What’s in it for Me?

PETER and the other disciples wondered what they were going to get out of following Christ. “We have left all and followed You,” Peter told Jesus. “Therefore what shall we have?” (Matthew 19:27). In other words, “What’s the payoff? What’s in this for me?”

Paul describes some of the “payoff” for believers here in Ephesians 1:3-14. Because so much of it lies in the future, in another mode of existence, the language is strange and hard to understand. But in Ephesians 1:11 he mentions an inheritance that is coming to us. What is it that we are going to receive “in Christ”?

Simply this: all that God has prepared for Christ in “the fullness of the times” is going to be ours as well (Romans 8:15-17). This includes salvation from sin (Hebrews 1:14), everlasting life (Matthew 19:29), and the kingdom of God (Matthew 25:34). In fact, we will inherit God Himself.

Is this just wishful thinking? No, God is already giving us glimpses of that inconceivable future. The Holy Spirit lives inside us as a guarantee of things to come (Ephesians 1:14). He “seals” us, assuring that we remain in God’s family and do not lose our inheritance. And while we move toward that day, He works within our lives to make us more like Christ.

Courtesy of Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
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