What really defines your life? We can say that being in Christ is the most important thing about us, and yet still live as though our job, family role, success, possessions, reputation, or the approval of others carries more weight. In Ephesians 1:11–14, Paul brings the believer back to something far greater: “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance.” That inheritance only makes sense when we first see the greatness of the One we are in. Christ is the preeminent One, the One in whom the Father will gather all things together, and those who are united to Him have a share in blessings this world could never provide.
That changes the way we hold everything else. Our inheritance does not rest on what we have built, earned, inherited, or accomplished. Paul traces it back to the purpose and counsel of God, shows that it is received through trusting Christ rather than through human merit, and then points to the Holy Spirit as the “earnest of our inheritance”—the down payment of what will one day be received in full. The encouragement is not simply that something better is waiting for us someday. Believers already possess the Spirit of God now. We do not have to live as though we are poor in hope, powerless before sin, or dependent on the world to tell us what we are worth.
That truth reaches directly into how we live. We can hold the things of this world loosely because they are not our identity. Parents must consider what they are teaching their children to value, young people must personally pursue Christ, and every believer must remember that when the world or the old nature offers something else, Christ is better. Our inheritance is ours only because of Him, and the message finally leads us back to His shed blood and broken body—the grace that made forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, and every blessing in Christ possible.
If you find yourself measuring your life by what you have, what you do, what others think of you, or what seems to be missing, Ephesians 1 gives us something far more secure to consider. Hear the complete sermon and follow the passage as Pastor Jake unfolds what it means to live now in light of the inheritance believers already have in Christ.