KEY SCRIPTURE: Luke 10:25

And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

RELEVANCE

What does inheritance mean to you? A rich old aunty you hardly knew leaves you $1 million? Or is that just wishful thinking?

There are around 228 Bible references to inheriting, mostly about the inheritance of the Kingdom. The majority of Old Testament scriptures refer to the physical Kingdom of Israel, which is why heritage and homeland are so important to the Jewish people. 

Our lawyer, a Jew, was very familiar with inheritance and was probably a descendant and heir himself. 

The New Testament refers to a kingdom not of this world and is the one the lawyer asked Jesus about. 

Do you think he asked a strange question? How could someone inherit a life beyond our natural environment? Outside of a Bible setting, if you asked that question, one would suggest you'd be smoking too much weed. 

INHERIT IS A PART OF INHERITANCE and means to appoint as an heir, to take by descent from an ancestor, to receive as a right or title descendible (capable of passing by descent) by law from an ancestor at his decease. 

No person can write themselves into a will. That is the privilege of the testator before death. 

Heb 9:15-17 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the DEATH of the testator. For a testament is of force AFTER men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.

However, many people contest wills, especially if they are deceptive, greedy or aggrieved that they have been left out or received less than expected.  

Statistics from a 2015 Report by QUT & VUT (Queensland and Victorian universities) on who contests wills for inheritance sake. 

• Adult children = 63% of claims in judicial cases

• Former or current partners = 23%

• Claims by biological children more common than adoptees or stepchildren,  = around 70%

• Genuine need = 32%

• Sense of entitlement = 19%

• Family complexity = 62% of cases in the public trustee review have this theme.

This raises the question, Can someone contest God's Will? 

Both the long and short answers are No! His will has two unalterable details: the Saved—those who sought and obtained salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ—go to Heaven and inherit eternal life. Those who rejected Christ are excluded from His inheritance and are thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.)

If we could challenge God's will and inheritance, many of us would live an ungodly life and, upon death, protesting God's authority to design and execute His own will. One other fact is that there is no higher court.

God’s will is to always look after people if possible. Some scriptures in the Law show a wonderfully compassionate and just God. 

• Deut 21:15-27 If a man had two wives: If the firstborn is born to the hated (less liked),  he still gets the double portion (e.g. Jacob-Leah-Rachel) (A good reason for one wife)

• Leviticus 19:33-34 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; 

• Num 27:8 If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter.

Of course, God's commitment to people and compassion is transported to the New Testament.

• Matt 26.28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

• 1 Tim 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

• 2 Pet 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that ANY SHOULD PERISH, but that ALL should come to repentance. 

Many people are trying to dodge the death bullet but without God. For instance, Google Calico (California Life Company) is Google’s attempt to cure death. Nobody wants to die!  

But, there is already a genuine promise of eternal life—a life that leaps across the death barrier. 

• Titus 3:5-7 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made HEIRS according to the HOPE of eternal life.

  
  

God writes us into the positive side of His will and the Book of Life when we give our hearts to Jesus Christ. Then, we begin fulfilling the conditions of the will by walking the straight and narrow path with Jesus for the rest of our lives. Doing this maintains the legalities of the will. If we walk away, Satan can and will contest our legitimacy. 

Is the eternal life promise conditional? 

Guidepost scriptures.

• Heb 11:6. But without faith it is impossible to please him:

• James 2:26. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. 

• 2 Pet 1:10. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:  

• 1 John 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (Lot’s wife/Prodigal Son if he didn;t return to his father.)

• Heb 12:16-17  Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

•  1 John 2:24-25  Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning SHALL REMAIN IN YOU, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.

American minister of the 1800s, James H. Aughey, said Death to the Christian is the funeral of all his sorrows and evils, and the resurrection of all his joys.  

Who wouldn't want to receive His inheritance? 

PRAYER

Dear Lord, thank you for the mercy and beauty of your inheritance of eternal life. What an unmatchable prize. Praise your glorious name!   

Photo by Melinda Gimpel