878. You Don’t Work for an Inheritance (It’s Gifted)

Once Jesus came and fulfilled the law, faith was established. It would result in an inheritance. This is not something where you can earn favor by something you do, but an inheritance is something gifted when someone dies. Our inheritance is according to a promise that God made many years ago—and was ratified after the death of Jesus.

In Galatians, Paul contrasts the inheritance factor with the struggle of trying to attain eternal life through the works of the law. Hebrews 9 explains a will does not go into effect until the death of the one who made it. Jesus died and “willed” for us to become heirs according to the promise. The Greek word for “will” is often translated as testament or covenant in English Bibles. So it’s really by grace as a child of God that we freely receive the good things given by God.



   
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749. Hebrews 9: The New Covenant Began With Christ’s Death

It’s easy to get confused about the Bible, the teachings of Jesus, and the New Covenant … if you are under the false assumption that the New Testament began with the birth of Jesus. The writer of Hebrews carefully explains to the new believers in his Jewish audience that before the Old Covenant would end and the New could begin, there had to be the death of the one who made the covenant.

The New Covenant couldn’t go into effect while the testator still lived. And like the first covenant, it would need to be established with blood. But this time, the blood being shed by the High Priest would do something very different that had never occurred before the cross during the Old Covenant era.



   
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