Colossians 3:4-25 “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (5) Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. (6) Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, (7) in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. (8) But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. (9) Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, ... (23) And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, (24) knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. (25) But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.”
The fourth time that the Holy Spirit warns the believers about their eternal inheritance is in the above quoted passage from the letter He wrote to the church in Colossi. Again in this letter the apostle Paul lists the sins that will cause the world to incur the wrath of God. He then admonishes the church to not partake of those self-same sins. The reason that Paul admonishes us to not practice the same sins is because those in the church who do wrong will be repaid for those sins, for there is no partiality with our Lord for He is a just God. And so, just as God does not tolerate those sins in the world and visits His wrath on those who commit them, He also does not tolerate those sins in His church and He will hold His saints to account for those same sins. So how will the saint be held to account on that day? The Holy Spirit tells us in this passage that the one who serves the Lord from their spirit can expect to receive the reward of their inheritance on that day. But the Holy Spirit then goes on to say that the ones, who choose to do wrong, will be repaid for what they have done. In other words they can fully expect to not receive the reward of their eternal inheritance. And so we can see from these four passages of scripture that the Holy Spirit’s warning is very clear to us, i.e. believers who choose to practice a lifestyle of sin will forfeit their eternal inheritance on that day.
Hebrews 12:14-17 “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: (15) looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; (16) lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birth right. (17) For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.”
The scripture reveals to us that on the day of the saints’ judgement that there will be tears and that God Himself will wipe away those tears (Revelation 7:17). The reason that some saints will have tears on that day is because they will finally realize that they have forgone their eternal inheritance because of their chosen sinful lifestyle that cheated them of their eternal rewards. The Holy Spirit gave us another warning about losing our inheritance when He wrote to the church of Jerusalem as quoted above. In this passage He reminds us about Esau who for one morsel of food sold his birth right. And so even though Esau remained a son nevertheless he had lost his inheritance, and when he finally realized his folly it was too late and his inheritance could not be restored even though he sought it diligently with tears. In this passage the Holy Spirit warns us not to be like Esau and through sin, such as bitterness and fornication for example, give up our eternal inheritance.
Michael E.B. Maher
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