Monday, May 3, 2021

Forfeiting an Inheritance

 

Monday, May 3, 2021

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.  Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against these things!  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.  Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.  Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.       
Galatians 5:19-26

There is an extreme contrast between the kind of life lived which justifies or disqualifies one from an inheritance.  Extenuating circumstances aside, the choice to whom the estate will pass lies with the wishes of the one making a will.  Without a will, the heirs enter a contest to divide the proceeds. 

In the case of a kingdom an heir is validated by blood.  In the case of God’s Kingdom inheritance, the will was put in place at Calvary 2,000 years ago, but it was in the heart of Father God even before creation.  So, concerning the Kingdom of God, the cross was the seal of promise affixed to the will of God, laying down the terms of inheritance for the children of God.

In writing to explain (or remind) the believers in Galatia, Paul has two shopping lists.  The first is living life as a hedonist, simply doing what you want without honoring God.  The second list is what God will produce in your life when you commit that life to His will, an honorable DNA of character and goodness.

The dividing line between the two choices for living is the qualification point (or disqualification), as an heir, rightfully participating in God’s blessing.

The analogy of earthly and heavenly kingdoms breaks-down (as do all analogies) when held too literally.  There are marked differences between God’s Kingdom and, say, the British Empire’s monarchy.  A similarity for inheriting in either depends on blood, and being born.  For the Royals of the House of Windsor, you’re in (or out) only so far as your ancestral blood line.  That is dependent solely on the random passing along of DNA.  For the inheritors of God’s Kingdom, it is also dependent on blood, that blood which pooled at the foot of a cross on a hill in Jerusalem’s garbage dump, with the execution of the Son of God.  This blood is not passed along genetically through a placenta, it is a choice to receive by applying to the King in a prayer of surrender.  That prayer is a surrender to the will of God, which ratifies the forgiveness of God, making that one who prays a child of God, and therefore, an inheritor of the Kingdom of God.

A common misconception at this point is that you live a good life, like Paul’s second list (love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, etc…), in order to become eligible for inheritance status.  But that’s false thinking, because that is earning the status.  If that were the case we would have to completely ignore the concept of grace…which would invalidate the cross.  Grace is never earned.  Even the definition of grace dismisses that thinking, as grace is unmerited favor from God’s hand, while earning is merited due, a salary for your work. 

The order is out of order there…rather, we repent of our part in the first list (immorality, sexual sins, jealousy, selfishness, etc…), and receive a grace-filled pardon…then the life of the second list begins to take hold in our choices.  God gives this also as grace, a gift to overcome life on the sinful first-list level

We do not live a good life to escape the bad; we nail the bad life to the cross, and God gives us a grace-filled life to add to the goodness of His Kingdom.  We participate not only by inheriting the Kingdom, but building it as well[1].

For You Today

It’s easy to forfeit an inheritance in God’s Kingdom, just do what you feel like doing, and forget about God.  You’ll get there in a heartbeat.  It’s even easier to receive the inheritance – surrender to God’s love; He will build your life on His grace and goodness, and make you fit for the Kingdom’s crown!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

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