God’s desire to give his inheritance to his sons and daughters, the co-heirs with Christ, is evident throughout the scriptures. We have been designed as the very image of God, and as part of this design, we have been made so that the spirit of God will dwell in us. We are created as vessels of God’s spirit, which is the spirit of life.

 

Everything the spirit of life touches, comes to life. So as the spirit of life, which is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:45), enters into us, we come to life and the spirit of life who dwells within us, constantly renews us into spiritual life every day (2 Corinthians 4:16).

 

So we can draw a conclusion that we have been designed to have the spirit of God in us, which means we have been designed to be constantly alive, in life and constantly renewed, never decaying or tasting death.

 

Another way of putting this is, our inheritance is life, which leads us to the line of thought that says if we have an inheritance, we must be legitimate sons and daughters of the one from whom the inheritance has come, our Father in Heaven.

 

Jesus Christ made a way for us to enter into inheritance, way before Adam and Eve existed. Revelation 13:8 tells us Jesus Christ was slain before the foundation of the world, before Adam and Eve were created but the pattern for entering into living in our inheritance was given to Adam and Eve while they dwelled within Eden.

 

In the beginning (Genesis 1:28) they were commissioned to rule and reign from the garden of Eden, to subdue the creation - every living creature - under their dominion. Their reign was over the dominion of the living, which means they had inherited the authority to rule and reign, in Kingdom governance, from their Father in heaven. They had inherited the right to operate under God’s authority within the realm of life.

 

Adam and Eve could eat of the tree of life and live forever (Genesis 2:17). They had been setup with eternal access to life and enjoyment of God’s Kingdom life. God did not forbid them from eating the tree of life because he desired them to live forever.

 

When Adam and Eve chose to err from the ways of God and eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they took upon the promised reward for doing so: “you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17). They were told by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they would enter in a foreign realm - the realm governed by death, which was not the realm of their inheritance, yet it was still their choice, as rulers in the creation, to choose life or choose death. They had the choice which rule and authority to align with.

 

Having chosen to align with the realm of death and sin, they were ushered out of the garden of Eden, the realm of life. This was because God’s main concern was their access to the tree of life and to live forever, unable to die, which would be troublesome given they had just entered into the realm of death and sin. That sort of living can not live forever for that would mean an eternity of sin, corruption, death and destruction, which would lead to the demise of the entire creation into darkness, the opposite of God’s desire, which is for us to live in life.

 

Adam and Eve had effectively chosen to live without God as their king, taking upon the counsel of a serpent, which represented Satan. They chose to abandon the counsel of the Almighty and allow an usurped authority to govern over them. They were cut off from everlasting life and entered into decay.

 

Contrast this with 1 Corinthians 15:50, which says flesh and blood can not inherit the Kingdom of God, however, spirit will inherit the Kingdom of God. Those born of the spirit of God will inherit the Kingdom of God. The perishable, that which is governed under the authority of death, can not inherit the imperishable, which is governed by the authority of eternal life. Yet when we are raised with Christ we shall inherit the imperishable body which Jesus will give us. 1 Corinthians 15:53 tells us our inheritance in Christ is immortality, but while we wait for the glorious resurrection day, God wants to rule and reign among us, so gives us his spirit to keep us in spiritual life while we live in our mortal body.

 

Life is a matter of spirit, and is witnessed upon by the spiritual realms, both angelic and demonic. The spirit of God lives in us, brings our spirit alive in Christ and this has ripple effects beyond our physical body, into the spiritual environment around us that is felt by spiritual beings, and other human spirits too (2 Corinthians 2:16).

 

Our Inheritance

 

John 1:12 tells us that if we have believed in Jesus Christ then we have the right to become sons of God. Even more, when we believe in Jesus Christ, we have taken up that right and we are sons and daughters of God!

 

As legitimately born from the spirit of God, brought into the family and kingdom of heaven, we have a legal inheritance in Christ that can not be taken away. Usually, an inheritance is only passed on at the death of the one who is giving it away. Christ died so that whoever believes in him would have the right to become children of God, so inherit the inheritance that comes from God. That inheritance has been kept hidden in Christ, it is eternal life and immortality, which begins by the spirit of God continually making us alive in spirit, while we live in our body.

 

Within Eden, Adam and Eve had free access to the tree of life, which contained the essence of their inheritance that is in Christ: everlasting life. In Jesus Christ, God restored access to our inheritance that was lost. Even at their rebellion, our inheritance was not abolished, for in our hearts God placed eternity. He placed a desire within us to seek out that which is rightfully ours in Christ, that we may seek our inheritance and find life in him.

 

Our Father in heaven was so eager to give us access to the inheritance he designed for us, that he was in Christ reconciling the world to himself on the cross. Through Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, a way was opened for us to gain rights to our inheritance and nothing can take it away from us (Romans 8:38 - 39).

 

The one who made the will determining our inheritance, has died. The one who is the executor of the will rose to life, and the one who decides to give us our inheritance has ascended above all powers, and he is able to do immeasurably more than we can imagine.

 

It is at the resurrection we receive our full inheritance, which is immortality, and we shall never suffer death again. Yet while in this body, God is so eager to see to it that his Kingdom reigns, through his Holy Spirit we are given daily life in our spirit (2 Corinthians 4:16).