Material Inheritance vs. Spiritual Inheritance

Ephesians 1:17-18 - ...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints...

There was a debate being waged on Facebook about material inheritance vs. spiritual inheritance. It all started with a comment about being thankful that we can know where our eternal destiny will be, with or without the proposed healthcare plan, because of our relationship with Christ. One responder who I don't believe trusts entirely in riches or wealth, may not fully understand the spiritual inheritance issue.

She referred to Proverbs 13:22 - A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous, asking why, then, was this in the Bible and is it a part of the Word that we choose not to read? She did mention the importance of wisdom. 

Yes, it is important and God ordained that we handle our money wisely. If we have children we then have something to give to them as an inheritance. But there's more to that and as I got to thinking about this, the thought came to me that it all starts with wisdom...not just about how to handle money, but to know Jesus Christ.  

Solomon was asked by God what he desired most. The first thing was not wealth or riches. It was wisdom. With proper wisdom most everything should fall into place quite nicely. God liked Solomon's request and proceeded to give him not only wisdom but riches beyond belief. Of course, Solomon eventually failed even with all his wisdom, but that's another story.

I looked up scriptures with the words wisdom, riches and inheritance.  I've come to the conclusion, as I first replied on Facebook that I thought our relationship with Jesus Christ was the most important thing. By the time I had a few lines written someone else had responded with the same thoughts so I let it be. I couldn't have said it any better.

Religion vs. Faith 

Religion according to Webster is a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices; I also read a definition where it stated it was the outward act of...believing. An act, or action. It takes a work...like the sacrifices and laws that were kept. Faith on the other hand is defined as a firm belief in something for which there is no proof; complete trust. It comes from a root word to bide. And bide is to wait upon. Wait upon the Lord...

Do we do religion or faith? The Old Testament was mentioned as just as important as the New. There is no doubt this is true.  The Old points us to the New, it shows how sins were never permanently atoned for through all the religious sacrifices, but in the New we have Jesus who died once for all and through our faith in Him, our relationship with Him, not our sacrifices, not our works, we have an eternal spiritual inheritance worth far more than a material inheritance. In the Old Testament their land (Israel) was to be their material inheritance, but God was to be their spiritual inheritance, their portion. Psalm 16:5 says O LORD, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot. 

I love how the Old Testament shows us bits and pieces of who Jesus will become in the New. I love how it shows us that God has always loved and chastened His people, even in the midst of wilderness wandering. They just didn't always realize that He was supplying their every need and all He wanted was for them to be dependent upon Him in difficult times. In the New Testament, it's the same. Jesus just wants us to be in right relationship with Him because He is all things to all people and we need to place our faith and trust in Him alone. 

Material inheritance is an okay thing. But more important is our spiritual inheritance. I think about not having a spiritual inheritance and I get this ache in the pit of my stomach. To rely on something other than God will not get us to Heaven. No works of sacrifice like the Old Testament, but the one work of Jesus Christ at the Cross. It's all about the saving grace of Jesus Christ--the free gift--that we have our best inheritance, not the material wealth we've stored up through our own efforts. 

Ephesians 11:11-12 - In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.