Our inheritance as Christians is a mystery. The Bible has scant information, but what it does say can fill us with hope. That is by design. It is a living hope that gives life and helps propel us in our life of faith. It is a hope that can transform our present lives on earth too. In this article, we will look at two passages that will give some direction in thinking about our heavenly inheritance.
Living Hope
The first passage we will look at tells us about our living hope of salvation. 1 Peter 1:3-5 says,
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Peter talks about our living hope that was brought about by the power of Christ’s resurrection. Part of that living hope is in our inheritance that Peter says is reserved for us. It is interesting to note that Peter describes this inheritance using 3 negatives. He says it is imperishable, undefiled, and, will not fade away. We will expound on each of these terms.
Part of the problem is in describing something that is heavenly. If it were earthly, Peter could use an example familiar to us. He could make an analogy. It is not an earthly inheritance, but a heavenly one, reserved for us.
Richard C. Trench remarks about the use of negatives to describe our inheritance. He says,
“It is a remarkable testimony to the reign of sin, and therefore of imperfection, of decay, of death throughout this whole fallen world, that as often as we desire to set forth the glory, purity, and perfection of that other, higher world toward which we strive, we are almost inevitably compelled to do this by the aid of negatives; by the denying to that higher order of things the leading features and characteristics of this.”1,
Imperishable
Imperishable -Strong’s Number: g862. Greek: apthartos, af’-thar-tos; “not liable to corruption or decay, imperishable.” We’re familiar with things that perish, such as a piece of fruit that goes bad. But this is the antithesis of that -it will never decay or go bad.
An example of this same word used in another passage is 1 Corinthians 15:52-53. Here, Paul is explaining the rapture. He says it will be immediate, and compares being imperishable to immortality. He says,
“in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
Undefiled
undefiled -Strong’s Number: g283. Greek: amiantos, am-ee’-an-tos; “undefiled, free from contamination.” We’re familiar with trying to make things pure, such as heating gold to remove the dross. This is changing us into that which needs no refining, because we will not be defiled, there will be no dross.
In Hebrews 7:26-27, the writer is explaining the nature of the priesthood of Christ. As both the high priest and the sacrifice, Jesus is undefiled:
“For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.”
Will Not Fade Away
will not fade away -Strong’s Number: g263. Greek: amarantos, am-ar’-an-tos; “not fading away, unfading, perennial”; a symbol of perpetuity. In the garden there are perennial plants that return every year. More than that, this word is used with the idea of ‘being from now on.’ (Only used once in the Bible so there are no other examples.)
In comparing the two words imperishable and unfading, Albert Barnes notes, “Both words indeed denote perpetuity, but [imperishable] refers to perpetuity in contrast with decay; [unfading] denotes perpetuity in the sense that everything there will be kept in its original brightness and beauty.”2
Our inheritance is eternal, untainted, and will remain fresh in perpetuity. It is the power of God that accomplishes this and secures our salvation by our faith in Him.
Hope in Seeing Jesus
Another passage that gives us some insight into our inheritance is 1 John 3:2-3. John says,
“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”
We don’t know at this point what our heavenly lives will entail. John says that we are sons, but don’t know what our new selves shall be. Still sons, for sure, but what will our lives be like? Part of the reason John doesn’t explain it, is probably because it can’t be -we wouldn’t understand. Bible commentator Alexander MacLaren puts it this way,
“The unborn child has no more faculty or opportunity for knowing what the life upon earth is like than man here, in the world, has for knowing that life beyond.”3
John does declare that when we see Jesus, we will be like Him. When we place our hope in that truth, we are changed now. That hope is a hope that purifies us. Longing for the future can be a bad thing, but in this case, it is important to allow ourselves to think about our future with Jesus. Indeed, we should do so with hope.
MacLaren expounds on 1 John 3:
“There are three things in this verse, how, if we are God’s children, our sonship makes us quite sure of the future; how our sonship leaves us largely in ignorance of the future, but how our sonship flings one bright, all-penetrating beam of light on the only important thing about the future, the clear vision of and the perfect likeness to Him who is our life.”4
Like Jesus
John’s phrase ‘we shall be like Him,’ is also a mystery. John says that we shall be like Him because we will see Him as He is. Some have thought that means that our spiritual eyes will be opened at the resurrection. Then, we will be able to see Jesus and the spirit world around us with understanding.
As I have thought about it, I wonder if John’s phrase means that we will see the uncorrupted image of God in us again. Let me explain from the beginning.
The Beginning
Yes, I really did mean the beginning! Genesis tells us that man is the only creature that God made in His image. Man is unlike the rest of creation in this regard.
Historically, being made in God’s image has several aspects. Such qualities as rationality, spirituality, volitional freedom, creativity, and morality would be included. We are relational with God and each other. God also charged man with ruling over the earth as vice-regent.5
The Fall
However, in all these things, the image of God was damaged by man’s sin. We still have God’s image but it has become corrupted by the fall. Charles Ryrie explains,
“When sin entered the human race, the image of God in which man was created was not lost. One may say it was defaced though not erased.”6
Redemption
The damaging effects of the fall impacts every person. Our spirits became dead in sin, and our fellowship with God was severed. However, through salvation in Jesus, our fellowship with God was reestablished and our spirits became alive to God.
Currently, as believers, God’s image in us is being reformed. As Paul says in Romans 8:29,
“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren.”
and again in 2 Corinthians 3:18,
“But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
Resurrection
As we saw earlier, in the resurrection, our old selves shall be changed and we will put on immortality. Our corrupted nature will be gone and we will experience “the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”7 This will happen, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.”
This is the point when the image of God could be restored in us. This might be what John meant when he said, ‘we will be like Him.’ We will be transformed in an instant, and perhaps the image of God will be fully restored in us. I say ‘fully’, but the Bible does not say exactly.
What ever the case, it will be a gazillion times better -no- infinitely better than now!
Conclusion
Our inheritance as Christians is a living hope that gives life and assurance for the future. It is not just for the future, because the hope of being like Jesus transforms us now.
Having the image of God fully restored in us will be a glorious event whenever it happens.
Appendix
See my article Forgetting and Remembering for some items to remember concerning our ineritance.
Something else that can give us hope is thinking about the Rapture. My article, Jesus’ Second Coming or The Rapture, is a clarification between these two sometimes confusing events.
1 Trench’s Synonyms of the New Testament
2 Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
3 MacLaren’s Expositions
4 MacLaren’s Expositions
5 Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
6 Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology, (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 1986), 220
7 Romans 8:20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.