The Difference Between “Reconciled” and “Joint Heirs”

By and through the birth, life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has reconciled the worlds inhabitants to Himself.  We call this Total Reconciliation and it stands in conflict with the standards of Reformed Theology and Arminianism.  In other words, instead of God electing most for eternal punishment for ever and ever by virtue of electing a few to eternal life (Calvinism), and instead of God wanting to redeem all but man would not allow Him too (Arminianism), God will have His way in the end, and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord – and in so doing all enter into heaven after this life – some to His Kingdom, some outside of it.

But this fact, contextually speaking, is like saying someone moves to Israel but is not allowed to enter Jerusalem, the City of Peace.  It is also akin to saying that some enter into Jerusalem but are not allowed in the Temple.  Perhaps it could also be akin to saying that some also enter into the temple, but never into the Holy of Holies.

In other words, there is an unfathomable difference in the future Kingdom of God between the reconciled, the children of God, and those who are His Sons and Daughters, Joint-Heirs with Christ.  The differences cannot be articulated, they cannot be deciphered, but from what we can tell that which makes the difference between all human beings is the resurrected body God chooses to give them as these presumably will have the capacity to dwell only outside the city gates, only within the city gates, only in the temple and/or only in the Holy of Holies.

Since all will eventually confess Jesus as Lord, what are the key differences between those who will have the capacity to dwell in then Holy of Holies (which I use as an example only and not to be taken literally) verses, say, those who can only abide well outside the city gates?  Scripture gives us a few key insights – they’re not exhaustive, but key.

First, those who are true Sons and Daughters will suffer in His name and cause.

Some passages . . . 

Matthew 10:38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

2nd Timothy 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

Acts 14:22 Luke writes: “Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”

Acts 5:41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

Romans 8:17 is KEY as Paul says, “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Philippians 1:29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

2nd Timothy 2:11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:

If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us.

In the human existence of a Christian, where does the suffering generally take place?  It takes place inwardly.  It takes place when a believer allows God to reign over their lives instead of themselves.  This suffering says, “I will die to my will (which is so very painful) and will do your – as shown in the life of Jesus Christ.”

Paul typifies this dedication to suffering when he wrote to the Corinthians who had been taken advantage of in some sort of business or commercial deal, saying:

1st Corinthians 6:7 Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?

In other words, those who are His will suffer all manner of injustice – in His name and in His cause – because He did the same.  This suffering is relentless, minute to minute, and requires a real desire to please and love God ahead of ourselves.  It is selfless, full of unconditional love, turning the other cheek, and pretty much just choosing to do the will of the Spirit over the will of our flesh.

Scripture is plain – we will be His joint-heirs IF  . . . we suffer with Him by taking up our cross, whatever it may be – and die daily to our will as a means to live to His.

Part and parcel or hand in hand with suffering is to possess a love for, and to relentlessly seek for, the truth –  no matter what the price or cost.

When we look to the life of Our Lord and King, He entered the world at a time of deep abiding religious traditions deeply rooted in the hearts of Man.  His war was in part based in trying to show the people that their traditions were keeping them in bondage.  For His willingness to teach the truth as the Truth He was maligned, and in the end, killed.  This was not just a random situation He alone faced.  Any honest seeker of truth will experience the exact same thing in their lives and as with Jesus, it will be by those who THINK they possess the truth in and through their religious traditions.

The import of the loving the Truth is manifest through the Word.  In describing those who were not truly Christ’s Paul wrote in 2nd Thessalonians

2nd Thessalonians 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

This love of the truth, says in effect, “There is nothing I want more in my life that the Truth with a capital T.  Nothing short of it matters – no matter how convenient, no matter how appealing, no matter how well received or popular the false truths may seem.”  In short, those who are really His, have powerfully received, “a love of the truth.”

The way we can tell if we have received such a love for the truth is when we are faced with saving face or the truth, with popularity or the truth, with the praise of Men or the Truth, with tradition of the Truth, those who possess a love for the truth will always choose the truth – no matter the cost.  

Of course, when it comes to the Truth Jesus said it plainly when He walked the earth:

John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Finally, in our non-exhaustive description of those who are truly his instead of simply being reconciled, there is the presence of love in them  – His love, that is shared with all, unconditionally.  This is the language of heaven, the currency of the New Jerusalem, for God is love.  Those looking to abide in love must possess His love and since love is a verb, they will, through suffering of self, actively illustrate this love to those who mistreat them, malign them, ridicule their non-traditional beliefs, and be as Christ, not coming to condemn but coming to save, speaking truth in love.

The Apostle Peter sizes all of this up really well for us in 1st Peter 1:22 when he says,

“Seeing ye have purified your souls (SUFFERING) in obeying the truth (TRUTH) through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren (LOVE), see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.”

And in summary, John the Beloved puts it this way in 1st John 3:18: 

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed (love, the verb) and in truth.