Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada and I hope you’re having a blessed Easter week… and I know Ken and I are… when you think of all that happened this Easter week, all that Jesus secured for us, well no wonder we celebrate the resurrection. I mean, you could use up a month of Sundays thinking about all that Jesus secured for us. For instance, just listen to this verse from Ephesians 1. It says, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints." That has been my prayer for Ken and me this week… that God might open our eyes wider than ever before so we can fully grasp the wonderful hope that’s ours… and the enormous riches of not just what we’re about to inherit; but what we have already inherited. And, oh, what we've inherited! Let me try to describe it…
You see, it all began back in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and their disobedience. With that one act of disobedience, Adam and Eve lost their innocence. And, because of them, we lost innocence, too; we lost our standing as children of God, as well as our right to rule; we lost everything, really. However, God was not about to leave us abandoned – he had a plan, and that plan involved the cross. With his death, Jesus redeemed us. But here’s the best part… listen to this: Jesus did a whole lot more at the cross than simply buy back our innocence. He didn't purchase our redemption just so we could get back to the Garden and be reinstated alongside Adam. Oh no; thank heavens, God had much more in mind than that. He's much more generous.
The Father's marvelous plan was that we would end up as co‑heirs not with Adam but co-heirs with Christ. We don't gain back Adam's innocence; we gain Christ's righteousness! Like it says in the Bible: “For the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to many!” Wow! If God had in mind merely to restore us to our state in the Garden of Eden, we would, like Adam, be children of God and subdue earth. But, as believers in Jesus, we are a brand new creation. Our inheritance with our elder brother, Jesus, means that we will rule over not only earth but also the new heavens. All the treasures of the heavens that belong to the Lord will, one day, belong to us as well. And I can’t wait. The first thing I'm going to do when I enter that inheritance is to jump up out of this wheelchair, and then immediately drop down on grateful, glorified knees. I’m going to be a pillar in God's Temple… I'm going to sit on the throne with my Savior… I’m going to judge fallen angels and rule (not just the earth, as Adam was charged to do)… but rule the universe.
Adam and Eve could never have hoped for that. Never. Theirs was a state of bliss and innocence. But Christ secured for us a state of joy and righteousness. We are much more than co‑heirs with Adam. There are so many things that happened at the cross to thank God for; so much stuff that was secured for us through the resurrection. And to help you appreciate all that the cross and the empty tomb provided, I want to send you this wonderful fold-out highlighting evidences for the resurrection – it’s called just that and you can get your copy by dropping by my radio page at joniandfriends.org and we’ll get it out to you right away. Finally, this Easter week ask God to open the eyes of your heart would you so that we can celebrate the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
© Joni and Friends