Giving thanks unto the Father
To God the Father, as the Vulgate Latin and the Syriac versions
read the clause; and the Complutensian edition, and some copies,
"God and the Father"; who is both the Father of Christ by nature,
and of all his people by adoption. The Ethiopic version renders
it, as an exhortation or advice, "give ye thanks to the Father";
and so the Syriac version: but the words rather seem to be spoken
in the first, than in the second person, and are to be considered
in connection with ( Colossians
1:9 ) . So when the apostle had made an end of his petitions,
he enters upon thanksgiving to God:
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the
saints in light;
by the "inheritance", or "lot", is meant not the common lot of
the children of God to suffer persecution for the sake of Christ,
and through much tribulation to enter into the kingdom, which
they are by God the Father counted and made worthy of, with the
rest of saints called out of darkness into light; nor their
present state and condition, having a power to become the
children of God, and to be fellow citizens with the saints, to
enjoy communion with them, under the Gospel dispensation, called
"light", in opposition to Jewish and Gentile darkness, to be
brought into which state is an high favour of God; but the
heavenly glory, so called, in allusion to the land of Canaan,
which was divided by lot to the children of Israel, according to
the will and purpose of God; and because it is not acquired by
the works of men, but is a pure free grace gift of God, and which
he, as the Father of his people, has bequeathed unto them; and
which they enjoy through the death of the testator Christ; and of
which the Spirit is the earnest; and because this glory is
peculiar to such as are the children of God by adopting grace. It
is no other than that inheritance which is incorruptible and
undefiled, and which fades not away, reserved in the heavens; and
designs that substance, or those solid and substantial things
they shall possess hereafter; that kingdom, salvation, and glory,
they are heirs of; and includes all things they shall inherit,
and even God himself, who is their portion, their inheritance,
their exceeding great reward, and of whom they are said to be
heirs. This is the inheritance "of the saints", and of none else;
who are sanctified or set apart by God the Father in eternal
election; who are sanctified by the blood of Christ, or whose
sins are expiated by his atoning sacrifice; who are sanctified in
Christ, or to whom he is made sanctification; and who are
sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, or have the work of
sanctification begun upon their souls by him; in consequence of
which they live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world. And
this inheritance of theirs is "in light"; unless this clause
should be read in connection with the word "saints", and be
descriptive of them; they being called and brought out of
darkness into light, and made light in the Lord, light being
infused into them; in which light they see light, sin to be
exceeding sinful, and Christ to be exceeding precious: or this
phrase should be thought to design the means by which the Father
makes meet to partake of the inheritance; namely, in or by the
light of the Gospel, showing the way of salvation by Christ, and
by the light of grace put into their hearts, and by following
Christ the light of the world, which is the way to the light of
life: though it rather seems to point out the situation and
nature of the heavenly inheritance; it is where God dwells, in
light inaccessible to mortal creatures, and who is light itself;
and where Christ is, who is the light of the new Jerusalem; and
where is the light of endless joy, and uninterrupted happiness;
and where the saints are blessed with the clear, full, and
beatific vision of God in Christ, and of Christ as he is, seeing
him, not through a glass darkly, but face to face. This may be
said in reference to a notion of the Jews, that the "light" which
God created on the first day is that goodness which he has laid
up for them that fear him, and is what he has treasured up for
the righteous in the world to come F4. Now the saints meetness
for this is not of themselves; by nature they are very unfit for
it, being deserving of the wrath of God, and not of an
inheritance; and are impure and unholy, and so not fit to partake
of the inheritance of saints, or Holy Ones, and much less to
dwell and converse with an holy God; and being darkness itself,
cannot bear such light, or have communion with it: but God the
Father makes them meet, which includes all the acts of his grace
towards them, upon them, and in them; such as his choosing them
in Christ, and their inheritance for them; in preparing that for
them, and them for that; blessing them with all grace, and all
spiritual blessings in Christ; putting them among the children by
an act of adoption, of his own sovereign will and free grace, and
thereby giving them a goodly heritage, and a title to it;
justifying them by the righteousness of his Son, and so making
them heirs according to the hope of eternal life, and forgiving
all their trespasses for Christ's sake; cleansing them from all
in his blood, so that being the undefiled in the way, without
spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, they are fit for the
undefiled inheritance; regenerating them by his Spirit, and
implanting principles of light and life, grace and holiness, in
them, without which no man shall see the Lord, or enter into the
kingdom of heaven. One copy, as Beza observes, reads it, "which
hath called us to be partakers" and so does the Ethiopic version.
And all such as the Father has thus called, and made meet, shall
certainly be partakers of the inheritance; they partake of it
already in Christ their head, and in faith and hope, having the
Spirit as an earnest and pledge of it, and will wholly and
perfectly enjoy it hereafter: for though, like Canaan's land, it
is disposed of by lot, by the will, counsel, and free grace of
God, yet will it not be divided into parts as that was; there is
but one undivided inheritance, but one part and portion, which
all the saints shall jointly and equally partake of, having all
and each the same right and title, claim and meetness. For which
they have abundant reason to give thanks to the Father, when they
consider what they were, beggars on the dunghill, and now
advanced to sit among princes, and to inherit the throne of
glory; were bankrupts, over their head in debt, owed ten thousand
talents, and had nothing to pay, and now all is frankly,
forgiven; and besides, a title to, and meetness for, the heavenly
inheritance, are freely bestowed on them; and particularly when
they consider they are no more worthy of this favour than others
that have no share in it, and also how great the inheritance is.