Guaranteed Inheritance Kept In a Secure Place
In the passage from the Epistle of Peter discussed in the previous chapter, we read that we have been born again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ to an inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away. This incorruptible inheritance is reserved in heaven—the invisible realm of the Spirit—for us. The spirit of God speaking here through the apostle Peter did not say that heaven is our inheritance: He said that this incorruptible and eternal inheritance is reserved in heaven for us.
Now, when this passage of Scripture says that our inheritance has been reserved in heaven for us, it does not mean we have to die and go to heaven before we can access it. You don’t have to die and go to heaven in order to enjoy your inheritance in the Kingdom of God. It is available for you right now. The inheritance is not paid at your death: it was made available and paid at the death of the Testator, Christ Jesus. It is available and accessible to us now. We can make withdrawals from our inheritance through faith.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3).
The place where all blessings, physical, material, and spiritual, are kept in store for us is “the heavenly realm.” The locale where all spiritual blessings originate is “the heavenly realm.”
Aren’t you glad your inheritance was kept in heaven? Have you read the newspaper or listened to the news lately? Have you heard about those who lost all to the market crash or the Enron debacle? “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal” (Mat 6:19-20). Our inheritance is incorruptible because it is reserved in heaven.
Your inheritance is in a safe place where it cannot be stolen or swindled away by any con man. It is kept for you in heaven where no devil, or man, or emperor, or false prophet, or estate lawyer, or dispute court, or telemarketer can cheat you out of it. His Will and Testament has your name on that portion of the inheritance, and nothing can deny you your ownership of it, now or at any time in the eternity to come. It has been written in His Will; it is yours. And you can even begin to use it now!
Guaranteed Inheritance, Holy Spirit is the Executor
Not only has He left us an inheritance in a safe place, but He has ensured that there is no question about to whom the inheritance belongs, that no one will rob us of it, and that we will surely receive the portion allocated to us. Christ arose from the dead and Himself became the executor of His own estate. Glory to God forever more!
You must have heard stories in which an executor of some rich man’s will squandered an estate and the heirs were cheated out of their rightful inheritance, or the strong overpowered the weak and cheated them out of their inheritance. This cannot possibly happen to the children of God, because Christ Jesus Himself who wrote the will is the executor, and He ever lives to make sure the inheritance goes to the rightful heirs.
As discussed above, inheritance begins with the new birth. God delivered us from the dominion of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of His dear son. Through this, we have eternal life—the life of God. When we were born again, we were begotten by God, begotten of the incorruptible seed, and we are just like God, but in an undeveloped infant stage. The blood of Jesus flows through our veins. We inherit his blood. We are His children, and therefore are partakers of His flesh and blood and inherit overcoming life.
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb 2:14).
Eternal life is the beginning of our inheritance for all of us who are born again. We are heirs of eternal salvation. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb 1:14).
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
“To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Pet 1:3-4).
The apostle Peter, in the opening of his letter to us, the church, expressed some profound statements. He began by calling us the elect of God, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God by the sanctification or setting apart of the Spirit. He then said that we have been born again by God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and that we have been born into a lively hope. Every child born into this world is born into some kind of hope. The apostle stated that we have been born into a vibrant, lively hope. One translation renders this as being born into a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Think of the first son born into a royal family in a kingdom ruled by a monarch. This child is born to be king. He has a lively hope; his hope is to grow up and become king. He has been born to royalty and can never suffer want. He will never lack any good thing, because he is a prince and everything in his father’s kingdom is at his disposal.
Born Again Into a Living Hope
The apostle says we have been begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. We have been begotten by God Almighty, the Possessor of Heaven and Earth. We have been begotten by the King of kings and Lord of lords. We have been begotten by the Creator and Owner of all things. What a wonderful hope is awaiting us—a lively hope indeed!
But let’s look at the entire verse of Scripture and paraphrase and enumerate the content of the passage. The apostle Peter said:
- We have been, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, begotten again unto a hope.
- This hope is a lively one. It is a living hope, and includes an eternal inheritance.
- This inheritance is incorruptible and undefiled.
- This incorruptible inheritance is reserved in heaven, the invisible realm of God, for us.
- In the interim before we fully receive the full inheritance, we are kept by the power of God unto salvation, preserved until we can appropriate it. The inheritance is reserved for us.
What is this inheritance that is ours as children of God? Do we really know? Of course, most Christians have always heard that the grand purpose of our salvation is to escape hell and make heaven our home when we die, and many believers have simply accepted this concept without question.
But did you ever look into the promises of God to see whether He really says that “heaven” is the inheritance of the saints? Did the apostle Peter in the above passage of Scripture say that heaven is the inheritance of the saints? No. He did not say that heaven is the inheritance of the saints, but that the inheritance is reserved in heaven for us. This lively hope has been given to us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The lively hope includes an inheritance, but “heaven” is not the inheritance. The inheritance is merely “reserved”, laid up, retained, and allocated in the realm of the Spirit for us. It is kept there, but it’s available and accessible in the Spirit.
Others wrongly think that because the Scriptures tell us our inheritance is reserved in heaven, we cannot enjoy it now. They think it’s only after believers pass from this life that they can have access to and enjoy their inheritance. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
In the discussion above, it is not the death of the heir that brings about an inheritance, but that of the testator. The inheritors are the living, left behind after the one who owns the will has passed on. In fact, to qualify for an inheritance, the heir must be alive. If an heir or heiress dies, that portion of the inheritance will pass to someone else. Our inheritance is kept in heaven for us, but we do not need to die and go to heaven in order to enjoy it. “Thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” The Father has qualified us to enjoy our share of the inheritance of the saints. We can begin to enjoy the inheritance now. You don’t have to go to heaven in order to live out your inheritance in the Kingdom of God. You can write a check to withdraw from the account “reserved for you in heaven.” Faith is the way we cash checks on our inheritance. The inheritance is not paid at our death—it is Jesus who died to give it to us—but it is paid upon our claim.
