Receiving an inheritance can be a joyful thing. It can enrich life in so many ways. It is something to be anticipated. Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Just what is the “joy” that is ahead for the Lord Jesus? Probably a lot more than any of us could articulate, but certainly it includes His future inheritance, that which has been promised to Him
THE INHERITANCE OF THE LORD JESUS. In Psalm 2:6, the Father declared that He has installed the Son as King on Mount Zion. It is seen as a “done deal.” And the eternal Son (Jesus) responded to the Father by saying: “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to Me, ‘Thou are my Son, today I have begotten Thee. Ask of Me and I will surely give THE NATIONS AS THINE INHERITANCE, AND THE VERY ENDS OF THE EARTH AS THY POSSESSION” (Psa. 2:7-8). The entire world is His inheritance. (Satan probably knew all about Psalm 2 and so tempted Jesus to get His inheritance early by worshipping him; Luke 4:5-8). Psalm 110 adds that after defeating all His enemies, the Lord will rule all on the earth. Psalm 89 emphasizes that God, on oath, has guaranteed the complete fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant which will last as long as the universe lasts. The Messiah will rule and be greater than the kings of the earth. Jesus’ kingdom rule will not be just over Israel. His inheritance is over all the nations of the earth. The nation of Israel will have a king. In fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant, Jesus is that king and will rule the nation of Israel (Isa. 9:6-7; Jer. 23:5-8). The great king of Israel during the monarchy period, David, will rule as “prince” under King Jesus (Ezek. 34:23-24; 37:25). And under David will be the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, each one assigned to be over one tribe (Matt. 19:28). The purpose of such a structure is to ensure that righteousness and justice prevail in the Land and in the world in the reign of King Jesus.
RULING THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD. There is less said about how the nations of the world will operate during the Messianic Kingdom (the Millennial kingdom). There will be individual gentile nations, like Egypt, who will go up to Jerusalem to worship King Jesus on appointed feast days (Zech. 14:16-19). All nations will have Jesus as their king. In the parable of the nobleman (Luke 19:11-27), Jesus indicated that when He returned from heaven, that He would assign ruling positions to His faithful followers. It seems very likely, for example, that the Apostle Paul (the apostle to the gentiles) would be placed in an elevated position of ruling over gentile nations as were the 12 Apostles who will rule over the 12 tribes of Israel.
THE OFFER TO YOU AND ME CONCERNING RULING WITH JESUS. Hebrews 3:14 makes an interesting point. It says if we remain faithful to the Lord Jesus that we will become “partakers of Christ.” This phrase is not the same thing as Paul’s theological truth of our position; that of being “in Christ.” The view of many is that Hebrews 3:14 is teaching that our position is “in Christ”. The NIV, in its attempt to make the text more readable has interjected an erroneous idea; that this verse is teaching that we are “in Christ”. But this translation runs into theological trouble immediately, because Hebrews says that being a “partaker” (companion) of Christ is conditioned on “holding fast” (persevering, hanging in there) and issues a stern warning (3:15-4:1). So how does being “in Christ” depend on a person holding fast to their faith? Faced with this obvious dilemma, many quickly turn to the “professed believer”, saying that all true believers will persevere to the end of life. But this view misses the point of Hebrews 3:14
This phrase is not “in Christ” but rather “of Christ”. This is the usual use of the genitive and it is here speaking of a future participation with Christ for those who remain faithful to the Lord Jesus in this life. The Greek word, metachos, signifies a sharing of life with Jesus; partaking of a uniquely close relationship with Jesus in His earthly, messianic kingdom. Note that this is the same thing taught by Jesus Himself in places like Matthew 25:21 and Luke 19:17. Any believer who is faithful to Christ in this life will have a special ruling relationship with King Jesus in His kingdom. This point in Hebrews 3 reflects the point made in Hebrews 1:9 where Christ will reign with His companions (the metachoi). Perhaps it is among the gentile nations that faithful believers will be ruling for Jesus.
This special invitation is still available to each of us. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a special relationship with the King during His 1,000-year reign? He does not require that we be famous in this life, but simply faithful to Him. His inheritance will be all the nations of the earth, and wouldn’t it be wonderful to share in Jesus’ inheritance from the Father?
