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The Daily Word of Righteousness
The Necessary Inheritance, #7
I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. (I Corinthians 15:50—NIV)
The Inheritance
Do you see what the above verse is saying? It is telling us that our present flesh-and-blood personality is not going to inherit the Kingdom of God.
Before we can understand Paul we must look carefully at the expression "cannot inherit the kingdom of God."
One reason we have difficulty understanding the New Testament is our tradition that our goal is to go to Heaven. The truth is, as we have pointed out, we already are in Heaven at the right hand of God. We start our Christian discipleship in Heaven as high as we ever can go. We already have our crown. The issue is to lay hold on that which we already have, to maintain and strengthen it.
No, our goal is not to go to Heaven. Our goal is to inherit eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
This goal appears several times in the Scripture.
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. (Matthew 19:29—NIV)
Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world." (Matthew 25:34—NIV)
We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. (Hebrews 6:12—NIV)
And into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, (I Peter 1:4—NIV)
Inherit. Inherit. Inheritance. Inheritance.
By the same token, when Paul speaks of the consequence of sowing to our earthly life rather than our heavenly life he refers to not inheriting the Kingdom of God.
Nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (I Corinthians 6:10)
And envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:21—NIV)
For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. (Ephesians 5:5—NIV)
Now we could say that inheriting the Kingdom of God and going to Heaven are the same thing. I don't believe they are. If Paul meant that if we lived according to our fleshly desires we would not go to Heaven, then I believe this is what he would have said—at least one time! But Paul never at any time said if we sinned we would not go to Heaven. Neither did the Lord Jesus or any of the other Apostles of the Lamb. We made up this expression.
So why are we not preaching what the Bible says?
There is a big difference mentally when thinking of going to Heaven or inheriting the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is our new life which is hidden in Christ in God. This is what the Kingdom is. It is within us, so to speak, and yet already raised to the right hand of God.
None of this is true of Heaven. None of the parables of the Lord Jesus are about Heaven or going to Heaven. The parables are about the Kingdom of God.
To be continued.