The Father offered a marvelous inheritance to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus then had to overcome all enemies in order to gain His inheritance. He had a work to do and He finished it.

To each one of us the Father is offering a marvelous inheritance—that of being a son and heir of God. To no angel has such an inheritance ever been offered. But it is being offered to us.

We are required to overcome, through Christ, all the enemies that would seek to prevent our attaining our great inheritance. We have our own work to do and it is our responsibility, with the Lord's help, to finish it in the same spirit of faithfulness the Lord Himself manifested.

The forgiveness of sins is the beginning aspect of the Christian salvation. God forgives our sins through Christ so He can proceed with the main task of changing us into the image of Jesus and bringing us into union with Himself. It is the transformation and relationship with God that are the primary emphases of the new covenant.

The Christian salvation is a journey. It begins with the grand parade as we march out of Egypt (the world). We repent of our sins. We receive Christ. We are baptized in water. We are born again. We are filled with God's Holy Spirit. It is a time of the greatest joy and significance. It marks the beginning of our eternal life with God.

The goal of our journey is assumed to be residence in Heaven after we die. If we receive Christ when we are fifteen years of age, and die when we are eighty-five, we have seventy years of waiting before we attain our goal. What do we do in the meantime?

Because human beings find it difficult to respond to the total demands of discipleship that Jesus presents to us (forsake the world, take up your cross, follow me); because we do not always perceive a vital relationship between such total demands and our goal (after all, we go to Heaven by grace!); because our enemies are many, cunning, and vicious; it is not uncommon for the once-enthusiastic believer to neglect the stringent demands of Christ in favor of a more relaxed approach to life. There are many interesting things to do in the world (in the wealthy nations) until we die or until the Lord returns.

The Book of Hebrews is a warning to Christians of the spiritual danger of not serving Christ with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

One does not find many believers who have forsaken the world, who are bearing their personal cross—abiding in their personal prison, and who are following Christ with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. Assuredly there are some, but not many it appears. Yet it is impossible to be a Christian, a disciple of Christ, unless one forsakes the world, takes up his cross, and follows Jesus.

Christianity is in a deplorable state in our time.

One of the main reasons for the lack of biblical discipleship is an ignorance of the goal of redemption.

To be continued.