You have a rightful claim to your heavenly Father’s kingdom and possessions, and God will ensure you receive what is rightfully yours.
Imagine how different your outlook on life would be if you were a 15-year-old son or daughter of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. At one point in 2019 he was the richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of $170 billion. If you were one of his four offspring, you would be an heir to some or all of that money. Suppose his will stipulated that at age 25 you would receive 10 percent of the inheritance; that’s $17 billion. As a teenager, your thoughts about the future, about your plans and hopes and dreams, your sense of security—all would be different than the average person. No matter what problems or challenges you faced from now until turning 25, you would remember and console yourself with the great change that awaited you.
This is the attitude every Christian can have. We are God’s sons and daughters and thus his heirs. He owns everything and promises to give it to his children. The earth and much more we cannot yet comprehend is our inheritance.
Colossians 1:12 says Christians should be “giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light” (NIV). Notice the word “qualified.” One dictionary defines an heir as “one who is entitled to inherit property.” Notice the word “entitled.” This means the heir has a legal right to something. The children of the heavenly Father have a right to all he owns.
Your heavenly inheritance
Consider a few things Scripture teaches about your inheritance.
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people” (Ephesians 1:18 NIV).
–We need light to be given to our spiritual eyes to grasp how great our hope in this inheritance can be, how glorious this inheritance is. Its riches are infinitely greater than anything the children of Jeff Bezos will receive. The Bezos children should envy you rather than your envying them.
“All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:21–23).
–Being an heir of God literally means everything is yours, shared with all the rest of God’s children, because everything belongs to your Father. This is your Father’s world, and he delights to give it all to you. You will inherit the whole world.
–Even something negative like death is yours in the sense that Christ has transformed the death of a Christian into something he uses to bring us good. Through death we go from mortality to immortality, from perishable to imperishable, from weakness to strength. We die in union with Christ and his death, unlike those who do not follow Christ, who die in their sins in union with the devil.
“Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?” (James 2:5 ESV)
–We will inherit the kingdom of God, our Father’s glorious new creation of righteousness, peace, and joy that is coming someday upon the earth. It is our right as a child of the heavenly Father.
“He saved us…so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5–7 ESV).
–We will inherit eternal life. In Christ this is your right.
“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:16–17 ESV).
–Jesus is the heir of the Father, and we are fellow heirs with Jesus. We share in the inheritance of Jesus! What is his is ours!
–Being an heir of God requires perseverance and a willingness to suffer persecution as Jesus did in this life. You can lose your inheritance by losing your faith and falling back in love with the fallen world. Esau is the prototype of this folly:
“See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son” (Hebrews 12:16 NIV).
But for faithful believers in Christ who endure to the end, the story is altogether different:
“You know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward” (Colossians 3:24 NIV).
–Our inheritance is our reward for choosing the true God over false gods.
“By faith he [Abraham] went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise” (Hebrews 11:9 ESV).
–God promised Abraham amazing things, including that he would be singularly blessed, have a great name, be a blessing to the world, and receive the promised land (Genesis 12:1–3; 15:7). Genesis shows that these promises were Abraham’s possession, and therefore they became the inheritance, the heritage, of his son Isaac, and then of his grandson Jacob. They inherited not only property from Abraham but also promises, the promises God gave Abraham. But Abraham has many more heirs, as the following verse reveals:
“If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:29 ESV)
–That’s right, the glorious truth is that through faith in Jesus Christ we also become the heirs of Abraham and therefore we inherit many of his promises. We are entitled to share in what God promised Abraham.
–Our response to all these glorious promises should be praise and confidence:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3–4 NIV).
The Father’s heart
In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the wonderful, loving father told his oldest son something that reflects the heart of our heavenly Father toward us: “He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours” (Luke 15:31). Those words make God’s heart personal and direct to you. Memorize and meditate on them until you believe them with all your heart, and no matter what life throws at you, you can go through every day with firm hope in the inheritance that awaits you.
Ah, Jeff Bezos, you are but a pauper compared to my heavenly Father, and unless your children are followers of Jesus Christ, they too are paupers compared to me.
Our way and God’s way
Our way: The original lie that Satan spoke to Eve in the Garden called into question the goodness of God (see Genesis 3:1, 5), and fallen humans have been swallowing that lie ever since. We may think the Father is holding back his best from us.
God’s way: The Father’s loving generosity is without limit. All he has is ours.
Life principle: We should set all our hope in the gracious inheritance we will receive when Jesus Christ is revealed from heaven. We should sacrifice anything that would compromise it.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)