'In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, ... the earnest of
our inheritance.'--Eph. i. 11, 14.
A dewdrop twinkles into green and gold as the sunlight falls on it. A
diamond flashes many colours as its facets catch the light. So, in this
context, the Apostle seems to be haunted with that thought of
'inheriting' and 'inheritance,' and he recurs to it several times, but
sets it at different angles, and it flashes back different beauties of
radiance. For the words, which I have wrenched from their context in the
first of these two verses, are more accurately rendered, as in the
Revised Version, in 'whom also we were made,' _not_ 'have
obtained'--'an inheritance.' Whose inheritance? God's! The Christian
community is God's possession. Then, in my second text, we have the
converse thought--'the earnest of _our_ inheritance.' What is the
Christian's possession? The same God whose possession is the Christian.
So, then, there is a deep and a wonderful relation between the believing
soul and God, and however different must be the two sides of that
relation, the resemblance is greater than the difference. Surely that is
the deepest, most blessed, and most strength-giving conception of the
Christian life. Other notions of it lay stress, and that rightly, upon
certain correspondence between us and God. My faith corresponds to His
faithfulness and veracity. My obedience corresponds to His authority. My
weakness lays hold on His strength. My emptiness is replenished by His
fulness. But here we rise above the region of correspondences into that
of similarity. In these other aspects the convexity fits the concavity;
in this aspect the two hemispheres go together and make the complete
globe. We possess God, and God possesses us, and it is the same set of
facts which are set forth in the two thoughts, 'We were made an
inheritance, ... the earnest of our inheritance.'