Who is the Bible written to? Suppose I were to instruct my lawyer to draft a letter informing my child that I had left them a sizeable inheritance in my will. He would instruct his secretary to type the letter and it would be sent to the them. Both the secretary and the one that it was sent to will read the letter but it will have an entirely different affect on the two. To the secretary it will be just another letter but to the one that it written to would be glad for this good news! Such is the Bible. 

     The word of God is written to God’s people. Several times they are referred to as “believers” and “them that believe.” But their “believing” is not the reason or cause of their receiving the inheritance of grace! No, the fact that it is an inheritance shows that it does not depend on them or anything they do in any way.  These are “heirs.” One does nothing to “inherit.” That’s what the Bible calls God’s people, “heirs of God” and “joint-heirs with Christ.” The gospel sent to them is “the promise of eternal inheritance.”  They are promised “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you..”  Reserved? Who reserved it for them? Certainly no act or decision by them! God reserved it for them and promised it to them in Christ, the “Heir of all things.”

     Individuals in their wills reserve what belongs to them according to their own wills to whomever they choose. God gives according to HIS “will.” Christ is said to be the “testator” of God’s will and testament (covenant of grace), whose death on the cross puts the will in force. It must be carried out as the the divine Benefactor wished. The preaching of the gospel is like the reading of a will, only those who are recipients will want to hear it and see if there’s anything in it for them! They listen and find out that the Benefactor chose and gave them everything. This is why the Bible refers to these chosen by God’s to be the heirs of His grace as His “elect.” Their inheritance from God was determined by His choice! His “election of grace.” But preachers do not use the terms elect, election, because they want to make salvation determined by men not God.  But whoever is the giver, the one whose choice determines who gets what… gets all the glory!

     God chose His people in Christ and blessed them with all spiritual blessings before the world began! (Eph. 1:1-11) “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:” The great illustration, God’s illustration, is Jacob and Esau in Romans 9:8-16. They were twins, born to the same parents, born with the same fallen nature, born and raised in the same environment with the same influences and with the same opportunities to hear the gospel concerning this inheritance in the Messiah.  God says:  “(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”  God’s love to Jacob could not and was not because of a choice or works done by him but God’s choice of him to the eternal inheritance of grace and God’s purpose “according to election.”  The heirs of grace were chosen to salvation before the world was and a part of that inheritance is the gift of faith, they will be brought by God to believe the gospel, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Heir of all things. True believers know that it was not their choice that determined their part in God’s inheritance. It was God’s! That’s why all glory is His!  Josiah Condor’s hymn rings true:

‘Tis not that I did choose Thee,
For, Lord, that could not be;
This heart would still refuse Thee,
But Thou hast chosen me;