd, coming from Him, if it were a burden, if you had to work for it, or if it depreciated and disappeared. But as we discover in God’s precious Word, it is exceedingly abundantly beyond anything we could ask or imagine.

 

COL 1:11-14

… strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

 

Our Lord Jesus was absolutely confident in His resurrection.

 

The inheritance is already secured. We have been qualified. We have been transferred. And the only response is joyful thanksgiving.

 

Main idea: The Old Testament gift of the inheritance of Israel’s Promised Land teaches the church to be gratefully joyful to the Father for her inheritance in the kingdom of Christ.

 

I. Joyful thanksgiving expected of Israel for the gift of their inheritance

 

The Promised Land was given to Israel as a pure gift. When the land was divided among the tribes, the same language of allotment appears that Paul uses in his prayer for the Colossians.

 

The clearest picture is the firstfruits liturgy in DEU 26:1-11:

 

“Then it shall be, when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and you possess it and live in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground which you bring in from your land that the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare this day to the Lord my God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ … ‘My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; but there he became a great, mighty and populous nation. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders; and He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground which You, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God; and you and the Levite and the alien who is among you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household.”

 

God told them that they themselves were His possession (DEU 4:20; DEU 32:9), and to them He gave the inheritance of the land. He gave them a land filled with good things they did not build or plant (DEU 6:10-12). Their expected response was praise, worship, and joyful rejoicing before the Lord of mercy, faithfulness, and lovingkindness—leading them to keep His law.

 

Each family in Israel had a guaranteed possession in the land.

 

Personal gratitude that should mark us:

 

PSA 16:5-6

The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; 

You support my lot. 

The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places [borders of the allotment]; 

Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.

 

Gratitude on a corporate -scale.

 

PSA 105:8-11

He has remembered His covenant forever,

The word which He commanded to a thousand generations,

9 The covenant which He made with Abraham,

And His oath to Isaac.

10 Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,

To Israel as an everlasting covenant,

11 Saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan

As the portion of your inheritance,"

 

Application: Make it a point every day to bring the firstfruits of your day—your first thoughts, your first words—as thanksgiving for the inheritance already secured.

 

II. Christ commissioned Paul to open eyes to the church’s inheritance

 

Paul speaks of “a portion of the inheritance of the saints in Light” - equated with the kingdom of His beloved Son in verse 13.

 

Paul was specially commissioned by the risen Christ to open eyes to this reality:

 

ACT 26:16-18

“But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness… rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.”

 

Notice how closely the language mirrors COL 1:12-14.

 

We should be daily grateful despite what happens in the world.

 

ROM 8:18

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

 

III. The inheritance is certain and superior to false hopes

 

False teaching destroys the reality and finality of the inheritance in Christ.

 

The reality of our inheritance in Christ is specific and conclusive.

 

EPH 1:11-14

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will… In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

 

Paul prays that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened to know “what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (EPH 1:18).

 

Peter writes of the same certainty:

 

1PE 1:3-4

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. (1 Pet 1:3-4)

 

The inheritance is participation in the kingdom of the Son—already transferred, yet awaiting its full manifestation.

 

Conclusion: The inheritance is Christ and all that comes from being in Him

 

The saints are in light. The life of Christ is the light (JOH 1:4). Those who are saved love to come into the light (JOH 3:21). Jesus is the light of the world (JOH 8:12). He said, “I am the life” (JOH 14:6).

 

Christ is the light of the eternal state:

 

REV 21:23-27

And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light… and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

 

Make it a point every day to thank the Father for your inheritance.

 

Thank Him personally in the quiet of the morning, in the church, and in the world.

 

Thanksgiving is the incense of the believer-priest in this age.

 

Remind yourself throughout the day that thanksgiving belongs in everything.